Publishing history:v1.0
v1.0: 01/10/24
foraileach adj. [ˈfɔɾaləx], -[ax], -[ɔx], in the sense ‘imperious’ is derived by Mackay (1897, 92) from Ice. for ‘forward, haughty’, adding ‘[p]erhaps this is the prefix in [SG] forneart [sic]’.
SG fòirneart m. ‘violence etc.’ goes back to EG fornert ‘superior strength or power etc.’, a closed compound consisting of the preposition for- ‘on, over’ + nert ‘strength’, with subsequent lengthening of the stressed vowel in Scottish Gaelic before -rn, except in Strathspey and East Perthshire (Robertson 1906c, 101; SGDS Item 154, Points 180–82, 194–97).
Also foláir, via metathesis.