ONlwSG

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reang b. and its variant or associated forms are generally derived from ON rǫng f. ‘one of the curved ribs or floor timbers of a boat, which are set at right angles to the keel to strengthen the hull’, 

Cf. Ice. röng f. ‘idem’.

occasionally from Scots or Eng. rung, MEng. rung(e), rong(e).

Craigie 1894, 156: SG reang < ON röng [sic], but 157: SG rong either from ON röng or possibly from Scots rung < MEng. ronge; Mackay 1897, 93: SG rangan pl. < Ice. rong [sic]; Henderson 1910, 139: SG reang, rang, rangan [after Mackay] < ON röng [sic]; Mackenzie 1910, 385: SG rangas ‘support for boat ribs’ < ON rong [sic] + áss ‘main rafter’; MacBain 1911, s.v. reang: ‘boat rib’, rangan (Sutherland) [after Mackay], reang ‘bar, pole’ < ON röng [sic] ‘ship rib’, s.v. rong: ‘joining spar, rung, boat-rib’, rongas, rungas < MEng. ronge, runge ‘rung of a ladder’, OEng. hrung (the words reang and rang or rangan ‘boat rib’ are from Old Norse); Falk 1912, 46 fn 1: SG rong ‘joining spar, boat rib’ < ON rǫng; Bugge 1912, 293: SG rang ‘joining spar, boat rib’ < ON rǫng; Marstrander 1915a, 125: SG rong < Eng. rung; MacLennan 1925: SG reang, also rang, < ON röng [sic]; Christiansen 1938, 3, 11: SG rangas in the context of [g]hreimich sinn air rangas na geola [sic] is compared with SG rong ‘boat rib’, which is derived from Eng. rung (after Marstrander 1915a, 125); Borgstrøm 1937, 77: SG [Ṛɑ̃ɣ], and 92: (pl.) [Rɛ̃ɣən] < ON rǫng; MacPherson 1945, 36; sg reang < ON röng [sic]; Oftedal 1956, 115: /Rɑ̃ɣ/ < ON rǫng, noting ‘the different development of the same word’ in SG /RɑNɡəs/ ‘rubbing piece’; de Vries 1962: SG rangen (citing Borgstrøm 1941, 36, who in fact gives [Rɑŋən], i.e. (pl.) rangan) < ON rǫng; Stewart 2004, 412: SG rong ‘joining spur [sic], boat rib, rung’ < ON rong [sic]; McDonald 2009, 396: SG reang, rang, rangan [after Mackay], rangen [after de Vries], rong, rongas, rungas < ON rǫng.

Table 1. SG reang, rang, rong etc.

Notes: (a) MacDomhnuill 1741, 97: reang-scoileirin no àite-suidhe ‘a class or form [i.e. school bench]’; (b) Reang occurs in the poem ‘Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill’ (c. 1750) by Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (c. 1695–c. 1770), but its precise sense is uncertain: it is glossed ‘rib, rung’ in Thomson 1996b, (text) 144, line 1658, (gloss) 214, and ‘rib’ in Black 2001, 204–05; (c) Shaw’s (1780) reingeach appears to be a collective form from reang (reing) + the suffix -ach; (d) Shaw (1780) brackets reing and reingeach together under the sense ‘ship timbers’, although reing is likely to be singular and reingeach a singular but collective noun; (e) Armstrong (1825) lists ‘reing, reingean pl. “ship timbers” ’, although reing is likely to be singular and reingean plural; (f) For Dwelly’s (1911) rangan, see under (n), below; (g) For Dwelly’s (1911) reangan, see under (n), below; (h) The sense ‘rubbing piece’ (a strip of timber located below the gunwale on the outside of a boat’s hull) is likely to be in error for or an extension of the sense ‘stringer’; (i) The form rangais may either be a normalised genitive form of rangas, or consist ultimately of a variant reflex of Scots pl. rungs, cf. Scots breeks > SG briogais, s.v.; (j) Where the form raing is for reang; (k) Christiansen (1938, 11) merely compares SG rangas with ON rǫng, but the context is (p. 3) [g]hreimich sinn air rangas na geola [sic], of which the sense is no doubt ‘we held onto the boat’s stringer’; (l) Wentworth’s (2003a) raing [ʀ[ɑ̃i]ɣ] is probably a normalised dative form of rang; (m) Apparently also reingeas *[ʀ[ɛ̃i]ŋɡəs]; (n) An Stòr-Dàta’s source for reangan is Dwelly 1911, but Dwelly’s source is unknown. Dwelly’s rangan (so also Henderson 1910, 139; MacBain, s.v. reang; and McDonald 2009, 396) seems likely to a misreading of Mackay’s (1897, 93) rangan, which is the plural of rang. It is quite possible, of course, that SG reang and rang have yielded the derivative, nominally diminutive forms reangan and rangan, respectively, with the suffix -an; cf. reingeach (note (c), above).

From the above distribution of form and meaning, it appears that SG reang and rang 

And occasionally the normalised dative forms reing and raing.

primarily mean ‘boat rib’, while SG rong primarily means ‘rung, joining spar’. However, there has evidently been a degree of conflation between them (from HSS 1828 and Dwelly 1911 onwards); indeed, AFB^˄ takes them to be interchangeable.

Note that conflation also occurs between Eng. wrong ‘boat rib’ and rung ‘rung, spar’ (OED^˄, s.v. rung in the obsolete sense ‘floor timber [i.e. rib] of a vessel’, e.g. a1625: Rungheads are the heads or endes of the Rungs ... Also more generally, the outward ends of Hooks [= ribs] which are in the same manner compassing are called Rungheads ...); see below.

In addition to reang, rang and rong, there are the notionally derivative forms (see below) reangas, rangas, rongas and rungas. Rongas and rungas primarily mean ‘a rung or joining spar’, while reangas and rangas primarily have the more specific sense ‘stringer, i.e. the horizontal rung or spar joining the ribs of a boat’.

SG rang ‘boat rib’ may well derive from MScots wrang, wrayng ‘idem’ (DOST^˄), rather than ON rǫng, which would be expected to yield SG [ɍɔ̃ŋɡ̊], at least in the first instance. For SG reang, however, we might compare Scots (Fair Isle) reng [reŋ] ‘knee timber [i.e. rib] in a boat, esp. in the stem [or stern], serving as a seat for the steersman’ (Jakobsen 1928, s.v.).

Cf. Far. rong ‘a seat in the bow or stern of a boat’ (Young and Clewer 1985).

MScots wrang goes back to MEng. wronge, wrange, OEng. wrang, wranga, itself from CSc. *vrǫng, later rǫng (DOST^˄, SND^˄, OED^˄, MED^˄), while Scots reng is a reflex of ON rǫng (Jakobsen ibid. and xlviii). SG rong ‘rung etc.’ probably derives from Scots rung, roung ‘a wooden spar or rail used mainly as a crossbar or spoke’, MScots rung, < MEng. rung(e), rong(e) etc., OEng. hrung (SND^˄).

Besides MScots rung, note roung, rong, ring etc. ‘rung’, also Anglo-Latin runga, ronga, renga ‘idem’ (< OEng. hrung).

The source of reang in MacDomhnuill’s reang-scoileirin (with genitive plural of scoileir (sgoilear) ‘pupil’), however, is likely to be Scots †raing [reŋ] ‘rank, file, row’.

SG rongas and rungas may be derivative forms with the nominally abstract suffix -as. However, they may simply have arisen as reflexes of Scots (pl.) rungs, functioning as collectives (see note (g), above); SG reangas and rangas may be dialectally adapted forms of rongas and rungas.

Table 2. Ir. runga, ronga, rang etc.

Notes: (a) The sense ‘stepping beam’ may be a beam providing support for a mast or similar; (b) The sense ‘high place’ is obscure.

O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary lists reing and reingeach ‘the timbers of a ship’, as well as ronga and rongais ‘a rung, joining spar’. Reing and reingeach are ghost words in Irish and no doubt adopted from Shaw’s (1780) Scottish Gaelic dictionary. Although O’Reilly’s own listing of ronga and rongais may well also be adopted from Shaw, Ir. ronga occurs in Keating’s Trí Bior-Ghaoithe an Bháis (1631) in the sense ‘rung of a ladder’ (Atkinson 1890, 294–95; Bergin 1992, 334–35, lines 10829 ff.; eDIL^˄), while rungás (ríongás) ‘stepping beam (in boat), high place?’ is found in Galway (Ó Curnáin 2007 I, 220–21 §1.184) and rungsa ‘rung, rail’ in Donegal (Lúcás 1986). Ó Dónaill (1977) lists runga, ronga and rang only in the sense ‘rung’, while Dinneen (1947) gives ronga, runga, rang, ranc (Monaghan) 

Cf. (Donegal) ronca ‘the spar on a plough’ (Uí Bheirn 1989).

and ruga in the senses ‘rung, joining spar, timbers or ribs of a boat’.

Falk (1912, 46 + fn 1) derives Ir. ronga from ON rǫng, as do Bugge (1912, 293–94), Vendryes (1913, 231: OIce. rǫng [sic]) and McDonald (2009, 396). While it is not impossible that ON rǫng was indeed borrowed into Irish, it seems more likely that Ir. ronga etc. derive from Eng. rung (MEng. rung(e), rong(e)), which is MacBain’s (1911, s.v. ronga) view on Ir. runga and eDIL^˄’s on Keating’s ronga, and/or MEng. wronge, wrange.

Craigie (1894, 156) takes O’Reilly’s reing (above) to be from ON röng [sic].

Marstrander (1915a, 11–13) suggests that an Early Modern Irish reflex of ON rǫng occurs in the 13th-century tale Cath Finntráġa: Ní raibhi ... long gan labugud na rugaire gan rang-briseadh na ub ... ‘Der var ikke skib ... uten at det brak spanterne i sin ub...’ (there was not a ship ... but that it [the storm] broke the ribs in its hull ...), analysing rang-briseadh (i.e. rang-bhriseadh) as a closed compound consisting of Ir. rang ‘boat rib’ + Ir. briseadh ‘breaking’; so also Pokorny (1921, 118), Sommerfelt (1922, 178) and de Vries (1962: OIr. [sic] rang).

In support, Marstrander (ibid., 108–09) argues that, as the initial of CSc. *vrǫng survived until the 10th century, Ir. rang was borrowed from ON rǫng no earlier than the 11th century. Later, he reasons (p. 125) that, as Irish has ronga from ON rǫng, SG rong must derive from Eng. rung.

However, Marstrander’s analysis is predicated on Meyer’s (1885, 3.46–47) edition of the manuscript (Rawlinson B 487): Ni raibhi ... long gan labugud ’na rugaire, gan rangbriseadh ’na ub ... ‘There was not ... a vessel that was not shaken in its ribs, that was not ... broken in its gear ...’, with rangbrised glossed editorially (p. 106) as ‘ “breaking into chinks, cracking?” From rang “a wrinkle”, O’R[eilly 1817]?’ O’Grady (1887, 622–23), however, notes that the conjunction ná ‘nor’ has throughout been mistaken for ’na [the preposition ‘in’ + possessive pronoun], and that we should read Ni raibhi ... long gan labugud (leg. ledhbadh [‘thrashing’]), ná rugar gan rangbriseadh, ná ub ..., which is essentially O’Rahilly’s (1962, 3.59–61) reading: Ní raibhi ... long gan lúbugad [‘bending’] ná rung gan rangbhriseadh ná ub ...

Reproduced in CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts.

Regarding the form rung, O’Rahilly (p. 67) explains: ‘Read rung[a]? The word occurs at the end of a line. Rug is clear, but whether the mark over g is a straight stroke denoting a nasal (as I have taken it in the text) or a curled line, the suprascript symbol for ur (as O’Grady reads it), or even the symbol for um, is hard to decide. Meyer expands rugaire and quotes O’Reilly’s rugaire “bar, bolt, latch” ... O’Grady reads “rugur or rugar”, and takes it to be the English word rudder “which, becoming rudhar, was then indifferently written rughar”. But O’Grady’s rudhar, rughar is not attested elsewhere.’ O’Rahilly goes on to cite Dinneen’s runga, ronga in the sense ‘rung, spar, timbers of a boat’, but suggests either reading ‘rugum, i.e. rúm, a term for some part of a ship’ (eDIL^˄, s.v. rúm ‘hold or interior of a sailing vessel’) – a development left unexplained – or that the original reading may have been reng ‘cord, rope’, comparing the phrase nā reng gan ro-brised from Cath Maiġe Léna (Jackson 1990, 28.705; p. 165: reng f. ‘cord’ acc. sg.

Curry (1855, 48–49): na reang gan roi-ḃriseaḋ ‘nor a rope unsnapped’. Jackson’s edition is available at CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts.

).

Adv.MS.72.2.11^˄ contains a version (in a mixture of Irish and Scottish Gaelic) of Cath Finntráġa written by Alasdair Mac Mhaighistir Alasdair. The relevant passage begins on p. 3, line 27 (ch∸ ro ... long), and includes the phrase (line 31) no rang ḡ iompoiḋ [?‘nor rib untwisted’], cf. O’Rahilly’s edition’s (line 64) ná as gan iompodh ‘(O’Grady, p. 639) nor a vessel that was not put about’. (For the influence of Cath Finntráġa’s ‘sea-run’ on Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair’s poem ‘Birlinn Chlann Raghnaill’ (as noted by MacLeod 1933, 124–25), cf. lines 1964–1989 in Thomson’s edition (1996b, 152–53).)

O’Rahilly (p. 107) glosses rangbhriseadh as ‘(for rengbhriseadh?) “breaking into bits” ’, and compares the intensive use of sreng- (eDIL^˄, s.v.), which occurs on several occasions in Cath Finntráġa: (3.58) sreangbhualad, (14.414) sreangleadradh and (31.976) sreingleadradh. In support of his claim that rang-bhriseadh contains a loan from ON rǫng, Marstrander (ibid., 13) interprets the phrase le frángbhualadh na slat in Meyer’s (ibid., 59.25) edition of the Egerton version of the tale as including an Irish reflex of CSc. *vrǫng, but this seems unlikely: 

Cf. Marstrander’s comment on dating on pp. 108–09 (see fn 9, above).

rang- and fráng- seem merely to function as intensifiers, but whether they represent variant or corrupt forms of EG sreng- or arise out of conflation with the intensive prefix ro- (cf. Cath Maiġe Léna’s ro-brised, above) is unclear.

Cf. also the intensive use of Ir. cruaidh ‘hard’ in Cath Finntráġa’s cruadbrised (O’Rahilly ibid., 3.59).

The phrase ná rung gan rangbhriseadh appears to have the sense ‘nor spar unbroken’, although quite what the application of rung is here is not known.

Quite what its application is is probably not important in the context; for example, the synonyms clár and bord ‘plank; deck’ both occur within this run of phrases: their function is simply to help build up an impression of the effect of the storm.

On current evidence, it seems likely that Ir. rung is an early reflex of MEng. rung(e), rong(e), although rungás and rungsa are conceivably from Scottish Gaelic.

McDonald (2009, 396) derives Ir. rangalach ‘skinny person’ from ON rǫng, citing Marstrander. Marstrander makes no connection with ON rǫng, however: he derives (p. 41) (Connacht) rangalach ‘a sickly-looking person’ from Norw. dial. rangl (cf. Norw. rangel ‘lanky person’ (Haugen 1984)), comparing (Donegal) ranglamán ‘a sickly person or animal’; cf. Ir. reanglach and reanglamán (Dinneen 1947), and SG (South Uist) rangalaiche ‘a beast all skin and bone’ and (Barra) ranglaid ‘idem’ (McDonald 1972, s.vv.). Note that Macafee (1996) compares Ulster Scots (Antrim) ringle ‘a tall, thin person in poor physical condition’ with Ir. reanglach and reanglamán. ?Cf. Scots and/or Northern Eng. rantle(-tree) ‘the horizontal arm fixed across the chimney, from which were hung pothooks etc.’, also rannel-, rangle- (SND^˄, s.v. rantle; cf. Macafee ibid., s.v. randle-tree: ‘(1) a crane, the arm across an open fire on which the crook is hung; (2) the cross-beam in a byre to which the vertical stakes are fastened; (3) (fig.) ‘a tall, thin person’).