ONlwSG

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spadrach in the sense ‘attention to dress’ is recorded for Sutherland by Mackay (1897, 92), who derives it from Ice. spatra [sic] ‘to behave like a fop’. Grant (1933, 109) gives spadrach as the equivalent of SG spaideil adj. ‘well-dressed etc.’, which Wiktionary^˄, s.v. spaideil, tentatively derives from ON spázéra (NO) ‘to promenade etc.’ or ON [sic] spjátra. SG spadair in the sense ‘fop’ is also derived from spjátra by Henderson (1910, 217: spjatra; so also McDonald 2009, 412). Further, SG spadaire ‘fop, dandy, braggart’ is compared with ON spjátra by MacLennan (1925), although Stewart (2004, 414) interprets this as meaning that spadaire derives from spjátra.

The verb spjátra is not found in Old Norse. While it is attested in Icelandic from the 15th century (ÍO^˄), Ice. já would not be expected to yield SG [a]. (For ON spázéra, s.v. spaistearachd.)

SG spadrach, spaideil and spadair/spadaire appear to belong to a group of etymologically related but semantically diverse forms (see A–H, below) that ultimately go back to Lat. spădō ‘one who has no generative power, an impotent person (whether by nature or by castration)’ (Lewis and Short 1879); cf. MacBain (1896; 1911), who compares SG spad ‘to kill etc.’ (C(i)), along with Ir. spaidim ‘to benumb’ and Ir. spad, spaid ‘clod, 

For the sense ‘clod’, MacBain compares Ir. spairt ‘wet clod etc.’ (Ó Dónaill 1977), but this is from Ir. pairt with prothetic s-, from an oblique form of Lat. pars (O’Rahilly 1927, 28; eDIL^˄; Vendryes 1996).

sluggard, eunuch’, with W ysbaddu ‘to castrate, geld, emasculate, spay’ (also from Lat. spădō; cf. GPC^˄). While MacBain compares SG and Ir. spad in the sense ‘flat’ (A1) with SG spaid ‘spade’, 

SG spaid [s̪pad̥ʲ] ‘spade’, with a short vowel (cf. Wentworth 2003a: [spɑt’], Gairloch; AFB^˄: /sbadʲ/), is probably from Scots spade [sped] (SND^˄); SG spàd [s̪paːd̪̥], with a long vowel (M^cAlpine 1832: spad [spâd] (and s.v. spaid: [spâj], gen. of spàd); Holmer 1938, 216: [spɑːt], Islay; Grant 1987 I, 262: idem; AFB^˄: /sbaːd/), is probably from Eng. spade.

SG spadag in the sense ‘quarter or limb of an animal cut off’ (D2) with Late Lat. spatula ‘shoulder blade’, and SG spadair in the senses ‘fop, braggart’ (D) with spjátra, it seems likely that they also go back to Lat. spădō.

Scottish Gaelic forms have a number of parallels in Irish (see below), although the choice of suffix is often dissimilar. Semantic divergence is greater in Scottish Gaelic. The primary sense ‘state of impotence or disempowerment’ derived from Lat. spădō is seen in both Scottish Gaelic (flat, dead, heavy, dull, insipid, unfruitful, flapping, hanging down, splayed, fallow, lethargic and, by extension, chubby(-cheeked)) and Irish (flat, slow, lop(-eared), hard (of hearing), muddle(-headed), and substantivally: a eunuch, a castrated or barren person or animal, something sodden, soggy or inferior, a dull, sluggish or lazy person, heavy wet ground, a wet heavy lump of earth, a clod, anything inferior or useless, refuse). In Scottish Gaelic, this is extended to what might be described as ‘precipitating a state of impotence or damage’ (benumbing, making sluggish or stupid, damaging, giving a blow, shoving, tugging, grabbing, thumping, bruising, knocking down, making prone, flattening, felling, killing, also: apoplexy, epilepsy), less so in Irish (making numb, lethargic, lifeless, inert, useless, spoiling, also: stroke ‘blow’). In Scottish Gaelic, this is further extended to what might be described as ‘causing a sudden effect or impact’ (a fillip, a fit of temper, being short-tempered, scolding, rowing, snapping, swearing), ‘a show or boast’ (ostentatious, conceited, proud, bragging, vain-glorious), ‘especially in dress or appearance’ (well-, brawly or immaculately dressed, smart, flashy, well turned out, beauish, foppish, dandyish, prim and neat, fashion-conscious, gaudy).

A. SG spad, spaid
A 1. SG spad- [s̪pad̪̥], spaid- [s̪pad̥ʲ] adj.
(i) spad ‘flat, dead’ (Shaw 1780; 

Shaw in fact gives spad ‘clod, flat, dead’; for ‘clod’, see (A2), below.

Mac Farlan 1795), ‘flat, dead, lumpish’ (HSS 1828, s.v. †spad), ‘flat’ (MacLennan 1925, s.v. spad-), ‘flat; dead; lumpish; flapping, hanging down’ (Dwelly 1911);
(ii) spaid ‘heavy, dull, unfruitful, insipid’ (Shaw 1780);
(iii) †spàid ‘dull, heavy; dead, insipid; unfruitful’ (Armstrong 1825; so also Dwelly 1911).

The adjective spad- (spaid-) occurs in composition only, i.e. as the first element of an (initial-element-stressed) closed compound, e.g. spad-chasach ‘splay-footed’, spad-chluasach ‘flat-eared, dull of hearing’, spad-shrònach ‘flat-nosed’, spad-phluiceach ‘chubby-cheeked’, spad-fhacal ‘a boast’, spad-fhèath ‘flat calm’, spaid-fhìon ‘flat wine’, spad-thalamh ‘fallow ground’ and spad-thinneas ‘lethargy; apoplexy; epilepsy’ (cf. Dwelly 1911).

The sense ‘lumpish’ under (i) may be due to conflation with spad in the sense ‘clod’, see (A2), below.

Armstrong’s form †spàid ‘dull, heavy; dead, insipid; unfruitful’ (iii) is either a typographical error for spaid or the result of confusion between Shaw’s spaid ‘heavy, dull, unfruitful, insipid’ (as a variant of spad) and Mac Farlan’s spàid ‘heavy rain’, as in the (second-element-stressed) open compound spàid-thalmhain [sic] ‘land-flood’, where spàid may be an attempt to gaelicise Scots spate [spet] ‘flood etc.’ (SND^˄), contrast SG speid /sbedʲ/ ‘spate’ (AFB^˄).

In Irish, cf. Lhuyd’s (1707) spaid ‘sluggish’, spadchosach ‘flat-footed’, spadchlu[a]sach ‘flap-eared’, spaidfhion ‘dead wine’, and Ó Dónaill’s (1977) spadchosach ‘flat-footed; slow-footed’, spadchluasach ‘lop-eared; hard of hearing’, spadintinneach ‘slow-witted, muddle-headed’.

A 2. SG spad, spaid sb.
(i) spad ‘clod’ (Shaw 1780 

Shaw in fact gives spad ‘clod, flat, dead’; for ‘flat, dead’, see (A1), above.

), ‘clod, turf’ (Armstrong 1825, citing Shaw), ‘clod, lump, sod’ (HSS 1828: †spad, citing Lhuyd 1707; Dwelly 1911: idem), ‘clod, lump, sod; thump [see below]’ (AFB^˄: /sbadə/ [sic]);
(ii) spaid ‘clod’ (Shaw 1780);
(iii) spăid (Armstrong 1825: ‘spade; clod, turf; sluggard; drug; carrion; eunuch’), with the breve indicating a short vowel, as in spaid (ii); for Armstrong’s senses, see below.

While HSS and Dwelly list SG spad as obsolete, AFB^˄ lists the word as current. AFB’s sense ‘thump’ (i), also used as an exclamation (ibid., s.v. spad!), may be an extrapolation from spad ‘to knock down etc.’, but the sense ‘clod’ (i–ii) seems to be a ghost word. Shaw’s spad and spaid (‘clod’) probably both go back to O’Brien’s (1768) Irish dictionary: spad or spaid ‘clod’, rather than to Lhuyd, who lists neither (pace HSS).

O’Reilly’s (1817) Irish dictionary lists (1) spad ‘clod’, (2) spaid ‘clod’, (3) (Supplement) (in Gaelic script) spáid, (in Roman script) spaid ‘carrion, drug, sluggard, eunuch’, while his second (1864) edition lists (1) spad ‘clod’ and (combining entries (2) and (3) of the first edition) (2) (in Gaelic script) spaíd, (in Roman script) spaid ‘clod; carrion; drug; sluggard; eunuch’. Dinneen’s (1904) Irish dictionary lists (1) spad ‘clod, a wet heavy lump of earth’, (2) spaid ‘clod; also sluggard; dull, lazy fellow; eunuch; chasm (as in yawning)’. However, his second (1927) edition lists (1) spad ‘a clod etc.; stroke’, (2) spaid ‘a clod, anything inferior or useless, refuse, wet turf or earth; a sluggard, dull fellow, a castrated or barren person or animal (cf. Lat. spădō); a chasm (cf. Lat. spătĭum)’. Ó Dónaill’s (1977) Irish dictionary gives spaid ‘a sodden, soggy or inferior thing; heavy wet ground; a dull, sluggish person’.

Armstrong adopted O’Reilly’s (1817) Supplement’s spaid ‘carrion; drug; sluggard; eunuch’ for his own (1825) Scottish Gaelic dictionary, conflating it with SG spaid in the sense ‘spade’ (‍fn 2, above) and (Shaw’s) spaid in the sense ‘clod’, hence the entry spăid ‘spade; clod, turf; sluggard; drug; carrion; eunuch’ (iii). No source has been traced for O’Reilly’s senses ‘carrion’, although it might be an extrapolation from spad adj. ‘dead’ (A1), and ‘drug’, although we might perhaps compare SG spadag in the sense ‘fillip’ (C2).

B. SG spadach; spadail, spaideil, spaigeil, spaiceil adj.
B 1. SG spadach [s̪pad̪̥əx], -[ax], -[ɔx]
(i) spadach ‘full of clods’ (Shaw 1780), ‘full of clods or turf; of clods, of turf; like a spade; of a spade; 

The senses ‘like a spade, of a spade’ seem manufactured: SG spaid and spàd ‘spade’ (‍fn 2, above) might be expected to yield adjectival derivatives in *spaideach and *spàdach (or *spàideach), respectively.

felling, knocking down; flattening; prone or ready to bruise; ready to strike or fell to the ground’ (Armstrong 1825; and so listed in Dwelly 1911), ‘full of clods; sluggish, stupid’ (HSS 1828: †spadach; and so listed in Dwelly 1911), ‘short-tempered’ (Wentworth 2003a: Gairloch); 

For the sense ‘short-tempered’, cf. a similar sense in ‘Do Dhuin Uasal do’n Chlèir, Air dha Posadh’, a poem offering advice to a newly-married clergyman (Walker 1817, 120–21: 210):
Na bi borb is na bi reasgach,
Gruamach, teùmach, sradach;
Gu neo-chothromach a’d bheùsaibh,
Udluidh, leumnach, spadach.

‘Don’t be fierce and don’t be turbulent, | sullen, irritable, quick-tempered; | inconsistent in the way you behave, | morose, touchy, short-tempered.’
(For reasgach [leg. rèasgach], cf. M^cAlpine 1832: riasgach ‘turbulent’, Islay, and Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: riasgach ‘blustering’, North Perthshire.)


(ii) spàdach (Mac Farlan 1795: ‘cloudy’, ?a typesetting error for ‘cloddy’), ?in error for spadach.

From SG spad- (A1) + the adjectival suffix -ach.

B 2. SG spadail [ˈs̪pad̪̥al], spaideil [ˈs̪pad̥ʲal] 

Cf. /sbadʲal/ (AFB^˄), but [sbadˈjelˈ], i.e. [ˈs̪pad̥ʲel] (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry).

, spaigeil [ˈs̪paɡ̊ʲal], spaiceil 

Dieckhoff 1932: [sb(ai)cgˈelˈ], i.e. [ˈs̪paiçkʲel], Glengarry.

adj.
(i) spaideamhuil ‘sluggish’ (Shaw 1780);
(ii) spadail (HSS 1828: North Highlands, see spaideil; Dieckhoff 1932, s.v. sapdail [leg. spadail], see spaideil); Grannd 2013, s.v. smart (in appearance), North-West Sutherland);
(iii) spaideil ‘showy, foppish, gaudy’ (MacFarlane 1815), ‘showy, foppish, gaudy, sluggish’ (Armstrong 1825), ‘well-dressed, conceited, beauish, foppish’ (HSS 1828), ‘conceited, proud’ (McAlpine 1832), ‘foppish’ (MacEachen 1906, s.v. spaidealachd), ‘well-dressed, conceited, beauish, foppish, gaudy, showy, proud; sluggish’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘conceited, proud, brawly-dressed’ (MacLennan 1925), ‘foppish’ (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry), ‘lively with vanity in dress and conceit of mind’ (McDonald 1972: South Uist), ‘well-dressed’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Harris), ‘smart, flashy’ (ibid.: Lochaber), ‘well turned out’ (Watson 2022, 297: /sbɑdˊɑl/, Easter Ross);
(iv) spaigeil ‘foppish’ (MacEachen 1842, s.v. spaigealachd; altered to spaideil in the 2nd (1902) edition (revised by Alexander MacBain and John Whyte, s.v. spaidealachd)), with /dˊ/ ~ /ɡˊ/ alternation, cf. spaiceil (v);
(v) spaiceil ‘ostentatious’ (Dieckhoff 1932: [sb(ai)cgˈelˈ], i.e. [ˈs̪paiçkʲel], Glengarry), with medial /kˊ/ as opposed to /ɡˊ/.

From SG spad- (A1) + the adjectival suffix -ail, -eil, from earlier -amhail, -amhuil (O’Rahilly 1976, 126; Thurneysen 1975, 220 §346). Shaw’s (1780) spelling spaideamhuil (cf. O’Brien 1768: Ir. spaideamhail) is anachronistic: contrast his (1780) beanamhuil with his earlier (1778, 154) beanol, i.e. banail ‘modest, womanly etc.’ (Dwelly 1911). For the variation spadail ~ spaideil, cf. SG stàdail ~ stàideil ‘stately’ (Dwelly 1911), now generally stàiteil (AFB^˄).

In Irish, cf. spadach ‘heavy and wet’, spadalach ‘heavy and wet; sluggish, lethargic’ (Ó Dónaill 1977).

SG spaideil yields Scots spatchell [′spɑtʃəl] ‘well-dressed, neat’ (SND^˄).

C. SG spad vb; spadte, spadaichte adj.; spadadh m.
(i) (verb) spad [ˈs̪pad̪̥]: cited in the form spadam ‘to knock in the head, knock down, fell [lit. I knock etc.]’ (Shaw 1780), and spadum [sic] ‘I will benumb’ (Mac Farlan 1795); otherwise in the form spad ‘to kill, flatten’ (MacFarlane 1815), ‘to fell, knock down, strike flat to the ground; kill; flatten’ (Armstrong 1825), ‘to kill, knock down at a blow, fell; flatten, make flat’ (HSS 1828), ‘to knock down at a blow; knock the brains out at a blow; kill’ (M^cAlpine 1832), ‘to kill, knock down at a blow, fell; flatten, strike flat to the ground’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘to grab; shove’ (Wentworth 2003a: Gairloch), ‘flatten; floor, knock (down); kill’ (AFB^˄);
(ii) (verbal adjective, with past passive force) spadte [ˈs̪pa^(h)tʲə], e.g. cho spadte ri màgan ‘as flat (flattened) as a toad’, Cape Breton (pers. comm. Seòsamh Watson); and spadaichte [ˈs̪pad̪̥içtʲə], cited as spadaighte, ‘damaged’ (Mac Farlan 1795), possibly an analogical formation, as it implies the existence of a verbal stem *spadaich, which while plausible is otherwise unattested;
(iii) (verbal noun) spadadh [ˈs̪pad̪̥əɣ] ‘to knock down’ (Mac Farlan 1795), ‘killing, knocking down, felling; flattening, act of flattening, making flat; bruising; digging with a spade’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘grab; shove’ (Wentworth 2003a, s.vv.: Gairloch, see also under tug, yank; (give a) row, scold, snap (at), (fit of) temper); found in the genitive, for example, in the open compound taigh-spadaidh ‘abattoir’ (AFB^˄).

Reporting on the subject of abattoirs, Naidheachdan a’ BhBC 20/7/2012^˄ uses the plural taighean-spadail, but this is in error for taighean-spadaidh, which otherwise occurs six times in the article.

SG spad- (A1) functions as a verb (hence the verbal adjective spadte, and with the verbal noun spadadh formed using the common verbal noun ending -adh), which in turn yields the verb *spadaich (hence the verbal adjective spadaichte, unless the form spadaichte is analogical, cf. SG nuadh ‘new’ yielding nuadhaich vb and nuadhaichte verbal adj.). Spadadh in the sense ‘digging with a spade’ is from SG spaid ‘spade’ (‍fn 2, above).

In Irish, cf. Lhuyd’s (1707) spaidim ‘to benumb [lit. I benumb]’.

D. SG spadair, spadaire, spaideire m.; spadag f.; spaidealach m.
D 1. SG spadair [ˈs̪pad̪̥aɾʲ], -[ɛɾʲ]; spadaire [ˈs̪pad̪̥əɾʲə], spaideire [ˈs̪pad̥ʲəɾʲə] 

Dieckhoff 1932, s.v.: spaideire [sbadˈjərˈə], Glengarry.


(i) spadair ‘vain-glorious person, fop’ (HSS 1828), ‘fop; braggart; killer; dull person; bruiser[,] pugilist; dandy; feller’ (Dwelly 1911);
(ii) spadaire ‘terrible swearer’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘killer, dull person’ and, in a separate entry, ‘fop; dandy, braggart’ (MacLennan 1925);
(iii) spaideire ‘fop’ (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry), and spaidire ‘idem’ (pers. comm. Ailig Dòmhnallach: ‘fear a tha leanail an fhasain’ [lit. a man who follows the fashion], Skye).

D 2. SG spadag [ˈs̪pad̪̥aɡ̊]
In the senses ‘fillip’ (e.g. MacDhomhnuill 1741, 105; Shaw 1780; Mac Farlan 1795), ‘fillip; quick blow, knock-down blow; oath; quarter of a limb of an animal cut off; ham; kind of play; light blow’ (Dwelly 1911), ‘mild swear’ (Grant 1987 I, 262: /ˈspɑ^ʔtɑk/, Islay).

D 3. SG spaidealach [s̪pad̥ʲɑɫ̪əx], -[ax], -[ɔx]
In the senses ‘bawcock’ (HSS 1828, Supplement), ‘bawcock, spark, gay young man’ (Dwelly 1911).

From SG spad- (A1) + the agentive suffixes -air, -aire (Thurneysen 1975, 172, §269, (b) and (a), respectively; for the variation spadair ~ spadaire, cf. SG fulmair ~ fulmaire ‘fulmar’ (s.v. fulmair)) and the nominally diminutive but here agentive suffix -ag (ibid., 173–74 §271), and from spaideil (B2) + the agentive suffix -ach.

In Irish, cf. spadal ‘a soft, soggy thing; a worthless thing’; spadalach ‘a sodden, soggy substance’; spadaire, spaidire, spadalán ‘a sluggish, lethargic person’ (Ó Dónaill 1977).

E. SG spaide; spadaireach; spadaireachd, spaidearachd; spaidealachd f.
E 1. SG spaide f. [ˈs̪pad̥ʲə]
In the senses ‘show, ostentation, foppery, sluggishness’ (Armstrong 1825; so also Dwelly 1911).

E 2. SG spadaireach [ˈs̪pad̥ʲəɾʲəx], -[ax], -[ɔx], spadrach *[ˈs̪pad̪̥ɾax]
(i) spadaireach f. ‘foppery; boasting; killing’ (HSS 1828);
(ii) spadrach ‘attention to dress’ (Mackay 1897, 92), a syncopated form of a variant *spadarach.

E 3. SG spadaireachd [ˈs̪pad̪̥əɾʲ]-, spaidearachd, spaideireachd [ˈs̪pad̥ʲəɾ(ʲ)əxk], -[axk], -[ɔxk]
(i) spadaireachd f. ‘foppery; boasting; killing; bruising’ (Dwelly 1911);
(ii) spaidearachd ‘foppishness’ (Dieckhoff 1932: Glengarry);
(iii) spaideireachd ‘fashion’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Harris).

E 4. SG spaidealachd [ˈs̪pad̥ʲɑɫ̪]-, spaigealachd [ˈs̪paɡ̊ʲɑɫ̪əxk], -[axk], -[ɔxk]
(i) spaidealachd ‘foppishness, gaudiness’ (MacFarlane 1815), ‘showiness, gaudiness, foppishness, sluggishness’ (Armstrong 1825); ‘foppishness’ (MacEachen 1906; MacLennan 1925); ‘pride, showing off’ (Dieckhoff 1932), ‘conceitedness, showiness, foppishness, gaudiness; sluggishnesss’ (Dwelly 1911);
(ii) spaigealachd ‘foppishness’ (MacEachen 1842; altered to spaidealachd in the 2nd (1902) edition), with /dˊ/ ~ /ɡˊ/ alternation, cf. spaiceil (B2 (iv)).

On the one hand, SG spad- (A1) yields spaide as a feminine noun in -e, cf. fada ‘long’ > faide f. (cf. Thurneysen 1975, 165 §257). On the other, spadair- + the abstract noun suffix -(e)achd yields spadaireachd ~ spaidearachd ~ spaideireachd, although the formation may also have been spad-/spaid- + -aireachd etc., an ending presumably based on the agentive suffix -a(i)r + abstract noun suffix -(e)achd (e.g. clach ‘stone’ > clachair ‘mason’ > clachaireachd ‘masonery, stone-working’), but now apparently occurring as a suffix in its own right (e.g. straibhèigearachd (AFB^˄), cf. Scots stravaig ‘to roam, wander idly’ (SND^˄)), while forms in -lachd are modelled on spaideil (B2).

Cf. Lhuyd’s (1707) Ir. spaideamha[l]achd ‘sluggishness’.

Spadaireach and spadrach are unusual in not terminating in -achd: they may be idiolectal forms or have originated as agent noun forms in -ach (cf. D3).

In Irish, cf. (late 15th c.) spadamas ‘a disease in horses’ (Ó Cuív 1985, 115 §1, 117, 119 fn 1).

F. Forms in SG spadan-
F 1. SG spadanach adj.
In Armstrong 1825, so also Dwelly 1911: ‘slow, sluggish’.

F 2. spadanach m.
In Armstrong 1825, so also Dwelly 1911: ‘sluggard’.

F 3. spadanta adj.
In the senses ‘mean, niggardly’ (Shaw 1780), ‘slow, mean, niggardly’ (MacFarlane 1815), ‘slow, sluggish; mean, niggardly’ (Armstrong 1825, after MacFarlane), ‘mean, niggardly; sluggish, lazy; benumbed’ (HSS 1828), ‘dull, heavy, benumbed’ (MacEachen 1842), ‘mean, niggardly; sluggish, slow; benumbed; and (after MacEachen) dull, heavy’ (Dwelly 1911).

F 4. spadantachd f.
(i) spadantachd ‘sluggishness, niggardliness’ (Shaw 1780), ‘sluggishness’ (Mac Farlan 1795), ‘slowness, sluggishness; meanness, niggardliness’ (Armstrong 1825, after Shaw), ‘meanness, niggardliness; sluggishness, laziness’ (HSS 1828; so also Dwelly 1911);
(ii) spaideantachd ‘obtuseness’ (Armstrong 1825, s.v. obtuseness; so also Dwelly 1911).

Forms under (F) may essentially be ghost words in Scottish Gaelic; at any rate, they do not seem well attested, if at all, beyond dictionaries. They may simply be adoptions and/or adaptations from Irish dictionaries, cf. Lhuyd 1707: spadanta ‘sluggish, benumbed’, spadantachd ‘sluggishness’; O’Brien 1786: spadanta ‘mean, niggardly’, spadantachd ‘niggardliness, meanness of mind, slothfulness’; O’Reilly 1817: spadánta ‘mean, niggardly’ and in a separate entry ‘dull, sluggish, obtuse’, spadántachd ‘meanness, niggardliness’ and in a separate entry ‘dullness, sluggishness, slackness’, (Supplement) spadánach ‘sluggard’; cf. earlier usage in (16th c.) spadán ‘something spoiled or useless, a mess’ and (early 17th c.) spadántacht ‘sluggishness, inertness’ (eDIL^˄), and later usage in Ó Dónaill’s (1977) spadán ‘sluggish, lethargic person’, spaidín ‘dull, sluggish person; lifeless person’, spadánta ‘sluggish, lethargic’, spadántacht, spadántas and spaidiúlacht ‘sluggishness, lethargy’.

G. SG spidean-spaidean m.
The resemblance of SG spidean-spaidean [ˈs̪pid̥ʲan ˈs̪pad̥ʲan] ‘a prim and neat person’ (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Scalpay) to (F) spadan- forms is probably coincidental. Instead, the form appears to be a reduplicative one based on SG spaideil etc. (B2) + the nominally diminutive but here agentive suffix -an; it echoes, although perhaps only serendipitously, Eng. spick and span ‘neat, clean etc.’, a reduplicative adaptation of Eng. span[-new] ‘absolutely new’, from ON spán-nýr ‘brand new’ (cf. OED^˄).

H. SG spatò
McDonald (1972, App. I, 267) lists spatogha ‘a well-dressed man, a swell’ for South Uist; 

So also Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. idem, where the ‘location’ given is Killearnan, which refers to Killearnan near Inverness where the contributor the Rev. Angus MacDonald (1860–1932) was minister, not to the geographical location associated with the word, which is South Uist. MacDonald was also the source for the McDonald 1972 entry.

this is rendered spad-ogha ‘dandy, fashion plate’ in AFB^˄. However, compare Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄’s spat-tò ‘dandy; a well-dressed, immaculate male’, recorded for Scalpay. The Gaelic spellings spatogha and spat-tò are perhaps attempts to represent SG *[ˈs̪paʰt̪oː] or, more probably, *[ˌs̪pa ˈt̪ʰoː] with stress attracted to the long vowel (cf. SG (Lewis) buntàta [ˌb̥ə ˈᵰ̥^t̪haːʰt̪ə] ‘potato’ (< Scots pitawtie [pə′tɑ:tə] ‘potato’ (SND^˄))), although the spelling spatogha suggests folk-etymological influence from SG ogha ‘grandchild’. Either Gaelic pronunciation might conceivably be a reflex of Lat. spădō (or, ?less likely, of Eng. spado /ˈspadəʊ/ 

Contrast Collins’s /ˈspɑːdəʊ/. In explanation of the difference, Collins Dictionaries note that ‘[a]s the word is not widely used today, there is no definitive pronunciation, and so speakers and dictionaries will render it in their preferred style. In Collins, the pronunciation represents the way many native British English speakers would pronounce a in a stressed open syllable, for example father /ˈfɑːðə/. The compilers of OED, on the other hand, may have chosen to keep the pronunciation closer to its Latin root on the grounds that there is little evidence of a spoken anglicised form ... [this] can also be seen in entries such as soldado and castrato in OED.’

‘eunuch, castrated person’ (OED^˄), itself from Lat. spădō). This is not to say that SG spatò should be seen as a formal borrowing from Lat. spădō. The Gaelic word may be the result of a nonce coining, echoing SG spaideil (B2), but using the Latin word in jest, perhaps in the context of school, college or seminary.

In summary, Lat. spădō appears to yield the adjectival SG spad-, spaid- (A1), and, with the addition of suffixes, the adjectives spadach and spaideil (B); the verb spad and the verbal noun spadadh (C); the agent nouns spadair, spadaire, spaideire, spadag and spaidealach (D); the abstract nouns spaide, spadaireach, spadaireachd, spaidearachd and spaidealachd (E); and the reduplicative noun spidean-spaidean (G). The noun spatò, however, is conceivably merely the result of a play on, rather than a borrowing of, Lat. spădō (H). Further, the substantival spad, spaid (A2) and forms based on spadan- (F) may be ghost words adopted from Irish.

O’Rahilly (1929, 63–64: 64 fn 2) notes that Ir. spoch, SG spoth and Mx spoiy ‘to geld’ seem to derive ultimately from Lat. spădō, ‘though their form presents certain difficulties’.