ONlwSG

starrag f. [ˈs̪t̪ɑɍaɡ̊], 

Cf. /sdaRag/ (AFB^˄). The word is recorded as stearrag, with a palatalised initial cluster, in a short list of bird names drawn up by a nine-year-old informant from Scalpay (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, q.v.), but this is probably for starrag – the list contains several spelling errors – and may have been influenced by SG steàrnag ‘tern’.

gen. starraig -[æɡ̊ʲ], -[ɛɡ̊ʲ], ‘hooded crow, Corvus cornix’. Although also found slightly further afield, this word is broadly limited to Lewis and Harris.

Fergusson 1886, 46: Harris; so Forbes 1905, 37, and Dwelly 1911; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Lewis, North Uist; AFB^˄: Lewis, Harris, Scalpay, Tiree.

Comparing the sense ‘wry-neck, stiff-neck’ (MacLennan 1925 

Who compares MHGerm. starren ‘to become fixed’ and Germ. starr ‘stiff, stiff-necked’.

), Cox (1987 II, 102) derives starrag from ON starr adj. ‘hard, obstinate, stiff’ or starri m. (cf. NN starre 'hardhead, stubborn person') + the Gaelic suffix -ag (so also Cox 2002a, 248; 1991, 493; 1992, 138); McDonald (2009, 415; 2015a, 219–30 

Although citing ON star (leg. stari), starri m. ‘starling’.

) considers the loan likely.

A semantically more suitable solution might be a loan-blend from Scots sture, stare etc. [stu:r], [stø:r], [ste:r], [sti:r] in the sense ‘(of the voice) deep and hoarse, harsh, rough’ (SND^˄, < ON stórr ‘big’), with reference to the bird’s grating caw. While the Scots word usually has a long vowel, it is recorded as [stur] with a short vowel in Orkney (Marwick 1929, s.v. stoor adj., and p. xli 

Cf. Scots (Orkney) sooken [´sukən] < ON sókn f. ‘district’ (ibid.).

). Alternation of u ~ a in Gaelic is unusual, however; nor is it certain that Scots sture etc. would yield medial [ɍ] /ʀ/ in Gaelic.

One might also compare SG stàrr vb ‘to shove, dash’, the verbal noun starradh m., and the compounds cnap-starra(idh) ‘obstruction’ and stàrr-fhiacail(l) ‘tusk, protruding tooth’, also starrag ‘protruding tooth, obstruction’; cf. Ir. starr f. ‘prominence, projection; tusk; stumble’ (Ó Dónaill 1977; var. storr (Dinneen 1947)) and the derivatives starraic, starraicín, starrán, starróg, starrfhiacail and, in place-names, see Joyce 1912 II, 38–39: storral; Tempan 2010–20^˄, s.nn. Barrclashcame North-West Top (Starraicín na gCaor, Mayo), Mullaghasturrakeen (Tyrone), Slievenalecka (An Starraicín, Kerry), Sturrakeen (Tipperary), The Sturrall (Donegal); and Watson 2019, 204, s.nn. An Stairrál, An Stairrín, An Starraicín, An Starral etc. (Donegal). While Joyce refers to a root stur (based on anglicised forms of place-names), Tempan (ibid., s.v. The Sturrall; 2007^˄) takes Ir. starr, storr to be from Ir. tor ‘pinnacle, rock-tower’ (EG tor ‘tower, fortified building’, < Lat. turris (eDIL^˄)), with prothetic s-, 

For examples of prothetic s- in Irish, see Ó Curnáin 2007 I, 258. (For further discussion and further examples of prothetic s- in the Gaelic languages, see O’Rahilly 1927, 24–29: 27–29; Risk 1970, 628; Gleasure 1973, 190–91; Clancy 1992.)

although this does not account for the final -/ʀ/ of starr. Tempan also compares the (English) place-name forms The Storr NN495540 and The Old Man of Storr NN500539 in Skye, for which s.v. stòrag, along with the appellative SG tòrr in the sense ‘projection’.

SG tòrr (rather than *tor) from EG tor may be the result of conflation with SG tàrr ‘belly, stomach etc.’ (EG tarr).

Alternatively, Ir. starr and SG stàrr might just represent a by-form of EG sparr ‘spar, beam, rafter; stake, spike, nail; gate of a town or city, fortification’ (eDIL^˄), perhaps under the influence of EG tor (cf. the derivative EG sparraḋ m. ‘fastening, nailing’), but, apart from HSS (1828) noting that SG stàrr vb means the same as SG spàrr vb, i.e. ‘to drive, as a nail or wedge; induce by force; fix, nail; thrust; inculcate’ (s.v. spàrr), there is no evidence for such a development.

In summary, the etymology of SG starrag is uncertain: it might be a loan-blend from ON starr adj. (or starri m.), less likely from Scots sture, stare; or it might be a derivative of SG stàrr ‘to shove, dash’, less likely a by-form of EG s-tor or of EG sparr. It might be from one source but have been influenced by another.