Nuiddragh

[embryomystic]

Recently I've learned that there's a Manx word, nuiddragh*, meaning 'cuddle, caress, neck'. I've never heard of an Irish (or Scottish Gaelic) word that I imagine to be cognate to that. Does anyone know of any? If not, does anyone know the etymology of the word?

* There are also related words, nuiddraghey (verb) and nuiddraghys (noun derived from

Comments

[kaleboy]

Isn't dragh the old Irish word for trouble? Hehe

For cuddle/caress/neck beadradh or cniadaich are similar sounding Scot Gaelic terms I believe. Cniadaich could be a cognate. *shrugs* It's tough to tell without etymology. My etymological dictionary doesn't list it though.

[embryomystic]

I'm not sure what Irish vowel Manx ui corresponds to, and I don't know whether the dd is likely to correspond to a T or a D (word-internal voicing occurs, but possibly only intervocalically, as in cabbyl, Irish capall). I know that gh corresponds to Irish ch, though (it's pronounced the same, too).

Just had a look over a Manx dictionary, and in the words I can find with ui where I know cognates in Irish, it seems to correspond to either o or ui. So maybe nodrach or notrach. I don't know. It could even be a Norse loan or something.