Faoilleach
Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". (Script error: No such module "IPA".; in Scots and English rendered as fulteachs, futtick, furtoch, furtock, etc.)[1] is a Scottish Gaelic term which originally referred to a certain period in the agricultural calendar and which refers to the first month of the year, January, in the modern language.
Nowadays, the term has fallen out of English and Lowland Scots, but is still used in Gaelic for the month of January specifically. It would appear to be a very old term, as it seems to come from Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". meaning a wolf, a creature which has been extinct in Scotland since the 17th century.
The Gaels of old regarded stormy weather towards the end of January as prognostic of a fruitful season to follow, or vice versa, as shown in various proverbs.
Variations
In Lewis, Script error: No such module "Lang". fell on the Friday nearest to three weeks before the end of January, and ended on the Tuesday nearest the end of the third week of February. It was said to be three weeks of winter, and three weeks of spring.
A shorter Script error: No such module "Lang". consisted of the last fortnight of winter, and the first fortnight of spring, in the Old Style calendar, proverbial for its variable weather. Sometimes the first half was called Script error: No such module "Lang". (Winter Script error: No such module "Lang".), and the second half Script error: No such module "Lang". (Spring Script error: No such module "Lang".).
Script error: No such module "Lang". is also used to mean the equinoxes according to Dwelly, presumably the vernal equinox.
In Irish, the word means February instead of January.[2]
Proverbs
- "In Script error: No such module "Lang"., the three furrows side by side should be full of water, full of snow, and full of house thatch." (presumably referring to climate and growth)
- "For every mavis that sings in Script error: No such module "Lang"., she’ll lament seven times ere spring be over."
- "It comes on Friday and goes on Tuesday."
John Jamieson records another saying:
- "they wish the Script error: No such module "Lang". in with an adder's head, and to go out with a peacock's tail, i.e. to be stormy in the beginning, and mild towards the end."
This is very similar to the Highland sentiments.
References
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- This article incorporates text from Dwelly's [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary (1911). (Script error: No such module "Lang"., Script error: No such module "Lang".)
- Cassie’s Lowland Scots vocabulary
- Jamieson, John Dictionary of the (Lowland) Scots Language