skerry
English
Etymology
From dialectal Scots (Shetlandic and Orcadian) skerry, from Old Norse sker (whence Danish skær and Norwegian Bokmål skjær).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈskɛɹi/
- Rhymes: -ɛri
Noun
skerry (plural skerries)
- A small rocky island which may be covered by the sea at high tide or during storms.
- 1805, George Barry, History of the Orkney Islands, page 322:
- The Seal (phoca vitulina, Lin. Syft.) which is here generally known by the name of selchy, is very common on most of our low shores, but particularly on those of the small holms and remote skerries, where it is frequently seen reposing and basking in the sun [...].
- 1997, Bernard Scudder, transl., Egil's Saga, Penguin Books, page 46:
- Grim the Halogalander's crew sailed along Borgarfjord beyond the skerries, then cast anchor until the storm died down and the weather brightened up.
- 2000, Jeremy Gaskell, Who Killed the Great Auk?, Oxford University Press, page 20:
- The three men proceeded, with a little difficulty, to scale the skerry, finding Gannets and Guillemots on the upper reaches.
Translations
small rocky island
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Anagrams
Scots
Etymology
Noun
skerry (plural skerries)
- (chiefly Northern Isles) skerry, reef
- 2004, Sheena Blackhall, The Humpty Dumpty Man:
- Tae the icy flowes o the Shetlan voes he sailed tae Scalloway, / There his sweethairt won, far a Viking sun shines ower the skerries grey.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Further reading
- “skerry” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Scots
- English terms derived from Scots
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɛri
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Landforms
- Scots terms borrowed from Old Norse
- Scots terms derived from Old Norse
- Scots lemmas
- Scots nouns
- Orkney Scots
- Shetland Scots
- Scots terms with quotations
- sco:Landforms