Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/215

O.N. sigg, n., thick, hard (hardened) skin, Mod. Icel. sigg, id.; No. sigg, n., hog-skin; rind of pork; Fær. sigg, n., hard, gristly blubber of a whale, e.g. in the fins.

busk [bosk], sb., lump; bundle; bunch; cluster, a b. o’ corn, o’ girs [‘grass’], o’ dockens [‘docks’, of the genus rumex]; top; tuft; tassel, de busks on a skekel’s (a masked person’s) hat, straw-hat (Y^h.). N.Sh. Also bosk [bȯsk]: de b. o’ de bow, wisp of heather, sticking up from the top of a fishing-buoy (Ai.); bosks o’ hair, tangled tufts of hair, = tuskis (Ai.); a bosk, a woman’s bonnet of white cotton (Ai.). No. busk, m., top; tassel; copse.

buslinpinn, -pin [bos··lɩnpɩn·], sb., in a mill, water-mill: wooden pin fixed in front of the hopper (de hopper, happer), through which the corn falls into the so-called shoe (“shoe”: a small box, open in front, fixed under de hopper and leading to the eye of the millstone). The wooden pin is fixed to the “shoe” on both sides by a string which is tightened or slackened by turning the pin, thus raising or lowering the “shoe”, and regulating the flow of the corn. U. The usual name for this pin is now “turnin’-pin.” — buslin is poss., considering the freq. change of initial p > b in Shetl. Norn, to be referred to No. pusla, vb., to potter; move slowly. Hardly derived from busel, vb., mentioned under bus, vb., denoting eager, bustling motion.

bussa [buᶊa] and bussi [busi, boᶊi], sb., a cow, as a pet-name or a call-name. Comm. (bussa: Conn.). Da. dial. “busse, busseko” as a pet-name for a cow. Cf. No. and Sw. buss, m., a small piece, as well as No. and Icel. bussa, f., a corpulent woman.

*busta, *buster, sb., see *bister.

busten [būstēn], sb., 1) “bosten”, a big boulder, left (when quarrying out the ground for a house to be built on) standing in the ground and forming a part of the outer wall. Conn. Such bustens (or prop. the good fairies which, acc. to old superstition, lived under the stones) were supposed to bring good luck to the houses to which they belonged. When milking the cow, some drops of milk were sprinkled on the “bosten” in the byre; likewise at a private baptism, the “bosten” was sometimes sprinkled with a few drops of the baptismal water. 2) a sea-term, tabu-name in fishermen’s language for the sinker (kappi) on the fishing hand-line or long-line. Conn. — Meaning 1 is doubtless the original one, and meaning 2 derived from the former, as a certain faith and sense of consecration were associated with the sinker, as well as with the actual “bosten”. A successful sinker was thought to bring good luck when used in fishing. — *bú-steinn; O.N. bú, n., abode; farm. — Besides busten, the form bøsten [bø̄stēn], orig. *bœ- or bœ(j)ar-?, is found in both senses mentioned above; see *bø², sb. — A similar belief is found mentioned in Denmark and Sweden with regard to the so-called “botræer”, trees near dwelling houses.

†buster [bustər, bostər], sb., prop. bolster, cushion (O.N. bólstr, n., L.Sc. bouster, bowstar = Eng. bolster), but usually applied in the sense of joist, esp. in the compd. “buster-head”, a wooden beam along the back wall of the substructure (onder-hus) of a water-mill, serving as a support for the innermost end of the ground-sill (de sole-tree), into which the axle of the mill is fitted. “b.-head” is also used of the actual joint of the two beams, “bolster” is found in sense of supporting beam,