Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the Norn Language in Shetland Part I.pdf/322

foti, sb., see futi, sb.

fotlin [fȯƫlin] and fotlek [fȯƫlək], sb., a mouse, tabu-name, used by fishermen at sea. Also foitlin [fȯitlɩn], foitlek [fȯitlək, [fꜵ̈i‘tlək], feitlek [fei‘tlək, fəi‘tlək], fitlek [f^əitᶅək] and futli [futli]. The forms “fȯƫlin, fȯitlɩn, fei‘tlək, f^əitᶅək and futli” are noted down in Unst (futli: Uⁿ.), “fꜵ̈i‘tlək and fəi‘tlək” in North-Yell. All the forms given, prob. spring from a “*fœtlingr” in sense of a small foot, light foot, a dim. deriv. of fótr, m., a foot. Cf. “fotel” in No., applied to the squirrel (in a rigmarole; in R. under “fotella”). For the derivative l cf. Icel. ferfætlingur, m., a quadruped (J.Th.), and No. fjorføtla, f., a lizard. From the N.I. also a deriv. in s: fotsek [fȯƫsək], foitsek [fȯitsək] and fitsik [fətsɩk, fɩtsək] (esp. Y. and Fe.); besides the forms fotsek, foitsek, fitsik, is also found fäitsek [fäi‘tsək]. Other forms, characteristic of the N.I. (esp. of Y. and Fe.), are: fittek [fətək], fitter [fətər, fetər], fitrik [fət^ərɩk]. The forms prefixed by fit- [fət (fet)-] are, with reference to the pronunc., influenced by L.Sc. (and Shetl.) “fit”, sb., foot. Cf. the tabu-names for cat, under fudin, sb.

fotsek, sb., see fotlin, sb.

fotsporr, fit-sporr [fət·spȯrr··], sb., cross-bar, sporr, linn, stretcher of a boat, for supporting the feet in rowing = fitlinn. U. *fót-sparri or -sperra. See sporr, sb.

*foud, *foude, *fowde [fɔud, fåud], sb., bailiff. Balfour gives “foud” with the explanation “collector of the king’s skatts, skyllds, mulcts, etc., afterwards chief judge, and ultimately sheriff of the Foudrie of Zetland”. In the Shetland Isles in the 16th century the designation “great f. (grand f., head f.)” was used of the bailiff, the chief official in the Isles beside the lawman, the judge, while the under-

bailiffs (district judges, parish bailiffs)

in the various subordinate bailiwicks were called “underfouds, underfowdes”, later, “parish fouds”. “The great foud” was replaced in the 17th century by a “steward-depute” or (later) “sheriff”, the under-bailiffs by “bailies, bailiffs”. The lawman’s office was dissolved about or before the middle of the 16th century, shortly before the bailiff’s office, whit^{[errata 1]} which it prob. has been merged. Hence the intermingling of the designations “great f.” and “lagman, lawman”. Hibbert applies “the great foude or lagman” to one and the same functionary, also called “prefect”. Barry designates the bailiff (the foud) as “the president of the supreme court formerly held in the Orkney and Shetland islands”, and, like Balfour, makes him a specifically Ork. functionary — in disagreement with Shetl. deeds from the 16th century; see further under *lagman, sb. — A form fogge, with preserved original g, was still used in the latter half of the 16th century. In a letter of 1567 from the English Ambassador at the Scottish Court in Edinburgh, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, to Queen Elizabeth, with ref. to Bothwell (who in his flight to Denmark made a short stay in Shetland at the bailiff Olaw Sinclair’s), the Shetl. bailiff, “the principal man of the isle”, is mentioned as “fogge” (misunderstood by the letter-writer as the bailiff’s name: “The principal man of the isle, named Fogge, doth favoure Bodwell. . .”). G. Goudie, Ant. of Shetland, pp. 93 (and 230). — Other modes of spelling the word in old Scottish-Shetlandic deeds are: fold, fould, and occas. f(e)ald, in which the l was prob. mute. — O.Norw. foguti (fogutr, fugutr, folguti, fouti), Mod. Norw. fut and faut, Sw. dial. faut, Fær. fúti (fúdi), m., a bailiff (borrowed from Germ.).

1. Correction: whit should be amended to with: detail