Etymology of "usquebaugh-baul"

[Obroin, Brian]

 Irish "baol" - danger.

Brian Ó Broin

Brian Ó Broin, Ph.D. 
Dept. of English, William Paterson University, New Jersey, USA 
Linguistics - Medieval Studies - Irish Studies 
Teangeolaíocht-Léann na Meánaoise-Léann na hÉireann 
Níos Mó / More Information: http://sites.google.com/site/professorbrianobroin/



-----Original Message-----
From: The Celtic Linguistics List [mailto:CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of Elizabeth J. Pyatt
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 12:59 PM
To: CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Etymology of "usquebaugh-baul"

Hello:

I was recently asked by a reporter if I knew the etymology of the "baul" in the compound "usquebaugh-baul" which is a quadruple strength whiskey (http://whiskyman.com/news/perilous_whisky.html)

The reporter knows that "usquebaugh" is "uisge beatha", but needed more information on "baul". He also passed on that the term appears in Martin Martin's "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1703).

His research had discovered ball ~ baull 'limb', the idea that the usquebaugh-baul  "affects all the Members of the Body"   according to Martin.
I also entered "strong" and came up with "balc". I was wondering if this was possible, although there is an extra "c" /k/.

FYI - other sources translate "usquebaugh-baul" as "perilous whiskey", but I couldn't find any words that jumped out at me in the DIL.

Are there any ideas people might have? Any info appreciated.

GRMA/TL

Elizabeth
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer/Lecturer in Linguistics Penn State University ejp10 at psu.edu http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/

Got Unicode Blog
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/gotunicode/index.html



o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
CELTLING

Post: celtling at lists.linguistlist.org OR celtling at listserv.linguistlist.org
Archives: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/celtling.html>
Subscribe/Unsubscribe - Go to
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=CELTLING&A=1 

Website: <http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/celtling>