> Incidentally, how reliable is that double-g?
>
> joanna
The predominant but not universal spelling, apparently. (Also, the earliest
recorded spellings seem to have a single "g". See the OED below.)
From my previous Dictionary of the Scottish Language post:
DSL - SND1 HAGGIS, n. Also obs. forms hag(g)ish; haggies (Sc. 1725 Ramsay
Gentle Shep. ii. i.); haggas(s); hag(a)s (Per. 1737 Ochtertyre Ho. Bk.
(S.H.S.) 67-8); haggise.
The DSL doesn't give etymologies, curse them. Here's what the OED2[3] says
anent this:
(Hm ... "Derivation Unknown" is a big help.)
Note 17-18thC spellings below. Also 15thC "hagws".
:-p
haggis
("h&gIs) Also 5 hagas(e, hagese, hageys, hagws, (hakkys), 6
hagges, -eis, -ise, 6-8 haggas, -ass(e, -ess)e, 7-8 haggus, 8 haggice, -ies,
9 -ish, -iss.
[Derivation unknown.
The analogy of most terms of cookery suggests a French source; but no
corresp. F. word or form has been found. The conjecture that it represents
F. hachis 'hash', with assimilation to hag, hack, to chop, has app. no basis
of fact; F. hachis is not known so early, and the earlier forms of the Eng.
word are more remote from it. Whether the word is connected with hag vb.,
evidence does not show.]
1. a. A dish consisting of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep, calf,
etc. (or sometimes of the tripe and chitterlings), minced with suet and
oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc., and boiled like a large
sausage in the maw of the animal.
(Now considered specially Scotch, but a popular dish in English cookery down
to the beginning of the 18th c. Cf. also quots. 1879-90.)
c1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 52 For hagese. Že hert of schepe, že nere žou
take+Hacke alle togeder with gode persole [etc.].
Robin
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