Jacob King

The Gaelic word peit ‘farmstead’ is an obsolete word which survives in anglicised forms of Gaelic place-names largely as Pit- (e.g. Pitlochry). Although it is often considered a Pictish word, it was in fact borrowed into Gaelic as a lexical item and then went on to appear in Gaelic place-names before dying out in the later medieval or early modern period. This paper will investigate evidence for the word in Gaelic, both as part of place-names and as a general lexical item.
Looking at its usage in place-names, the element often has been changed in favour of Gaelic baile ‘township’, whilst the English name forms have tended to preserve the element as Pit- (e.g. Pitlochry but Baile Chloichridh). The talk will look briefly at those Gaelic name forms which seem to preserve the element peit.

Outside of place-names, the main evidence for the element is contained in two sources: the first is the Book of Deer, where it appears as Pett, followed by a personal name. Secondly the word may appear in an unnamed poem with various versions, each line beginning ‘Is fuath leam …’ (i.e. I hate …), as mentioned in Watson’s Celtic Place-names of Scotland. This poem will be analysed to see if it contains the term in question, or in fact contains Gaelic pit ‘hollow, vulva’.