Scarth

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A dark seabird of the cormorant family, found along northern coasts ; a small cut, cleft or notch cut into an edge or surface
2. A large black diving seabird, especially in Scottish and northern usage ; a narrow nick or opening cut into a rock, stone or edge
3. The name for a cormorant in Scots and northern English dialect ; an old word for a notch, cleft or gap in a surface

Etymology: Scarth is a regional English and Scots name for the shag, the cormorant-like seabird of rocky coasts, and it is a word of Norse ancestry. It comes from Old Norse "skarfr", the same word that gave Old English "scræf" and, in modern English, the cormorant's older dialect name "scarf". The name survives mainly in northern England and Scotland, where fishermen and naturalists used it for the bird long before "shag" became the standard term in books. The bird's name is older than its later English labels. Viking-age settlers in northern Britain brought "skarfr" with them, and the word spread through the coastal dialects of the north, where it was attached to the dark, long-necked diver that nests on sea cliffs. Dialect forms such as "scarf" and "scarth" reflect that continuity, with the final consonant cluster simplified or preserved depending on the region.

Synonyms: cormorant, shag