xxviii. THE GANNET 



as being the name most familiar to Englishmen and also 

 as the one selected by Professor Newton, whom it is generally 

 safe to follow ; but Solan Goose is strictly correct, and is 

 an appellation by which this bird has long been widely 

 known in Scotland. 



Gannet Ave are prone to look upon as a book-name ; but it 

 is much more than that, being a name of great antiquity 

 since it was used by the Saxon chroniclers. With regard 

 to its signification,, perhaps enough has been said on pp. 22, 

 23, 24 ; and as to the spelling of the word, the Oxford 

 " English [Murray's] Dictionary " (1901), gives the following 

 forms : — Gannet (gse'ne't). Forms : ganot, ganate — ette, 

 gannett (gannard), ganet, gannet, gante, gaunt, gaunte, 

 gant. The Dictionary states the Old English (janot to 

 be cognate with the Dutch gent : Middle High German 

 ganiz, genz : Old Teutonic types ganito, ganoto. I have 

 quoted what Professor Skeat says about it (p. 22), but 

 a few additional remarks may not be out of place. 

 Writing from Cambridge in 1908, he says : " There 

 is not the faintest pretence for alleging doubt as to 

 the etymology of the gan — in gan-der, gan-net, gan-s, 

 it is obviously = ghan, in the Greek %av, — to gape, 

 which as Prellwite explains in his " Etymological Greek 

 Dictionary," admits of the suffix — ysiv or — isiv ; and by 

 usual Greek laws, the original form %av — mv becomes 

 ^ciivsiv regularly ; as avt passes into — a»v — . The base 

 — ^av — has a variant with /o?i<7 «. This gives ;i^av, which 

 is the old Doric form of the Attic ^-^v, a goose," Tame 

 geese do open their mouths a great deal and Gannets 

 still more so, gaping when they cry, or for food, or 



