Did the Scandinavians and Scots take their names from an ancient Indo-European word SGOTH, SKUTA for "boat, SKIFF"?
MacBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language has:
- sgoth
- a boat, skiff, a Norway skiff; from Scandinavian - Danish skude, Norse skúta, a cutter, small craft.
RCAHMS database (CANMORE)
of an RCAHMS photograph 1930s of a "galley" on a carved panel,
St Clement's Church, Rodel, Isle of Harris
We read under Scota at the Wikipedia:
"Scota, in Irish mythology, Scottish mythology, and pseudohistory, is the name given to two different mythological daughters of two different Egyptian Pharaohs to whom the Gaels traced their ancestry, allegedly explaining the name Scoti, applied by the Romans to Irish raiders, and later to the Irish invaders of Argyll and Caledonia which became known as Scotland."
Ancient seafarers?
Under Scoti we read:
"Scoti or Scotti was the generic name used by the Romans to describe those who sailed from Ireland to conduct raids on Roman Britain.[1] It was thus synonymous with the modern term Gaels. It is not believed that any Gaelic groups called themselves Scoti in ancient times, except when referring to themselves in Latin.[1]The currently posited etymology for Scoti is quite obviously wrong for the simplistic ignorance of its etymological suppositions:
In the 5th century, these raiders established the kingdom of Dál Riata along the west coast of Scotland. As this kingdom expanded in size and influence, the name was applied to all its subjects – hence the modern terms Scot, Scottish and Scotland."
"The origin of the word Scoti or Scotti is uncertain. Charles Oman derives it from the Gaelic word Scuit (a man cut-off), suggesting that a Scuit was not a general word for the Gael but a band of outcast raiders. In the 19th century Aonghas MacCoinnich of Glasgow proposed that Scoti was derived from the Gaelic word Sgaothaich. It has also been suggested that it comes from the Greek word skotos (σκότος) meaning darkness."
