Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1701-1774, 1868, 1949
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HOLM, n. Also hulm (Jak.); homm (Sh. 1947 New Shetlander (June — July) 2). [hom] A small grassy island, in a loch or off the larger islands in the Orkneys and Shetlands, gen. uninhabited and used as pasturage for sheep; any small islet (I.Sc. 1825 Jam., I.Sc. 1957). Now found elsewhere only in place-names.Some place-names Holm however are pronounced [hɑm] and are to be referred to O.N. hmn, hfn, Norw. hamn, a haven, harbour (see H. Marwick Ork. Farm-Names (1952) 89). Sh. 1701 J. Brand Descr. Sh. 119:
Easily a Man in a Cradle goeth from the Noss to the Holm or Rock, by reason of its descent. . . . This Holm is much frequented by Fowls.Ork. 1701 J. Brand Descr. Ork. 28:
The several Isles . . . are divided into such as are Inhabited, and so are more commonly called Isles; And such as are not Inhabited, which they call Holms, only useful for pasturage.Sh. c.1733 P.S.A.S. XXVI. 197:
That none go into other men's holms or isles, under the pain of ten pounds for the first fault.Sh. 1774 G. Low Tour (1879) 77:
Near the Minister's house is the loch in which was the Ting or ancient Court of Justice, in a small Holm.Ork. 1868 D. Gorrie Orkneys 65:
One of those green islets, known by the fine old Norse name of holms, which add so much to the beauty of Orcadian seas.Sh. 1949 New Shetlander No. 17. 43:
When a flock of Shetland sheep are removed from poor grazing on the scattald to rich grazing on a holm or green island . . . the texture of their wool coarsens and, in the case of the moorit, loses its colour, after an interval of only a few years.
Comb.: hommsoond, hulmsund, the strait dividing a holm from the mainland or from another (Sh. 1908 Jak. (1928), Sh. 1957).
[O.N. hólmr, an islet, an isolated meadow on the shore. Cf. Howm.]
