Note 266 — Chapter VI · THE TRIBE IN SCOTLAND.
Reading edition
The word Davach has been supposed to be derived from Damh an ox, and Achadh or Ach a field, and thus to mean oxgang; but the Book of Deer shows this to be false etymology. The word there in its oldest form is Dabach, and the last syllable is inflected (forming in gen. pl. acc, dual Dabeg), which it could not be if it meant Ach a field. The word is also applied in Ireland to the largest liquid measure, and appears in this sense in the old Irish Glosses, ‘Caba, i.e. Cavea, Dabhach, genitive Dabhca’ (p. 63).