starrigan n also stalligan*, starigan, statigan*, sterigan [phonetics unavailable]. DINNEEN stairricín 'a stump or stick, an obstacle, a junk or piece'; R BREATNACH Déise Irish (1961), p. 376: stearagán, a stumble, a delay, an obstacle'; F DAY Rockbound (1928), p. 220 stargon N S; ADD (Nfld).
1 A small young evergreen, esp a fir, often cut for firewood and for other uses; a trunk of a fir tree, a stick.
1895 J A Folklore viii, 39 ~ a young fir tree, which is neither good for firewood nor large enough to be used for timber, hence applied with contempt to anything constructed of unsuitable materials. 1895 Dial Notes i, 381 Starigan—a small green fir or spruce tree, cut for firewood; common in the phase 'a load of starigans.' [c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 26 Starigan—a green stick, especially a var of small [dimensions]. Also called a green lick. 1903 Nfld Qtly Dec, p. 5 He could get nothin' there but a few green var starrigans, or dun boughs. 1907 ibid Dec, p. 2 A 'seine gallows' ... was a sort of 'horse' or trestle made of rough rails or starrigans, and was used for drying nets on. 1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 94 Light snow has fallen during the night, and every 'starigan,' every patch of 'tuckamore' is 'decked in sparkling raiment white.' 1956 ROULEAU 38 Sterigans—Picea glauca, P. Mariana. P 94-57 ~ young fir, very wet, with resin. T 191-65 He'd be pokin' the wood in the stove, what the old fellers 'd call stalligans, those little bough stuff that they cut in on the hills. T 141/65-652 Take a piece o' board then, and get a stalligan or something and paddle [the tub] across tickle. 1966 PADDOCK 89 Some stated that a fir is called a starrigan only after being cut down for firewood. C 66-12 A stalligan is a long thin tree often cut to be used as a fish-pole or flake-pole. C 71-8 Stalligans are pieces of firewood which have just been cut, still green and sap running out of them. P 13-74 Statigans are young slender trees such as those cut and trimmed out to make 'longers.' 1977 Decks Awash vi (6), p. 64 "Uncle Josh": De bull would get de tacklin / An off le'd go for starrigans / Wid frosty snow acracklin.
2 An old gnarled, twisted evergreen tree; a dead evergreen tree or stump; a dead tree left standing after a forest fire; CRUNNICK.
[c1894] PANL P4/14, p. 198 Dry wood is staragons or crunnocks. 1907 MILLAIS 339 ~s, small decayed sticks of trees; boughs of burnt fir-trees; a word of contempt. A mean building of the Reformed Church of England in one out-harbour was always known as the Starrigan Church. 1925 Dial Notes v, 343 ~s, stunted trees. P 46-63 'Thin as a starrigin.' A starrigin is a sort of post left standing in the ground after a forest fire and is a thin, stark sight. 1964 Nfld Herald 26 Jan ~s. actually dry tree stumps which formed an important source of fuel in the depression days. 1969 Nfld Essays 33 ~ : small, stunted dwarf-trees, usually blasted on their seaward sides, to which the dialect terms 'cronnick' and 'starrigan' are given.
3 Attrib starrigan grease: resin of a conifer; TURPENTINE (P 127-80).
