Wiktionary

cathair

See also: cathaír

English edit

Etymology 1 edit

cat +‎ hair

Noun edit

cathair (countable and uncountable, plural cathairs)

  1. The hair of a cat.
    • 1968, Benedict Kiely, Dogs Enjoy the Morning, Penguin Books, published 1971, page 18:
      A pimpled chin, dark with cathairs, a mouthful of irregular teeth, were visible below helmet and goggles.
    • 1993, Allen Warfield, Al Brooks, Effective Telemarketing: How to Sell Over the Telephone, page 111:
      How can you tell a cat owner? all the little claw marks on their back. . .Or by the cathair that sticks to their suit.
    • 1993, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Wasn't There:
      The conscientious Mrs. Fulgrove was driving away as he pulled into the barnyard, and he waved to her; the woman's scowl indicated that she had worked overtime because of the vast amount of cathair everywhere.
    • 1994, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 81:
      The closed-door policy, he liked to explain, kept the cats out of his hair and the cathairs out of his typewriter.
    • 2000, Tamaqua: Volume Seven Issue One, page 75:
      Meditate on the steady drone and the rocking of the back and forth vacuum dance you do as you suck up the cathair, the ashes, the seeds, the stray leaves.
    • 2000, Nimrod International Journal - Volume 44, page 128:
      Cat likes to brush against it and sun on the deck chair, the cushion is a mat of gray cathair.

Etymology 2 edit

From Irish cathair.

Noun edit

cathair (plural cathairs)

  1. An ancient Irish fortification of stone or earthwork.
    • 1848, William F[rederick] Wakeman, “Raths or Duns”, in Archæologia Hibernica. A Hand-book of Irish Antiquities, Pagan and Christian: Especially of Such as Are Easy of Access from the Irish Metropolis., Dublin: James McGlashan, […]. William S. Orr & Co. […] London, part I (Pagan Antiquities), page 47:
      Several cathairs which we have examined are not circular in plan, but appear to have been formed to suit the contour of the eminence upon which they stand; and others are of an oval form.
    • 1977, “The Dúns of Aran”, in A World of Stone: Life, Folklore and Legends of the Aran Islands, O’Brien Educational, published 1980, →ISBN, page 28:
      There were probably other cathairs and duns on the Aran Islands which were not as sturdily built or not as well preserved as those that survived.
    • 1992, Theresa McDonald, Achill: 5000 B.C. to 1900 A.D.: Archaeology, History, Folklore, →ISBN, page 128:
      ‘On this island there are three cyclopean cathairs but their stones have been nearly all removed to build the modern little houses which are nearly in as rude a style as the Cahirs ever were. […]’

Anagrams edit

Irish edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Old Irish cathair, from Proto-Celtic *katrixs (“fortification”).

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach or caithreach, nominative plural cathracha or caithreacha)

  1. city
  2. (historical) enclosed church establishment; monastic city
  3. (archaeology) circular stone fort, a ringfort
  4. dwelling(-place); bed, lair
Declension edit
Declension of cathair

Fifth declension

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative cathair cathracha
Vocative a chathair a chathracha
Genitive cathrach cathracha
Dative cathair
cathraigh (archaic, dialectal) 		cathracha

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an chathair na cathracha
Genitive na cathrach na gcathracha
Dative leis an gcathair
leis an gcathraigh (archaic, dialectal)

don chathair
don chathraigh (archaic, dialectal)

leis na cathracha
Derived terms edit

Etymology 2 edit

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive singular caithre or caithreach)

  1. Alternative form of caithir (“down, pubic hair”)
Declension edit
Declension of cathair

Second declension

Bare forms (no plural form of this noun)

Case Singular
Nominative cathair
Vocative a chathair
Genitive caithre
Dative cathair

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular
Nominative an chathair
Genitive na caithre
Dative leis an gcathair

don chathair

Mutation edit

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
cathair chathair gcathair
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading edit

References edit

  1. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 33

Old Irish edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Celtic *katrixs (“fortification”); possibly cognate with Old English hēaþor (“enclosure, prison”) or Serbo-Croatian kȍtar (“administrative unit, province”).[1]

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈkaθərʲ/, [ˈkaθɨrʲ]

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive cathrach, nominative plural cathraig)

  1. stone enclosure, fortress, castle; dwelling
  2. monastic settlement, enclosure; monastery, convent
    • c. 800, Broccán’s Hymn, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, p. 328, ll. 9–10:
      Nī bo fri óigthea acher   cāinbói fri lobru trúagu:
      for maig arutacht cathir   dollaid rosnāde slúagu.
      She was not harsh to guests: gentle was she to the wretched sick:
      on a plain she built a convent: may it protect hosts into the Kingdom!
  3. fortified city, city
    • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 13b1:
      (do·adb)adar in taidbsiu hi siu tra do(naib) coic cetaib […] ro·bói isin chaithir isind aimsir sin
      this appearance, then, is manifested to the five hundred […] that was in the city at that time
    • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 67d14
      Amal rund·gab slíab Sión andes ⁊ antúaid du⟨n⟩ chath⟨raig⟩ dïa dítin, sic rund·gabsat ar ṅdá thoíb du dítin ar n-inmedónach-ni.
      As Mount Sion is located on the south and the north of the city to protect it, so are our two sides there to protect our insides.

Declension edit

Feminine k-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative cathair cathraigL cathraig
Vocative cathair cathraigL cathracha
Accusative cathraigN cathraigL cathracha
Genitive cathrach cathrach cathrachN
Dative cathraigL, caithir cathrachaib cathrachaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Irish: cathair
  • Manx: caayr
  • Scottish Gaelic: cathair

Mutation edit

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
cathair chathair cathair
pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading edit

  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 194

Scottish Gaelic edit

Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Old Irish cathaír (“chair”), from Latin cathēdra, from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra). Cognate with Irish cathaoir.

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

  1. chair, seat, bench, throne
Declension edit
Declension of cathair (type Va feminine noun)
Indefinite
Singular Plural
Nominative cathair cathraichean
Genitive cathrach chathraichean
Dative cathair cathraichean
Definite
Singular Plural
Nominative (a') chathair (na) cathraichean
Genitive (na) cathrach (nan) cathraichean
Dative (a') chathair (na) cathraichean
Vocative (a) chathair (a) chathraichean
Derived terms edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Old Irish cathair.

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

  1. town, city
Derived terms edit
  • catharra (“civil; civic, public”, adjective)

Etymology 3 edit

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun edit

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

  1. gig (two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage)
  2. bed (of any garden stuff)
  3. stock, colewort, cabbage
  4. plot (of land)
  5. (obsolete) guard, sentinel, warder

Mutation edit

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical Lenition
cathair chathair
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading edit

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