doburchú

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *dubrokū. By surface analysis, dobur (“water”) +‎ cú (“hound”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈdoβurˌxuː]

Noun

doburchú m (genitive doburchon)

1. otter
   • c. 900, Sanas Cormaic, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, Corm. Y 424

     dobarcú .i. cú uisci

     otter, that is: hound of water

Declension

Masculine n-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	doburchú	doburchoinL	doburchoin
Vocative	doburchú	doburchoinL	doburchonaH
Accusative	doburchoinN	doburchoinL	doburchonaH
Genitive	doburchon	doburchonL	doburchonN
Dative	doburchoinL, doburchúL	doburchonaib	doburchonaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: dobharchú
• Manx: dooarchoo
• Scottish Gaelic: dobhar-chù

Mutation

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

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “doburchú”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language