Old Irish edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From ad- +‎ buith (being).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

epaid f (genitive eptha, nominative plural epthai)

  1. charm, spell
    • c. 697-900, Cáin Adomnáin, published in Cáin Adamnáin: an old-Irish treatise on the law of Adamnan (1905, Oxford University Press), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, §46
      Mát epthai día n-apallar da·bera nech do alailiu, féich dunetáiti ind.
      If it be charms by which death is caused by anyone on another, a fine for murder with concealment of the body [is to be paid] for it.
    • St. Gall Incantations, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. 2, p. 248
      Fo·certar ind epaid-se i n-im nad·tét i n-uisce...
      This charm is laid in butter, in which it does not go into water...
    • 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. 20b20
      aipthiglosses Latin veneficia

Inflection edit

Feminine i-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative epaid, aupaith epaidL, aupaith epthaiH, aipthiH
Vocative epaid, aupaith epaidL, aupaith epthaiH, aipthiH
Accusative epaidN, aupaith epaidL, aupaith epthaiH, aipthiH
Genitive epthoH, epthaH, aupthaH epthoH, epthaH, aupthaH epthaeN
Dative epaidL, aupaith epthaib epthaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants edit

This term suffered various irregular deformations in the modern Goidelic languages.

  • Middle Irish: epaid

Mutation edit

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
epaid unchanged n-epaid
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading edit