fáith

See also: faith and Faith

Old Irish

FWOTD – 7 September 2014

Alternative forms

• fáid

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *wātis (compare Gaulish uatis, Welsh gwawd (“poem”)), from Proto-Indo-European *wéh₂tis, from *weh₂t- (“possessed, excited”). Cognate with Latin vātēs (“poet, seer”), Old English wōd (“poetry, inspiration”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [faːθʲ]

Noun

fáith m (genitive fátho, nominative plural fáithi)

1. (paganism) seer, soothsayer
2. (Christianity) prophet
   • 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. 13^d23

     fírfidir a n-as·rubart in fáith

     what the prophet has said will be verified

   • 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. 38^c3

     Ní hé apstal cita·rogab in testimin so. Aliter: Ní fóu da·uc int apstal fon chéill fuand·rogab in fáith.

     It is not (the) apostle who first uttered this text. Otherwise: The apostle did not apply it in the sense in which the prophet uttered it.

Inflection

Masculine i-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	fáith	fáithL	fáithiH
Vocative	fáith	fáithL	fáithiH
Accusative	fáithN	fáithL	fáithiH
Genitive	fáthoH, fáthaH	fáthoH, fáthaH	fáitheN
Dative	fáithL	fáithib	fáithib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• fáithsine (“prophecy”)

Descendants

• Irish: fáidh

Mutation

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

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “fáith, fáid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language