English edit

Noun edit

fedan (plural fedans)

  1. A measure of land used in Sudan and Egypt, slightly more than an English acre. One fedan is about 4200 square meters.
    • 1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 71:
      Tubbs, in the fall of 1862, sent emissaries to Cairo to pressure Ismail, heir to the throne, into planting several thousand fedans – which Tubbs promised to buy.

Anagrams edit

Galician edit

Verb edit

fedan

  1. inflection of feder:
    1. third-person plural present subjunctive
    2. third-person plural imperative

Old English edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-. Cognate with Old Saxon fōdian, Dutch voeden, Old High German fuotan, Old Norse fǿða (Danish føde, Swedish föda, Icelandic fæða), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fōdjan).

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

fēdan

  1. to feed

Conjugation edit

Related terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Middle English: feden

Old Irish edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Celtic *wedonā, an unusual double-thematic formation in -o-nā. Two other basic verbal nouns, mlegon (milking) (from *mlig-o-nos) and orcun (slaying) (from *org-e-nā) also have double-thematic *-V-no/ā- formations. Their closest parallels are Proto-Germanic *-aną and past participles in *-anaz, in addition to Slavic past passive participles in original -enъ.[1]

Noun edit

fedan f (genitive fednae)

  1. verbal noun of feidid: carrying, conveying
    • c. 650 Do Fastad Cirt ocus Dligid, published in Ancient Laws of Ireland: Uraicecht Becc and Certain Other Selected Brehon Law Tracts (1901, Dublin: Stationery Office), edited and with translations by W. Neilson Hancock, Thaddeus O'Mahony, Alexander George Richey, and Robert Atkinson, vol. 5, pp. 425-494, page 482, line 27
      …arad cacha fedna[e], crand fedna[e] collna…
      …[a rack] for each carriage, wood for carrying bodies [in biers]…
    • 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. 76a9
      inna fednaeglosses Latin invectionis
  2. the state of being yoked
    • 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. 16a16
      .i. nabad inunn fedan i mbeith.
      i.e. let not the yoke in which you pl are be the same.

Inflection edit

Feminine ā-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative fedanL
Vocative fedanL
Accusative fedainN
Genitive fednaeH
Dative fedainL
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

Mutation edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, pages 112-113

Further reading edit