Old Irish edit

Etymology edit

From fo- +‎ canaid.

Verb edit

fo·cain (verbal noun focetal)

  1. to sing, to chant
    • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 203
      Dom·farcai fidbaidae fál. Fom·chain lóid luin (lúad nad cél). Huas mo lebrán (ind línech) fom·chain trírech inna ṅ-én. Fomm·chain cói menn medair mass hi ṁbrot glass de dindgnaib doss.
      A hedge of trees surrounds me. A blackbird’s lay sings to me — praise which I will not hide. Above my booklet, the lined one, the trilling of the birds sings to me. In a gray mantle, the cuckoo’s beautiful chant sings to me from the tops of bushes.
    • c. 875, Comrac Líadaine ocus Cuirithir, published in Liadain and Curithir: an Irish love-story of the ninth century (1902, London: Nutt), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, page 24
      Céol caille, fom·chanad la Cuirithir la fogur fairce flainne.
      The music of the forest, it would sing to me when with Cuirithir together with the voice of the purple sea.
  2. to accompany (singing)

Inflection edit

References edit