macc

See also: Macc.

Old Irish

Etymology

From Primitive Irish ᚋᚐᚊᚊᚔ (maqqi, genitive), from Proto-Celtic *makkʷos, a variant of *makʷos (“son”) (compare Welsh mab, Gaulish mapos, Maponos), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂ḱ- (“to raise, increase”) (compare Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”), Latin macer (“thin”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mak/

Noun

macc m (genitive maicc or meicc, nominative plural maicc or meicc)

1. son
2. child
   • 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. 25^c6

     Hóre ammi maicc laí et soilse, ná seichem nahísiu.

     Since we are children of day and light, let us not follow these things.

   • 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. 53^c11

     in tan as·mbeir, “Taít, á maccu”

     when he says, “Come, children”

Declension

Masculine o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	macc	maccL	maiccL, meicc
Vocative	maicc, meicc	maccL	maccuH
Accusative	maccN	maccL	maccuH
Genitive	maiccL, meicc	macc	maccN
Dative	maccL	maccaib	maccaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: mac
  • Irish: mac
  • Manx: mac
  • Scottish Gaelic: mac

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
macc also mmacc after a proclitic	macc pronounced with /ṽ(ʲ)-/	unchanged
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), “1 mac, macc”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language