sceach
English edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
sceach (plural sceaches)
- A whitethorn, hawthorn or similar bush.
- 2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album[1], performed by Richie Kavanagh:
- I'm in the county Offaly and I'm awfully sorry now. I broke the mirrors of me cab and I'd like to tell you how. With sceachs, boughs and bushes rubbing off me load, I wish the county council would trim along the road.
Irish edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Old Irish scé (“thornbush, whitethorn”), sometimes declined as an -iā-stem or a dental stem (genitive sciad), but also as a guttural stem, forming the genitive sciach. The dental stem may be original, judging from Welsh ysbyddad (“hawthorn, thornbush”), in which case the ancestor was Proto-Celtic *skʷiyats.[1][2]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sceach f (genitive singular sceiche, nominative plural sceacha)
- whitethorn, hawthorn
- more generally, brier, bramble-bush, thornbush
- prickly, quarrelsome, person
Declension edit
Declension of sceach
Bare forms
|
Forms with the definite article
|
Synonyms edit
- (whitethorn, hawthorn): sceach gheal
- (whitethorn): uath (literary)
- (brier): sceach thalún
- (prickly, quarrelsome, person): sceachaire
Derived terms edit
- sceach i mbéal bearna (“stop-gap”)
- sceach i scornach (“frog in the throat”)
- sceachach (“full of hawthorns, of thorn-bushes; briery, brambly”, adjective)
- sceachóir (“haw”)
- sceachra (“thorns, brambles”)
References edit
- ^ R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “ysbyddad”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
- ^ Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2003) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, § 320, page 204
Further reading edit
- Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “sceach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN