Old Irish edit

Etymology edit

From ar- +‎ séitid (to blow), possibly semantically arising from the use of oral literature and musical instruments for entertainment. The deuterotonic stem-initial p- is a back-formation from the lenited stem-initial -f- seen in prototonic forms. In this case, the -f- etymologically came from the lenition of the *sw- from Proto-Celtic *swizdeti, not a lenition of p-.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

ar·peti (verbal noun airfitiud)

  1. to entertain, amuse
    • c. 775, “Táin Bó Fraích”, in Book of Leinster; republished as Ernst Windisch, editor, Táin bó Fraích, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1974, line 259:
      Gabthus mesca[e] ⁊ arus·peittet céola ⁊ airfiti.
      Intoxication seizes them, music and entertainment perform for them.
    • Codex Sancti Pauli, published in "Poems in the Codex S. Pauli", in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus : a collection of Old-Irish glosses, Scholia prose and verse (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. 2, pp. 293-295, Poem V, stanza 8
      Oc cormaim gaibtir dúana, drengaitir dreppa dáena, ar·beittet bairtni bindi tri laith linni ainm n-Áeda.
      At ale, songs are chanted, fine [genealogical] ladders are climbed, and sweet [bardic] songs extol [lit. entertains], through pools of liquor, the name of Áed.
    • c. 808, Félire Oengusso, Epilogue, line 79; republished as Whitley Stokes, transl., Félire Óengusso Céli Dé: The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, Harrison & Sons, 1905:
      Ar·peti cech díne do thoscélad féle.
      [The Félire Óengusso] entertains every group in ascertaining [the dates of celebratory] festivals.

Inflection edit

Mutation edit

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
ar·peti ar·pheti
or unchanged
ar·peti
pronounced with /-b(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading edit