cleasach

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish clesach. By surface analysis, cleas (“trick; feat; knack; act”) +‎ -ach (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

(Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠəx/
(Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠa(x)/

Adjective

cleasach (genitive singular masculine cleasaigh, genitive singular feminine cleasaí, plural cleasacha, comparative cleasaí)

playful
tricky, crafty

Declension

Declension of cleasach

Positive	Masculine	Feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
	Singular		Plural (m/f)
Nominative	cleasach	chleasach	cleasacha; chleasacha²
Vocative	chleasaigh	chleasach	cleasacha
Genitive	chleasaigh	cleasaí	cleasacha	cleasach
Dative	cleasach; chleasach¹	chleasach; chleasaigh (archaic)	cleasacha; chleasacha²
Comparative	níos cleasaí
Superlative	is cleasaí

¹ When the preceding noun is lenited and governed by the definite article.
² When the preceding noun ends in a slender consonant.

Related terms

cleasaí m (“playful person or animal; trickster, crafty person; juggler; acrobat; joker”)
cleasaíocht f (“(act of) playing, tricking; playfulness, trickery; (act of) juggling; dexterous feats, acrobatics”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cleasach	chleasach	gcleasach
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cleasach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “clesach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language