cobraithir

Old Irish

Etymology

A denominal formation from cobair (“help”).

Verb

cobraithir (conjunct ·cobradar, verbal noun cobair)

1. to help

   Synonyms: for·tét, fo·reith, con·gní

   • 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. 3^d16

     .i. manim·chobrad rad Dǽ; da·géna cammaib

     i.e. [no power,], unless God's grace shall help me; it will do it, however.

   • 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. 12^b8

     .i. hore is oín-chorp, cobrad cach ball alaile.

     Because it is one body, let each member help each other.

   • c. 815-840, “The Monastery of Tallaght”, in Edward J. Gwynn, Walter J. Purton, transl., Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 29, Royal Irish Academy, published 1911-1912, paragraph 90, pages 115-179:

     Treide nad conairiti tol Dé [leg. nad·chonaircet toil Dé]: [...]cobair fo·reissed ma do·berthe inruth no·cobrafad & do·berar iarnasa indruth nad·cobradar.

     There are three things that are not pleasing to God... [the last one of which is] help that comes [too late, Gwynn & Purton] which could provide aid if an attack was made, and there is made an attack which it does not help against.

Inflection

Simple, class A I present, f future, a subjunctive, deponent

		active						passive
		singular			plural			singular	plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present indicative	abs.
	conj.			·cobradar
	rel.
imperfect indicative
preterite	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
perfect	deut.
	prot.
future	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
conditional				·cobrafad
present subjunctive	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
past subjunctive				·cobrad
imperative				cobrad
verbal noun		cobair
past participle
verbal of necessity

Descendants

• Middle Irish: cobraithir
  • Irish: cabhraigh

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “cobraithir”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language