comair

Old Irish

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps a Welsh loanword. Cognate with Welsh ar gyfair (“opposite”), Breton e-keñver (“opposite”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoβ̃ərʲ/

Preposition

comair (with genitive)

1. in front of

   Synonyms: ar, re

   • c. 850, glosses on the Second Epistle of Peter, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, p. 713, line 28[1], 93b12:

     cain ata brad comair caich

     is not the Judgment before every one?

2. in the company of (with i)

   Synonym: i lleth

   • c. 760 Blathmac mac Con Brettan, published in "A study of the lexicon of the poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan" (2017; PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth), edited and with translations by Siobhán Barrett, stanza 23

     †Nond babair† níbar toirsich
     hi comair for móethloingsich,
     coimdiu gréine gile glé,
     oirdnidiu in fócarthae

     (?) ye were not sorrowful
     in the company of your tender exile,
     the lord of the clear bright sun,
     most eminent the outlaw.

Descendants

• Middle Irish: comair
  • Irish: comhair
  • Scottish Gaelic: comhair

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
comair	chomair	comair pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

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