dílgend

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• dílgent

Etymology

Prefixed with dí-. The ending -end, despite the base verb legaid (“to melt”) having a verbal noun legad (“melting”), arose in analogy to the very phonetically similar légaid (“to read”), whose verbal noun is légend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʲiːlʲ.ɣʲən͈(d)/

Noun

dílgend n (genitive dílgind)

1. verbal noun of do·lega: destruction, extermination
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 33^c13

     .i. nírbu lour leu-som buaduguth dib, acht á n-uile dílgent ⁊ a mbrith i ndoiri, is sí écmailte in choscair insin.

     A victory over them was not enough for them, but their total destruction and their removal into slavery [would be enough]; that is the insolence of the victory.

   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 52^a9

     óg dílgend

     complete extermination (glossing Latin internecio (“destruction, extermination”))

Inflection

Neuter o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	dílgendN	—	—
Vocative	dílgendN	—	—
Accusative	dílgendN	—	—
Genitive	dílgindL	—	—
Dative	dílgiundL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: dílgend, dílgenn

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
dílgend	dílgend pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/	ndílgend
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), “dílgend, dílgen”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language