eclas

Old Irish

Etymology

According to Deborah Hayden and David Stifter, from Proto-Celtic *exs-glassos or *exs-glassā (“out(side)-stomach”) from Proto-Indo-European *eǵʰs-gʰl̥H-ST-o/eh₂- from *gʰelH- (“digestive organ, stomach”), related to Old Irish gaile (“stomach”), Middle Breton elas, Breton elaz (“gizzard”), Welsh glasog (“gizzard”), afu glas (“gizzard”), Old Cornish glas (“stomach”), Ancient Greek χολάδες (kholádes, “intestines”), Ancient Macedonian γόλα (góla, “intestines”), Proto-Slavic *želǫdъkъ (“stomach”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɡl͈əs/

Noun

eclas (gender unknown)

1. stomach
   • 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. 29^a26

     ar biith galar n-eclis fort-su

     for the gastric disease abides on thee

2. craw, gizzard

Inflection

In the Würzburg glosses, there is attested an o-stem genitive singular eclis.

Descendants

• Irish: eaglais (“gizzard”)

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “eclas”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927) “eaglais”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society