fóesam

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• foísam

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *uɸosistamus, from *uɸo- +‎ *sistamus. Cognate to Middle Welsh gwaesaf. Equivalent to fo- +‎ sessam.

Noun

fóesam m (genitive fóesma)

1. verbal noun of fo·sisedar: protection
   • Colmán's Hymn, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, p. 306, line 53

     For foísam ríg na ndúle, comairche nachan·[m]éra!

     [May we be] under the safeguard of the King of the elements, a protection which will not betray us!

Usage notes

This verbal noun is not interchangeable with foísitiu, which is used to refer to confessions only.

Inflection

Masculine u-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	fóesam	—	—
Vocative	fóesam	—	—
Accusative	fóesamN	—	—
Genitive	fóesmoH, fóesmaH	—	—
Dative	fóesamL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: fáesam
  • Irish: faoiseamh (“relief”)

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
fóesam	ḟóesam	fóesam pronounced with /β(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), “fáes(s)am”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language