feum

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French or Old Occitan feu/fieu; see the main entry for more.

Noun

feum n (genitive feī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) Alternative form of feudum (“fief, fee”)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	feum	fea
Genitive	feī	feōrum
Dative	feō	feīs
Accusative	feum	fea
Ablative	feō	feīs
Vocative	feum	fea

Middle English

Noun

feum

1. Alternative form of fume

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish feidm (“effort”), from Proto-Celtic *wedesman, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to lead”). Cognate with Irish feidhm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feːm/

Noun

feum m (genitive singular feuma or fèim)

1. need, necessity

   ann 'am fheum ― in my time of need

   'S e am feum a thug air sin a dhèanamh. ― Dire necessity made him do that.

2. use, usefulness

   Chan eil feum annad. ― There is no use in you.

   Dè is feum dha? ― What is the use of it?

   Is beag feum a tha ort. ― You are quite useless.

3. poverty
4. worth
5. occasion

   Chan eil feum ort. ― There is no occasion for (or need of) you.

Derived terms

• dèan feum de (“use, exploit, make use of, utilize”, verb)
• feumach (“necessitous, needful, needy”)
• feumail (“useful, beneficial, helpful, handy, of use, serviceable, requisite”)
• gun fheum (“useless, needless; uselessly, needlessly”)
• mì-fheum m (“abuse, misapplication”)

 

Verb

feum

1. (intransitive) to need to, have to, must
2. (transitive) to need

Inflection

The future tense feumaidh is used with present meaning:

• feumaidh mi ― I must

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
feum	fheum
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “feum”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “feidm”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language