See also: leath

Irish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From leath.

Pronunciation

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Prefix

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leath-

  1. lying, turned, to one side; lopsided, tilted
  2. one-sided, partial
  3. half-, hemi-, semi-; half-grown
  4. one of two, of a pair

Usage notes

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  • This affix in Irish is added to nouns and adjectives denoting half. It lenites the word to which it attaches.
    leathchúpla (twin), from cúpla (twins)
  • It is often used with nouns which normally come in pairs to denote a single object:
    leathbhróg (a single shoe) (in contrast to dhá bhróig (both shoes, a pair of shoes))
    leathshúil (a single eye) (in contrast to an shúil (both [the] eyes, the eyes [of a single person]))
  • Written with a hyphen when attaching to words in t:
    leath-tháille (half-price)

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 242, page 122

Further reading

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