mebul

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *meblā (compare Welsh mefl), from Proto-Indo-European *mebʰ- (“to blame”); compare Ancient Greek μέμφομαι (mémphomai, “to blame”) and Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌼𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (bimampjan, “to mock”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmʲeβul]

Noun

mebul f (genitive meblae, no plural)

1. shame
   • 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^d27

     Ní mebul lemm cía fa·dam.

     I am not ashamed that I endure it.

     (literally, “There is no shame with me…”)

Declension

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	mebulL	—	—
Vocative	mebulL	—	—
Accusative	mebuilN	—	—
Genitive	meblaeH	—	—
Dative	mebuilL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: meabhal
• Scottish Gaelic: meabhal

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
mebul also mmebul after a proclitic ending in a vowel	mebul pronounced with /β̃(ʲ)-/	unchanged
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), “mebal, mebul”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language