fíacail

See also: fiacail

Old Irish

Etymology

An ancient etymology derives it from Latin fīgō (“to fix”), the idea being that a tooth is a "mouth fixture";[1] this explanation is impossible on phonological grounds and extremely unlikely on semantic ones. More recently, MacBain suggests a connection with Middle Irish fec (“spade, tooth, tusk”),[2] assuming that the latter is actually *féc; the two would then both be from Proto-Celtic *wēkkā of unknown origin.[3]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [ˈfʲiːa̯kɨlʲ]

Noun

fíacail m or f (genitive fíacla or fíaclu, nominative plural fíaclai)

  1. tooth
    • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 56d4
      húa détnaig a fíaclae fri alailiu
      by the gnashing of their teeth against each other

Inflection
Unknown gender i-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative fíacail fíacailL fíaclaiH
Vocative fíacail fíacailL fíaclaiH
Accusative fíacailN fíacailL fíaclaiH
Genitive fíacloH, fíaclaH fíacloH, fíaclaH fíaclaeN
Dative fíacailL fíaclaib fíaclaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms
  • clárḟíacail (“incisor”)
  • fíacail fostóigh (“canine tooth”)

Descendants
  • Irish: fiacail
  • Manx: feeackle
  • Scottish Gaelic: fiacaill

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

References
  1. G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “fíacail”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “fec”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  3. MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “fíacail”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎, Stirling, →ISBN, page 172
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