imresan

Old Irish

Alternative forms

imbressan, imbresan (Würzburg variants)

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ambiwritsonom, a prefixed derivation of *sonom. *Sonom is in turn derived from the root Proto-Indo-European *senh₂‐ (“to reach, attain”).[1] Effectively contains the prefixes imm- +‎ frith-.

Gordon also connects imresan to Irish ar son (“instead of, in place of”), which has been connected to unrelated words by previous authors.[1]

Noun

imresan n (genitive imresin, nominative plural imbresna)

verbal noun of imm·fresna: contention, strife, controversy

Inflection

Neuter o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	imresan^N	imresan^N	imresan^L, imresna, imbresna
Vocative	imresan^N	imresan^N	imresan^L, imresna, imbresna
Accusative	imresan^N	imresan^N	imresan^L, imresna, imbresna
Genitive	imresain^L, imresin^L	imresan	imresan^N
Dative	imresun^L	imresnaib	imresnaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
imresan	unchanged	n-imresan
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, page 480