neim

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *neman, degeminated from Proto-Indo-European *nem-mn̥, from *nem- (“to distribute, give”) + *-mn̥ (verbal noun suffix).[1] For the semantic relationship, compare German Gift (“poison, toxin”).[2]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [n͈ʲeṽʲ]

Noun

neim n or f (genitive neime, nominative plural neimi) (originally neuter)[3]

  1. poison
  2. venom

Inflection

This term declines as a neuter n-stem in the singular and an i-stem in the plural.

Neuter n-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative neimN neimN neimiH
Vocative neimN neimN neimiH
Accusative neimN neimN neimiH
Genitive neime neimeN neimeN
Dative neimimL neimib neimib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants
  • Irish: nimh
  • Manx: nieu
  • Scottish Gaelic: nimh

References
  1. Byrd, Andrew Miles (2006) “Return to Dative Anmaimm”, in Ériu, volume 56, page 152
  2. Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*nemo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 288
  3. G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “neim”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
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