288
AN GAODHAL.
NEW YORK Nov. 22, ’83.
To The Editor of the Gael.
Sir: In reading through the last
number of the Gael, I was rather sur¬
prised to find so many omissions and
mistakes in my letter, from the word
"Soilseora (prop, Foilseora ) to the
word “Judith" (prop. Jupiter) inclu¬
sive; more so on account or seeing a
note some ago in one of the Gaels as if
taken from the Gaelic Journal of Dub¬
lin, saying that there was no excuse
for omissions or mistakes in a month¬
ly journal, there was considerable time
for the revision and correction of these
little errors.
I am willing, however, to take up¬
on me the responsibility of having
made the other errors and omissions,
except those above mentioned; I do
not think they are mine.
I have used the word "foilseora" for
Editor on account of its fitness. I am
slightly acquainted with the spoken I¬
rish, and I presume you are also. As¬
suming this to be so, l was somewhat
surprised to see you sign yourself in a
recent number of the Gael, by that
clumsy compound word, "fear-eagair."
This word has been lately coined
by some would-be Irish scholar! to en¬
rich our Irish tongue. "fear-eagair."
What is it? It is made of fear, a man,
a husband and, eagair, order, a class,
o row, a bin' a bank ; geareagair, then,
is arranger, a setter in order, in row,
in line. Feareagair may do as a name
for aman who piles brick in a row
(without morta ), boxes in a row; pa¬
ving-stones in a row; houses in a line,
scholars, or anything else in a class;
soldiers in order &c.; a very useful
jack-of-all-trades, but where is the fit¬
ness of the word to be used as the
name of a publisher or an editor of an
Irish journal or paper when compared
with other and more appropriate terms?
To me its presence indicates the po¬
verty of the Irish language to supply
words for its own diction, the necessi¬
ty of coining new words instead of try¬
ing to recuscitate the old. Now what
is foilseoir (ma foilsighdheoir, má's sé is
feárr leat)? Any one acquainted with
or having access to O’Reilly’s Diction¬
ary can see what fhoilsightheoir means
To those whe have not access to the
dictionary it is this. — a publisher, a
proclaimer, a promulgator, one who di¬
vulges or promulgates; one who public¬
ly offers a book or paper for sale, in
fact, an Editor, and the proper name
for him. Some enquiring one may
ask why I did not divulge such a val¬
uable secret before this. The reason is
the word was before my day; it is o¬
ver a thousand years old. Editor, you
all know what it is; one who superin¬
tends a publication, a book, a maga¬
zine, a journal, a newspaper : that is a
publisher. Editor, from edo. L. to pub¬
lish (I publish) and' or, the eoer' the
agent, one who does; foilseoir, from
folaf, folus, alain, public, dfear, man¬
ifest, and, eoir, oir, the agent or doer;
foilsigh, publish, reveal, announce, pro¬
claim, &c.; foilsighthe, published, decla¬
red, manifested. Folas and Solus are
of the same family of words, as they
and other derivatives all mean light,
which is knowledge.
There are other Irish words appro¬
priate for editor, such as puiblightheoir,
poiblightheoir no pobuloir, a publisher,
from pobal, no pobul, a congregation,
the people, the public, and also, prionn¬
toir no prionndhóia, a printer, either
one of which is preferable in this con¬
nection to the newly-invented catch-
word, feareagar. There is another
word now in use frr editor, that is clo¬
dhaire no cladhaire, whose generally ac¬
cepted meanings are, knave, swindler,
and coward: may do for some editors
but not for the Editor of the Gael. I
have made use of the word myself in a
previous letter to the Gael. I did so
advisedly not from choice, but on ac¬
count of it being in use before me.
Let me give the component parts of
the two words more fully. First I will
say that the a and o in these two
words are interchangeable and have
