AN
GAODHAL
645
The Hundred Irish Words, Continued
Explanation.
Cré means clay, or earthly mould;
talamh, land, ground; os cionn talamh¬
an, above the ground, not buried
Faoi thalamh, under ground, buried ; ta¬
lamh án domhain, the land of the world,
úir is applied to fresh earth, to mould,
and ithir means a ridge of earth just
dug up. Cré, earth, has the adjective
fuar, cold, annexed to it, thus — cré-
fuar, earth or clay, cuir an chré-fuar
air seo, put the clay on this
Uisge water. From uisge is derived
the term whiskey in English: and uis¬
ge-beatha [water of life], Names of riv¬
ers in Usk and Ex. come from uisge,
water.
Muir, Latin, mare ; French. mer ;
loch, lake is easily remembered we
have so many loughs ; and lacus, and
lagos. Hence “Lochlanaigh," the Lake¬
men, the Danes and Norwegians.
Cnoc, "knocks" are quite numerous in
Ireland, hilly places known by that
appellation.
Gleann, Irish for "glen," comes from
the Gaelic of Scotland or Ireland.
baile, a town, "villa,” or village, or
home.
Tír, country, tells of a large tract, as ;
Tír-Chonnaill, Tir Connell: "Tír-Eoin,"
Tir-Owen.
Tuait, means the country district,
as contra-distinguished from baile, the
town.
Oidhche agus ló (ló dative case, because
it is usually taken as meaning "de oidh-
che agus de ló," by night and day : lá,
day, is nominative case, pron. "law."
Grian is the Irish term for sun ; sol
was in the very old Irish for sun; we
find it in "solus,” light, i.e, lus, light
of Sol. Grian is fem. and not mas. as
it is in English, Latin, and French. In
Irish and German the term is fem. To
those who understand correctly what
gender means — that it is applied to
terms, or the words of a language, and
not to persons or things as such, the
fact that "grian," the sun, is feminine
does not seem strange.
Gealach, moon, fem., root, geal, white,
bright. Teintreach, lightning ; root.
teine, fire.
Fearthuin, rain; gen, fearthuine, as ;
lá fearthuine, ( a day of rain ] a rainy
day. It is derived from feur, grass,
and síon, weather, broken weather:
"That is, says Dr O'Brien, author of
"The Irish Dictionary,” weather that
from its moist character. tends to make
the grass grow.” The s of síon is chan¬
ged to t, as the same sound is given to
sh and to th — aspirated.
We have also garbh-shíon, rough wea¬
ther, and gall-shíon, foreign weather, —
wild, rough weather. Sioc, frost; La¬
tin, sicare, to dry up ; from sioc.
Sneacht, snow. Irish term for dawn,
fáineadh an lae; root, fionn, fair, white;
also fair an lae. twilight; clap-solus,
root, clap, muddy, and applied to light,
"dusky" evening. Feascor, and the
Latin "Vesper," are from the same root
f and v are interchangeable letters ; so
are c and p, Greek, “Hespes," even¬
ing star ; feascor, in Irish, the evening
star lar suidhe feascoir, after the set¬
ting of the evening star.
THIRD DIVISION.
English.
Irish,
House and street.
Teach agus sráid.
Hill and cottage,
Árdán agus bothán
Door and window.
Dorus agus fuineog
Bridge and gate¬
way
Driochead agus gea¬
ta.
Shop and market.
Siopa agus margadh.
Explanation of the Irish Terms.
Teach, a house; gen. tighe; dat. tigh, as
fear-tighe, man-of-a-house; bean-tighe,
woman-of-a-house; teach-mór, big house
a chateau ; teachín, a small house. The
word “tego,” to cover, Latin, and "tec¬
tum" are akin to teach, a house a shel¬
ter, a covering.
Sráid, stratum, street, fem. gen.
Árd is high; árdán, a height; cnoc,
a hill,
Maol, the knoll of a hill ; sliabh, a
hilly district, as, sliabh na m-ban, in
