íarmifoich

From íarm- +‎ fo- +‎ saigid.

íarmi·foïch (verbal noun íarfaigid)

1. to ask for/about, to seek after (with do indicating the person who was asked)

   Synonym: imm·comairc

   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 2^a18

     huaire nád riarfact, fu·ruar buid cen engne et cen fírinni

     because they had not sought [God], it produced a state of being without understanding and righteousness.

   • c. 815-840, “The Monastery of Tallaght”, in Edward J. Gwynn, Walter J. Purton, transl., Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 29, Royal Irish Academy, published 1911-1912, paragraph 76, pages 115-179:

     Iss ed at·bert Mac Óigi Lis Máir as·rubairt fria alale iarm·oracht dó dús cía bald ba dech dó no·gébad di cleircecht.

     This is what Mac Óige of Lismore said in response to a certain man who asked him which character of a cleric would it be best for him to acquire.

   • c. 700–800 Táin Bó Cúailnge, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, published in The Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Yellow Book of Lecan, with variant readings from the Lebor na hUidre (1912, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co.), edited by John Strachan and James George O'Keeffe, TBC-I 549

     Iarmi·foacht araile día felmacaib do suidiu cid diambad maith a llá-sa.

     A certain pupil asked [Cathbad] what this day would be good for.

• Middle Irish: fóchtaid, íarfaigid, fíarfaigid
  • Irish: fiafraigh
  • Scottish Gaelic: fiafraich

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “íarmifoich”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language