gearrcach

Irish

Alternative forms

  • geárcach, geárrcach (obsolete)[1]

Etymology

From Middle Irish gerrcach, from the root of gearr (“short”).[2]

Pronunciation

Noun

gearrcach m (genitive singular gearrcaigh, nominative plural gearrcaigh)

  1. nestling, fledgling (young bird)
  2. (figurative) infant
    Synonyms: naíonán, leanbh

Declension

Declension of gearrcach (first declension)
bare forms
singular plural
nominative gearrcach gearrcaigh
vocative a ghearrcaigh a ghearrcacha
genitive gearrcaigh gearrcach
dative gearrcach gearrcaigh
forms with the definite article
singular plural
nominative an gearrcach na gearrcaigh
genitive an ghearrcaigh na ngearrcach
dative leis an ngearrcach
don ghearrcach 		leis na gearrcaigh

Derived terms

  • gearrcach dearg (“a very young/unfledged nestling, a very young infant”)
  • gearrcach bhéal neide (“a pet (nestling)”)
  • is geal leis an bhfiach dubh a ghearrcach féin (“beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, literally “the raven considers its own fledgling white”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of gearrcach
radical lenition eclipsis
gearrcach ghearrcach ngearrcach

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ “gearrcach”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
  2. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “gerrcach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  3. ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 98, page 55

Further reading

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