nach mór

Old Irish

Etymology

Strachan interprets it as the neuter dative singular of nach (“some, any”) + mór (“great amount”),[1] thus literally, “by any great amount”. The Dictionary of the Irish Language, however, interprets it as nách mór (“that is not great”).[2]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Strachan’s interpretation) [n͈ax ˈβ̃oːr], (DIL’s interpretation) [n͈ax ˈmoːr]

Phrase

nach mór

  1. (chiefly in the negative) very little, hardly at all, almost no/none
  2. (chiefly in the positive) almost

Quotations

  • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 65d16
    air ní tárbas a chumachtae hi suidiu nach mór
    for his power was hardly shown in this case

References

  1. ^ Strachan, John (1949) Osborn Bergin, editor, Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses, fourth edition, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, →ISBN, page 158
  2. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “mór, már”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
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