préchán

Middle Irish

Alternative forms

  • prechan, précháin, preachán, preachán, préachán

Etymology

MacBain sees a connection between the Scottish Gaelic words preachan “crow, etc.” and preachan “mean/bad orator”, but the Middle Irish words have different vowel length: préchán vs. prechoin “a public crier”. MacBain gives Latin praeco (crier, auctioneer) as the derivation for the “orator” word.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpʲrʲeːxaːn/

Noun

préchán m (genitive précháin, nominative plural précháin)

  1. bird of prey

Descendants

  • Irish: préachán (crow)

Mutation

Mutation of préchán
radical lenition nasalization
préchán phréchán
or unchanged
préchán
pronounced with /b(ʲ)-/

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

References

  1. ^ MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “preachan”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language[1], Stirling, →ISBN, pages 281–282
  2. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “préchán”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  3. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “prechoin”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language