tuirseach

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish toirsech (“mournful, sorrowful”), from Old Irish toirsech.^[1] By surface analysis, tuirse +‎ -ach. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic tùirseach (“mournful, sorrowful”).

Pronunciation

(Munster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠəɾˠˈʃax/
(Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ˠɔɾˠʃəx/
(Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ˠɨ̞ɾˠsˠa(x)/^[2]

Adjective

tuirseach (genitive singular masculine tuirsigh, genitive singular feminine tuirsí, plural tuirseacha, comparative tuirsí)

tired
Tá mé tuirseach den chaint.
I’m tired of the talk
- “An Mhaighean Mhara” (traditional Irish folksong):
  Tá mise tuirseach agus beidh go lá
  Mo Mháire bhroinngheal ’s mo Phádraig bán
  Ar bharr na dtonna ’s fá bhéal na trá
  Siúd chugaibh Mary Chinidh ’s í ’ndiaidh an Éirne ’shnámh
  I’m tired and will be until day
  My fair-breasted Máire and my blond Pádraig
  On top of the waves and under the beach
  There for you [is] Mary Chinidh having swum in the Erne

Declension

Declension of *tuirseach*
Positive	singular		plural
Positive	masculine	feminine	strong noun	weak noun
nominative	tuirseach	thuirseach	tuirseacha; thuirseacha²
vocative	thuirsigh	thuirseach	tuirseacha
genitive	thuirsigh	tuirsí	tuirseacha	tuirseach
dative	tuirseach; thuirseach¹	thuirseach; thuirsigh (archaic)	tuirseacha; thuirseacha²

Comparative	níos tuirsí
Superlative	is tuirsí

¹ When the preceding noun is lenited and governed by the definite article.
² When the preceding noun ends in a slender consonant.

Derived terms

tuirseach traochta (“worn out, exhausted”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of *tuirseach*
radical	lenition	eclipsis
tuirseach	thuirseach	dtuirseach

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

References

^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “toirsech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 40