Foclóir
Irish Words
Every Irish word on the site, with a guide to saying it. The respellings are rough English approximations; the IPA comes from Wiktionary where it gives one.
- An Chraobh Airgid
- The Silver Branch: the token of the Otherworld, and the name of this site.
- Say it: un khreev AR-ig-id
craobh: Munster /kɾˠeːvˠ/ · Ulster /kɾˠiːw/ - An té nach bhfuil láidir, ní foláir dó a bheith glic
- Whoever is not strong must be clever. A proverb.
- aos sí
- The people of the mounds: the fairy folk, the Good People.
- Say it: ees shee
- bachlach
- A churl: a rough, uncouth fellow.
- Bealtaine
- May; the festival of 1 May, the start of summer.
- Say it: BYAL-tin-uh
Munster /ˈbʲɑul̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə/ · Ulster /ˈbʲaːl̪ˠt̪ˠənʲə/ - bradán feasa
- The salmon of knowledge. Feasa is the genitive of fios, “knowledge”.
- Say it: BRAD-awn FAS-uh
feasa /ˈfʲasˠə/ - bruíon
- A hostel: in the old tales, a great house where every traveller was fed and lodged, often with a road running through it. Whitley Stokes translates bruiden as “hostel”. In modern Irish a bruíon is more often a fight or a quarrel, and the word lives on in place-names such as Bóthar na Bruíne, Bohernabreena, where tradition puts Da Derga’s Hostel.
- cailleach
- An old woman; a hag. It comes from Old Irish caillech, “veiled one”, from caille, a veil, which was borrowed early from Latin pallium, a woollen cloak.
- caoineadh
- Keening: the lament cried aloud for the dead. In English it became the keen. W. B. Yeats, who wrote it caoine, called it “the funeral cry of the peasantry”, said to be an imitation of the cry of the bean sí. In the Second Battle of Mag Tuired, when Bríg, the Dagda’s daughter, keened for her son Rúadán, crying and shrieking were heard in Ireland for the first time.
- Say it: KEEN-yuh
- caorthann
- The rowan or mountain ash: the quicken tree of the old translations.
- cláirseach
- A harp.
- Say it: KLAWR-shukh
Connacht, Munster /ˈklˠɑːɾˠʃəx/ - cloch
- A stone. Cloch oghaim is an ogham stone.
- Say it: klukh
Munster /kl̪ˠɔx/ - cnó coill
- A hazelnut.
- cois tine
- By the fire; at the fireside.
- Say it: kush TIN-yuh
tine /ˈtʲinʲə/ - cónocht
- An equinox.
- Say it: KOH-nukht
- corrbolg
- The Crane Bag: from corr, “crane”, and bolg, “bag”.
- cú
- A hound. Cú Chulainn is “the hound of Culann”.
- cúige
- A province. The Old Irish cóiced meant “a fifth”: Ireland was five fifths, meeting at Uisneach.
- Say it: KOO-gyuh
Connacht, Munster /ˈkuːɟə/ - curach
- A boat of hides stretched over a wooden frame; in English, a currach. Canvas is more usual now. Kuno Meyer translated the word as “coracle”.
- curadmír
- The champion’s portion: the choicest cut at a feast, given to the bravest warrior there. From curad, “of a champion”, and mír, “a portion”. The modern spelling is curadhmhír.
- dinnseanchas
- The lore of places: why each place is called what it is.
- draíocht
- Magic, enchantment; druidry.
- Say it: DREE-ukht
/d̪ˠɾˠiəxt̪ˠ/ - draoi
- A druid; a wizard.
- Say it: dree
/d̪ˠɾˠiː/ - eachtra
- An adventure. In the old tales an echtra is a journey into the Otherworld, under a hill or over the sea, and the name of a kind of tale: Echtra Nerai, the Adventure of Nera, and Echtrae Chonnlai, the Adventure of Connla. It is told apart from the immram, the voyage from island to island. Modern Irish eachtra is any adventure, or the story of one.
- eala
- A swan.
- Say it: AL-uh
/ˈal̪ˠə/ - éiric
- A blood-price: the fine paid to a dead man’s kin by those who killed him. Old Irish éraic; older English books spell it eric.
- Emain Ablach
- Emain of the Apple Trees: the island of Manannán, and one of the names of the Otherworld. It has been identified with the Isle of Man. In the Voyage of Bran it is simply Emain or Emne, and the silver branch is a branch of its apple tree.
- eolchaire
- Longing; homesickness. Kuno Meyer thought it first meant a longing for home. In The Voyage of Bran it is the homesickness that takes Nechtan back to Ireland; in The Adventure of Connla, the longing that takes hold of Connla for the woman he has seen.
- fáilte
- Welcome.
- Say it: FAWL-chuh
/ˈfˠɑːlʲtʲə/ - Fianna
- Fionn’s roving bands of warrior-hunters.
- Say it: FEE-uh-nuh
/ˈfʲiən̪ˠə/ - ficheall
- Chess. In the old tales it is fidchell, a board game of kings and heroes, played by two with pieces on a board; its rules are lost. The name seems to mean “wood-wisdom”.
- fionnghal
- Kin-slaying: the killing of one’s own relative. Old Irish fingal; P. W. Joyce spells it fionghal.
- foclóir
- A dictionary; a word-list.
- Say it: FUK-lohr
Connacht /ˈfˠɔklˠoːɾʲ/ - geantraí
- Music of joy; the smile-strain. From gean, “affection”.
- Say it: GYAN-tree
- geis
- A sacred bond or taboo laid on a person. Breaking your geasa brings ruin.
- Say it: gesh, plural GAS-uh
/ɟeʃ/, /ˈɟasˠə/ - goltraí
- Music of sorrow; the wail-strain. From gol, “weeping”.
- Say it: GOL-tree
- grianán
- A sunny chamber; a bower. From grian, “the sun”.
- grianstad
- A solstice; literally “sun-stop”.
- Say it: GREE-un-stad
- Imbolc
- The festival of 1 February, the start of spring. The modern day is Lá Fhéile Bríde.
- Say it: IM-bulk
- iomramh
- Rowing; a voyage. In the old literature an immram, plural immrama, is a voyage tale, a rowing about among the islands of the ocean, such as Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin, the Voyage of Máel Dúin’s Boat. Kuno Meyer explained it as a voyage made by choice, unlike longes, a voyage of exile.
- lear
- The sea. Old Irish ler, genitive lir: so Manannán mac Lir is “son of the sea”, and the Children of Lir are Clann Lir.
- Say it: lar
/l̠ʲaɾˠ/ - léarscáil
- A map.
- Say it: LAYR-skawl
/ˈlʲeːɾˠsˠkaːlʲ/ - lios
- A ring-fort: the round earthen bank that ringed a farmstead in early Ireland, and in later lore a fairy fort, where the Good People meet. It is the Lis- of many place-names, such as Lismore and Listowel. The people who talked to Lady Gregory in the west called it a liss, or a forth.
- Say it: liss
- Lúnasa
- August; the harvest festival of 1 August, Lughnasadh.
- Say it: LOO-nuh-suh
/ˈl̪ˠuːn̪ˠəsˠə/ - Mag Mell
- The Plain of Delight: one of the names of the Otherworld. Where Bran sees only the sea, Manannán drives his chariot across Mag Mell of the many flowers.
- Muicinis
- Pig Island: an old name for Ireland. Keating says the druids of the Tuatha Dé made the island look like a hog’s back to the sons of Míl, and that is how it got the name.
- na cúig chúige
- The five fifths: Ulaid, Connachta, Laigin, Mumu and Mide. People also say na cúig cúigí.
- noínden
- The debility of the Ulstermen: the weakness of a woman in childbirth that Macha laid on the men of Ulster, five days and four nights in their time of need. It is the Old Irish word in the tale’s name, Noínden Ulad.
- ogham
- The earliest Irish writing, cut as notches along the edge of a stone.
- Say it: ohm
/oːmˠ/ - Oíche Shamhna
- Halloween: Samhain night.
- Say it: EE-huh HOW-nuh
Ulster /ˌĩː ˈhãunˠə/ - ríastrad
- Distortion: the battle-fury in which Cú Chulainn’s body twisted out of all shape. Faraday’s translation calls it “contortion”.
- Samhain
- November; the festival of 1 November, and Samhain night before it.
- Say it: SOW-in
Connacht /sˠaunʲ/ · Munster /sˠɑ̃u(ə)nʲ/ - sceach
- A thorn bush; a briar. The hawthorn is sceach gheal, “the white thorn”.
- scéal
- A story; news.
- Say it: shkayl, plural SHKAYL-tuh
/ʃceːlˠ/, /ˈʃceːlˠt̪ˠə/ - seanchaí
- A traditional storyteller; a keeper of lore.
- Say it: SHAN-uh-khee
- seanchas
- Traditional lore, history and storytelling.
- Say it: SHAN-ukh-us
/ˈʃan̪ˠəxəsˠ/ - seanfhocal
- A proverb; literally “old word”.
- Say it: SHAN-uk-ul
/ˈʃanˠɔkəl̪ˠ/ - sí
- A fairy mound; the hollow hill where the old gods live. The older spelling is sídhe.
- Say it: shee
/ʃiː/ - suantraí
- A lullaby; the sleep-strain. From suan, “sleep”.
- Say it: SOO-un-tree
- táin bó
- A driving-off of cattle; a cattle-raid. Joseph Dunn explains that táin meant “a driving,” or “a reaving,” or even “a drove” or “herd” of cattle, and calls Táin Bó Cúalnge “The Cualnge Cattle-raid”.
- timpán
- A small stringed instrument of early Ireland, with only a few strings.
- Tír na mBan
- The Land of Women: the Otherworld island where Bran and his men stayed for a year that was many years.
- Tír na mBeo
- The Land of the Living: one of the names of the Otherworld. P. W. Joyce listed it with Tír na nÓg and Mag Mell among the names of the land where people never grow old. The woman who came for Connla said she came from the lands of the living (in the Irish of Lebor na hUidre, a tírib beó), where there is no death, no sin and no wrongdoing.
- Tír na nÓg
- The Land of the Young: one of the names of the Otherworld.
- Say it: teer nuh NOHG
/ˌtʲiːɾˠ n̪ˠə ˈn̪ˠoːɡ/ - Tír Tairngire
- The Land of Promise: one of the names of the Otherworld, and the kingdom of Manannán mac Lir. In modern Irish, tír tairngire is any promised land.
- tobar
- A well; a spring.
- Say it: TUB-ur
/ˈt̪ˠɔbˠəɾˠ/