feithid

Irish

Alternative forms

• aithid, athaid, eathaid, feachaid, feathaid, feithide

Etymology

From Middle Irish ethait, from Old Irish ethait (“winged creature”). The initial f- is prothetic and unetymological.

Noun

feithid f (genitive singular feithide, nominative plural feithidí)

1. insect, bug (any small arthropod)
2. insect (contemptible or powerless person)
3. winged creature
4. serpent, adder
5. beast

Usage notes

• In the contemporary language, the term generally refers to any small arthropod, but especially in the older language it can be found referring to other animals considered unpleasant (such as snakes), or winged animals (such as birds), or in some cases almost any animal at all (including cows). “Winged animal” may be the oldest meaning if it comes from the root of Proto-Celtic *ɸeteti (“to fly”), in which case it is related to éan (“bird”) and eite (“wing”).

Declension

Declension of feithid (second declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative feithid feithidí vocative a fheithid a fheithidí genitive feithide feithidí dative feithid feithidí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an fheithid na feithidí genitive na feithide na bhfeithidí dative leis an bhfeithid don fheithid leis na feithidí

Derived terms

• feithideolaí
• feithideolaíoch
• feithideolaíocht
• feithidicíd, feithidnimh (“insecticide”)
• feithiditeach (“insectivorous”)
• feithiditeoir (“insectivore”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of feithid

radical	lenition	eclipsis
feithid	fheithid	bhfeithid

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

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927), “feaṫaid”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla [Irish and English Dictionary], 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 440; reprinted with additions 1996, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “feithid”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “feithid”, in Foclóir Nua Gaeilge (in Irish), Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “feithid”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *weteti, from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“to turn to, be acquainted with”). Cognate with Proto-Indo-Iranian *wátati (“to be familiar with”).

Verb

feithid (conjunct ·fethi, verbal noun fethem)

1. to watch
   • c. 700 Immram Brain, published in The Voyage of Bran son of Febal to the land of the living (1895, London: David Nutt), pp. 1-35, edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt, stanza 49

     In delb é no·fethi-su…

     This shape, he on whom thou lookest…

Inflection

Simple, class A II present, s preterite

		active						passive
		singular			plural			singular	plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present indicative	abs.
	conj.		·fethi
	rel.
imperfect indicative				·feithed
preterite	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
perfect	deut.		ron·fethis
	prot.
future	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
conditional
present subjunctive	abs.
	conj.
	rel.
past subjunctive
imperative
verbal noun		fethem
past participle
verbal of necessity

Derived terms

• ar·feith

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 fethid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language