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Tag Archives: mná

Irish Words ending with ‘-íceach’ and sometimes ‘-ícigh’ or ‘-ící’ – dosaen fada díobh Posted by on Aug 29, 2018

(le Róislín) From “-icí” [IK-ee] to “-ící” [EEK-ee]!  In the last blogpost (nasc thíos) we looked at some Irish words ending in “-icí,” either in their basic structure, like “dicí” or “soinicí”  or in an inflected form, like “picnicí,” “gúsnaicí,” or “ceimicí.”  Today we’ll look at a few Irish words ending in “-íceach,” which in…

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Five More Irish Names for Girls: Lil / Lile, Pt. 3 of ‘Names with a Flower Theme (Bláth / Bláithín / Bláthnaid, Daifne / Dafnae, Lil / Lile, Nóinín, Róisín / Róis / Róise, and, sort of, Mairéad / Maighréad)’ Posted by on May 6, 2016

(le Róislín) Continuing with our series of flower-themed names for girls (naisc thíos), let’s look now at the names “Lil” and “Lile (Líle),”  which may be equated with Lily or Lelia, or which may be pet forms of the names “Elizabeth” and/or “Cecilia.”  That latter derivation is from the late Irish names authority, Patrick Woulfe…

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Five More Irish Names for Girls — Names with a Flower Theme (Bláth / Bláithín / Bláthnaid, Daifne / Dafnae, Lil / Lile, Nóinín, Róisín / Róis / Róise, and, sort of, Mairéad / Maighréad) Posted by on Apr 21, 2016

(le Róislín) OK, so that’s really “trí ainm déag” but five name “families”, so I stuck with using “five” in the title of this blogpost, since it matches the format of the recent other entries in this series (naisc thíos). If anyone has some further suggestions for names based on flowers, I’d love to hear…

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Ten Ways to Say “Bravo” in Irish (using Ceol, Gairm, Beannacht, Fáinne, etc.) Posted by on Feb 18, 2016

(le Róislín) Music lovers at a classical music concert will probably wait politely until the very end to call out “Bravo!” or “Brava!” during the applause.  But in the realm of Irish folk music, short phrases of encouragement are often used during the song or tune, offering encouragement to the performer.  They can all be…

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Men and Christmas, specifically, ‘Fir Shneachta’ and ‘Fir Shinséir’ Posted by on Dec 13, 2015

(le Róislín) OK, so this isn’t really going to be a Men-Are-from-Mars-Women-Are-from-Venus-y exposé of the relationship between men and women around Christmastime.  So we won’t be dealing with “man caves” (*fearuaimheanna, is dócha) or oidhreacht an uaimhigh i sochaí an lae inniu. Instead, we’ll simply look at the Irish words for “snowmen” and “gingerbread men,”…

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‘Bean’ or ‘Ban’ or ‘Mná’ or “mBan’: How to Say ‘Woman’ (Women) in Irish (just in time for Nollaig na mBan on 6 January) Posted by on Jan 5, 2014

(le Róislín) As the final day of “dhá lá dhéag na Nollag” (6 Eanáir), we recognize “Nollaig na mBan.”  Many other sites online offer some commentary on the day’s activities, typically with women taking some time off for a relaxing afternoon tea or evening out.  One interesting article, by actress and playwright Sheila Flitton, is…

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Cé Mhéad Patraisc? Cé Mhéad Drumadóir? (or ’12 Lá na Nollag’ Redux and an Irish Counting Lesson to boot) Posted by on Dec 18, 2013

(le Róislín) In the last blog, we discussed “fearáin” (aka “fearáin bhreaca“) amongst other members of the order Columbiformes (coilm agus colúir, doves and pigeons, etc.).  And we briefly alluded to the fact that the Irish for “turtledove” doesn’t have the element “turtle” (turtar) or “dove” (colm, or sometimes “colúir”  — for more on the…

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