(le Róislín)

October, according to its Irish meaning, is the “month of the end of the harvest.”  But the word “deireadh” has several other meanings and many other applications.  Here’s a little sampler, and also a little mix and match, where you’ll need to determine whether to use “deireadh,” (the basic form), dheireadh, ndeireadh, or deiridh.  Aistriúcháin thíos, faoi fhreagraí na gceisteanna eile. 

deireadh seachtaine: Cad a rinne tú ar an deireadh seachtaine?

go deireadh: ó thús go deireadh

faoi dheireadh: Tháinig an litir faoi dheireadh

bulcaid deiridh [I’ll let you mull over your own “sampla” for that one, mar ní mairneálach mé!)

clib dheiridh (téarma ríomhaireachta): Tá an chlib dheiridh ar iarraidh.

dáta deiridh: Cad é an dáta deiridh?

deicín deiridh: I was going to skip over “deic dheiridh,” just because I thought we had enough examples, but I couldn’t resist “deicín deiridh.”  You’ll probably see why from the translation below.

And for good measure, a seanfhocal, mar ní sháraítear iad!

Deireadh gáire gol.  (Note: no verb is needed in this saying).

Agus anois, focail le meaitseáil (freagraí, A, thíos):

1.. cosa __   2..  siar go  __         3.. Mol a __.           4.. i __ a nirt            5.. crann __

a) ndeireadh   b) deiridh          c) dheireadh         d) deiridh        e) deireadh                

By the way, there is a caveat lookalike word: deireadh can also be a verb form, completely unrelated to all of the above.  Barúil agat cé acu briathar?  Leid: Is ceann de na briathra neamhrialta é.  Freagra (B) thíos

Gluais: cé acu, which (lit. which “of them,” but the “of them” part doesn’t really flow with most English translations); gáire, laughter; gol, weeping, lamenting; mairneálach, mariner; neacht, niece; neamhrialta, irregular; neart, strength (nirt, of strength); nia, nephew; seanfhocal, proverb.

Freagraí: 1b) cosa deiridh, hind legs; 2e) siar go deireadh, all the way to the end, lit. “west/back to (the) end; 3c) Mol a dheireadh, praise it (from, according to) its result; 4a) i ndeireadh a nirt, at the end of his/her strength; 5b) crann deiridh, mizzen-mast  

Freagra (B): deireadh, ón mbriathar “abair,” tríú pearsa, uatha, aimsir ghnáthchaite.  Which essentially says it means (he/she/it) “used to say.”  For this verb form, “deir” is the core, and the “-eadh” is the typical ending for something which happened continually in the past. 

Aistriúcháin:

deireadh seachtaine, weekend: What did you do on the weekend?

go deireadh, to (the) end: from beginning to end

faoi dheireadh, finally: The letter finally came.

bulcaid deiridh, afterpeak bulkhead

clib dheiridh, an end tag (in computing); lenited because “clib” (tag, tab) is feminine.  The end tag is missing.  I hope that example satisfies any cláraitheoirí out there – clibeanna deiridh aren’t my usual “ábhar cainte”!

dáta deiridh, closing date: What’s the closing date?

deicín deiridh, monkey poop (small deck on a boat – see how the Irish is so much more straightforward: deic, a deck; deicín, a little deck.  None of that nautical monkey business about jackets and balls (brass) and suchlike.  Well, if those don’t ring familiar, brush up on your Melville or some other 19^th-century sailor-author.  And btw, this isn’t the ‘monkey poop’ celebrated in A. J. Jacobs curious account of reading all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica (The Know-It-All: One’s Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2004).  When he talks about “monkey poop,” with his nianna and neachtanna, no less, he really does mean eiscréid ó mhoncaithe.  And just for the sake of completion, deic dheiridh is the “poop deck” itself.

An seanfhocal: Deireadh gáire gol, laughter brings tears, lit. (the) end of laughter (is) crying.

Well, sin deireadh an bhlag seo.  SGF – Róislín