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Tag Archives: Celtic

The Irish for Halloween and for November: Using Samhain, Samhna, Shamhna, srl. Posted by on Oct 31, 2018

(le Róislín) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain#/media/File:Snap-Apple_Night_globalphilosophy.PNG, Snap-Apple Night (1833), On the Festival of Hallow Eve, public domain, by Daniel Maclise, RA (25 Jan 1806, Cork–25 Apr 1870, Chelsea), inspired by a party he attended in Blarney, in 1832. Includes divination games with melted lead and roasted nuts. Lipéad Gaeilge le Róislín, 2018. Our Halloween topics in this blog series have…

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Which Celtic Language Has 5 Words for ‘Hamster’ (Leid: Ní hí an Ghaeilge í!)? Posted by on Jan 28, 2016

(le Róislín) Bhuel, as the title of this blog post suggests, Irish isn’t the Celtic language that has five words for ‘hamster.’   Or as “an leid” in the title said, “Ní hí an Ghaeilge í.” In fact, we can take care of the Irish word for ‘hamster’ quite tidily: hamstar, a hamster.  Note that the…

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How to say ‘Ebola,’ ‘Ebola Virus,’ and ‘Ebola Virus Disease’ in Irish Posted by on Oct 10, 2014

(le Róislín) Not surprisingly, the word “Ebola” got an impressive 22,700,000 hits (22,700,000 amas), in my recent Google search.   How many of those hits might be Irish-language resources? Since “Ebola,” as such, is exactly the same in Irish (Ebola), it’s not easy to search for results that are specifically in Irish. In fact, for many…

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The Irish word for ‘October’ and other words related to ‘fómhar’ and ‘fómhair’ Posted by on Oct 6, 2014

(le Róislín) In some previous blogs (naisc thíos), we’ve looked at the names of the months (míonna) and seasons (séasúir) in Irish, including a discussion specifically of “September” and “October.” So let’s try a little mixing and matching for review of “September,” “October,” and the Fall or Autumn season. Given the word “fómhar” and its…

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Cé mhéad “Shades of Gray” (Grey … Liath … Léith … de Grae, srl.)? Posted by on Jul 22, 2014

(le Róislín) I was recently reminded of a rather infamous episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled “Shades of Gray.”  B’fhéidir gur cuimhin leat é. That got me thinking of other uses of the phrase, “Shades of Gray (Grey),” even aside from the current tie-in by E. L. James.  I’ve been pondering how to…

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New Year’s – Celtic Style (1 Mí na Samhna in ionad 1 Eanáir) Posted by on Oct 31, 2012

(le Róislín) While January 1 is widely considered to be “New Year’s Day” in many parts of the world, including Ireland, there is/was a Celtic concept of the New Year that placed the holiday much earlier in the winter season, specifically on November 1. I say “is/was” quite deliberately.  Considering “an t-aonú lá de mhí…

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Na Ceithre Shéasúr (The Four Seasons, in Gaeilge) Posted by on Sep 30, 2012

(le Róislín) Before completely leaving an féilire, the subject of the last four blogs, let’s take a look at the Irish words for the four seasons.  In addition, we’ll look at the adjectives pertaining to winter, spring, summer, and autumn/fall, both in their classy Latinate versions, like “(a)estival,” and in the more everyday tone, like…

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