{"id":214,"date":"2010-05-01T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-01T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=214"},"modified":"2013-05-12T13:28:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T13:28:34","slug":"may-day-mayflies-mayweed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/may-day-mayflies-mayweed\/","title":{"rendered":"May Day, Mayflies, Mayweed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year at this time we discussed the various forms of the Gaelic word for May, \u00a0Bealtaine <\/strong>in Irish, Bealtuinn <\/em>in Scottish Gaelic, and Boaldyn <\/em>in Manx Gaelic.\u00a0 May 1st<\/sup> (L\u00e1 Bealtaine<\/strong>) is traditionally the first day of summer in the Celtic calendar.<\/p>\n

Here are a few other Irish terms containing the word \u201cBealtaine<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

1. cuil Bhealtaine<\/strong>, mayfly.<\/p>\n

2. cuil Bhealtaine fh\u00e1sta<\/strong>, adult mayfly (with \u201cf\u00e1sta<\/strong>\u201d lenited since \u201ccuil<\/strong>\u201d is feminine)<\/p>\n

You might recognize \u201ccuil,<\/strong>\u201d or the variant \u201ccuileog<\/strong>,\u201d as being related to Latin \u201cculex<\/em>\u201d (gnat, mosquito).\u00a0 As for the relationship between \u201ccuileanna<\/strong>\u201d (flies), \u201ccorrmh\u00edolta<\/strong>\u201d (gnats, mosquitoes), and \u201cmuisc\u00edt\u00ed<\/strong>\u201d (mosquitoes), sorry, but I\u2019ll leave that to the feithideolaithe<\/strong> (entomologists).\u00a0 I can only observe, that from a language viewpoint, it\u2019s not uncommon for there to be some blurring in meaning as words travel through time and space.\u00a0 If gnats, flies, and mosquitoes are all annoying flying insects, that\u2019s generally enough of a reason for there to be some linguistic overlap.\u00a0 We can see the connection to Latin \u201cmusca<\/em>\u201d (fly) in the Irish \u201cmuisc\u00edt<\/strong>,\u201d (mosquito, lit. little fly) but not in the Irish for \u201cfly\u201d itself (cuil, cuileog<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

A further caveat, as we translate the word \u201ccuil<\/strong>,\u201d it\u2019s important to remember that there is a difference of US vs. UK English involved here.\u00a0 \u201cGnat\u201d in America refers primarily to small flies, especially biting types like \u201cpunkies\u201d or \u201cno-see-ums\u201d (and there\u2019s a study in etymology!), and in the UK, it primarily refers to mosquitoes.\u00a0\u00a0 From an etymological (not entomological!) viewpoint, a mosquito is simply a \u201csmall fly,\u201d so it makes sense, more or less, for Irish \u201ccuil<\/strong>\u201d (fly) to be related to \u201cculex<\/em>\u201d (gnat, mosquito).<\/p>\n

3. lus Bealtaine mara<\/strong>, sea mayweed.\u00a0 This is one of several types of mayweed but it\u2019s the only one I\u2019ve found that actually contains the word \u201cMay\u201d in Irish.\u00a0 Other types of mayweed that don\u2019t refer to \u201cMay\u201d in Irish are rayless mayweed (aka pineappleweed), scented mayweed, and scentless mayweed.\u00a0 In Irish, these are \u201clus na hiothlainne<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cf\u00edogad\u00e1n cumhra<\/strong>,\u201d and \u201cme\u00e1 drua<\/strong>,\u201d respectively.\u00a0 Interesting that the \u201cMay\u201d element drops out completely and that none of these are based on the usual words for \u201cweed,\u201d which include \u201cfiaile<\/strong>,\u201d \u201cluifearnach<\/strong>,\u201d or \u201clustan<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cLus<\/strong>\u201d normally means \u201cherb\u201d or \u201cplant.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what started out as welcoming in the Celtic summer has ended up mostly as a discussing of insects and weeds!\u00a0 C\u2019est la vie, is d\u00f3cha<\/strong>!\u00a0 In fact, for the lucht garra\u00edod\u00f3ireachta a<\/strong>nd the lucht camp\u00e1la<\/strong>, these are pretty much iconic summer issues.<\/p>\n

Check back next May when there may be something more festive in the blog, like the decorating of the May Bush or Maypole dancing.\u00a0 Meanwhile, c\u00e1 bhfui<\/strong>l mo sm\u00edste cuileog<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

N\u00f3ta\u00ed: Bhealtaine<\/strong> [VAL-tin-yeh] of May, lenited when following a feminine noun, so the \u201cB\u201d changes to \u201cBh\u201d], cumhra<\/strong> [KOOR-uh] fragrant; iothlainn<\/strong> [IH-lahn] haggard, na hiothlainne<\/strong> [nuh HIH-lin-yeh], of the haggard]; sm\u00edste<\/strong> [SMEESH-tcheh] swatter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year at this time we discussed the various forms of the Gaelic word for May, \u00a0Bealtaine in Irish, Bealtuinn in Scottish Gaelic, and Boaldyn in Manx Gaelic.\u00a0 May 1st (L\u00e1 Bealtaine) is traditionally the first day of summer in the Celtic calendar. Here are a few other Irish terms containing the word \u201cBealtaine.\u201d 1…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[286645,286998,3295,286301,286447,287259],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-cuil-bhealtaine","tag-lus-bealtaine-mara","tag-may-day","tag-mayflies","tag-mayweed","tag-smiste-cuileog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}