{"id":4597,"date":"2013-11-15T20:06:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T20:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=4597"},"modified":"2016-04-04T18:25:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T18:25:04","slug":"an-sloinne-o-cinneide-the-surname-kennedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/an-sloinne-o-cinneide-the-surname-kennedy\/","title":{"rendered":"An Sloinne ‘\u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide’ (The Surname ‘Kennedy’)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the past, at this time of year, it’s been hard to come up for air between writing about O\u00edche Shamhna<\/strong> and then L\u00e1 Altaithe<\/strong>, with An Nollaig<\/strong> looming large just around the corner.\u00a0 But this year, marking the sad 50th anniversary of “feallmhar\u00fa Kennedy<\/strong>,” we’ll take a breather from the holiday themes and address this still heart-rending topic.<\/p>\n

This blog will just look at the name “Kennedy.”\u00a0 In an upcoming blog, we’ll look more at the man himself and his Irish roots and legacy.<\/p>\n

You may well have seen the Irish version of the surname, “\u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>,” with “N\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>” and “(Bean) U\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>” for women.\u00a0 The specific translations are “(male) descendant of Kennedy” for the”\u00d3<\/strong>” version, “daughter of Kennedy” (for the “N\u00ed<\/strong>” version), and “(wife) of Kennedy (for the “U\u00ed<\/strong>” version).<\/p>\n

Pronunciation tips: \u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong> [oh\u00a0 kin-AYDJ-uh], N\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide<\/strong> [nee hyin-AYDJ-uh] and (Bean) U\u00ed Chinn\u00e9ide<\/strong> [(ban) ee hyin-AYDJ-uh].\u00a0 That “hy” indication is like the “h” in “Hugh” or “Huw” (or for that matter “hew” or “hue”), not a full-fledged “hy-” like “hybrid.”\u00a0 It’s the same “-ch-” sound that you find in Irish phrases like “O\u00edche mhaith<\/strong>!” (Good night!) or “O\u00edche Chi\u00fain<\/strong>” (“Silent Night,” an car\u00fal Nollag<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

And why do we have the spelling with “K” in English and “C” in Irish?\u00a0 Remember, the letter “k” is practically non-existent in Irish.\u00a0 Irish names that start with “K” in their anglicized spellings usually start with “C” in the actual Irish.\u00a0 Other examples include “Kavanagh” (Caomh\u00e1nach<\/strong> in Irish) and O’Keeffe (\u00d3 Caoimh<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

As for the meaning of “\u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>,” it is often translated as “helmet-head,” or sometimes “ugly-head” (!).\u00a0 Not that any part of the word actually means “ugly” as such.\u00a0 That’s usually “gr\u00e1nna<\/strong>” in Irish.\u00a0 Not “Gr\u00e1inne<\/strong>” [GRAWN-yuh], by the way, but “gr\u00e1nna<\/strong>” [GRAW-nuh].\u00a0 The implication seems to be that if your head looks like a helmet, it’s, well, unattractive.\u00a0 Curious, considering the classic good looks of the Boston Kennedy clan!<\/p>\n

The word “Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>” breaks apart into two components: ceann<\/strong> (head) and \u00e9ide, <\/strong>which\u00a0<\/strong>historically meant “armor” but these days mostly means “uniform” (\u00e9ide garda<\/strong>), sometimes “vestments” (\u00e9ide sagairt<\/strong>), “robes” (\u00e9ide baiste<\/strong>), and sometimes clothes or garment in general, although that would usually be “\u00e9ada\u00ed<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Note that “\u00e9ide<\/strong>” isn’t even the usual Irish word for helmet; that would be “cafarr<\/strong>” or “clogad<\/strong>.”\u00a0 But, then, explanations of surnames don’t always follow dictionary logic!\u00a0 Given the historical meaning of “armor,” we could probably interpret “Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>” as “armor-head,” although I don’t recall ever seeing that translation in print.<\/p>\n

And why has “ceann<\/strong>” changed to “cinn<\/strong>” for this compound word?\u00a0 It’s a matter of vowel harmony.\u00a0 Since “\u00e9ide<\/strong>” begins with a slender vowel (“e”), the prefix must “agree” (or “harmonize”) and also have a slender vowel (“e” or “i”) as the final vowel.\u00a0 Since the combination “-enn” would be very unlikely in Irish, given the nuances of the spelling system, the word “ceann<\/strong>” changes to “cinn<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In fact, “ceann<\/strong>” changes to “cinn<\/strong>” in various other situations as well.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

tinneas cinn<\/strong>, headache ( lit. “ache of head”), using the genitive case<\/p>\n

ag dul chun cinn<\/strong>, progressing or advancing (lit. going toward head), again using the genitive case<\/p>\n

i ndiaidh do chinn<\/strong>, head foremost (lit. in the path\/wake\/trail of your head), also genitive<\/p>\n

and there’s the plural:<\/p>\n

na cinn<\/strong>, the heads<\/p>\n

cinn an h\u00edodra<\/strong>, the heads of the hydra (remember, the hydra is “seachtcheannach<\/strong>,” seven-headed)<\/p>\n

Well, that’s just scratching the surface concerning the Kennedys, the name “\u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide<\/strong>,” and “an feallmhar\u00fa<\/strong>” in 1963.\u00a0 Next blog we’ll look a little more at “an fear \u00e9 f\u00e9in<\/strong>” (the man himself).\u00a0 SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) In the past, at this time of year, it’s been hard to come up for air between writing about O\u00edche Shamhna and then L\u00e1 Altaithe, with An Nollaig looming large just around the corner.\u00a0 But this year, marking the sad 50th anniversary of “feallmhar\u00fa Kennedy,” we’ll take a breather from the holiday themes…<\/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":[411374,304755,444740,441491,444345,4598,442057,441813,4911,111765,443257,8161,441350,442277,442453,191205,444071,5784,444458,440930,305803,441234,442603,442982,384368,443525,443816],"class_list":["post-4597","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-armor","tag-assassination","tag-bean-ui-chinneide","tag-cafarr","tag-caomhanach","tag-ceann","tag-cinn","tag-clogad","tag-daughter","tag-eide","tag-feallmharu","tag-head","tag-helmet","tag-hiodra","tag-hydra","tag-jfk","tag-kavanagh","tag-kennedy","tag-ni-chinneide","tag-o-caoimh","tag-o-cinneide","tag-okeeffe","tag-seachtcheannach","tag-seven-headed","tag-ugly","tag-ui-chinneide","tag-wife"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4597","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=4597"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7810,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4597\/revisions\/7810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}