curca

See also: Curca, curcà, curcă, and Curcă

Irish

Etymology

Perhaps from currachd (“night-cap, hood”), from Middle Irish curracach, which according to Stokes is related to Middle Welsh pyrchwyn (“crest of a helmet”). However, the latter is considered by GPC to be an erroneous variant of Bwrgwyn (“Burgundy”), making this connection less likely. MacBain instead compares Scots curch, courchie, English kerchief, all from Old French cuevrechief, from couvrir (“to cover”) + chief (“head”).^[1]

Noun

curca m (genitive singular curca, nominative plural curcaí)

(of a bird) crest, tuft
(of hair) topknot
cockade

Declension

Declension of curca (fourth declension)

bare forms
	singular	plural
nominative	curca	curcaí
vocative	a churca	a churcaí
genitive	curca	curcaí
dative	curca	curcaí

forms with the definite article
	singular	plural
nominative	an curca	na curcaí
genitive	an churca	na gcurcaí
dative	leis an gcurca don churca	leis na curcaí

Derived terms

curcach (“crested”, adjective)
cuircín

Mutation

Mutated forms of *curca*
radical	lenition	eclipsis
curca	churca	gcurca

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

^ MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911), “currachd”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN