sceach

sceach

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
Irish sceachbor.
English sceach

    Borrowed from Irish sceach.

    Noun

    sceach (plural sceaches)

    1. A whitethorn, hawthorn or similar bush.
      • 2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album‎[1], performed by Richie Kavanagh:
        I'm in the county Offaly and I'm awfully sorry now. I broke the mirrors of me cab and I'd like to tell you how. With sceachs, boughs and bushes rubbing off me load, I wish the county council would trim along the road.

    Irish

    Alternative forms

    • scéach

    Etymology

    From Old Irish scé (“thornbush, whitethorn”), sometimes declined as an -iā-stem or a dental stem (genitive sciad), but also as a guttural stem, forming the genitive sciach. The dental stem may be original, judging from Welsh ysbyddad (“hawthorn, thornbush”), in which case the ancestor was Proto-Celtic *skʷiyats.[1][2]

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ʃcax/[3]

    Noun

    sceach f (genitive singular sceiche, nominative plural sceacha)

    1. whitethorn, hawthorn
    2. more generally, brier, bramble-bush, thornbush
    3. prickly, quarrelsome, person

    Declension

    Declension of sceach (second declension)
    bare forms
    singular plural
    nominative sceach sceacha
    vocative a sceach a sceacha
    genitive sceiche sceach
    dative sceach
    sceich (archaic, dialectal)     		sceacha
    forms with the definite article
    singular plural
    nominative an sceach na sceacha
    genitive na sceiche na sceach
    dative leis an sceach
    leis an sceich (archaic, dialectal)
    don sceach
    don sceich (archaic, dialectal)     		leis na sceacha

    Synonyms

    • (whitethorn, hawthorn): sceach gheal
    • (whitethorn): uath (literary)
    • (brier): sceach thalún
    • (prickly, quarrelsome, person): sceachaire

    Derived terms

    • sceach i mbéal bearna (“stop-gap”)
    • sceach i scornach (“frog in the throat”)
    • sceachach (“full of hawthorns, of thorn-bushes; briery, brambly”, adjective)
    • sceachóir (“haw”)
    • sceachra (“thorns, brambles”)

    References

    1. ^ R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “ysbyddad”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
    2. ^ Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) [1909], D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, translation of Handbuch des Alt-Irischen (in German), →ISBN, § 320, page 204; reprinted 2017
    3. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906), A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 352, page 121

    Further reading

    • Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “sceach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
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