Revue celtique - National Library of Scotland

Etymological Scraps. 1
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Sub .... ego :sum), sub cucullulo Mubii.
Mucholmoc me amavit propter intellectum, propter scientiam :
Propterea me amavit, quia est firmum cingulum meum.
Calcutta, Jan. 18. 1875.
ETYMOLOGICAL SCRAPS.
W. S.
Just as H', written u in Old and Mid. Welsh but sounded like English
w, becomes gw (gu) in such words as O. W. pelguar, lat. quatuor, soy,
by which I mean the sound of v in the English word yes (not distin-
guished by theordinary orthography from /), becomes in somes instances
dj: with this compare dj for/ in Greek (Curtius' Gr. des gr. Etym.^ p.
569). In modem Welsh the d regularly becomes dd, while the j very
frequently disappears altogether. This taken for granted, light may be
thrown on the formation of the foilowing words :
1. Cilydd, 'a companion or fellow' is to be equated with 0. Ir. cèle
'socius, maritus' of they'ti declension 'Gr. celt.^ 229).
2. Dydd, 'day' probably represents dij- resembling in its formation the
ilatin dies.
3. Haidd, 'barley', suggests the séries "sasja, 'hahja, "haja, 'liadja,
'hed, heidd, haidd : compare skr. sasya, Zend hahya, 'corn\
i 4. The particle id attached to démonstratives as in « ir gur hurmuid )>
(vif ille) in the Capella Glosses, and in « cant hunno/^i » (apud illum)
and « hïnnoid amser » (id temporis, hac vice) in the (Oxford; Dunstan
Codex, is possibly to be compared with skr. ayam, masc. iyam, fem.,
'this'. Hâve \ve not traces of the same élément, whatever it may be, in
the perplexing prepositionals ynddo, ynddi, ynddynt and others of the
same class?
5. Ardd- in ardd-u, 'to plough' and ardd-wr, 'a ploughman', seems to
represent arj- and strongly reminds one of lith. arj-u, O. Bulg. orj-an,
'I plough'; Goth arj-an 'to plough'. It is needless tosay that Welsh has
also the simpler form of the same root in ar, 'ploughed land', aradr, 'a
plough' and aredig, 'to plough'.
6. Iwerddon, 'Ireland', undoubtedly represents *lverjon or perhaps
'Everjon, as Welsh i not unfrequently supplants an older ê, while, on
the other hand, Mid. Welsh Ewyrdonic, 'Irish', may be a reversion from
'Iwyrdonic. Now Iverjon or Everjon would be an oblique case, probably
the accusative, corresponding to a nominative Iverjo or Everjo identical
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