Revue celtique - National Library of Scotland

ETYMOLOGICAL SCRAPS.
1. In a passage in the /Irc/z. Cambrensis ior 1873, p. 11, Mr. Stoké
hints that Welsh îruch, now written tmch, may be formally equated witl
lat. îrunc-us. This woulJ imply that the rule familiar to us in Irish
reducing ne and nt inîo ce and tt has hère obtained in Welsh also, i
being of course understood that Welsh further changes ee, tt, pp int(
eh, th, ph (f) respectively. Hâve we any other instances ? I think. W(
bave, and venture to suggest the following words as being in point :
2. Crych, « crisped, curly, » said of hair which forms itself int(
curls or ringlets : this last word points the enquiry to ring, A.-Sax. hrin^,
which Fick finds referred to kragh, « umgeben, umguerten, ;> to whicl
he justly prefers krak or kragk. Thus eryeh would probably represen
an adjective of the form 'erane-ja or "cranc-i.
3. Buchedd, « life, biograpby, « is to be divided buch-edd, with th(
-edd commonly affixed to nouns or adjectives to form collective 01
abstract nouns; but what arewe to make oibueh ? I am inclined to thinl
that it stands for "bîmnc {"bîvaee-, *bîàcc-, bneh-) from Fick's gîvaka
whence he dérives Skr jîvaka. Lat. vivax, \À\h.gyvoka-s, «living, lively.'
Instances of à for va occur in hùn, « a sleep, » for svapna and in haul
« sun, » from Fick's saval. Buchydd also occurs.
4. Aelifen, « the groin, » 0. Welsh achmonou, « inguina » are cornpounded
of "mon which occurs in munnguedou, « exta, » in the Capelh
Glosses, and of *aeh from Fich's anra, whence skr. anka, « Bug, seite
schooss, » lat. ancus and uneus, rather than from the same origin a;
latin inguen. With aeh in achmonou^ the ordinary Welsh word aeh, asir
hyd y nawfed aeh, « to the ninth génération^ » must be identical 01
nearly related.
5. Baeh, «little.small, ))0, Irish becc and bec, Mod. Ir. beag, I regardas