Talk:ó dheas

Etymology of ó in this context.

As a preposition (for example), ó means "from, away". Why does the sense change to "towards" in this context? Marcas.oduinn (talk) 07:18, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

@Marcas.oduinn: it continues Old Irish fa dess, fo dess (see GOI §483) which seems to be fo (“under, towards”) (modern faoi) + dess – so historically nothing to do with ó (“from”). In later manuscripts also forms with voicing can be found (eg. bodess is bothuaid in Acallam na Senórach – as if in later spelling *bho dheas is bho thuaidh). In later times the initial f- was lost and hence the modern form and spelling.

Note that GOI also notes forms sa-dess and sa-thúaid, but those might be later forms influenced by the prefix s- of the likes of síar, síos, súas, etc. (whatever’s its origin). See David Stifter’s responses in this twitter thread // Silmeth ^@talk 15:47, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

@Silmethule: That's excellent, thank you. Marcas.oduinn (talk) 18:28, 2 January 2022 (UTC)