dígbáil

Old Irish

Etymology

From dí- +‎ gabál.

Noun

dígbáil f

1. verbal noun of do·gaib: reduction, diminishing
   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 45^b7

     á Catuláin ⁊ ni·bí digbail folaid and calléic, cia beith ind apélugud.

     O little Catulus; and there is still no diminution of substance here, though there be the caressing.

2. expenditure
3. detriment

Inflection

The genitive singular is attested as dígbála in the St. Gall Priscian glosses; however, this could be simply a spelling mistake instead of indicating i-stem inflection.

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	dígbáilL	—	—
Vocative	dígbáilL	—	—
Accusative	dígbáilN	—	—
Genitive	dígbalaeH	—	—
Dative	dígbáilL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: dígbáil
  • Irish: díobháil
  • Scottish Gaelic: dìobhail
  • Manx: juail

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
dígbáil	dígbáil pronounced with /ð(ʲ)-/	ndígbáil
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “dígbal”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language