fíacail

See also: fiacail

Old Irish

Etymology

An ancient etymology derives it from Latin fīgō (“to fix”), the idea being that a tooth is a "mouth fixture"; this explanation is impossible on phonological grounds and extremely unlikely on semantic ones. More recently, MacBain suggests a connection with Middle Irish fec (“spade, tooth, tusk”), assuming that the latter is actually *féc; the two would then both be from Proto-Celtic *wēkkā of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfʲiːa̯kɨlʲ]

Noun

fíacail m or f (genitive fíacla or fíaclu, nominative plural fíaclai)

1. tooth
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 56^d4

     húa détnaig a fíaclae fri alailiu

     by the gnashing of their teeth against each other

Inflection

Unknown gender i-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	fíacail	fíacailL	fíaclaiH
Vocative	fíacail	fíacailL	fíaclaiH
Accusative	fíacailN	fíacailL	fíaclaiH
Genitive	fíacloH, fíaclaH	fíacloH, fíaclaH	fíaclaeN
Dative	fíacailL	fíaclaib	fíaclaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• clárḟíacail (“incisor”)
• fíacail fostóigh (“canine tooth”)

Descendants

• Irish: fiacail
• Manx: feeackle
• Scottish Gaelic: fiacaill

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
fíacail	fhíacail
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.