cleasach

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish clesach. By surface analysis, cleas (“trick; feat; knack; act”) +‎ -ach (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠəx/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠa(x)/

Adjective

cleasach (genitive singular masculine cleasaigh, genitive singular feminine cleasaí, plural cleasacha, comparative cleasaí)

1. playful
2. tricky, crafty

Declension

Declension of cleasach

	Singular		Plural (m/f)
Positive	Masculine	Feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
Nominative	cleasach	chleasach	cleasacha; chleasacha²
Vocative	chleasaigh		cleasacha
Genitive		cleasaí	cleasacha	cleasach
Dative	cleasach; chleasach¹	chleasach; chleasaigh (archaic)	cleasacha; chleasacha²
Comparative	níos cleasaí
Superlative	is cleasaí

¹ When the preceding noun is lenited and governed by the definite article.
² When the preceding noun ends in a slender consonant.

Related terms

• cleasaí m (“playful person or animal; trickster, crafty person; juggler; acrobat; joker”)
• cleasaíocht f (“(act of) playing, tricking; playfulness, trickery; (act of) juggling; dexterous feats, acrobatics”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cleasach	chleasach	gcleasach
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cleasach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “clesach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language