beagan

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See also: beagán

Scottish Gaelic

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Etymology

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From Old Irish becán m (a little, small quantity) (compare Irish beagán, Manx beggan). By surface analysis, beag (small, little) +‎ -an.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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beagan m (genitive singular beagain, no plural)

  1. a few, a small number
    beagan mhionaideana few minutes
    an ceann beagain làitheanat the end of a few days
  2. a little, a small amount, bit, a bit
    beagan uisgea little water
    beagan bìdha bit of food

Usage notes

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  • Followed by the genitive case, de and the dative case, or a prepositional pronoun derived from de:
    beagan ime / beagan de dh'ìma small amount of butter
    beagan dhinna few of us
  • Used where English uses determiner, adverb or pronoun.
    beagan chàirdeana few friends
    beagan dhiubha small number of them
    beagan nas sinea bit older / slightly older
    beagan nas slaodaichea little more slowly
    Tha i dìreach beagan is còig ceud meatair.It’s just a little over five hundred metres.
    Tha airgead aig beagan.A few [people] have money.
    Bha e doirbh airson bheagain.It was difficult for a few.

Antonyms

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References

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  • Edward Dwelly (1911) “beagan”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “becán”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language