-rad

See also: rad

Old Irish

Etymology

A conflation of two suffixes which survive separately in Welsh. Thurneysen and De Bernardo Stempel assign feminine animate derivatives to "ride" and non-feminine inanimate derivatives to "run".^[1]

From Proto-Celtic *-retom (“running”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hret-. Cognate with Welsh -red.
From Proto-Celtic *reidom (“ride”) (whence also the simple noun ríad), related to *reideti (“to ride”). Cognate to Welsh -rwydd.

Suffix

-rad f or n

Forms collective nouns from nouns or adjectives.
‎marc (“horse”) + ‎-rad → ‎marcrad (“cavalry”)

‎cnáim (“bone”) + ‎-rad → ‎cnáimred (“bones (collective)”)

Inflection

The suffix is usually feminine when attached to animate bases and neuter if attached to inanimate bases or adjectives.

Feminine ā-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	-rad^L	-raid^L	-rada^H
vocative	-rad^L	-raid^L	-rada^H
accusative	-raid^N	-raid^L	-rada^H
genitive	-raide^H	-rad^L	-rad^N
dative	-raid^L	-radaib	-radaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

^H = triggers aspiration
^L = triggers lenition
^N = triggers nasalization

Neuter o-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	-rad^N	-rad^N	-rad^L, -rada
vocative	-rad^N	-rad^N	-rad^L, -rada
accusative	-rad^N	-rad^N	-rad^L, -rada
genitive	-raid^L	-rad	-rad^N
dative	-rud^L	-radaib	-radaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

^H = triggers aspiration
^L = triggers lenition
^N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

Old Irish terms suffixed with -rad

Descendants

Irish: -ra
Manx: -rey
Scottish Gaelic: -radh

References

^ de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (1999), Nominale Wortbildung des älteren Irischen: Stammbildung und Derivation [Noun Formation in Old Irish: Stem-formation and derivation] (Buchreihe der Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie) (in German), volume 15, Tübingen: Niemeyer, →ISBN, pages 470-474