ait

See also: aitt, AIT, áit, áitt, -ait, and -áit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eɪt/
• Rhymes: -eɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English eyt, eit, from Old English īġeoþ, īgoþ, iggaþ, iggoþ (“ait, eyot, islet, small island”), diminutive of īġ, ēġ, īeġ (“island”). More at eyot.

Alternative forms

• eight
• eyet
• eyot

Noun

ait (plural aits)

1. An island in a river, especially the River Thames in England.
   • 1649, R. Hodges, unknown title:

     The ait where the osiers grew.

   • 1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 148:

     ‘[H]e the said seigneur, in quality of Lord Paramount, is to all intents and purposes invested with the sole right and property of the river running through his fief, together with […] all the islands and aits within it.’

   • 1833, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Autobiography: Truth and Fiction Relating to My Life trans. John Oxenford, book 9,

     Striking richness of vegetation which follows in the windings of the Rhine, marks its banks, islands, and aits.

   • 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:

     Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows.

Synonyms

• eyot

Etymology 2

From Scots ait, ate, from Middle English ate, from Old English āte. More at oat.

Noun

ait (plural aits)

1. (Scotland) An oat.
   • 1785, Robbie Burns, Scotch Drink:

     Let husky wheat the haughs adorn,
     An' aits set up their awnie horn,

Anagrams

• IAT, ITA, TAI, TIA, Tai, Tia, ita, tai, tia

Estonian

A farm granary in Ruhnu, Estonia.

Etymology

PIE word *h₂eǵ-

Inherited from Proto-Finnic *aitta (“storehouse”), probably from *ajadak (“to go (in a vehicle); to drive”) (with the suffix *-tta), from Proto-Finno-Ugric *aja- (“to drive; to hunt, chase”), borrowed from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Háȷ́ati (“to drive, lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti (“to be driving”), from *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”).

Cognate with Finnish aitta, Ingrian aitta, Livonian āita, Ludian ait and Võro ait.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑi̯t/, [ˈɑi̯tˑ]

• Rhymes: -ɑit
• Hyphenation: ait

Noun

ait (genitive aida, partitive aita)

1. a barn, granary, warehouse, storehouse (building for storing food and other supplies, in a farm household)

   vanaisa talust on alles ait, kelder, saun ning maakivist laudamüürid

   the barn, cellar, sauna and earthen stone board walls remain from my grandfather's farm

Declension

Declension of ait (ÕS type 22u/leib, t-d gradation)

	singular	plural
nominative	ait	aidad
accusative	aida	aidad
genitive	aida	aitade
partitive	aita	aitu aitasid
illative	aita aidasse	aitadesse aidusse
inessive	aidas	aitades aidus
elative	aidast	aitadest aidust
allative	aidale	aitadele aidule
adessive	aidal	aitadel aidul
ablative	aidalt	aitadelt aidult
translative	aidaks	aitadeks aiduks
terminative	aidani	aitadeni
essive	aidana	aitadena
abessive	aidata	aitadeta
comitative	aidaga	aitadega
Notes	1) The long illative singular form with -sse is rarely used for this declension type.

References

• ait in Sõnaveeb
• ait in Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat
• ait in Raadik, M., editor (2018), Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018, Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus, →ISBN

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ

Verb

ait

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of avoir

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /atʲ/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish aitt (“pleasant, agreeable; strange, unusual”, adjective).

Adjective

ait (genitive singular masculine ait, genitive singular feminine aite, plural aite, comparative aite)

1. pleasant, likeable
2. fine, excellent
3. comical; queer

Declension

Declension of ait

	Singular		Plural (m/f)
Positive	Masculine	Feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
Nominative	ait	ait	aite
Vocative	ait		aite
Genitive		aite	aite	ait
Dative	ait	ait	aite
Comparative	níos aite
Superlative	is aite

Derived terms

• aiteach
• aiteacht
• is ait le

 

Etymology 2

Noun

ait m

1. genitive singular of at

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
ait	n-ait	hait	not applicable
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “ait”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “aitt”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 67

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.it/, [ˈäɪt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈa.it/, [ˈäːit̪]

An unambiguous poetic attestation of the two short vowels, in dactylic hexameter:

‘Quid mē / lūdis?’, a/it, ‘Quis / tē, male / sāne, iu/bēbat...? (Ovid, Amores 3.7.77)

Verb

ait

1. third-person singular present/perfect active indicative of aiō

References

• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) as Homer sings (not canit): ut ait Homerus
    
  • (ambiguous) as Cicero says: ut ait Cicero (always in this order)
    

Old French

Alternative forms

• aït (scholarly convention)

Verb

ait

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of aidier

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English eten, from Old English etan, from Proto-West Germanic *etan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /et/, /ɛt/

Verb

ait (third-person singular simple present aits, present participle aitin', simple past ?, past participle ?)

1. to eat

References

• “ait, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Etymology 2

From Middle English ete, ate, æte, from Old English ǣt (“food, eating”), from Proto-West Germanic *āt.

Noun

ait (plural aits)

1. meal; food

References

• “ait, n¹” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Etymology 3

From Middle English ote, from Old English āte.

Alternative forms

• aet, ate, yit

Noun

ait (plural aits)

1. oat

Derived terms

• aiten

References

• “ait, n²” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Etymology 4

Compare Norwegian ætt.

Noun

ait (plural aits)

1. (obsolete) custom, habit

References

• “ait, n³” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Turkish

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish عائد‎, عاید‎ (aid, ait), from Arabic عَائِد‎ (ʕāʔid). Compare Azerbaijani aid.

Adjective

ait

1. concerning, relating (to)

References

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “ait”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ai̯t/

Verb

ait

1. (literary) second-person singular imperfect indicative/conditional of mynd

Synonyms

• aet (colloquial)
• elet (colloquial)

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	h-prothesis
ait	unchanged	unchanged	hait
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.