cathair

See also: cathaír

English

Etymology

cat +‎ hair

Noun

cathair (plural cathair)

1. The hair of a cat.
   • 1993, Allen Warfield, Al Brooks, Effective Telemarketing: How to Sell Over the Telephone, page 111:

     How can you tell a cat owner? all the little claw marks on their back. . .Or by the cathair that sticks to their suit.

   • 1993, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Wasn't There:

     The conscientious Mrs. Fulgrove was driving away as he pulled into the barnyard, and he waved to her; the woman's scowl indicated that she had worked overtime because of the vast amount of cathair everywhere.

   • 2000, Tamaqua: Volume Seven Issue One, page 75:

     Meditate on the steady drone and the rocking of the back and forth vacuum dance you do as you suck up the cathair, the ashes, the seeds, the stray leaves.

   • 2000, Nimrod International Journal - Volume 44, page 128:

     Cat likes to brush against it and sun on the deck chair, the cushion is a mat of gray cathair.

Anagrams

• Cathari, Chaitra, chirata, cithara

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Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkahɪɾʲ/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /kaːɾʲ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈkahæɾʲ/ (as if spelled catháir)

Etymology 1

From Old Irish cathair, from Proto-Celtic *katrixs (“fortification”).

Noun

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach or caithreach, nominative plural cathracha)

1. city
2. (historical) enclosed church establishment; monastic city
3. (archaeology) circular stone fort, a ringfort
4. dwelling(-place); bed, lair

Declension

Declension of cathair

Fifth declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative cathair cathracha Vocative a chathair a chathracha Genitive cathrach cathracha Dative cathair cathraigh (archaic, dialectal) cathracha

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an chathair na cathracha Genitive na cathrach na gcathracha Dative leis an gcathair leis an gcathraigh (archaic, dialectal) don chathair don chathraigh (archaic, dialectal) leis na cathracha

• Alternative genitive singular: caithreach

Derived terms

• ardchathair (“capital city; metropolis”)
• Cathair Aidriain (“Adrianople”)
• Cathair Alastair (“Alexandria”)
• Cathair an Phápa (“Vatican City”, literally “City of the Pope”)
• cathair ardeaglaise (“cathedral city”)
• cathair bhardais (“municipality”)
• Cathair Chonstaintín (“Constantinople”)
• cathair ghríobháin (“labyrinth, maze”)
• Cathair Mheicsiceo (“Mexico City”)
• Cathair na Mart (“Westport”)
• Cathair Pheadair (“Saint Petersburg”)
• cathair seileán (“swarming-place of bees”)
• Cathair Thoirmiscthe (“Forbidden City”)
• príomhchathair (“capital city”)

 

Etymology 2

Noun

cathair f (genitive singular caithre or caithreach)

1. Alternative form of caithir (“down, pubic hair”)

Declension

Declension of cathair

Second declension

Bare forms (no plural form of this noun) Case Singular Nominative cathair Vocative a chathair Genitive caithre Dative cathair

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Nominative an chathair Genitive na caithre Dative leis an gcathair don chathair

• Alternative genitive singular: caithreach

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cathair	chathair	gcathair
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• "cathair" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cathair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “caṫair” in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 2nd ed., 1927, by Patrick S. Dinneen.
• Entries containing “cathair” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “cathair” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

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Old Irish

Alternative forms

• caithir, cathir

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *katrixs (“fortification”); possibly cognate with Old English hēaþor (“enclosure, prison”) or Serbo-Croatian kȍtar (“administrative unit, province”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaθərʲ/, [ˈkaθɨrʲ]

Noun

cathair f (genitive cathrach, nominative plural cathraig)

1. stone enclosure, fortress, castle; dwelling
2. monastic settlement, enclosure; monastery, convent
   • c. 800, Broccán’s Hymn, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, p. 328, ll. 9–10:

     Nī bo fri óigthea acher   cāinbói fri lobru trúagu:
     for maig arutacht cathir   dollaid rosnāde slúagu.

     She was not harsh to guests: gentle was she to the wretched sick:
     on a plain she built a convent: may it protect hosts into the Kingdom!

3. fortified city, city
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 13^b1:

     (do·adb)adar in taidbsiu hi siu tra do(naib) coic cetaib […] ro·bói isin chaithir isind aimsir sin

     this appearance, then, is manifested to the five hundred […] that was in the city at that time

Declension

Feminine k-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	cathair	cathraigL	cathraig
Vocative	cathair	cathraigL	cathracha
Accusative	cathraigN	cathraigL	cathracha
Genitive	cathrach	cathrach	cathrachN
Dative	cathraigL, caithir	cathrachaib	cathrachaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: cathair
• Manx: caayr
• Scottish Gaelic: cathair

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cathair	chathair	cathair pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cathair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

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Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʰahɪɾʲ/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish cathaír (“chair”), from Latin cathēdra, from Ancient Greek καθέδρα (kathédra). Cognate with Irish cathaoir.

Noun

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

1. chair, seat, bench, throne

Derived terms

• cathair ghàirdeanach (“armchair”)
• àrd-chathair, breas-chathair, cathair-rìgh, cathair-rìoghail, rìgh-chathair, torr-chathair (“throne”)

Etymology 2

From Old Irish cathair.

Noun

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

1. town, city

Derived terms

• catharra (“civil; civic, public”, adjective)

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

cathair f (genitive singular cathrach, plural cathraichean)

1. gig (two wheeled horse drawn carriage)
2. bed (of any garden stuff)
3. stock, colewort, cabbage
4. plot (of land)
5. (obsolete) guard, sentinel, warder

Mutation

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

Further reading

• Edward Dwelly (1911), “cathair”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “cathaír”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cathair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language