conmeil

Old Irish

FWOTD – 15 January 2022

Etymology

From com- +‎ meilid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈmʲelʲ/

Verb

con·meil (verbal noun commailt)

1. to rub, grind
   • c. 700–800, Táin Bó Cúailnge; from the Yellow Book of Lecan, published in The Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Yellow Book of Lecan, with variant readings from the Lebor na hUidre (1912, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co.), edited by John Strachan and James George O'Keeffe , TBC-I 1286:

     Comail [Commail, LU] uilche smertha dam-sa lat. Ní hétar forsin trénfer comracc frim cen uilchi.

     Smear a [false] beard onto me. I'm not able to fight the warrior [Nadcrantail] without a beard.

   • c. 700–800, Táin Bó Cúailnge; published in Táin Bó Cúailnge. Recension I (1976, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Cecile O'Rahilly , TBC-I 1200:

     To·ficfat Ulaid assa noíndin ⁊ coto[n]·mélat ar [s]múr ⁊ grïan.

     The Ulstermen will come back from their nine-day debilitation and grind us into dust and gravel.

   • c. 760-800, Tairired na nDessi from Rawlinson B 502; published in "The Expulsion of the Dessi", Y Cymmrodor (1901, Society of Cymmrodorion), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, vol. 14, pp. 104-135 , paragraph 20:

     Téit iarum ina dáil ⁊ cot·meil foraib ⁊ gíallaid gail ⁊ gonair forsind ath fri Indeoin aníar.

     [Docheth the cow] then went into an encounter [with the army of Ossory], attacked them [lit. rubbed himself on them], [was subdued by their wrath?], and was slain at the ford to the west of Indeoin.

   • c. 900, Sanas Cormaic, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, Corm. Y 883

     To·bert iarom Corpri béoil co mór im a heim ⁊ con·amailt saill ⁊ boṡaill foa[e].

     Coirpre then put much grease on the handle [of his jewel-laden dagger] and rubbed bacon and corned beef on it [so that he can bait a dog to damage his dagger].

2. to consume
3. to destroy

Inflection

Complex, class B I present, t preterite, é future

		active						passive
		singular			plural			singular	plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present indicative	deut.			cot·meil (with infixed pronoun t-)
	prot.
imperfect indicative	deut.
	prot.
preterite	deut.			con·melt
	prot.
perfect	deut.			con·amailt
	prot.
future	deut.	ɔ·mél		cutan·méla (with infixed pronoun dan-)			coto·mélat (with infixed pronoun dob-)
	prot.
conditional	deut.
	prot.
present subjunctive	deut.
	prot.
past subjunctive	deut.
	prot.
imperative			commail
verbal noun		commlith; commailt
past participle
verbal of necessity

Descendants

• Middle Irish: cuimlid, comlaid
  • Irish: cuimil
  • Scottish Gaelic: cuimil

Mutation

Mutation of con·meil

radical	lenition	nasalization
con·meil	con·meil pronounced with /β̃ʲ-/	con·meil

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “conmeil”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Pedersen, Holger (1913), Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen [Comparative Grammar of the Celtic Languages] (in German), volume II, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 577