droch

See also: droch-

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drox/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *drukos (compare Welsh drwg).

Adjective

droch

1. bad, evil
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 134^d3

     Ɔ·riris-siu .i. ar·troídfe{a}-siu inna droch daíni, a Dǽ, dia n-anduch, air is fechtnach a n-andach mani erthroítar húa Día.

     You will bind, i.e. you will restrain the evil men, O God, from their iniquity, for their iniquity is prosperous if they are not restrained by God.

   • c. 845, St. Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 217^a

     Memmbrum naue, droch dub! Ó, ní epur na haill.

     New parchment, bad ink! Oh, I say nothing more.

Usage notes

Forms a compound with a following noun and is thus never inflected on its own.

Descendants

• Irish: droch-, droch
• Manx: drogh
• Scottish Gaelic: droch

Etymology 2

From Proto-Celtic *drokos, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-. Cognate with Ancient Greek τρέχω (trékhō, “I run”), τροχός (trokhós, “wheel, grindstone”), Breton troc'h (“cut”).

Noun

droch m (genitive unattested)

1. wheel

   Synonym: roth

2. circlet

Inflection

Masculine o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	droch	drochL	*droichL
Vocative	*droich	drochL	drochuH
Accusative	drochN	drochL	drochuH
Genitive	*droichL	droch	drochN
Dative	drochL	drochaib	drochaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Related terms

• drochet (“bridge”)

Mutation

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

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 droch ‘bad’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “2 droch ‘wheel’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

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Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish droch (“bad”), from Proto-Celtic *drukos.

Adjective

droch (comparative miosa)

1. bad

Usage notes

• Unlike the majority of Scottish Gaelic adjectives, droch precedes the noun and lenites it.
• Cannot be used on its own (without a noun).
• Often prefixed to words to indicate a malignant subject, similarly to English ill-, as seen in Derived terms below.

Synonyms

• dona
• olc

Derived terms

• droch-bheart (“vice, sin”)
• droch-bheul (“impudence”)
• droch-chliùiteach (“infamous”)
• droch-fhacal (“curse”)
• droch-ghiùlan (“misbehaviour”)
• droch isean (“brat”)
• droch shùil (“evil eye”)

 

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /droːχ/

Adjective

droch

1. Soft mutation of troch.

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
troch	droch	nhroch	throch
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.