fa ré

Irish

Etymology

From fa and ré (“towards, against”) (< Old Irish fri).

Preposition

fa ré (plus dative, triggers h-prothesis, before the definite article fa ris)

1. Obsolete form of fara, frae (“along with, beside”).
   • ca. 1200?, Whitley Stone, Donnchadh Ó Corráin, editors, Acallam na Senórach‎^[2], Corpus of Electronic Texts, published 1996, line 1306:

     faré Find

     along with Finn

   • 1616, Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire, edited by T. F. O’Rahilly, Desiderius, otherwise called Sgáthán an chrábhaidh‎^[3], Dublin, published 1941, line 1172, page 41:

     Fa ris sin smuainim ar an mbás

     Morover, I think about death

   • 1616, Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire, edited by T. F. O’Rahilly, Desiderius, otherwise called Sgáthán an chrábhaidh‎^[4], Dublin, published 1941, lines 1342–3, page 46:

     ⁊ nách minic do thuillis bheith thíos a bpianoibh ifeirnn fá ré cloinn na mallacht?

     and didn’t you often deserve to be down in the torments of hell along with the wicked?

   • 1616, Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire, edited by T. F. O’Rahilly, Desiderius, otherwise called Sgáthán an chrábhaidh‎^[5], Dublin, published 1941, lines 6025–7, page 197:

     ór atá a chomhmór sin do ghrádh agom ar Thighearna go ccuirim fá ris an dá chéim-si an treas céim eile don ghrádh

     because I have so much love for the Lord that I add, beside the two degrees, the third degree of love

Usage notes

Originally followed by non-mutated accusative in singular and dative in plural.

Found in Early Modern Irish prose and some Fenian lays, but avoided in bardic poetry or higher style prose. In modern language it became fara in Munster and frae in Connacht. The phrase fa ris sin (“morover (lit. along with that)”) became freisin, froisin (“too, also”).

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “faré, fare”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language