feis

See also: Feis

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish feis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛʃ/
• pl. IPA^(key): /fɛʃənə/

Noun

feis (plural feiseanna)

1. (Ireland) An Irish festival, usually including folk music, dancing, and sports.
2. (Ireland) An Irish gathering at which new laws were decreed, as well as folk music, dancing, and sports.

See also

• Fèis, the Scottish equivalent, and eisteddfod, the Welsh equivalent.

Anagrams

• EFIs, ISEF, fise, seif

---

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish feiss, fess, verbal noun of foïd (“to spend the night”), from Proto-Celtic *woseti, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʲɛʃ/

Noun

feis f (genitive singular feise, nominative plural feiseanna)

1. (literary)
   1. act of sleeping, of passing the night
   2. accommodation, entertainment, for the night; bed and supper
2. (literary)
   1. sleeping together, sexual intercourse
   2. espousal, marriage
3. festival

   Synonym: féile

   1. Irish language festival (with competitions)
4. (literature) feast tale

Declension

Declension of feis

Second declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative feis feiseanna Vocative a fheis a fheiseanna Genitive feise feiseanna Dative feis feiseanna

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an fheis na feiseanna Genitive na feise na bhfeiseanna Dative leis an bhfeis don fheis leis na feiseanna

Derived terms

• Ard-Fheis (“national convention”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
feis	fheis	bhfeis
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “feis”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 feis(s), fess”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “feis”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “feis”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• fes, fiste

Verb

feis

1. simple past of fise

---

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish feiss, fess, verbal noun of foïd (“to spend the night”), from Proto-Celtic *woseti, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feʃ/

Noun

feis f (genitive singular feise)

1. sex, intercourse

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with fèis (“a festival”).

Mutation

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

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “feis”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 feis(s), fess”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language