imfen

Old Irish

Etymology

From imm- + Proto-Celtic *winati (“bend, enclose”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y- (“to weave, wind”). Cognate with Sanskrit वयति (váyati), व्ययति (vyáyati), Latin vieō and Russian вить (vitʹ, “to wind, twist, weave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /imʲˈfʲen/

Verb

im·fen (verbal noun imbe)

1. to hedge in, fence in
   • 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. 112^b17

     a nonda imbide

     and when you sg are hedged in

Conjugation

Complex, class B IV present, a subjunctive

		1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.	Passive sg.	Passive pl.
Present indicative	Deut.			im·fen
	Prot.
Imperfect indicative	Deut.
	Prot.
Preterite	Deut.
	Prot.
Perfect	Deut.
	Prot.
Future	Deut.
	Prot.
Conditional	Deut.
	Prot.
Present subjunctive	Deut.
	Prot.			·ímcua (with perfective com-)			·ímcuaad (with perfective com-)
Past subjunctive	Deut.							imma·feithe (with infixed pronoun a-)
	Prot.
Imperative
Verbal noun		imbe
Past participle		imbide, imbithe
Verbal of necessity

Related terms

• ad·fen
• fithe

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
im·fen	im·ḟen	im·fen pronounced with /-β(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “imm·fen”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Pedersen, Holger (1913) Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen (in German), volume II, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 517