náir

See also: nair, Nair, and naïr

Irish

From Middle Irish nár,^[3] from Proto-Celtic *nāros (“noble? modest?”), either from a lengthened o-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *h₂nḗr (“man, manliness”)^[4] or from a Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-sr- (“fearful”) and thus related to Hittite 𒈾𒄴𒊭𒅈𒉡𒍣 (na-aḫ-ša-ar-nu-zi /⁠naḫšarnuzi⁠/, “to frighten”).^[5]^[6]^[7]

náir (genitive singular feminine náire, plural náire, comparative náire)

ashamed [in a copular construction with le]
is náir liom (go) […] ― I am ashamed (that) […]
modest
shameful
(literary) noble, honourable

Declension of náir

Positive	Masculine	Feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
	Singular		Plural (m/f)
Nominative	náir	náir	náire
Vocative	náir	náir	náire
Genitive	náir	náire	náire	náir
Dative	náir	náir	náire
Comparative	níos náire
Superlative	is náire

^ “náir”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
^ Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “nár”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 508
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 nár”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*nāro-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 284
^ Tischler, Johann (1990–2006) Hethitisches etymologisches Glossar (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 20) (in German), volume 2, Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, page 247
^ Rix, Helmut, editor (2001), “*neh₂-”, in Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben [Lexicon of Indo-European Verbs] (in German), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, →ISBN, page 449
^ Kloekhorst, Alwin (2008) Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 5), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 592