tuirseach

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish toirsech (“mournful, sorrowful”), from Old Irish toirsech; synchronically analyzable as tuirse +‎ -ach. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic tùirseach (“mournful, sorrowful”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /t̪ˠəɾˠˈʃax/
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ˠɔɾˠʃəx/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈt̪ˠɨ̞ɾˠsˠa(x)/

Adjective

tuirseach (genitive singular masculine tuirsigh, genitive singular feminine tuirsí, plural tuirseacha, comparative tuirsí)

1. tired

   Tá mé tuirseach den chaint.

   I’m tired of the talk

   • “An Mhaighean Mhara” (traditional Irish folksong):

     Tá mise tuirseach agus beidh go lá
     Mo Mháire bhroinngheal ’s mo Phádraig bán
     Ar bharr na dtonna ’s fá bhéal na trá
     Siúd chugaibh Mary Chinidh ’s í ’ndiaidh an Éirne ’shnámh

     I’m tired and will be until day
     My fair-breasted Máire and my blond Pádraig
     On top of the waves and under the beach
     There for you [is] Mary Chinidh having swum in the Erne

Declension

Declension of tuirseach

	Singular		Plural (m/f)
Positive	Masculine	Feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
Nominative	tuirseach	thuirseach	tuirseacha; thuirseacha²
Vocative	thuirsigh		tuirseacha
Genitive		tuirsí	tuirseacha	tuirseach
Dative	tuirseach; thuirseach¹	thuirseach; thuirsigh (archaic)	tuirseacha; thuirseacha²
Comparative	níos tuirsí
Superlative	is tuirsí

¹ When the preceding noun is lenited and governed by the definite article.
² When the preceding noun ends in a slender consonant.

Derived terms

• tuirseach traochta (“worn out, exhausted”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
tuirseach	thuirseach	dtuirseach
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “toirsech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• "tuirseach" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 40