fathach

Irish

Alternative forms

• aitheach, athach

Etymology

From Old Irish aithech (“farmer, peasant, countryman, churl, rent-payer”). Cognate with Scottish Gaelic athach.

Pronunciation

• (Connacht, Munster) IPA^(key): /ˈfˠa.həx/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈfˠaiha(x)/, /fˠaːx/^[1]

Noun

fathach m (genitive singular fathaigh, nominative plural fathaigh)

1. giant
2. giant star
3. bear (big man)

   fathach fir ― a bear of a man

Declension

Declension of fathach (first declension)

bare forms case singular plural nominative fathach fathaigh vocative a fhathaigh a fhathacha genitive fathaigh fathach dative fathach fathaigh forms with the definite article case singular plural nominative an fathach na fathaigh genitive an fhathaigh na bhfathach dative leis an bhfathach don fhathach leis na fathaigh

Derived terms

• banfhathach (“giantess”)
• fathach dearg (“red giant”)
• fathach fir (“huge man, giant of a man”)
• fathach gorm (“blue giant”)
• fathach-tuatha (“plebeian”)
• finéal fathaigh (“giant fennel”)
• fo-fhathach (“subgiant”)
• obair fathaigh (“gigantic, herculean, task”)
• ollfhathach (“supergiant”)

 

Mutation

Mutated forms of fathach

radical	lenition	eclipsis
fathach	fhathach	bhfathach

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

See also

• abhac

References

1. Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 183, page 70

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “fathach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 aithech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language