nige

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *nigyā.

Noun

nige f

1. verbal noun of nigid: washing
   • "A Fragment of Old Irish", in Ériu volume 2 (1905, Royal Irish Academy), pages 221-226, edited and with translations by Osborn J. Bergin

     Etag berar do aes tuattu, cot·étet deman co·róenastar; ⁊ ní anaich a chrothad nach a flescad, acht a nige.

     A garment which is taken from the laity, a demon accompanies it till it has been washed; and it serves not to shake it or beat it, but to wash it.

Usage notes

DIL erroneously identifies this term as appearing from Middle Irish onwards. It is in fact also found in Old Irish.

Inflection

Feminine iā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	nigeL	—	—
Vocative	nigeL	—	—
Accusative	nigiN	—	—
Genitive	nige	—	—
Dative	nigiL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: nige
  • Irish: ní
  • Scottish Gaelic: nighe

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
nige also nnige after a proclitic ending in a vowel	nige pronounced with /n(ʲ)-/	unchanged
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), “nige”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language