aerach

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish aerach (“airy, pleasant; light-hearted, gay, frivolous”); aer (“air”) +‎ -ach. The sense ‘homosexual’ is a semantic loan from English gay.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈeːɾˠəx/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈeːɾˠa(x)/

Adjective

aerach (genitive singular masculine aeraigh, genitive singular feminine aeraí, plural aeracha, comparative aeraí)

1. airy
2. lighthearted, gay; lively, frolicsome
3. flighty, giddy
4. (sexuality, LGBTQ) gay, homosexual

   Synonyms: bán, homaighnéasach

5. Synonym of aerachtúil (“eerie”)

Declension

Declension of aerach

	singular		plural (m/f)
Positive	masculine	feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
nominative	aerach	aerach	aeracha
vocative	aeraigh		aeracha
genitive		aeraí	aeracha	aerach
dative	aerach	aerach; aeraigh (archaic)	aeracha
Comparative	níos aeraí
Superlative	is aeraí

Mutation

Mutated forms of aerach

radical	eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
aerach	n-aerach	haerach	not applicable

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

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “aerach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “aerach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “aerach”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “aerach”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024