conmeil

Old Irish

FWOTD – 15 January 2022

Etymology

From com- +‎ meilid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [konˈmʲelʲ]

Verb

con·meil (verbal noun commailt)

1. to rub, grind
   • c. 700–800 Táin Bó Cúailnge, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, published in The Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Yellow Book of Lecan, with variant readings from the Lebor na hUidre (1912, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co.), edited by John Strachan and James George O'Keeffe, TBC-I 1286

     Comail [Commail, LU] uilche smertha dam-sa lat. Ní hétar forsin trénfer comracc frim cen uilchi.

     Smear a [false] beard onto me. I'm not able to fight the warrior [Nadcrantail] without a beard.

   • c. 700–800 Táin Bó Cúailnge, published in Táin Bó Cúailnge. Recension I (1976, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Cecile O'Rahilly, TBC-I 1200

     To·ficfat Ulaid assa noíndin ⁊ coto[n]·mélat ar [s]múr ⁊ grïan.

     The Ulstermen will come back from their nine-day debilitation and grind us into dust and gravel.

   • c. 750-800 Tairired na nDessi from Rawlinson B 502, published in "The Expulsion of the Dessi", Y Cymmrodor (1901, Society of Cymmrodorion), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, vol. 14, pp. 104-135, paragraph 20

     Téit iarum ina dáil ⁊ cot·meil foraib ⁊ gíallaid gail ⁊ gonair forsind ath fri Indeoin aníar.

     [Docheth the cow] then went into an encounter [with the army of Ossory], attacked them [lit. rubbed himself on them], [was subdued by their wrath?], and was slain at the ford to the west of Indeoin.

   • c. 900, Sanas Cormaic, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, Corm. Y 883

     To·bert iarom Corpri béoil co mór im a heim ⁊ con·amailt saill ⁊ boṡaill foa[e].

     Coirpre then put much grease on the handle [of his jewel-laden dagger] and rubbed bacon and corned beef on it [so that he can bait a dog to damage his dagger].

2. to consume
3. to destroy

Inflection

Complex, class B I present, t preterite, é future

		1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.	Passive sg.	Passive pl.
Present indicative	Deut.			cot·meil (with infixed pronoun t-)
	Prot.
Imperfect indicative	Deut.
	Prot.
Preterite	Deut.			con·melt
	Prot.
Perfect	Deut.			con·amailt
	Prot.
Future	Deut.	ɔ·mél		cutan·méla (with infixed pronoun dan-)			coto·mélat (with infixed pronoun dob-)
	Prot.
Conditional	Deut.
	Prot.
Present subjunctive	Deut.
	Prot.
Past subjunctive	Deut.
	Prot.
Imperative			commail
Verbal noun		commlith; commailt
Past participle
Verbal of necessity

Descendants

• Irish: cuimil

Mutation

Mutation of conmeil

radical	lenition	nasalization
con·meil also con·mmeil	con·meil pronounced with /-β̃(ʲ)-/	unchanged

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

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “conmeil”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Pedersen, Holger (1913) Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen (in German), volume II, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, →ISBN, page 577