epaid

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• aupaith

Etymology

From ad- +‎ buith (“being”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈœ.bəðʲ/
  • (Blasse) [ˈœ.bɪðʲ]
  • (Griffith) [ˈœ.bɨðʲ]

Noun

epaid f (genitive eptha, nominative plural epthai)

1. charm, spell
   • c. 697-900, Cáin Adomnáin; published in Cáin Adamnáin: an old-Irish treatise on the law of Adamnan (1905, Oxford University Press), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer , § 46:

     Mát epthai día n-apallar da·bera nech do alailiu, féich dunetáiti ind.

     If it be charms by which death is caused by anyone on another, a fine for murder with concealment of the body [is to be paid] for it.

   • St. Gall Incantations, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. 2, p. 248

     Fo·certar ind epaid-se i n-im nad·tét i n-uisce...

     This charm is laid in butter, in which it does not go into water...

   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 20^b20

     aipthi ― glosses Latin veneficia

Inflection

Feminine i-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	epaid, aupaith	epaidL, aupaith	epthaiH, aipthiH
vocative	epaid, aupaith	epaidL, aupaith	epthaiH, aipthiH
accusative	epaidN, aupaith	epaidL, aupaith	epthaiH, aipthiH
genitive	epthoH, epthaH, aupthaH	epthoH, epthaH, aupthaH	epthaeN
dative	epaidL, aupaith	epthaib	epthaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

This term suffered various irregular deformations in the modern Goidelic languages.

• Middle Irish: epaid
  • Irish: upa
  • Scottish Gaelic: ubag
  • Manx: obbee

Mutation

Mutation of epaid

radical	lenition	nasalization
epaid (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	epaid	n-epaid

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), “epaid, aupaid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language