ii. The following have defective comparison:
(1) Spv. eithaf ‘uttermost’ < *ektₑmos: Lat. extimus, § 109 iv (1) (to cpv. eithr ‘except, but’, Ir. echtar < *ektro‑s: Lat. extrā § 99 v (4); to positive eh- ech- < *eks‑: Lat. ex).
(2) Cpv. amgen ‘other; better’; also a later amgenach s.g. 200, D.N. f.n. 91.
Ac amgen ledɏr no hwnnw ny phrynei ef w.m. 67 ‘And other leather than that he did not buy’.
amgen is a cpv. of similar form to hagen § 222 iii (4), and may be neg. in a(n)- of the cpv. corresponding to the spv. megys § 215 iv (3) ‘like’; thus *n̥‑sm‑āk-is-en- > *amgi̯en > amgen § 100 vi. (As the 2nd syll. drops ‑is- remained and gave i̯ not h.)
(3) prif ‘chief’ < Lat. prīmus is not felt as a spv. in W.; it always forms the first element of a compound: § 155 iii (1).
iii. Equatives with the prefix cỿ- may have before this the prefix go‑, as gogymaint, gogyfuwch etc. Thus—
A’r llall a oeẟ yn kynẟuet ac yn ogymeint a bran s.g. 99 ‘and the other was as black and as large as a crow’. yn ogyfuwch â Duw, Phil. ii 6. This form is sometimes predicated of both the things compared: Nid gogyhyd esgeiriau y cloff Diar. xxvi 7.
§ 149. i. Many nouns take the endings of comparison, and thereby become adjectives of the respective degrees.
(1) The following are in common use in Mn. W.:
rhaid ‘need’; eqtv. cɥn rheitied D.G. 299 ‘as necessary, as fitting’; cpv. Ml. r͑eidẏach r.p. 1249, Mn. rheitiach ‘more necessary, more fitting’; spv. Ml. r͑eittaf r.p. 1148, Mn. rheitiaf.
rhaid < Kelt. *(p)rat-i̯o- ‘due, due share’ < *prət‑, √perō- ‘dispose’: W. rhad see below, rhann ‘share’, Lat. part- § 63 vii (2), W. barn § 101 iii (2).
elw ‘profit’; cpv. elwach ‘profiting more, better off’, as (pa) faint elwach fyddi di? ‘how much better off wilt thou be?’
elw is properly helw, still so pronounced in Gwynedd in phrases like ar dy helw ‘in thy possession’; helw = Ir. selb ‘possession’ both < *sel-u̯o‑, √sel- ‘take’: Ir. selaim ‘I take’, Gk. ἑλεῖν, Goth. saljan, O.E. sellan, E. sell.
blaen ‘point, front’; also adj. as troed blaen ‘fore-foot’; spv. blaenaf, ‘foremost, first’; § 215 iii (10).
ôl ‘rear, track’, as yn ôl ‘after, according to’ § 215 iii (6), ôl troed ‘foot-print’; also adj. as troed ôl ‘hind foot’; spv. olaf ‘last’ < *ol‑isₑmos: Lat. ultimus < *ol-tₑmos.
