Page:Irish Lexicography.djvu/32

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24
ON IRISH LEXICOGRAPHY.

opinion. Anyhow, O’R. is not to blame, for he did not assign this meaning to the word direccra. It is common enough in Middle Irish, and variously used as an intensive adjective. I shall quote a few instances of this varied application from L. Breac:—

(a) heavy, strong, of perfume [LB. 35 β 7]:

in tan tucsam corp Stephain as in inad i mboi, dorala talam-chumscugud mor arm, ⁊ tanic bolad direccra de as in adnocul, co ro-lín in uli inud i mbamar: ro‑b ailgen tra in mbolad-sin. when we took the body of Stephen from the place where it was, there happened a great earthquake, and there came a heavy perfume from it out of the grave, so that it filled the whole place where we were—pleasant in sooth was that perfume.

(b) heavy, loud, anguished, of screaming [LB. 39 β 52]:—

is ann-sin nach fil comdídnad no cumsanud na etarfuarad doib-sium, acht nuall tromm ⁊ diucaire dermair ra-mor ro-díreccra. there is no consolation nor rest nor coolness for them, but heavy shouting, and mighty, vast, loud outcry.

(c) heavy, thick, of darkness [LB. 118 α 27]:—

in cet plaig tucad for in tir-sin .i. dorchatu díreccra. the first plague that was brought on this land, viz. thick darkness.

Cf. also 154 β 25, 41; 165 α 37, &c.

In his edition of Tochmarc Etaine, Ir. Texte, p. 129, we have a passage whose explanation escaped Windisch, viz.: “rotirmaiss écaine ocus mór olcc ocus imniuth duit bith i n‑ingnaiss do mna”. In his glossary the first word is divided, and placed under (ro) tirmaiss, but no meaning is attached to it. I believe it to be ro-t-irmaiss, “hath hit thee”, the word appearing under the forms ermaiss, urmaiss, and, as here, irmaiss [cf. forms like aurlam, urlam, erlam, irlam].

In Cormac’s Gloss., sub voce, ‘taurthait’ (‘random shot’), we have urchar …. do urmaise secip nach raeta, &c., which O’Donovan had rendered “a throw …. to hit anything whatsoever.” Upon this Stokes remarks:—“I rather think this (urmaise) means ‘to aim at’, and then ‘to purpose’”, quoting tuisled ho ermaissin firinne from Z² 1064. But surely the very quotation makes for O’Donovan’s translation. The full gloss is [Ml. 2d5] is fuasnad dutmenmainsiu tuisled ho-ermaissiu firinne trímrechtrad natintathach, i.e. “it is a disturbance to thy mind, thy failing to hit the truth through the variety of inter-