rath

See also: Rath, ráth, räth, -rath, and -raþ

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Irish ráth.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɑːθ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹæθ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːθ, Rhymes: -æθ
• Homophone: wrath (some dialects)

Noun

rath (plural raths)

1. (historical) A walled enclosure, especially in Ireland; a ringfort built sometime between the Iron Age and the Viking Age.
   • 1907, James Woods, Annals of Westmeath, Ancient and Modern:

     There are numerous Danish raths in the parish.

   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 1, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

     Those with Celtic legendry in their heritage—mainly the Scotch-Irish element of New Hampshire, and their kindred who had settled in Vermont on Governor Wentworth’s colonial grants—linked them vaguely with the malign fairies and “little people” of the bogs and raths, and protected themselves with scraps of incantation handed down through many generations.

Related terms

• Rathmines

Translations

walled enclosure, ringfort

• Irish: ráth m or f
• Old Irish: ráth m or f, ráith m or f
• Russian: форт (ru) m (fort)

Etymology 2

From Hindi रथ (rath), from Sanskrit रथ (ratha).

Noun

rath (plural raths)

1. A Burmese carriage of state.

Etymology 3

Adjective

rath (comparative more rath, superlative most rath)

1. Alternative form of rathe.

Anagrams

• Arth, HART, Hart, Thar, hart, tahr, thar

Cornish

Noun

rath f (plural rathes)

1. rat

Synonyms

• (Revived Late Cornish) logojen vroas

German

Verb

rath

1. singular imperative of rathen

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish rath (“grace, virtue”), from Proto-Celtic *ɸratom (“grace, virtue, good fortune”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ɾˠɑh/
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /ɾˠa/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ɾˠah/

Noun

rath m (genitive singular ratha)

1. (literary) bestowal, grant; grace, favour; gift, bounty
2. prosperity
3. abundance
4. usefulness, good

Declension

Declension of rath

Third declension

Bare forms (no plural of this noun) Case Singular Nominative rath Vocative a rath Genitive ratha Dative rath

Forms with the definite article: Case Singular Nominative an rath Genitive an ratha Dative leis an rath don rath

Derived terms

• anrath (“ill-luck”)

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “raṫ”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 560
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “rath”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “rath”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• rad, rat

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ɸratom (“grace, virtue, good fortune”), from the root of *ɸarnati (“bestow”) (whence ernaid), from Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“bestow, give”) (whence also Sanskrit पृणाक्ति (pṛṇā́kti, “grant, bestow”), Latin parō (“prepare”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [r͈aθ]

Noun

rath n (genitive raith)

1. verbal noun of ernaid
2. grace, virtue
   • 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. 33^b8

     Ní derlaicht⟨h⟩a a pecdæ doïb acht du·ratad dígal forru. Cenotad maic-si raith dano, má im·roimsid ní dílgibther dúib.

     Their sins have not been forgiven them, but punishment has been inflicted upon them. Though you pl, then, are children of grace, if you sin, you will not be forgiven.

Declension

Neuter o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
Vocative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
Accusative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
Genitive	raithL	rath	rathN
Dative	rathL	rathaib	rathaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: rath
  • Irish: rath

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
rath also rrath after a proclitic	rath pronounced with /r(ʲ)-/	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 rath”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• rað

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *raþ, from Proto-Germanic *raþą (“wheel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɑθ/

Noun

rath n

1. wheel

Declension

Declension of rath (neuter a-stem)

	singular	plural
nominative	rath	rathu
accusative	rath	rathu
genitive	rathes	rathō
dative	rathe	rathum
instrumental	—	—