abú

See also: Appendix:Variations of "abu"

Irish

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic in origin, first attested in the fourteenth century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈbˠuː/

Interjection

abú!

1. hooray, up with, forever

   Corcaigh abú! ― Cork forever!

Usage notes

Placed after a noun to indicate support for that thing.

Alternative forms

• abó

Etymology 2

Noun

abú m (genitive singular abaithe)

1. verbal noun of abaigh

Declension

Declension of abú (irregular, no plural)

bare forms case singular nominative abú vocative a abú genitive abaithe dative abú forms with the definite article case singular nominative an t-abú genitive an abaithe dative leis an abú don abú

Mutation

Mutated forms of abú

radical	eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
abú	n-abú	habú	not applicable

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

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “abú”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “abó!, abú!”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “abú”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “abú”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024