From Old Irish aub , from Proto-Celtic *abū (compare Welsh afon ), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- ( “ water ” ) .[ 2] The form abhainn was originally the dative singular of abha , but is now widely used as the nominative as well.
abhainn f (genitive singular abhann or aibhne , nominative plural aibhneacha or aibhne )
river
Níl aon abhainn san oileán. There’s no river on the island.
Dá dtéiteá go Gaillimh inné, d’fhéadfá a dhul isteach an abhainn go réidh, mar nach raibh aon tsruth mór. If you had gone to Galway yesterday, you would have easily been able to go up the river , since there wasn’t a very strong current.
Bhí an abhainn reoite. The river was frozen.
bruach na haibhne ― the river bank
Bhí na haibhneacha uilig reoite. All the rivers were frozen.
Dhá mbeadh an t-airgead againn, ghabhfadh muid do haibhneacha Chill Airne. If we had the money, we would go to the rivers of Killarney.
Standard
Nonstandard
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
^ Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904 ) “aḃa”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla , 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 2
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019 ), “1 ab ”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931 ) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 195 , page 98
^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906 ) A Dialect of Donegal , Cambridge University Press, § 40 , page 18
Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977 ) “abhainn ”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla , Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959 ) “abhainn ”, in English-Irish Dictionary , An Gúm
“abhainn ”, in New English-Irish Dictionary , Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024
From Old Irish aub , from Proto-Celtic *abū (compare Welsh afon ), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- ( “ water ” ) . The form abhainn was originally the dative singular of abha , but is now widely used as the nominative/accusative as well.
abhainn f (genitive singular aibhne , plural aibhnichean )
river , stream
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
^ Oftedal, M. (1956 ) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis , Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937 ) The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides , Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
^ Ternes, Elmar (1973 ) The phonemic analysis of Scottish Gaelic: based on the dialect of Applecross, Ross-shire , Hamburg: Helmut Buske
^ Roy Wentworth (2003 ) Gaelic Words and Phrases From Wester Ross / Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar , Inverness: CLÀR, →ISBN
Edward Dwelly (1911 ) “abhainn”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary ][1] , 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019 ), “1 ab ”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language