aitire

Middle Irish

Alternative forms

• aittire, etire, ettire, eittire, aidire, itire, oittire

Etymology

Literally, “being between”, or more loosely translated as “one who stands between”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈatʲirʲə/

Noun

aitire f (genitive aitire)

1. (law) hostage suretyship

   Dotéit aitire ar ḟer feras in fuil.

   He goes surety for the man who inflicts the wound.

2. (law) hostage surety who guarantees the performance of an obligation with themselves (as opposed to a ráth, who guarantees it with their property); guarantor
3. hostage

Usage notes

In later Middle Irish, sense 2 came to be used as masculine.

Mutation

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
aitire	unchanged	n-aitire
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

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