anamchara

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish anmcharae (“confessor, spiritual director”, literally “soul-friend”), from ainim(m) (“soul”) + carae (“friend”). By surface analysis, anam +‎ cara.

Noun

anamchara m (genitive singular anamcharad, nominative plural anamchairde)

1. spiritual adviser, confidant
2. (deprecated) kindred spirit, soulmate

Declension

Declension of anamchara

Fifth declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative anamchara anamchairde Vocative a anamchara a anamchairde Genitive anamcharad anamchairde Dative anamchara anamcharaid (archaic, dialectal) anamchairde

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an t-anamchara na hanamchairde Genitive an anamcharad na n-anamchairde Dative leis an anamchara leis an anamcharaid (archaic, dialectal) don anamchara don anamcharaid (archaic, dialectal) leis na hanamchairde

Related terms

• anamchairdeas

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Eclipsis	with h-prothesis	with t-prothesis
anamchara	n-anamchara	hanamchara	t-anamchara
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

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