ar son

See also: arson

Irish

Etymology

Disputed; there are two Old Irish nouns son, one meaning ‘sound; word, name’ (a borrowing from Latin sonus), and one meaning ‘prosperity, well-being’ (cognate with sona (“happy”) and sonus (“good fortune”)). The connection with sonus was rejected by the Lexique étymologique de l'irlandais ancien, its authors unconvinced on semantic grounds. The Dictionary of the Irish Language associates the preposition with the first of these, suggesting the original meaning ‘at the sound of, by the word/name of’. Dinneen’s and Ó Dónaill’s dictionaries, on the other hand, associate it with the second, suggesting the original meaning ‘for the well-being of’. Randall Gordon, in his study of Old Irish verbal nouns, associates the phrase with neither word and proposes his own etymology connecting it with Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- (“to reach, attain”), from which imresan (“contention”) is also derived. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic airson in any case.

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠɔnˠ/
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠɔnˠ/, /ɛɾʲˈsˠʊnˠ/
• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠʌnˠ/

Preposition

ar son (plus genitive or possessive determiner, triggers no mutation)

1. for, for the sake of (because of)
2. on behalf of (speaking or acting for)

Inflection

Inflection of ar son

Person	Normal	Emphatic
1st person sing.	ar mo shon	ar mo shonsa
2d person sing.	ar do shon	ar do shonsa
3d sing. masc.	ar a shon	ar a shonsan
3d sing. fem.	ar a son	ar a sonsa
1st person pl.	ar ár son	ar ár son-na
2d person pl.	ar bhur son	ar bhur sonsa
3d person pl.	ar a son	ar a sonsan

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 son (‘sound, word, name’)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “son”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 673
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “son”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN