caín

See also: cain, Cain, -cain-, Caín, Caïn, càin, cáin, and Cáin

Galician

Verb

caín

1. first-person singular preterite indicative of caer

Old Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from a Brythonic language, whence the diphthong. Compare Welsh cain, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kanyos. Conflated with an earlier form cain with the same meaning, which is from Proto-Celtic *kanis, of which *kanyos was a thematicized form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkaːi̯nʲ/

Adjective

caín (superlative caínem)

1. fine, good
2. fair, beautiful

Inflection

i-stem
Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	caín	caín	caín
Vocative	caín
Accusative	caín	caín
Genitive	caín	caíne	caín
Dative	caín	caín	caín
Plural	Masculine	Feminine/neuter
Nominative	caíni	caíni
Vocative	caíni
Accusative	caíni
Genitive	caín* caíne
Dative	caínib
Notes	*not when substantivized

Derived terms

• caíngním

Descendants

• Middle Irish: caín
  • Irish: caoin
  • Scottish Gaelic: caoin

Mutation

Mutation of caín

radical	lenition	nasalization
caín	chaín	caín pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/

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

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 caín”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language