cleasach

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish clesach. By surface analysis, cleas (“trick; feat; knack; act”) +‎ -ach (adjectival suffix).

Pronunciation

(Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠəx/
(Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈclʲasˠa(x)/

Adjective

cleasach (genitive singular masculine cleasaigh, genitive singular feminine cleasaí, plural cleasacha, comparative cleasaí)

playful
tricky, crafty

Declension

Declension of *cleasach*
	singular		plural (m/f)
Positive	masculine	feminine	(strong noun)	(weak noun)
nominative	cleasach	chleasach	cleasacha; chleasacha²
vocative	chleasaigh	chleasach	cleasacha
genitive	chleasaigh	cleasaí	cleasacha	cleasach
dative	cleasach; chleasach¹	chleasach; chleasaigh (archaic)	cleasacha; chleasacha²
Comparative	níos cleasaí
Superlative	is cleasaí

¹ When the preceding noun is lenited and governed by the definite article.
² When the preceding noun ends in a slender consonant.

Related terms

cleasaí m (“playful person or animal; trickster, crafty person; juggler; acrobat; joker”)
cleasaíocht f (“(act of) playing, tricking; playfulness, trickery; (act of) juggling; dexterous feats, acrobatics”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of *cleasach*
radical	lenition	eclipsis
cleasach	chleasach	gcleasach

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

References

Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cleasach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “clesach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language