eclais

Old Irish

FWOTD – 6 November 2021

Alternative forms

• eclas, æclis, eclis

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ecclēsia, from Ancient Greek ἐκκλησίᾱ (ekklēsíā).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈeɡlɨsʲ]

Noun

eclais f (genitive ecailse or ecolso)

1. The Christian Church, as an institution
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 22^c20

     i n-ellug inna æcaillse

     in union with the church

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 65^d5

     rocar crist innęclais

     Christ loving the church

2. a local church or community of believers
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 16^d6

     ↄdidaccadar cach eclis glosses ostendite in facie aeclesiarum

3. clergy
4. a church, a building for worship

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	eclaisL	eclaisL	ecailseaH
vocative	eclaisL	eclaisL	ecailseaH
accusative	eclaisN	eclaisL	ecailseaH
genitive	ecailseH	eclaisL	eclaisN
dative	eclaisL	ecailsib	ecailsib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Feminine i-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	eclais	eclaisL	ecailsiH
vocative	eclais	eclaisL	ecailsiH
accusative	eclaisN	eclaisL	ecailsiH
genitive	ecolsoH, ecolsaH	ecolsoH, ecolsaH	ecailseN
dative	eclaisL	ecailsib	ecailsib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: eaglais
• Manx: agglish
• Scottish Gaelic: eaglais

Further reading

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