fedan

English

Noun

fedan (plural fedans)

1. A measure of land used in Sudan and Egypt, slightly more than an English acre. One fedan is about 4200 square meters.
   • 1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 71:

     Tubbs, in the fall of 1862, sent emissaries to Cairo to pressure Ismail, heir to the throne, into planting several thousand fedans – which Tubbs promised to buy.

Anagrams

• Dafen, NFAed, faned

Galician

Verb

fedan

1. inflection of feder:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-. Cognate with Old Saxon fōdian, Dutch voeden, Old High German fuotan, Old Norse fǿða (Danish føde, Swedish föda, Icelandic fæða), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fōdjan).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfeː.dɑn/

Verb

fēdan

1. to feed

Conjugation

Conjugation of fēdan (weak class 1)

infinitive	fēdan	fēdenne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	fēde	fēdde
second person singular	fēdest, fētst	fēddest
third person singular	fēdeþ, fētt, fēt	fēdde
plural	fēdaþ	fēddon
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	fēde	fēdde
plural	fēden	fēdden
imperative
singular	fēd
plural	fēdaþ
participle	present	past
	fēdende	(ġe)fēded

Related terms

• āfēdan
• fōda
• fōdor

Descendants

• Middle English: feden
  • Scots: fede, feid
  • English: feed

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *wedonā, an unusual double-thematic formation in -o-nā. Two other basic verbal nouns, mlegon (“milking”) (from *mlig-o-nos) and orcun (“slaying”) (from *org-e-nā) also have double-thematic *-V-no/ā- formations. Their closest parallels are Proto-Germanic *-aną and past participles in *-anaz, in addition to Slavic past passive participles in original -enъ.

Noun

fedan f (genitive fednae)

1. verbal noun of feidid: carrying, conveying
   • c. 650 Do Fastad Cirt ocus Dligid, published in Ancient Laws of Ireland: Uraicecht Becc and Certain Other Selected Brehon Law Tracts (1901, Dublin: Stationery Office), edited and with translations by W. Neilson Hancock, Thaddeus O'Mahony, Alexander George Richey, and Robert Atkinson, vol. 5, pp. 425-494, page 482, line 27

     …arad cacha fedna[e], crand fedna[e] collna…

     …[a rack] for each carriage, wood for carrying bodies [in biers]…

   • 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. 76^a9

     inna fednae ― glosses Latin invectionis

2. the state of being yoked
   • 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^a16

     .i. nabad inunn fedan i mbeith.

     i.e. let not the yoke in which you pl are be the same.

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	fedanL	—	—
Vocative	fedanL	—	—
Accusative	fedainN	—	—
Genitive	fednaeH	—	—
Dative	fedainL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• aidbden
• dédenach
• díden
• tairiden
• tuiden
• tuididen

 

Descendants

• Middle Irish: fedan (“band, company”)
  • Irish: feadhain
  • Scottish Gaelic: feadhainn

Mutation

Mutation of fedan

radical	lenition	nasalization
fedan	ḟedan	fedan pronounced with /β(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), “fedan”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language