feis

See also: Feis

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish feis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɛʃ

Noun

feis (plural feiseanna)

1. (Ireland) An Irish festival, usually including folk music, dancing, and sports.
2. (Ireland) An Irish gathering at which new laws were decreed, as well as folk music, dancing, and sports.

See also

• Fèis, the Scottish equivalent, and eisteddfod, the Welsh equivalent.

Anagrams

• fise, seif, fies, EFIS, Seif, ISEF, EFIs, ISFE

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish feiss, fess, verbal noun of foïd (“to spend the night”), from Proto-Celtic *woseti, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʲɛʃ/

Noun

feis f (genitive singular feise, nominative plural feiseanna)

1. (literary)
   1. act of sleeping, of passing the night
   2. accommodation, entertainment, for the night; bed and supper
2. (literary)
   1. sleeping together, sexual intercourse
   2. espousal, marriage
3. festival

   Synonym: féile

   1. Irish language festival (with competitions)
4. (literature) feast tale

Declension

Declension of feis (second declension)

bare forms case singular plural nominative feis feiseanna vocative a fheis a fheiseanna genitive feise feiseanna dative feis feiseanna forms with the definite article case singular plural nominative an fheis na feiseanna genitive na feise na bhfeiseanna dative leis an bhfeis don fheis leis na feiseanna

Derived terms

• Ard-Fheis (“national convention”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of feis

radical	lenition	eclipsis
feis	fheis	bhfeis

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) “feis”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 feis(s), fess”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “feis”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “feis”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2025

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• fes, fiste

Verb

feis

1. simple past of fise

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish feiss, fess, verbal noun of foïd (“to spend the night”), from Proto-Celtic *woseti, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feʃ/

Noun

feis f (genitive singular feise)

1. sex, intercourse

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with fèis (“a festival”).

Mutation

Mutation of feis

radical	lenition
feis	fheis

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

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “feis”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 feis(s), fess”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language