focain

Old Irish

Etymology

From fo- +‎ canaid.

Verb

fo·cain (verbal noun focetal)

1. to sing, to chant
   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 203

     Dom·farcai fidbaidae fál. Fom·chain lóid luin (lúad nad cél). Huas mo lebrán (ind línech) fom·chain trírech inna ṅ-én. Fomm·chain cói menn medair mass hi ṁbrot glass de dindgnaib doss.

     A hedge of trees surrounds me. A blackbird’s lay sings to me — praise which I will not hide. Above my booklet, the lined one, the trilling of the birds sings to me. In a gray mantle, the cuckoo’s beautiful chant sings to me from the tops of bushes.

   • c. 875, Comrac Líadaine ocus Cuirithir, published in Liadain and Curithir: an Irish love-story of the ninth century (1902, London: Nutt), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, page 24

     Céol caille, fom·chanad la Cuirithir la fogur fairce flainne.

     The music of the forest, it would sing to me when with Cuirithir together with the voice of the purple sea.

2. to accompany (singing)

Inflection

Complex, class B I present, a subjunctive

		1st sg	2nd sg	3rd sg	1st pl	2nd pl	3rd pl	passive sg	passive pl
present indicative	deut.			fo·cain; fom·chain (with infixed pronoun m-)			fo·chanat (relative)
	prot.
imperfect indicative	deut.
	prot.
preterite	deut.
	prot.
perfect	deut.
	prot.
future	deut.
	prot.
conditional	deut.
	prot.
present subjunctive	deut.
	prot.
past subjunctive	deut.			fom·chanad (with infixed pronoun m-)			fos·cantais (with infixed pronoun s-)
	prot.
imperative
verbal noun		focetal
past participle
verbal of necessity

References

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