imfen

Old Irish

Etymology

From imm- + Proto-Celtic *winati (“bend, enclose”), from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁y- (“to weave, wind”). Cognate with व्ययति (vyáyati), Latin vieō and Russian вить (vitʹ, “to wind, twist, weave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [imʲˈɸʲen]

Verb

im·fen (verbal noun imbe)

1. to hedge in, fence in
   • 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. 112^b17

     a nonda imbide

     and when you sg are hedged in

Conjugation

Complex, class B IV present, a subjunctive

		1st sg	2nd sg	3rd sg	1st pl	2nd pl	3rd pl	passive sg	passive pl
present indicative	deut.			im·fen
	prot.
imperfect indicative	deut.
	prot.
preterite	deut.
	prot.
perfect	deut.
	prot.
future	deut.
	prot.
conditional	deut.
	prot.
present subjunctive	deut.
	prot.			·ímcua (with perfective com-)			·ímcuaad (with perfective com-)
past subjunctive	deut.							imma·feithe (with infixed pronoun a-)
	prot.
imperative
verbal noun		imbe
past participle		imbide, imbithe
verbal of necessity

Related terms

• ad·fen
• fithe
• for·fen

Mutation

Mutation of imfen

radical	lenition	nasalization
im·fen	im·ḟen	im·fen 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), “imm·fen”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Pedersen, Holger (1913) Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen [Comparative Grammar of the Celtic Languages] (in German), volume II, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, →ISBN, § 719.2, page 517