lathach

See also: -lathach

Irish

From Old Irish lathach (“mire, puddle”),^[1] from Old Irish loth (“mud, mire; quagmire”).^[2]

MacBain derived this from Proto-Celtic *latyos (“moist”), from Proto-Indo-European *lat- (“damp, wet”), see also Old Norse leðja (“mud”), Albanian lag (“to moisten”).^[3]

Matasović suggests Proto-Celtic *lutā (“mud, dirt”) from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (“dirt, mud”).^[4]

(Aran) IPA^(key): /l̪ˠɑːx/^[5], /ˈl̪ˠɑhəx/
(Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̪ˠaiç/^[6] (as if spelled laith; probably a back-formation from the genitive laithche)

lathach f (genitive singular lathaí or laithche)

mud (mixture of soil and water), puddle (homogeneous mixture of clay, water, and sometimes grit), slush (liquid mud or mire)
Synonyms: láib, puiteach, lábán, pluda

Declension of lathach (second declension, no plural)

forms with the definite article
	singular
nominative	an lathach
genitive	na lathaí, laithche
dative	leis an lathach don lathach

^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “lathach”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 loth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “làthach”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN, page 224
^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*lutā”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 249-50
^ Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect] (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 179
^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 139, page 55