muinter

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• muntar, montar

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *moniterā, from *monis (“protection, patronage”). Alternatively a loanword from Latin monastērium, from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “community of monks”), but both the semantic change and the loss of s are difficult to explain under that hypothesis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmun͈ʲtʲer]

Noun

muinter f

1. community (group of persons connected by a bond)
2. family or household (including servants)
3. followers, attendants

For quotations using this term, see Citations:muinter.

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	muinterL	muintirL	muinteraH
vocative	muinterL	muintirL	muinteraH
accusative	muintirN	muintirL	muinteraH
genitive	muintireH	muinterL	muinterN
dative	muintirL	muinteraib	muinteraib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Synonyms

• (community): coitchennas, coitreb
• (family): cúallacht, muirer, teglach

Derived terms

• muinterach
• muinteras
• muinterda
• muintremail
• cétmuinter

Descendants

• Irish: muintir
• Manx: mooinjer
• Scottish Gaelic: muinntir

Mutation

Mutation of muinter

radical	lenition	nasalization
muinter also mmuinter after a proclitic ending in a vowel	muinter pronounced with /β̃(ʲ)-/	unchanged

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), “muinter”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language