nammá

See also: namma

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• nammáa

Etymology

A petrified phrase derived from a negated form of má (“more”) (a comparative form of mór, már (“great”)), thus ‘not more’.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [n͈aˈmaː]

Adverb

nammá

1. only
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 12^c32

     Acht nammáa is samlid is torbe són, co eter·certa a n‑as·bera et con·rucca i n‑ætarcne cáich.

     But it is only thus that this is a profit, that he may interpret what he says and bring it into everyone’s understanding.

   • 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. 118^b6

     Air mad panem nammá du·berad-som ⁊ ní taibred meum, ro·bad dund ṡásad dïant ainm panis tantum no·regad; húare immurgu du·n-uic meum, is ar chech ṡásad da·uic-som amal sodin.

     For if it were panem only that he put and he did not put meum, it would be only to the food to which is [given] the name panis that it would apply; however, because he has put meum, it is for every food then that he has put that.

Descendants

• Middle Irish: amáin
  • Irish: amháin
  • Scottish Gaelic: a-mhàin

Further reading

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