orcun

See also: Orçun

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *orgenā, an unusual double-thematic formation in -e-nā. Two other basic verbal nouns, mlegon (“milking”) (from *mlig-o-nos) and fedan (“carrying”) (from *wed-o-nā) also have double-thematic *-V-no/ā- formations. Their closest parallels are Proto-Germanic *-aną and past participles in *-anaz, in addition to Slavic past passive participles in original -enъ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈor.ɡun]

Noun

orcun f (genitive oircne)

1. verbal noun of orcaid
2. murder, slaughter
3. raid

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	orcunL	orcuinL	oircneaH
Vocative	orcunL	orcuinL	oircneaH
Accusative	orcuinN	orcuinL	oircneaH
Genitive	oircneH	orcunL	orcunN
Dative	orcuinL	oircnib	oircnib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• comrorcun
• comthúarcon
• díorcun
• esorcon
• frithorcun
• timmorcon
• túarcun
• turorgain

 

Descendants

• Middle Irish: orcan, organ, argan
  • Irish: argain

Mutation

Mutation of orcun

radical	lenition	nasalization
orcun (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	unchanged	n-orcun

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), “orgun, (orcun)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language