préchán

Middle Irish

Alternative forms

prechan, précháin, preachán, preachán, préachán

Etymology

MacBain sees a connection between the Scottish Gaelic words preachan “crow, etc.” and preachan “mean/bad orator”, but the Middle Irish words have different vowel length: préchán vs. prechoin “a public crier”. MacBain gives Latin praeco (“crier, auctioneer”) as the derivation for the “orator” word.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈpʲrʲeːxaːn/

Noun

préchán m (genitive précháin, nominative plural précháin)

bird of prey

Descendants

Irish: préachán (“crow”)

Mutation

Mutation of *préchán*
radical	lenition	nasalization
préchán	phréchán	préchán pronounced with /b(ʲ)-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Middle Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

^ MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “preachan”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN, pages 281–282
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “préchán”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “prechoin”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

[1] MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “preachan”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN, pages 281–282

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

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

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