[ page ]first, till it lost the digamma. But when roots which began with the digamma in Greek are common to Latin and Irish, in the former of these they begin with v, and in the latter with f. Such are οἶνος (for ϝοινος), Latin vinum, O. Ir. fín (now fíon), Eng. wine; εἴκοσι, Doric εἴκατι, Latin viginti, Ir. fiċe; Eng. twenty; οἶσα, Lat. vīdī, O. I. fetar (now feadar), Eng. wit, wot. If the Irish for spring were the same as the Greek and Latin, it should therefore be “fér;” but it was neither fér nor féraċ, it was erraċ (now earraċ), with never a sign of an f. The real Irish analogue of ἦρ and ver is fér (now feur, grass), which most probably was the original meaning of the classical words the bright new grass being one of the most striking signs of spring. Another flaw in the comparison of erraċ with ἦρ and ver is that the Irish word has a double r; whilst there is but one in the classical words, and the ending of erraċ is left quite unaccounted for.
But whilst the Aryan tongues have, of course, many words in common, there are also differences. It does not follow that every Irish word must have a classical analogy, or, at least, it does not follow that such analogies must have the same meaning. Gam, as we have seen, has such analogies, but sam has not; the Greek for summer, θέρος, and the Latin aestas, show no connection with our word, nor with each other. Another explanation of earraċ was offered by the late Canon Bourke in one of his numerous speculations. He suggested the Irish word éirġe, to rise, as the root of earraċ. This has the analogy of the English spring (noun and verb) in its favour; but though there are infinitives and verbals in Irish ending in -aċ, as glaoḋaċ, ceannaċ, etc, the infinitive of the Irish for rise never ended in -aċ; it was érge (now éirġe) for ess-rige, with long e and one r; whilst earraċ has two r’s and a short e.
If May began the year, then the spring season—February, March, April—formed the end of the year. What if earraċ should mean the end? This, I believe, is the true explanation a natural, unforced, Irish explanation, satisfactory in itself, and giving further proof that the Irish pagan year began with May. I consider err-aċ, then, a plain derivative of err, an end or conclusion; later, earr. The simple word earr, which has well-known Teutonic analogies, is, I think, obsolete,[1] now in Ireland; but it is found in some late writers. In a poem written about 1660, by O’Clery (one of the IV. MM.), and given in O’Curry’s MS. Materials (p. 564), the second half of the 12th stanza runs:—
“Maiṫ leam nár láġdaiġ do ċáil
’S gur árdaiġ earr dom anáil.”
That is: “Glad am I thy fame has not diminished, and that my last breath (lit. end of my breath) has extolled it.” And in another poem by the same writer, and quoted in the same work (p. 569), occur the lines:—
Déna an t-inċreaċaḋ dliġe
O ṫús go h-eirr ṫ’ aimsire.”
That is: “Make thou all due criticism of thy life from beginning to end.” Dr. O’Brien, in his Irish Dictionary (1760), gives earr, with a couple of phrases to illustrate it: “duine a n-earr a aoise,” i. a man at the end of his life, in the decline of his years; “a n-earr na tíre i. in the end of the country. Examples of err from ancient writers are still more common; but I need not give more here.
Why earraċ and not earr? In many nouns the Irish suffix -aċ forms augmentatives. Thus, from tos we have tosaċ, beginning, (the exact counterpart of earraċ); from tul, tulaċ (hill); from ceap, ceapaċ (plot of ground); from brat, brataċ (a flag); etc. So earraċ from earr: whilst earr would mean an exact restricted end, earraċ would mean a fuller, more extended end.
“But end of what?” it may be asked. Earraċ with this meaning would be merely a relative word, and how could it come to have an absolute and definite meaning of itself? Well, nothing is commoner in Irish—and, indeed, in other languages too—than for a merely relative term to acquire after a time, generally by abbreviation, an absolute sense. So now we use uaċtar (cream) for uaċtar bainne (upper milk). Inid, shrovetide. Welsh Ynyd, for Initium Quadragesimae—if it is not for Initium jejunii, etc., etc. Perhaps earraċ at first was for earraċ in gaim, end of winter—for our Irish spring has a repute for chilliness as many of our native proverbs testify. I believe, however, that what was meant was earraċ na bliaḋna = the year’s end, and I am inclined to think that this expression—“earraċ na bliaḋna”—so often met with in the Annals and other writings, though, no doubt, in Christian times it was used in the sense of “the spring of the year,” meant at first “the end of the year; but that when the new mode of reckoning was introduced with Christianity, the old name earraċ was still retained for the season, whilst in its original and true sense, its place was taken by such words as foirċeann, deireaḋ, diaiḋ, etc. This mode of naming a season is, moreover, quite agreeable to our Irish custom; witness Inid, already given, and the well-known popular way of naming the months ‘first-month-of-spring,’ ‘mid-month-of-spring,’ ‘end-month-of-spring,’ etc.
I have come to the conclusion then that Dr. Charles O’Conor arrived at with regard to the year and its seasons—that May began the year, that the seasons in their order were saṁraḋ, foġṁar, geiṁreaḋ, earraċ, that earraċ was the last of the seasons, and the end of the year. I have come to this conciusion, however, more easily, more directly, and, I hope, more reasonably than Dr. O’Conor. Yet, my object in this paper was not so much archæological as etymological. Irish etymology is as yet almost an unbroken field—I mean real, modern, scientific etymology—but, perhaps, the slight excursion I have here made, will give some idea of the important bearing the subject may have on many points of Irish history and archæology.
Tomás O’Flannaoile.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
(15) (See N. and Q. 2) Mr. Finian Lynch states that in Kerry aig an ndorus, aig an dtobar, ar an dtír are always said, eclipsis being always practised in such cases.
(16) (See N. and Q. 4) A passage in O’Begley’s or MacCunin’s Dictionary, s.v. live, would go to show that the Western phrase (in-on′) = in innṁe. “That ship is so old, she can’t live long at sea. Atá an long úd coiṁsean agas soin, naċ fada ḃias sí aninnṁe na mara dfulang.” We have here exactly the same sense as in the Western (in-on′) and the Donegal ’niniṁ. Again, in Luke, V. 7, “agas tángadar ⁊ do líonadar an dá
- ↑ Not quite obsolete; it is yet used in some parts of S. W. Munster, and one phrase, which includes the word [in the form iorr] ó iorr lae go lá, has been already printed in this Journal.—E. O’G.
