ómun

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• omun, homun (with short vowel)

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *oβnus. The ó is unexpected, since fricative-induced compensatory lengthening did not occur, as no fricative was deleted. Thurneysen explained the long ó as being transferred from the synonym úath (“fear”) before that word underwent diphthongization. Forms with the expected short vowel like omun are also attested and are completely interchangeable with the long-vowel forms, even within a single Old Irish speaker's writings.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

ómun m

1. fear
   • 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. 59^a18

     .i. ómun epertae nad·rabae remdéicsiu Dǽ dim-so intan do·rata form inna fochaidi.

     i.e. fear of saying that there was no providence of God for me, when the tribulations were inflicted upon me.

   • 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. 128^d7

     .i. ermitiu feid homno Dǽ

     i.e. reverence of the fear of God (explaining Latin reverentia (“reverence”))

Inflection

Descendants

• Middle Irish: úaman, oman
  • Irish: uamhan
  • Scottish Gaelic: uabhann

Mutation

References

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “omun, ómun”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language