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ess-. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ess-, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ess- in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ess- you have here. The definition of the word
ess- will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
ess-, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Old Irish
Etymology
From Proto-Celtic *exs-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs (“out”).
Prefix
ess- (pretonic as-)
- ex-, out
- ess- (“out”) + beirid (“to bring, carry”) → as·beir (“to say”, literally “bring out”)
- ess- (“out”) + renaid (“to sell”) → as·ren (“pay (off)”, literally “sell out”)
- ess- (“out”) + éirge (“rising”) → esséirge (“resurrection”, literally “rising out”)
- privative prefix: non-, dis-
- ess- (“non-”) + carae (“friend”) → escarae (“enemy”, literally “non-friend”)
- ess- (“non-”) + báe (“benefit, utility”) → esbae (“uselessness”)
- ess- (“-less”) + recht (“law”) → eisrecht (“outlaw”, literally “lawless, i.e. not protected under the law”)
- ess- (“-less”) + tol (“desire”) → etal (“pure, sinless”, literally “without desire”)
Usage notes
Originally, ess- manifested in the following distribution in stressed syllables:
- ess- proper before vowels and s-
- é- before resonants
- e- before stops, blocking lenition
Already in Old Irish, however, ess- proper can be seen encroaching on the environments of its other allomorphs.
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading
- Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “ess-, es-, e-, é-”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
- Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) [1909] D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, translation of Handbuch des Alt-Irischen (in German), →ISBN, § 834; reprinted 2017