tarsno

• tarsnu

A derivative of Proto-Celtic *taras (“across”, preposition) (whence tar, dar), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₂-. Originally probably a yo-stem, but the expected nominative/accusative *tarsnae is unattested, the dative tarsno, tarsnu taking its place.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtar͈sn͈o/

tarsno n

1. crosspiece
   • c. 800, The Tract on the Mass in the Stowe Missal, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 252–55, paragraph 18:

     Suidigoth combuig Casc ⁊ Notlaic: iii parsa deac in eo na crosa, viiii inna tarsno, xx pars inna cuairt roth, v parsæ cache oxile, a xvi itir in cuaird ⁊ chorp na cros, .i. a iiii cacha rainne. […] A mbís ho ṡen suas dind eo do epscopbaib; a tarsno for laim cli do sacardaib; a ni for laim deis do huilib fogradaib; a ní ond tarsno sís do anchortib ⁊ aes na aithirge.

     The arrangement of the confraction at Easter and Christmas: 13 particles in the stem of the crosses, nine in its crosspiece, 20 particles in its circle-wheel, five particle in each angle, 16 both in the circle and in the body of the crosses, that is four for every part. What is from that upwards of the shaft to bishops; the crosspiece on the left hand to priests; that on the right hand to all subgrades; that from the crosspiece down to anchorites and penitents.

• tarsainne (“opposing, fronting”)

• Middle Irish: tarsna
  • Irish: trasna (by metathesis)

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