cleith

Irish

Alternative forms

• cleath, clith

Etymology

From Old Irish cleth (“housepost”), from Proto-Celtic *klitā (“pillar”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlitós (“inclined”). Compare Sanskrit श्रित (śritá, “attached”), Ancient Greek κλίτα (klíta, “cloister”, Hesychius), and Old English ġehlid (“fence”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /clʲɛ(h)/

Noun

cleith f (genitive singular cleithe, nominative plural cleitheanna)

1. pole (long and slender object for construction or support)

   Synonym: cuaille

2. cudgel (short heavy club with a rounded head)
3. wattle (construction of branches and twigs), stake (in wattling)

   Synonym: caolach

4. (nautical) yard (tapered timber from which square sails hang)

   Synonym: slat

5. housepost
6. (obsolete) spear

   Synonym: sleá

Declension

Declension of cleith

Second declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative cleith cleitha Vocative a chleith a chleitha Genitive cleithe cleith Dative cleith cleitha

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an chleith na cleitha Genitive na cleithe na gcleith Dative leis an gcleith don chleith leis na cleitha

Derived terms

• cleith ailpín (“knobstick”)
• cleith mhullaigh (“ridgepole”)
• cleith pubaill (“tent pole”)
• cleith sháite (“punt pole”)
• cleith uachtair (“gaff (of sail)”)
• cleithire
• idir cleith agus ursain (“by the skin of one's teeth, by a hair's breadth, narrowly”)

 

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cleith	chleith	gcleith
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• “cleith”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cleth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “cleaṫ”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 147
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cleith”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 73