Uath
Encyclopedia
Uath, Old Irish Úath, hÚath (wəθ), is the sixth letter of the Ogham
alphabet, , transcribed ⟨⟩ in manuscript tradition, but unattested in actual inscriptions. The kenning
"a meet of hounds is huath" identifies the name as úath "horror, fear", although the Auraicept glosses "white-thorn":
The original etymology of the name, and the letter's value, are however unclear. McManus (1986) suggested a value [y]. Peter Schrijver suggested that if úath "fear" is cognate with Latin pavere, a trace of PIE *p might have survived into Primitive Irish, but there is no independent evidence for this.
Ogham
Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a High Medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.There are roughly...
alphabet, , transcribed ⟨⟩ in manuscript tradition, but unattested in actual inscriptions. The kenning
Kenning
A kenning is a type of literary trope, specifically circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse and later Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry...
"a meet of hounds is huath" identifies the name as úath "horror, fear", although the Auraicept glosses "white-thorn":
- comdal cuan huath (.i. sce L. om); no ar is uathmar hi ara deilghibh "a meet of hounds is huath (i.e. white-thorn); or because it is formidable (uathmar) for its thorns."
The original etymology of the name, and the letter's value, are however unclear. McManus (1986) suggested a value [y]. Peter Schrijver suggested that if úath "fear" is cognate with Latin pavere, a trace of PIE *p might have survived into Primitive Irish, but there is no independent evidence for this.