rath

See also: Rath, ráth, räth, -rath, and -raþ

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Irish ráth.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɑːθ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹæθ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːθ, Rhymes: -æθ
• Homophone: wrath (some dialects)

Noun

rath (plural raths)

1. (historical) A walled enclosure, especially in Ireland; a ringfort built sometime between the Iron Age and the Viking Age.
   • 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 364:

     The Legend of Knock-Grafton tells how a little hunchback, while sitting to rest at nightfall at the side of a Rath or Moat, heard the fairies within singing over and over again, Da Luan, Da Mart! (i.e., Monday, Tuesday!) and added, weary with the monotony, Agus da Cadin! (i.e., and Wednesday!).

   • 1907, James Woods, Annals of Westmeath, Ancient and Modern:

     There are numerous Danish raths in the parish.

   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 1, in The Whisperer in Darkness:

     Those with Celtic legendry in their heritage—mainly the Scotch-Irish element of New Hampshire, and their kindred who had settled in Vermont on Governor Wentworth’s colonial grants—linked them vaguely with the malign fairies and “little people” of the bogs and raths, and protected themselves with scraps of incantation handed down through many generations.

Related terms

• fairy rath
• Rathmines

Translations

walled enclosure, ringfort

Irish: ráth m or f Old Irish: ráth m or f, ráith m or f Russian: форт (ru) m (fort)

Etymology 2

From Hindi रथ (rath), from Sanskrit रथ (ratha).

Noun

rath (plural raths)

1. A Burmese carriage of state.

Etymology 3

Adjective

rath (comparative more rath, superlative most rath)

1. Alternative form of rathe.

Anagrams

• Arth, HART, Hart, Thar, hart, tahr, thar

Cornish

Etymology

From Latin rattus. Cognate with Breton razh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹaːθ/

Noun

rath f (plural rathes)

1. rat

   Synonym: logojen vroas (Revived Late Cornish)

German

Verb

rath

1. singular imperative of rathen

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish rath (“grace, virtue”), from Proto-Celtic *ɸratom (“grace, virtue, good fortune”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɾˠɑh/, /ɾˠa(h)/, (Cois Fharraige) [ɾˠaː]

Noun

rath m (genitive singular ratha)

1. fortune, good luck
2. prosperity
3. usefulness

   rath a bheith agat ag déanamh rud ― to be good at doing something (literally, “to have usefulness doing something”)

   Níl rath agat sa chluiche seo.

   You’re no good at this game.

   (literally, “You have no usefulness…”)

4. (literary) grace, bounty

Declension

Declension of rath (third declension, no plural)

bare forms singular nominative rath vocative a rath genitive ratha dative rath forms with the definite article singular nominative an rath genitive an ratha dative leis an rath don rath

Derived terms

• anrath (“ill-luck”)

References

References

Further reading

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904), “raṫ”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla [Irish and English Dictionary], 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 560
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “rath”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “rath”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• rad, rat

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ɸratom (“grace, virtue, good fortune”), from the root of *ɸarnati (“bestow”) (whence ernaid), from Proto-Indo-European *perh₃- (“bestow, give”) (whence also Sanskrit पृणाक्ति (pṛṇā́kti, “grant, bestow”), Latin parō (“prepare”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈraθ/

Noun

rath n (genitive raith)

1. verbal noun of ernaid
2. grace, virtue
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 33^b8

     Ní derlaicht⟨h⟩a a pecdæ doïb acht du·ratad dígal forru. Cenotad maic-si raith dano, má im·roimsid ní dílgibther dúib.

     Their sins have not been forgiven them, but punishment has been inflicted upon them. Though you pl, then, are children of grace, if you sin, you will not be forgiven.

Declension

Neuter o-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
vocative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
accusative	rathN	rathN	rathL, ratha
genitive	raithL	rath	rathN
dative	rathL	rathaib	rathaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: rath
  • Irish: rath

Mutation

Mutation of rath

radical	lenition	nasalization
rath also rrath in h-prothesis environments	rath pronounced with /ɾ-/	rath also rrath

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 rath”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• rað

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *raþ, from Proto-Germanic *raþą (“wheel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɑθ/

Noun

rath n

1. wheel

Declension

rath (neuter a-stem)

	singular	plural
nominative	rath	rathu
accusative	rath	rathu
genitive	rathes	rathō
dative	rathe	rathum
instrumental	—	—

Descendants

• Middle Low German: rat
  • German Low German: Rad
  • Plautdietsch: Raut
  • → Swedish: ratt (see there for further descendants)
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: ratt
  • → Norwegian Nynorsk: ratt
  • → Danish: rat
  • → Elfdalian: ratt