gáu

See also: gau, GAU, Gau, gấu, and gâu

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• gó

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *gāwā.

Noun

gáu f (genitive gue, nominative plural goa or gúa)

1. lie, falsehood
   • 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. 14^c23

     co beid .i. co mbed a ndéde sin im labrad-sa .i. gáu et fír .i. combad sain a n‑as·berin ó bélib et aní imme·rádin ó chridiu

     so that there may be, i.e. so that those two things might be in my speaking, namely false and true, i.e. so that what I might say with [my] lips and what I might think with [my] heart might be different

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 21^c11

     .i. as·berat as nDía cloine Macc, ol sodin as gó doib.

     i.e. who say that the Son is a God of iniquity, which, however, is a lie on their part.

2. false judgement
   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 40^a15

     Cindas ṁbias iarna cétbuid-sem? ɔid gau dóib-sem in chruth-sin a n-as·berat nad·ṁbed ad plures.

     How then will it be according to their opinion? So that they are wrong [lit. it is a falsehood] then when they say that there is no [comparison] ad plures.

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gáuL, góL	góiL	góaH, gúa
Vocative	gáuL, góL	góiL	góaH, gúa
Accusative	góiN	góiL	góaH, gúa
Genitive	gueH	gáuL	gáuN
Dative	góiL	*góaib	*góaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: gó

Mutation

Mutation of gáu

radical	lenition	nasalization
gáu	gáu pronounced with /ɣ(ʲ)-/	ngáu

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), “gáu”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language