éicen

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• écen

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *ankenā (“force, necessity”), whence also Welsh angen, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to reach, attain”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἀνάγκη (anánkē, “force, necessity”), Old Armenian անքատ (ankʻat, “necessitous”), Tocharian B eṅk- (“take control of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈeːɡʲen]

Noun

éicen f (genitive éicne)

1. force, necessity
   • 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. 14^d3

     cid écen aisndís do neuch as doruid co léir, ní sechmalfaider cuimre and dano

     though it is necessary (lit. “though it is a necessity”) to explain carefully anything that is difficult, however brevity will not be passed by

   • 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. 207^b11

     Cit comṡuidigthi la Grécu ní écen dúnni beta comṡuidigthi linn.

     Although they are compounds in Greek (lit. “with the Greeks”), it is not necessary (lit. “it is not a necessity”) for us that they be compounds in our language (lit. “with us”).

Declension

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	éicenL	éicinL	éicneaH
Vocative	éicenL	éicinL	éicneaH
Accusative	éicinN	éicinL	éicneaH
Genitive	éicneH	éicenL	éicenN
Dative	éicinL	éicnib	éicnib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: éigean, éigin
• Manx: egin
• Scottish Gaelic: èiginn

Mutation

Mutation of éicen

radical	lenition	nasalization
éicen (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	unchanged	n-éicen

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