biseach

Irish

FWOTD – 26 August 2022

From Middle Irish bisech (“increase, addition”), from Old Irish bisex (“bissextile”), from Latin bisextus (“intercalary day”).^[1]^[2]

biseach m (genitive singular bisigh)

intercalary day or year
increase, addition
improvement (especially with regard to health), recovery, recuperation
Tá biseach mór air. ― He’s much better [after an illness]. (literally, “A great recovery is on him.”)
- 1894 March, Peadar Mac Fionnlaoigh, “An rí nach robh le fagháil bháis”, in Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, volume 1:5, Dublin: Gaelic Union, pages 185–88:
  Bliadhain ’na dhiaidh sin, thug an rí fá deara an tromas a bhí ag éirghe innti, acht leig sise uirri gur bh’é an biadh maith a bhí sí ag fagháil a bhí ag cur an bhisigh sin uirri.
  A year after that, the king noticed how bulky she was growing, but she pretended that it was the good treatment she was getting that was putting that improvement on her.

Declension of biseach (first declension, no plural)

forms with the definite article
case	singular
nominative	an biseach
genitive	an bhisigh
dative	leis an mbiseach don bhiseach

Mutated forms of *biseach*
radical	lenition	eclipsis
biseach	bhiseach	mbiseach

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

^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bisech”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “bisex”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 78
^ Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect] (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 44