Page:Irish Lexicography.djvu/21

 sense. Or, again, Ml. 31d$10$ (amal ní cofil ní arachoat anargat nglan acht á techt inaicdi) sic comlabrai inchoimded infolngar gním disuidib fochetoir iarnalabrad, “just so the word of the Lord becomes act immediately on its utterance". Or cf. its use in Ml. 46α$15$: inchomlabrae, glossing (rationabilis) allocutio. It is clear, therefore, that Stokes was quite justified in translating comlabra by speech.

The simple labar is brought into play in the ''Gr. Celt. in a compound which has nothing to do with it; p. 3, foot, “eslabre (gl. amabilia), i. e. non superba, from adj. labar'' superbus, arrogans”. This is not correct, for the meaning is established as largeness (of heart); cf. Ml. 19c$20$, eslabrae, gl. dispensatrix Dei liberalitas; 57b$1$, gl. [manum] suæ liberalitatis extendere; 57b$5$, sua liberalitate sustentat. And the passage in Wb. 24b itself shows that no adjective is here intended, though the word is given as a gloss on ‘quæcumque amabilia’ [Phil, iv. 8], because the analogous clause ‘quæcumque pudica’ is glossed ‘buith cen peccad’, ‘sinlessness’, so eslabre is employed in the constant meaning of liberality. O'Reilly has the word, viz.,, ‘bounty’, ‘courtesy’, ‘affability’, and supplies the corrective in the previous entry, , ‘wide’, from the word slabar, ‘narrow’, which is known from Cormac's “slabar each cumang, esslabar cach fairsing”, p. 40.

This extreme timidity of conservatism has led Windisch to be sceptical as to the meaning of words used commonly in the generally accepted sense. Thus, he will not give the student the benefit of his judgment in the matter of the phrase, ‘ising ma’, ''Ir. Texte'', p. 260, though O’Curry had translated it ‘hardly’, to which meaning Windisch merely attaches a (?). But the word is of constant usage in this sense, cf. F. Mast.. p. 1771:. . . . . “there was hardly any woman then living,” &c;. p. 2318:, “it is scarcely credible that the like number of forces (ever before) achieved such a victory”; cf. ibid. . p. 1498: ; where O'Donovan adds, in a note:—“ is thus explained by O'Clery: ”. In Cormac's Glossary, p. 36, the text, ni roibe riam um nách araile éces samail inchumdaig boi um S., is given in the Lecan text, is ing ma rodmbaei din riam, &c.