badhbh

Irish

FWOTD – 6 May 2014

From Old Irish badb (“crow, witch”).^[2]

badhbh f (genitive singular baidhbhe, nominative plural badhbha)

war-goddess
vulture or other ravenous bird
Synonyms: bultúr, garrfhiach
- a. 1639, “Leviticus 11:14”, in Muircheartach Óg Ó Cíonga, transl., An Bíobla Naomhtha:
  An badhbh, préacháin na gcéarc do réir a chinnéil;
  and the vulture, and the kite after his kind
a scold or curser
a female fairy said to be attached to certain families and to foretell death, appearing as a hooded crow
Synonym: bean sí
- 1974, Béaloideas, volumes 42–47, page 99:
  ... deirtí go bhfeictí an bhadhbh i bhfoirm mná breá dathúil, gruaig fhada de dhath an óir síos go sála uirthí, i ina suí ar an gcathaoir so agus í ag cíoradh a cinn.
  ... it was said that the badhbh was seen in the shape of a fine good-looking woman with long golden hair down to her heels sitting on this chair and she combing her hair.
(obsolete) hooded crow
- between 1583 and 1591, Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, “Cath Droma Lighean”, in The bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó Huiginn‎^[1]:
  Budh iomdha ar madoin go moch/ proinn dá caitheamh go corrach;/ laoich ag ionnráithne a n-arm ngéar,/ iolgháirthe badhbh is brainéan.
  In the morn betimes/ there will be many a meal consumed without comfort,/ warriors whetting (?) their keen weapons,/ shrieks of scaldcrows and ravens.

Declension of badhbh (second declension)

forms with the definite article
	singular	plural
nominative	an bhadhbh	na badhbha
genitive	na baidhbhe	na mbadhbh
dative	leis an mbadhbh don bhadhbh	leis na badhbha

Mutated forms of *badhbh*
radical	lenition	eclipsis
badhbh	bhadhbh	mbadhbh

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

^ “badhbh”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “badb”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language