feum
Latin
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French or Old Occitan feu/fieu; see the main entry for more.
Noun
feum n (genitive feī); second declension
- (Medieval Latin) alternative form of feudum (“fief, fee”)
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | feum | fea |
| genitive | feī | feōrum |
| dative | feō | feīs |
| accusative | feum | fea |
| ablative | feō | feīs |
| vocative | feum | fea |
Middle English
Noun
feum
- alternative form of fume
Scottish Gaelic
Etymology
From Old Irish feidm (“effort”), from Proto-Celtic *wedesman, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to lead”). Cognate with Irish feidhm.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /feːm/
Noun
feum m (genitive singular feuma or fèim)
- need, necessity
- ann 'am fheum ― in my time of need
- 'S e am feum a thug air sin a dhèanamh. ― Dire necessity made him do that.
- use, usefulness
- Chan eil feum annad. ― There is no use in you.
- Dè is feum dha? ― What is the use of it?
- Is beag feum a tha ort. ― You are quite useless.
- poverty
- worth
- occasion
- Chan eil feum ort. ― There is no occasion for (or need of) you.
Derived terms
- dèan feum de (“use, exploit, make use of, utilize”, verb)
- feumach (“necessitous, needful, needy”)
- feumail (“useful, beneficial, helpful, handy, of use, serviceable, requisite”)
- gun fheum (“useless, needless; uselessly, needlessly”)
- mì-fheum m (“abuse, misapplication”)
Verb
feum
Inflection
The future tense feumaidh is used with present meaning:
- feumaidh mi ― I must
Mutation
| radical | lenition |
|---|---|
| feum | fheum |
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
References
- Edward Dwelly (1911) “feum”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary][1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
- Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “feidm”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language