muinter

Old Irish

Alternative forms

muntar, montar

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *moniterā, from *monis (“protection, patronage”). Alternatively a loanword from Latin monastērium, from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “community of monks”), but both the semantic change and the loss of s are difficult to explain under that hypothesis.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈmun͈ʲtʲer]

Noun

muinter f

community (group of persons connected by a bond)
family or household (including servants)
followers, attendants

For quotations using this term, see Citations:muinter.

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	muinter^L	muintir^L	muintera^H
vocative	muinter^L	muintir^L	muintera^H
accusative	muintir^N	muintir^L	muintera^H
genitive	muintire^H	muinter^L	muinter^N
dative	muintir^L	muinteraib	muinteraib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

^H = triggers aspiration
^L = triggers lenition
^N = triggers nasalization

Synonyms

(community): coitchennas, coitreb
(family): cúallacht, muirer, teglach

Derived terms

muinterach
muinteras
muinterda
muintremail
cétmuinter

Descendants

Irish: muintir
Manx: mooinjer
Scottish Gaelic: muinntir

Mutation

Mutation of *muinter*
radical	lenition	nasalization
muinter also mmuinter in h-prothesis environments	muinter pronounced with /β̃-/	muinter also mmuinter

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

References

^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*moni- ‘protection, patronage’”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 276