Focal an Lae #9
The Word of the Day in Irish
Word: tír (TYEER or CHEER; EE as in “keen”)
Meaning: tír = land, country
Usage:
- ar muir agus ar tír (ehr MOOir uhguhs ehr CHEER; OO as in wood) = on sea and on land
- Tír Eoghain (CHEER OH-win) = Tyrone (Land of Eoghan), a county in the middle of Ulster
- Tír agus Teanga! (CHEER uh-guhs CHANG-guh) Land and Language! (a well-known old slogan)
History: Old Irish “tír” and Welsh “tir” derive via the reconstructed Insular Celtic “tíros” from the Indo-European
root *ters- (to dry), with a simple dichotomy at work: water is wet and land is dry. Cognates include “terra”, “terrain” and “terrace”.