Focal an Lae #194
The Word of the Day in Irish
Word: agus (AH-guhs) [agəs]
Meaning: agus = and
Usage:
- mise agus tusa (MIH-shuh AH-guhs TU-suh) [m′is′ə agəs tusə] = me and you
- D’imigh sé agus fearg air. (JIH-muh shay AH-guhs FA-ruhg ehr) [d′imə s′eː agəs færəg er′]
= He went away angry. (lit., he went away and anger on-him)
- aguisín (AH-guh-sheen) [agəs′iːn′] = addendum, postscript (lit., agus + the diminutive ending -ín: “a little and”)
Chuir sí aguisín leis an litir. = She added a postscript to the letter.
History: Old Irish “ocus” (and) is a semantic extension of the word “ocus” meaning “near” and “nearness”,
so that “X ocus Y” originally meant “X beside Y”. The noun and adjective meanings of “ocus” survive in Modern Irish in the word “fogas”.
The reconstructed Common Celtic predecessor of “ocus” is *onkus-tus.
*onkus alone yields Old Irish “oc” (Mod. “ag”, at) and Welsh “wng” (near), and appears to derive from the Indo-European root *nek- (to reach, attain).
Scottish Gaelic: agus