Focal an Lae #30
The Word of the Day in Irish
Word: bainne (BAN-yuh)
Meaning: bainne = milk
Usage:
- bainne bó (BAN-yuh BOH) = cow’s milk
- bainne lom (BAN-yuh LOHM) = skim milk (lit., bare milk)
History: Old Irish “bannae” has the primary meaning of “drop”, but its semantic range shifted to “drop of milk”,
then just “milk”. The primary meaning appears in the old triad “Trí bainne cétmuintire: bainne fola, bainne dér, bainne aillse”
(= Three drops of a wife: a drop of blood, a tear drop, a drop of sweat). The common word for “milk” in Old Irish
was “lacht”, borrowed from Latin “lac, lactis” (cf. lactose, lactate). “Lacht” is still in use in Irish, but mainly restricted
to the technical meaning “a cow’s yield of milk”. The word “bannae” was possibly borrowed from P-Celtic -- cf. Breton “banne”
(= drop) -- and Pokorny posits an Indo-European root *band- (drop).
Scottish Gaelic: bainne (BAHN-yuh)