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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: etymology of "geas"
Message-ID: <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <By27hLz.bwelden@delphi.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 04:34:47 GMT
Lines: 33

In article <By27hLz.bwelden@delphi.com> bwelden@delphi.com writes:
>Once, sometime during the thirty-odd years that I have been
>reading, I came across the word "geas", which I took from
>context to mean a magic spell, or more specifically a bond of
>obligation imposed magically.  Now I've looked in all of my
>dictionaries, and I can't find it (and there's a *lot* of
>off-the-wall stuff in the OED).

Because it's a relatively new and obscure borrowing into English.
I've only seen it used by Celtic scholars and RPGers.  It means
specifically a magically-imposed obligation, especially a pro-
hibition and thus approximates the original meaning of the 
Polynesian word 'tabu.'

>It might have been in something by Cabell (which would argue
>for it having some historical reality); and I remember a friend
>telling me that it was Celtic (or if not Celtic then taken from
>Celtic mythology), and that it referred to "earth" magic,
>possibly an explanation of its etymology.

Folk etymology, more like it.  It has nothing to do with
Greek 'ge' "earth".  The word is Irish.  If you want to know
its etymology, you'll have to hunt down an Irish etymological
dictionary (good luck!) or a monograph on the subject of geasa
in Irish literature and folklore.

Btw, it's pronounced (IPA) [gj%s]/'gyass' (rhymes with American
English 'glass'), not [gi@s]/ 'ghee-uss', as I always hear RPGers
say it. 
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
