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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: etymology of "geas"
Message-ID: <1995Jan21.030038.4582@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <By27hLz.bwelden@delphi.com> <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 03:00:38 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu> deb5@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>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).

>The word is Irish.  If you want to know
>its etymology, you'll have to hunt down an Irish etymological
>dictionary...

Fortunately, there's more than one at the research library where I
work.  McBain's (Scots-Gaelic/English) derives it from earlier
*gesso <- *ged-to, ultimately from PIE (Proto-Indo-European)
*ghed- meaning "ask" (which also gives Irish 'guidh' "pray").  
Listed cognates include Greek 'thessasthai' 'pray for' and English 
'bid', German 'bitten', both "ask for."

So there you have it:  "prayer" -> "spell" -> "magical prohibition".

The Foclor Gaelige Bearla and the Dictionary of the Irish
Language give 'geis' (pl. 'geasa') as the Old and Modern Irish 
form, but the former lists 'geas' as a variant.  'geis' would
be pronounced as [g'e(i)sh] (depending on dialect)--more or less
like English 'geisha' without the final '-a'.

Thanks for asking.  You've forced me to add to my personal store 
of knowledge. ^_^
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
