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Leprechaun
A leprechaun ( ga, leipreachán/luchorpán) is a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore, classed by some as a type of solitary fairy. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. In later times, they have been depicted as shoe-makers who have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore. Etymology The Anglo-Irish (Hiberno-English) word ''leprechaun'' is descended from Old Irish ''luchorpán or lupracán'', via various (Middle Irish) forms such as ''luchrapán, lupraccán'', (or var. ''luchrupán''). Modern forms The current spelling is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants. John O'Donovan's supplement to O'Reilly's ''Irish-English Dictionary'' defines as "a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling".O'Donovan in O'Reilly ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leprechaun Engraving 1900
A leprechaun ( ga, leipreachán/luchorpán) is a diminutive supernatural being in Irish folklore, classed by some as a type of solitary fairy. They are usually depicted as little bearded men, wearing a coat and hat, who partake in mischief. In later times, they have been depicted as shoe-makers who have a hidden pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Leprechaun-like creatures rarely appear in Irish mythology and only became prominent in later folklore. Etymology The Anglo-Irish (Hiberno-English) word ''leprechaun'' is descended from Old Irish ''luchorpán or lupracán'', via various (Middle Irish) forms such as ''luchrapán, lupraccán'', (or var. ''luchrupán''). Modern forms The current spelling is used throughout Ireland, but there are numerous regional variants. John O'Donovan's supplement to O'Reilly's ''Irish-English Dictionary'' defines as "a sprite, a pigmy; a fairy of a diminutive size, who always carries a purse containing a shilling".O'Donovan in O'Reilly ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irish Folklore
Irish folklore ( ga, béaloideas) refers to the folktales, balladry, music, dance, and so forth, ultimately, all of folk culture. Irish folklore, when mentioned to many people, conjures up images of banshees, fairies, leprechauns and people gathering around, sharing stories. Many tales and legends were passed from generation to generation, so were the dances and song in the observing of important occasions such as weddings, wakes, birthdays and holidays or, handcraft traditions. All of the above can be considered as a part of folklore, as it is the study and appreciation of how people lived. Definition What constitutes Irish folklore may be rather fuzzy to those unfamiliar with Irish literature. Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, for one, declared that folklore was elusive to define clearly. Bo Almqvist (c. 1977) gave an all-encompassing definition that folklore covered "the totality of folk culture, spiritual and material", and included anything mentioned in Seán Ó Súilleabháin' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fergus Mac Léti
Fergus mac Léti (also mac Léte, mac Léide, mac Leda) was, according to Irish legend and traditional history, a king of Ulster. His place in the traditional chronology is not certain - according to some sources, he was a contemporary of the High King Conn of the Hundred Battles,D. A. Binchy (ed. & trans.)"The Saga of Fergus mac Léti" ''Ériu 16, 1952, pp. 33-48 in others of Lugaid Luaigne, Congal Cláiringnech, Dui Dallta Dedad and Fachtna Fáthach. Appearances According to the ''Caithréim Conghail Cláiringhnigh'' (''Martial Career of Congal Cláiringnech''), while Lugaid Luaigne was High King of Ireland, Fergus ruled the southern half of Ulster while Congal Cláiringnech ruled the northern half. The Ulaid objected to having two kings, and the High King was asked to judge which of them should be sole ruler of the province. Lugaid chose Fergus, and gave him his daughter Findabair in marriage. Congal refused to accept this and declared war. After trying and failing to overt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainbow
A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun. Rainbows can be full circles. However, the observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the Sun to the observer's eye. In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it. In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the dro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legendary Creature
A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be featured in historical accounts before modernity. In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops and the Minotaur appear in heroic tales for the protagonist to destroy. Other creatures, such as the unicorn, were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity. Some legendary creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and were believed to be real creatures, for example dragons, griffins, and unicorns. Others were based on real encounters, originating in garbled accounts of travellers' tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, which supposedly grew tethered to the earth. Creatures A variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the classical era. For example, in the ''Odyssey'', monstrous cre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John O'Donovan (scholar)
John O'Donovan ( ga, Seán Ó Donnabháin; 25 July 1806 – 10 December 1861), from Atateemore, in the parish of Kilcolumb, County Kilkenny, and educated at Hunt's Academy, Waterford, was an Irish language scholar from Ireland. Life He was the fourth son of Edmond O'Donovan and Eleanor Hoberlin of Rochestown. His early career may have been inspired by his uncle Parick O'Donovan. He worked for antiquarian James Hardiman researching state papers and traditional sources at the Public Records Office. Hardiman had secured O'Donovan a place in Maynooth College which he turned down. He also taught Irish to Thomas Larcom for a short period in 1828 and worked for Myles John O'Reilly, a collector of Irish manuscripts. Following the death of Edward O'Reilly in August 1830, he was recruited to the Topographical Department of the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland under George Petrie in October 1830. Apart from a brief period in 1833, he worked steadily for the Survey on place-name res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Folk Etymology
Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes. The term ''folk etymology'' is a loan translation from German ''Volksetymologie'', coined by Ernst Förstemann in 1852. Folk etymology is a productive process in historical linguistics, language change, and social interaction. Reanalysis of a word's history or original form can affect its spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. This is frequently seen in relation to loanwords or words that have become archaic or obsolete. Examples of words created or changed through folk etymology include the English dialectal form ''sparrowgrass'', originally from Greek (" asparagus") remade by analogy t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lupercalia
Lupercalia was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as ''dies Februatus'', after the purification instruments called ''februa'', the basis for the month named '' Februarius''. Name The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after the ' which was used on the day.. It was also known as ' and gave its name variously, as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called Februus; and to February ('), the month during which the festival occurred. Ovid connects ' to an Etruscan word for "purging". The name ''Lupercalia'' was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival ( grc-gre, λύκος, ''lýkos''; la, lupus), and the worship of ''Lycaean Pan'', assumed to be a Greek equivale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecclesiastical Latin
Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late Antiquity and used in Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the Catholic Church. It includes words from Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin (as well as Greek and Hebrew) re-purposed with Christian meaning. It is less stylized and rigid in form than Classical Latin, sharing vocabulary, forms, and syntax, while at the same time incorporating informal elements which had always been with the language but which were excluded by the literary authors of Classical Latin. Its pronunciation was partly standardized in the late 8th century during the Carolingian Renaissance as part of Charlemagne's educational reforms, and this new letter-by-letter pronunciation, used in France and England, was adopted in Iberia and Italy a couple of centuries afterwards. As time passed, pronunciation diverged depending on the loc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitley Stokes
Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE, FBA (28 February 1830 – 13 April 1909) was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar. Background He was a son of William Stokes (1804–1878), and a grandson of Whitley Stokes the physician and anti-Malthusian (1763–1845), each of whom was Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin. His sister Margaret Stokes was a writer and archaeologist. He was born at 5 Merrion Square, Dublin and educated at St Columba's College where he was taught Irish by Denis Coffey, author of a ''Primer of the Irish Language''. Through his father he came to know the Irish antiquaries Samuel Ferguson, Eugene O'Curry, John O'Donovan and George Petrie. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1846 and graduated with a BA in 1851. His friend and contemporary Rudolf Thomas Siegfried (1830–1863) became assistant librarian in Trinity College in 1855, and the college's first professor of Sanskrit in 1858. It is likely that Stokes learnt both Sanskrit and comparative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
