cross-bigil?

djwebb2021 · **Joined:** Thu 27 May 2021 3:22 am **Posts:** 1758

I have just read this in Quo Vadis Ch20 (p208 of this long 693-page book):

Quote:

Do bhíodar ag féachaint in áirde i dtreó na spéire, agus ba dhó’ leat orthu go raibh radharc acu ar dhuine éigin i bhfad uathu, agus go rabhadar ag ímpí air agus a lámha i gcrois-fhighil chun teacht anuas chúthu, dar leat

Cosfhighil is found in Ó Dónall's dictionary as "cross-bigil, arms outstretched in prayer". This seems a very odd word. I've never heard of cross-bigil in English. Would you say this is pronounced cros-íl, or cros-igil? This word is odd, as there is a word bigil, with a B and an unlenited G in Ó Dónall's dictionary too.

djwebb2021 · **Joined:** Thu 27 May 2021 3:22 am **Posts:** 1758

Also I'm not sure "chun" is needed in that sentence. Do people agree?

An Lon Dubh · **Joined:** Fri 30 Sep 2011 10:08 pm **Posts:** 1313

djwebb2021 wrote:

I have just read this in Quo Vadis Ch20:

Quote:

Do bhíodar ag féachaint in áirde i dtreó na spéire, agus ba dhó’ leat orthu go raibh radharc acu ar dhuine éigin i bhfad uathu, agus go rabhadar ag ímpí air agus a lámha i gcrois-fhighil chun teacht anuas chúthu, dar leat

Cosfhighil is found in Ó Dónall's dictionary as "cross-bigil, arms outstretched in prayer". This seems a very odd word. I've never heard of cross-bigil in English. Would you say this is pronounced cros-íl, or cros-igil? This word is odd, as there is a word bigil, with a B and an unlenited G in Ó Dónall's dictionary too.

Cross-bigil is an old Hiberno-English phrase, I only heard it once or twice growing up.
I have heard it as "Croisíl" in Kerry, but I don't know how that would relate to the Cork pronunciation.

I would understand the "chun" in the sense of "for the purpose of".

Literally:

Their arms outstretched in prayer for the purpose of descent

In natural English:

They were beseeching him to come down

djwebb2021 · **Joined:** Thu 27 May 2021 3:22 am **Posts:** 1758

An Lon Dubh wrote:

djwebb2021 wrote:

I have just read this in Quo Vadis Ch20:

Quote:

Do bhíodar ag féachaint in áirde i dtreó na spéire, agus ba dhó’ leat orthu go raibh radharc acu ar dhuine éigin i bhfad uathu, agus go rabhadar ag ímpí air agus a lámha i gcrois-fhighil chun teacht anuas chúthu, dar leat

Cosfhighil is found in Ó Dónall's dictionary as "cross-bigil, arms outstretched in prayer". This seems a very odd word. I've never heard of cross-bigil in English. Would you say this is pronounced cros-íl, or cros-igil? This word is odd, as there is a word bigil, with a B and an unlenited G in Ó Dónall's dictionary too.

Cross-bigil is an old Hiberno-English phrase, I only heard it once or twice growing up.
I have heard it as "Croisíl" in Kerry, but I don't know how that would relate to the Cork pronunciation.

I would understand the "chun" in the sense of "for the purpose of".

Literally:

Their arms outstretched in prayer for the purpose of descent

In natural English:

They were beseeching him to come down

Thank you!

Forum rules

cross-bigil?

Who is online