lestar

Old Irish

Etymology

Generally considered a borrowing from Proto-Brythonic *llestr (whence also Welsh llestr (“vessel, receptacle”)), due to the existence of the cluster /st/, which should have become /s/ in native vocabulary.^[1] The Brythonic word is from Proto-Celtic *lexstrom (“pot”).

However, Schrijver does point out that *str normally does not lose the *t when preceded by a velar consonant, which is instead lost.^[2] This makes the Old Irish word a straightforward inheritance from Proto-Celtic *lexstrom.

Noun

lestar n (genitive lestair, nominative plural lestra)

vessel
- c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 94^c9
  .i. air lani ind lestair .i. sechis ar lani in[na] diglae-sín.
  i.e. for the fullness of the vessel; that is, namely, for the fullness of that punishment.

Inflection

Neuter o-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	lestar^N	lestar^N	lestar^L, lestra
vocative	lestar^N	lestar^N	lestar^L, lestra
accusative	lestar^N	lestar^N	lestar^L, lestra
genitive	lestair^L	lestar	lestar^N
dative	lestur^L	lestraib	lestraib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

^H = triggers aspiration
^L = triggers lenition
^N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

lestrae

Descendants

Middle Irish: lestar
- Irish: leastar
- Scottish Gaelic: leastar

Mutation

Mutation of *lestar*
radical	lenition	nasalization
lestar also llestar in h-prothesis environments	lestar pronounced with /lʲ-/	lestar also llestar

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*lestro-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 238
^ Schrijver, Peter (2022), “The Development of Proto-Celtic *st in British Celtic”, in Simon Rodway, Jenny Rowland, and Erich Poppe, editors, Celts, Gaels, and Britons: Studies in Language and Literature from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Honour of Patrick Sims-Williams (Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe), Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, →ISBN, page 181