Hew Morrison Collection > Adhamh agus Eubh, no Craobh Sheanachais nan Gàël

CELTIC LANGUAGE. 179
that the terms -i?2S awr, to say, and our ahìr, to
say, to employ the Ups, are indiscriminately used.
This is the leading idea in the foUowing vocables :
ab, the mouth ; with a formative c, cab, the mouth ;
caiach, gabby, garrulous : càba.g, a prating, pert
woman ; aZ»airt, a word, a voice, a speech ; rtòerden,
a spokesman, also a vocabulary ; " Abair cju heag
's abair gu math," i.e. say Uttle and say well.
" Abair Mac-an-Aba gun do chab a dhHnadh," i.e.
say MacN«Z», without closing thy gab. This is
the Hebrew^ -13-f dbr, or daiir, properly rendered
language, speech, words — not the thing confounded
at Babel, which was shpt. We have now the
leading idea of -i^m dbir, the oracle; hterally the
speaking-place, the part of the temple from whence
God spoke: hence the term taZ»ernacle. Again,
poetically, -121 dbr, rendered thunder, the voice or
speech of Jehovah. " He sendeth out his {dbr)
word and melteth them," Psalm xlvii. 18. " Before
him went the dhr," rendered ihe pestilence ; quite
correct, inasmuch as thunder was esteemed a
plague ; but that the primary idea is the thunder,
the sequel shows, viz., "and burning coals went
forth at his feet," Hab. iii. 5. Ah\, or aòich, ripe,
ready for the mouth. So in Canticles vi. 7, " To
seewhether the \'meJìourished," where theoriginal
is ><3s abì, ripe ; hence the month Abìb, and our
April, or Abrì]. It was called " Ab aperiendo ter-
rium" by the Romans. April was the month wheu