muinter

Old Irish

Alternative forms

muntar, montar

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *moniterā, from *monis (“protection, patronage”). Alternatively a loanword from Latin monastērium, from Ancient Greek μοναστήριον (monastḗrion, “community of monks”), but both the semantic change and the loss of s are difficult to explain under that hypothesis.[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈmun͈ʲtʲer]

Noun

muinter f

community (group of persons connected by a bond)
family or household (including servants)
followers, attendants

For quotations using this term, see Citations:muinter.

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	muinter^L	muintir^L	muintera^H
Vocative	muinter^L	muintir^L	muintera^H
Accusative	muintir^N	muintir^L	muintera^H
Genitive	muintire^H	muinter^L	muinter^N
Dative	muintir^L	muinteraib	muinteraib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Synonyms

(community): coitchennas, coitreb
(family): cúallacht, muirer, teglach

Derived terms

muinterach
muinteras
muinterda
muintremail
cétmuinter

Descendants

Irish: muintir
Manx: mooinjer
Scottish Gaelic: muinntir

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
muinter also mmuinter after a proclitic	muinter pronounced with /ṽ(ʲ)-/	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*moni- ‘protection, patronage’”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 276