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418

Accidence

§ 215

(7) yngŵyẟ ‘in the presence of’, yn fy ngŵydd ‘in my presence’, i’th ŵydd ‘into thy presence’, o’i gŵydd ‘from her presence’, etc.

gŵyẟ § 63 iv.

(8) o blegid ‘on account of’, o’th blegid ‘on thy account’; ym plegyd m.a. i 306 ‘on account of’.

plegid (i for y after g, § 77 ii) < Lat. placitum.

(9) ar gyfair (now misspelt ar gyfer) ‘opposite’, ar fy nghyfair ‘opposite me’; ynghyfair ‘opposite, against, instead of’; Ml. W. ar gyveir, yngkyveir, etc.; y gyveir w.m. 449 ‘the direction’.

O.W. ar cyueyr l.l. 141, ar ciueir do. 196; Ml. W. ar gyfeir w.m. 250; yg̃hyveir do. 449, yg̃kyveir r.m. 293 ‘opposite’, yn ẏ gyveir r.m. 141 ‘in front of him, straight ahead’, Mn. W. ar gyfair D.G. 189 (rh. with leddf‑air).

The reason for the misspelling is partly the dialectal pronunc., § 6 iii; and partly perhaps the form cyfer- in cyf-erbyn etc. All the derivatives, cyfeiriad ‘direction’, cyfeirio ‘to direct’, etc., are from cyfair.

cyfair < *kom-ari̯o‑, a compound of *kom- and *ari̯o- < *pₑri̯‑o‑, a noun formed from the prep. *pₑri: Lat. prae, etc. § 156 i (6).

(10) o flaen ‘in front of’, ymlaen id., o’m blaen ‘in front of me’, dos yn dy flaen ‘go in front of thee’, i.e. go on, ymlaen llaw ‘beforehand’.

dyvot ymlaen llu Ynys y Kedyrn w.m. 54 ‘to come in front of the host of the Isle of the Mighty’; yn ẏ vlaen ac yn ẏ ol r.m. 149 ‘before him and after him’; kerẟet oe blaen do. 49, w.m. 68 ‘to walk before them’.

blaen, O.W. blain: Corn. blyn ‘tip’, Bret. blein, blin ‘bout, extrémité’. The meanings of the noun in W. are 1. ‘source’ (of a river) frequent in l.l., and common later, 2. ‘point’ (of a needle, blade, epear, twig, etc.), 3. pl. blaenau in place-names ‘outlying parts where valleys are hemmed in by mountains’. The orig. meaning seems to be therefore ‘discharge, project’; hence prob. √ɡ^u̯elē‑: Gk. βάλλω ‘I throw’, βλῆμα, βολή, βόλος ‘a throw’, βολίς ‘arrow’, O.H.G. quellan ‘to well, to gush’, O. Norse kelda ‘source’, Gk. βελόνη ‘needle’, Lith. gélti ‘to prick’, gelonìs ‘needle’, etc. The formation is not quite clear; the Corn. and Bret. forms seem to imply Brit. *blani̯- (< *ɡ^u̯ə‑ni̯‑: cf. Lith. gelonìs); and the W. may represent the same with met. of i̯, § 100 v; *ai > *oi > ae after the labial. blaenaf § 149 i.