I can find heaps of information on every month except Meitheamh. Cad as a tháinig an focal? I understand about the June / Juno connection but is there any connection between these words and the word Meitheamh?

I think this is literally med-/mid- "mid" and sam- "summer".

Thanks SeanW.I think I'm learning how to unravel some of the mysteries of how the Irish words are put together now! le meas.

I think Seánw has got it right. I've seen references, although I can't remember quite where, to "meitheamh an tsamhraidh", in other words, mid-summer or high summer.

Seánw, what is your source for that etymology?

In Old Irish, Meitheamh was Mithem (genitive: mithemon, mithemain, míthime). The DIL doesn't give information about the etymology of that word...

A Lughaidh,
To be strightforward, it is simply me. I am certainly not saying I am right, but I put it out there as a possibility.

Let's take mithem.

1. The old root of "middle" is mid- (sometimes med-).
2. The old root of "summer" is sam-. This also has the meaning of "year" in other Indo-European languages.

Mid + sam could equal midhsham. Dh + sh could then be rendered th. Mitham then would be rendered mithem to make the slenders agree.

I didn't take declensions into account. But sometimes that doesn't exactly matter because there are loads of examples of words changing declensions over time. I suspect, if this etymology is the case, that this was even a lost compound by Old Irish times. That is, most people thought of it as "June", and not literally a compound meaning "mid-summer" or "mid-year". Just as English speakers don't say good-bye knowing that they are saying a former compound meaning "God be with you".

Again, this is what I think. I fully acknowledge that I may be wrong.

I seem to recall hearing on RTE Radio earlier this year that the fifth cúige, Mídhe (Mide), included the present-day counties of Meath, Westmeath, Longford,and Offaly. Mídhe meaning 'lár'/mid. Think SeánW makes a strong case, but again I could be wrong too. Mar a breac me síos i mo profile, níl ach breaceolas agam.

A quotation that may hint at the older origin:

The Caldron of Poesy
Anecdota from Irish manuscripts
Volume 5, pg. 25, line 7
http://www.ucc.ie/academic/smg/CDI/PDFs_textarchive/AnecdotaV.pdf


"lūaithe echaighe nemmedōon mīs míthime."

".i. comlūath é 7 int ech inns.aighther isin āenach a mī medhōnach int samraid"

middle of June = month of the middle of the summer


There is the old name for May, Céitein, which means first (month) of summer:

Céitein
May, Old Irish cétam (g. cétaman), cetsoman (cetshaman) in Cor.Gl., where it is explained as cét-sam-sín, the first weather-motion of sam or summer. The word means the "first of summer" - cét+sam-, the sam of samhradh, q.v. The termination is possibly influenced by other time words. See Samhuinn.

http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb08.html

samhradh
summer, Irish samhradh, sámhradh, Early Irish samrad, sam, Welsh, Cornish haf, Middle Breton haff, Breton hanv: *samo-; Sanskrit sámâ, year, Zend hama, summer, Armenian am, year; further English summer, Greek @Gc@`méra, day. The termination rad = rado-n (n.

http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb32.html

foghar
harvest, Irish fóghmhar, Middle Irish fogamur, autumn, Early Irish fogamur, fogomur, last month of autumn: *fo-gamur, the gamur being from the root of geamhradh, winter, q.v. The idea is "sub hiemem". Cf. Welsh cynauaf, harvest, Old Welsh kynnhaeaf, from cyn, before, and gauaf, winter.

http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb18.html


There also seems to be a pattern:

May - Beginning of Summer
June - Middle of Summer
July - End of Summer
August - Beginning of Fall
September - Middle of Fall
October - End of Fall

This is also apparent because of the principal feasts being on May 1, August 1, and November 1 to mark the completion of a season and the start of a new one. And you have the quarter days which mark the mid point of the seasons. It just seems to make sense.


????

The Welsh word for June is 'Mehefin'.