maidir le

Irish

Alternative forms

• mar le (Beara)
• madair le

Etymology

First attested in the early 19th century. Perhaps a univerbation of Middle Irish mad (“if it be”) +‎ do leith (“with respect”) +‎ re (“to”), a variant of mad i leith fri which gave mar le.

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /ˈmˠɑdʲəɾʲ lʲə/
• (Connemara, Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈmˠadʲəɾʲ lʲə/

Preposition

maidir le (plus nominative, triggers h-prothesis, before the definite article maidir leis)

1. (Connacht, Munster) as for

   Synonyms: i dtaobh, i bpáirt, (Donegal) i dtaca le, (Mayo) cúrsaí

2. (Kerry) along with, as well as

Inflection

Inflection of maidir le

Person	Normal	Emphatic
1st person sing.	maidir liom	maidir liomsa
2d person sing.	maidir leat	maidir leatsa
3d sing. masc.	maidir leis	maidir leis-sean
3d sing. fem.	maidir léi	maidir léise
1st person pl.	maidir linn	maidir linne
2d person pl.	maidir libh	maidir libhse
3d person pl.	maidir leo	maidir leosan

Derived terms

• maidir lena (combined with the possessive determiner a)
• maidir lenár (combined with the first-person plural possessive determiner ár)

References

• T.F. O'Rahilly (1921-23) “maidir le, mar le”, in Ériu, volume 9, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, pages 12-15

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “maidir”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927) “maidir le”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “madair”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 456
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “maidir”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “maidir le”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “maidir+le”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2024