geas
/ˈɡiː.əʃ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.38 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A (generally magical) vow, obligation or injunction placed upon someone to do or not do something, which typically brings harm if violated and blessings if obeyed.
noun
Example Sentences
- "It can send us where it will with a task laid upon us—a geas, if you like."
- "Galaad stood up again and turned to Mrs. Whitaker. 'Gracious lady, keeper of the Holy of Holies, let me now depart this place with the Blessed Chalice, that my journeyings may be ended and my geas fulfilled.'"
- "The geas is the last effective enchantment we shall consider. A geas is a restriction or compulsion laid upon a person by a druid or a bard. To break a geas is to forfeit one's share of luck and possibly one's life.[…]Geasa are not curses, but recognitions of individual needs given to protect and help an individual succeed at life."
- "A geas is a powerful binding spell that binds its subject to a particular task or restriction. Frequently in Irish legends, the playing out of a geas laid upon a hero reminds one of the playing out of fate in the Greek tragedies."
- "The Sorcerer Royal's servants had formerly been bound by a geas against disclosure of any detail of his household affairs, breach of which was visited by the most terrible revenge."
- "I recognized the self-geas against telling a falsehood in the particular conversation. Our courts still haven't adopted it—Fifth Amendment—but I'd seen it used in trials abroad. The demon recognized it, too."
Etymology
Borrowed, like English geis, from Irish geis (“injunction; taboo, prohibition, spell”). The pronunciation resembles Irish geis, though the spelling matches its synonymous but heterophonous alternative form geas.