ogham
/ˈoʊ.əm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.56 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
The Ogham alphabet, a writing system used to write Irish first attested inscribed on the edge of standing stones from the 4th century AD, with continuous use thereafter.
noun
Alternative form of Ogham.
name
Alternative form of Ogham.
Example Sentences
- "The rectangular sandstone rock that Graham Senior had discovered was inscribed in ogham, an alphabet used in the early medieval period primarily for writing in the Irish language."
Etymology
Borrowed from Irish ogham, from Middle Irish ogam, from Proto-Celtic *ogmos (“furrow, path”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂óǵmos. The Irish word is frequently folk-etymologized as og-úaim, referring to ogham being supposedly made by the point of a sharp weapon, but this approach faces serious phonological and morphological problems in that: * The name of ogham and the supposed second element (úaimm (“seam”)?) inflected very differently in Early Irish, "ogham" being an o-stem and the second element being a neuter n-stem. * Middle Irish ogmóir (“skilled in ogham”) should have a vowel in between the g and m because vowels lengthened by compensatory lengthening after consonant loss are usually not syncopated in Early Irish.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
beth luis nion
beth luis fern
Frequently Paired Words
beth luis nion
beth luis fern