Wiktionary

beagan

See also: beagán

Scottish Gaelic

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Etymology

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From Old Irish becán m (“a little, small quantity”) (compare Irish beagán, Manx beggan). By surface analysis, beag (“small, little”) +‎ -an.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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beagan m (genitive singular beagain, no plural)

  1. a few, a small number
    beagan mhionaidean ― a few minutes
    an ceann beagain làithean ― at the end of a few days
  2. a little, a small amount, bit, a bit
    beagan uisge ― a little water
    beagan bìdh ― a bit of food

Usage notes

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  • Followed by the genitive case, de and the dative case, or a prepositional pronoun derived from de:
    beagan ime / beagan de dh'ìm ― a small amount of butter
    beagan dhinn ― a few of us
  • Used where English uses determiner, adverb or pronoun.
    beagan chàirdean ― a few friends
    beagan dhiubh ― a small number of them
    beagan nas sine ― a bit older / slightly older
    beagan nas slaodaiche ― a little more slowly
    Tha i dìreach beagan is còig ceud meatair. ― It’s just a little over five hundred metres.
    Tha airgead aig beagan. ― A few [people] have money.
    Bha e doirbh airson bheagain. ― It was difficult for a few.

Antonyms

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References

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  1. ^ Oftedal, M. (1956) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  2. ^ John MacPherson (1945) The Gaelic dialect of North Uist (Thesis)‎[1], Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh
  3. ^ Roy Wentworth (2003) Gaelic Words and Phrases From Wester Ross / Faclan is Abairtean à Ros an Iar, Inverness: CLÀR, →ISBN
  4. ^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937) The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
  5. ^ Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1941) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. II: The dialects of Skye and Ross-shire, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap

Further reading

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  • Edward Dwelly (1911) “beagan”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[2], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “becán”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
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