{"id":9226,"date":"2026-06-17T17:06:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/?p=9226"},"modified":"2026-06-17T17:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T16:12:15","slug":"thorny-brambles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2026\/06\/17\/thorny-brambles\/","title":{"rendered":"Thorny Brambles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&#8217;re looking at words for <strong>bramble<\/strong>, <strong>briar<\/strong>, <strong>thorn<\/strong> and related things in Celtic languages.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/trinovante\/52344398387\/in\/photolist-2nKuHZn-4iLxqN-2nvYP72-2nKB6DK-24y8fm3-Btucvh-2mVUeD5-fKUM-5qBpV2-D9HG5Z-6C9mka-qxEjW4-iPHKd7-qgdrMJ-kpkoZU-4pQ65m-4P9wEj-EjhFV-9ir1BZ-8P1Wqd-4pL35Z-26DSFZy-8amzEP-F4NFK-F4NFp-cxjMjf-5oHMea-by6HvT-7JiJxp-5oN4JQ-rwGtD-9ceTQv-2nB2G1S-bCEdHN-2s2NP11-2s2P7yf\" title=\"Walking the Pilgrims way in Early autumn (Fall)\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52344398387_478cea629a_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" alt=\"Walking the Pilgrims way in Early autumn (Fall)\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Words marked with a * are reconstructions.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Proto-Celtic<\/th>\n<td><strong>*dristis, *drissis<\/strong> = briar, bramble, thorn bush<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Irish (Go\u00eddelc)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dris<\/strong> [\u02c8d\u0320\u02b2\u027e\u02b2is\u02b2] = bramble, briar<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dris<\/strong> = bramble, briar, thorn bush<br \/>\n<strong>drisech<\/strong> = thorny, brambly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Irish (Gaeilge)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dris<\/strong> [d\u02b2\u027e\u02b2\u026a\u0283] = bramble, briar, a cantankerous, prickly person<br \/>\n<strong>drischoill<\/strong> = bramble brake<br \/>\n<strong>driseach<\/strong> = brambly, briary<br \/>\n<strong>driseog<\/strong> = (small) bramble, a prickly, irritable person<br \/>\n<strong>dris\u00edn<\/strong> = small bramble<br \/>\n<strong>dris\u00edneach<\/strong> = prickly, irritable, touchy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Scottish Gaelic (G\u00e0idhlig)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dris<\/strong> [dri\u0283] = thorn, a thorny plant, small pin<br \/>\n<strong>driseach<\/strong> [dri\u0283\u0259x] = prickly, thorny, brambly<br \/>\n<strong>driseag<\/strong> [dri\u0283ag] = small thorn, small thorny plant<br \/>\n<strong>driseil<\/strong> [dri\u0283al] = prickly, thorny<br \/>\n<strong>drisleach<\/strong> [dri\u0283l\u0259x] = thorny thicket, briar patch, thicket of brambles<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Manx (Gaelg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dress<\/strong> = blackberry bush, briar, bramble<br \/>\n<strong>dressag<\/strong> = small bramble bush<br \/>\n<strong>dressagh<\/strong> = brambly, briary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Proto-Brythonic<\/th>\n<td><strong>*dr\u0268s<\/strong> = dry<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Welsh (Kembraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>drissi<\/strong> = briars, brambles, thorn bushes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Welsh (Kymraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dyrys<\/strong> [\u02c8d\u0259r\u0268\u031es \/ \u02c8d\u0259r\u026as] = wild, rough, uncultivated<br \/>\n<strong>drissi, dris, dryssi, drysi<\/strong> = briars, brambles, thorn bushes<br \/>\n<strong>dryssyant, drysiant<\/strong> = entanglement, perplexity, quandary<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Welsh (Cymraeg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dyrys<\/strong> [\u02c8d\u0259r\u0268\u031es \/ \u02c8d\u0259r\u026as] = wild, rough, uncultivated, tangled with undergrowth, thorny, dense, matted, intricate, entangled<br \/>\n<strong>drys(i)<\/strong> [\u02c8dr\u0259s\u026a \/ \u02c8dr\u0259si] = briars, brambles, thorn bushes, entanglement, intricacy<br \/>\n<strong>drysiant<\/strong> = entanglement, perplexity, quandary<br \/>\n<strong>drys\u00efog<\/strong> = full of briars or brambles, thorny<br \/>\n<strong>drysle, dyrysle<\/strong> = intricate place, maze, labyrinth, bramble-brake, thicket<br \/>\n<strong>dryslyd, dyryslyd<\/strong> = perplexing, puzzling, embarrassing, tangled, intricate, puzzled, confused, bewildered, deranged<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Cornish<\/th>\n<td><strong>dreis<\/strong> = brambles, briars<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Cornish (Cernewec \/ Kernuak)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dreis, dreyn<\/strong> = brambles, briars<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Cornish (Kernewek)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dreys<\/strong> = brambles<br \/>\n<strong>dreysen<\/strong> = bramble<br \/>\n<strong>dreysa<\/strong> = to tangle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Breton (Brezonec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dres<\/strong> = brambles<br \/>\n<strong>dresen<\/strong> = bramble<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Breton (Brezhoneg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>drez<\/strong> [dre\u02d0s] = brambles<br \/>\n<strong>drezenn<\/strong> = bramble<br \/>\n<strong>drezad<\/strong> = brambles<br \/>\n<strong>drezeg<\/strong> [\u02c8dre\u02d0.z\u025bk] = bramble patch, bramble thicket<br \/>\n<strong>drezek<\/strong> = full of brambles<br \/>\n<strong>drezid<\/strong> = bramble grove<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Etymology<\/strong>: possibly from Proto-Indo-European <em>*der-<\/em> (to split, separate, tear, crack, shatter) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/drysi#Welsh\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/\">Wiktionary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faclair.com\/\">Am Faclair Beag<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mannin.info\/Mannin\/fockleyr\/m2e.php\">Online Manx Dictionary<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teanglann.ie\/en\/fgb\/ceann\">Teanglann.ie<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dil.ie\/\">eDIL &#8211; Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk\/sengoidelc\/duil-belrai\/english.html\">In D\u00fail B\u00e9lrai English &#8211; Old Irish glossary<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/geiriadur.ac.uk\/gpc\/gpc.html\">Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cornishdictionary.org.uk\/browse?field_word_value=penn\">Gerlyver Kernewek<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arkaevraz.net\/dicobzh\/index.php\">Dictionaire Favereau<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brezhoneg.bzh\/87-termofis.htm\">TermOfis<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wales.ac.uk\/Resources\/Documents\/Research\/CelticLanguages\/EnglishProtoCelticWordList.pdf\">English &#8211; ProtoCeltic WordList<\/a> (PDF), <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/embed\/EtymologicalDictionaryOfProtoCeltic\">Etymological Dictionary Of Proto Celtic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited2-468x60.gif\" width=\"468\" height=\"60\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&#8217;re looking at words for bramble, briar, thorn and related things in Celtic languages. Words marked with a * are reconstructions. Proto-Celtic *dristis, *drissis = briar, bramble, thorn bush Old Irish (Go\u00eddelc) dris [\u02c8d\u0320\u02b2\u027e\u02b2is\u02b2] = bramble, briar Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg) dris = bramble, briar, thorn bush drisech = thorny, brambly Irish (Gaeilge) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,26,19,20,21,3,22,5,6,37,7,27,9,10,40,11,12,13,23,72,43,18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-breton","category-kernewek-cornish","category-english","category-etymology","category-gaeilge-irish","category-language","category-gaelg-manx","category-middle-breton","category-middle-cornish","category-middle-irish","category-middle-welsh-kymraec","category-nouns","category-old-cornish","category-old-irish-goidelc","category-old-welsh","category-proto-brythonic","category-proto-celtic","category-proto-indo-european","category-gaidhlig-scottish-gaelic","category-trees","category-verbs","category-cymraeg-welsh","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9226"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9229,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9226\/revisions\/9229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}