{"id":9324,"date":"2026-09-26T13:35:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/?p=9324"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:56:53","slug":"suction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2026\/09\/26\/suction\/","title":{"rendered":"Suction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&rsquo;re looking into words meaning <strong>to suck<\/strong>, <strong>to absorb<\/strong> and related things in Celtic languages.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/errederubio\/51109543687\/in\/photolist-2kSnLH6-az9jjR-4syqSU-2Kx3Sx-2Q3M9a-b9ATK-i5zf9i-4n6oku-jvwkY-uUGL8-aizDUU-84YuZo-JZw4E-2jtQQLx-8842Le-5g134f-mvE6LV-4xA9qh-b1kpN-5uzEvH-5aGX4e-5KWQWy-HeGvN-38dnzt-5CwEda-4f6nHg-nDDa8-5XAQy1-2rq4X-8HTpXc-4E75iD-6jqFnv-2Cdzzg-2kYGVMs-rqKMBu-46bAu-2r2MApG-7KKTho-2oxWxxD-8JBopE-2wB5h3-6AM3Lx-aRuC4P-mAusW-WERwhw-5FdTo1-2oU1uwC-oaB5V-2pKx265-7ZKzNV\" title=\"FOAL SUCKING AND OLD MARE\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51109543687_cfee77f6fd_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"407\" alt=\"FOAL SUCKING AND OLD MARE\"><\/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>*din&#299;ti<\/strong> = to suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Irish (Go&iacute;delc)<\/th>\n<td><strong>denaid, dinid<\/strong> [&#712;d&#800;&#690;e.n&#601;&eth;&#690;] = to suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>denaid, dinid, denand, denait<\/strong> = to suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Irish (Gaeilge)<\/th>\n<td><strong>di&uacute;l<\/strong> [d&#690;u&#720;l&#736;] = sucking, suck<br>\n<strong>di&uacute;l<\/strong> = to suck<br>\n<strong>di&uacute;la&iacute;<\/strong> = sucker<br>\n<strong>di&uacute;lcach<\/strong> = suckling, baby<br>\n<strong>di&uacute;lfa&iacute;och<\/strong> = alimentary canal, throat<br>\n<strong>di&uacute;lfhiacail<\/strong> = milk-tooth<br>\n<strong>leanbh (an) di&uacute;l<\/strong> = suckling<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Scottish Gaelic (G&agrave;idhlig)<\/th>\n<td><strong>deoghail<\/strong> [d&#690;o.al] = suck, suckle<br>\n<strong>de&ograve;lagan<\/strong> [d&#690;&#596;&#720;l&#810;&#736;agan&#810;&#736;] = sucker, sth or sb who sucks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Manx (Gaelg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>jiole<\/strong> = to suck, nurse, nourish, draw; sucking<br>\n<strong>jioleyder<\/strong> = sucker, sponger, swab, mop<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Proto-Brythonic<\/th>\n<td><strong>*denad<\/strong> = to suck (?)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Welsh (Kymraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dener, dennv, denu, devnv<\/strong> = to allure, attract, entice, cajole, inveigle, beguile, decoy<br>\n<strong>denawl<\/strong> = attractive, alluring<br>\n<strong>denwr<\/strong> = enticer, seducer, inveigler, persuader<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Welsh (Cymraeg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>denaf, denu<\/strong> [&#712;d&#603;n&#616; \/ &#712;de&#720;ni] = to allure, attract, entice, cajole, inveigle, beguile, decoy<br>\n<strong>dengar<\/strong> = alluring, attractive, enticing, winning, charming<br>\n<strong>dengarwch<\/strong> = allurement, winsomeness, enticement, attractiveness<br>\n<strong>deniad<\/strong> = allurement, enticement, attraction, lure, bait, temptation<br>\n<strong>deniadol<\/strong> = attractive, alluring, enticing, engaging, winning<br>\n<strong>denol<\/strong> = attractive, alluring<br>\n<strong>denwr<\/strong> = enticer, seducer, inveigler, persuader<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Cornish (Cernewec \/ Kernuak)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dena, den&eacute;, deny<\/strong> = to suck, to draw, to absorb, to withdraw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Cornish (Kernewek)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dena<\/strong> [&#712;d&#603;na \/ &#712;d&#603;n&#592;] = to absorb, to suck<br>\n<strong>denus<\/strong> = absorbing<br>\n<strong>omdhenans<\/strong> = absorbtion<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Breton (Brezonec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>denaff<\/strong> = to suckle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Breton (Brezhoneg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>dena<\/strong> = to suck<br>\n<strong>dena&ntilde;<\/strong> [&#712;d&#7869;&#720;.n&atilde;] = to suckle<br>\n<strong>dener<\/strong> = sucker, teat cup<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Etymology<\/strong>: from Proto-Indo-European <em>*d&#688;eh&#8321;(y)-<\/em> (to suckle, to nurse) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic\/din%C4%ABti\">source<\/a>]. Words from the same roots include <strong>dia<\/strong> (to suckle) in Swedish, <strong>doi&#263;<\/strong> (to milk, gulp down) in Polish, <strong>femmina<\/strong> (female) in Italian, <strong>femme<\/strong> (woman, wife) in French, and <strong>female<\/strong> and <strong>feminine<\/strong> in English [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/d%CA%B0eh%E2%82%81(y)-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>Proto-Celtic<\/th>\n<td><strong>*sowkno-<\/strong> = to suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Old Irish (Go&iacute;delc)<\/th>\n<td><strong>s&uacute;igid<\/strong> = to absorb, suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>s&uacute;igid, s&uacute;gad<\/strong> = to suck, to draw in, to absorb, to attract, act of sucking, absorbing, attracting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Irish (Gaeilge)<\/th>\n<td><strong>s&uacute;<\/strong> = absorption, suction<br>\n<strong>s&uacute;igh<\/strong> = to absorb, suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Scottish Gaelic (G&agrave;idhlig)<\/th>\n<td><strong>s&ugrave;igh<\/strong> [su&#720;j] = suck, absorb, lap<br>\n<strong>s&ugrave;g<\/strong> [su&#720;g] = suck, imbibe<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Manx (Gaelg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>soo (stiagh)<\/strong> = to suck (in), to soak (up), to imbibe, to sip; sucking, suction; sap, juice<br>\n<strong>sooder<\/strong> = sucker, soaker, sipper, absorber, tippler, exhaust<br>\n<strong>soolagh<\/strong> = juice, sauce, juicy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Welsh (Kymraec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>sugyn, sugn, svgn<\/strong> = suction, suck, a suckling; juice, sap, liquid, moisture<br>\n<strong>svgney, sugyn, sugnav, sugn<\/strong> = to suck, drink, suckle<br>\n<strong>sugndraeth, sugyndraeth, svgvndraeth<\/strong> = quicksand<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Welsh (Cymraeg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>sugn<\/strong> = suction, suck, a suckling, pull, attraction, undertow; juice, sap, liquid, moisture<br>\n<strong>sugnaf, sugno<\/strong> [&#712;s&#616;&#798;&#609;n&#596; \/ &#712;s&#618;&#609;n&#596;] = to suck, drink, suckle, absorb, draw (out), engulf, attract<br>\n<strong>sugndraeth<\/strong> = quicksand<br>\n<strong>sugnog<\/strong> = sucking<br>\n<strong>amsugno<\/strong> [am&#712;s&#616;&#798;&#609;n&#596; \/ am&#712;s&#618;&#609;n&#596;] = to absorb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Cornish (Kernewek)<\/th>\n<td><strong>sugna<\/strong> = to suck<br>\n<strong>sugnans<\/strong> = suction<br>\n<strong>sugnek<\/strong> = succulent, juicy<br>\n<strong>sugnell<\/strong> = juicer<br>\n<strong>sugnus<\/strong> = succulent<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Middle Breton (Brezonec)<\/th>\n<td><strong>sunaff<\/strong> = to suck<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Breton (Brezhoneg)<\/th>\n<td><strong>suna&ntilde;<\/strong> [&#712;s&#7929;&#720;.n&atilde;] = to suck, to drink, to aspire, to hoover, to deceive<br>\n<strong>sunek<\/strong> = juicy<br>\n<strong>sunell<\/strong> = lollipop, dummy, pacifier<br>\n<strong>suner<\/strong> = nozzle, sucker<br>\n<strong>sunerezh<\/strong> = suction, vacuum cleaner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Etymology<\/strong>: from PIE <em>*sewg- \/ *sewk-<\/em> (to suck) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/sugno#Welsh\">source<\/a>]. Words from the same PIE root include <strong>suck<\/strong> and <strong>soak<\/strong> in English, <strong>zuigen<\/strong> (to suck, vacuum, suckle, pester) in Dutch, <strong>saugen<\/strong> (to suck, download) in German, and  <strong>sucer<\/strong> (to suck) in French [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/suck#English\">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 &ndash; Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.smo.uhi.ac.uk\/sengoidelc\/duil-belrai\/english.html\">In D&uacute;il B&eacute;lrai English &ndash; 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 Kernehe, itk<\/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 &ndash; 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:\/\/our.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\" alt=\"Unlimited he, itb Hosting - Kualo\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this post we&#8217;re looking into words meaning to suck, to absorb and related things in Celtic languages. Words marked with a * are reconstructions. Proto-Celtic *din\u012bti = to suck Old Irish (Go\u00eddelc) denaid, dinid [\u02c8d\u0320\u02b2e.n\u0259\u00f0\u02b2] = to suck Middle Irish (Gaoidhealg) denaid, dinid, denand, denait = to suck Irish (Gaeilge) di\u00fal [d\u02b2u\u02d0l\u02e0] = sucking, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,16,26,81,19,20,44,61,21,83,3,22,5,6,37,7,27,10,105,11,12,13,23,64,43,18,14],"tags":[478,52,80,51,145,48,47,53,49,55,475,476,477,50],"class_list":["post-9324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives","category-breton","category-kernewek-cornish","category-dutch-nederlands","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-german","category-gaeilge-irish","category-italian-italiano","category-language","category-gaelg-manx","category-middle-breton","category-middle-cornish","category-middle-irish","category-middle-welsh-kymraec","category-nouns","category-old-irish-goidelc","category-polish-polski","category-proto-brythonic","category-proto-celtic","category-proto-indo-european","category-gaidhlig-scottish-gaelic","category-swedish-svenska","category-verbs","category-cymraeg-welsh","category-words","tag-absorb","tag-breton","tag-celtic","tag-cornish","tag-etymology","tag-gaelic","tag-irish","tag-language","tag-manx","tag-scottish-gaelic","tag-suck","tag-suckle","tag-suction","tag-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324","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=9324"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9327,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions\/9327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}