conn
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Variant of cond, from Middle English conduen, condien, from Anglo-Norman conduire, from Latin condūcō (“lead, bring or draw together”), from con- (“with, together”) + dūcō (“lead”). Doublet of conduce.
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /kɑn/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kɒn/
- Homophone: con
- Rhymes: -ɒn
Noun
conn (plural conns)
Derived terms
- have the conn (have the con)
- take the conn (take the con)
Verb
conn (third-person singular simple present conns, present participle conning, simple past and past participle conned)
- (transitive) To direct a ship; to superintend the steering of (a vessel); to watch the course of (a vessel) and direct the helmsman how to steer (especially through a channel, etc, rather than steer a compass direction).
- The pilot conned the ship safely into the harbor.
- 1724, Daniel Defoe, Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress, chapter 8:
- “Ay,” says I, “you’ll allow me to steer, that is, hold the helm, but you’ll conn the ship, as they call it; that is, as at sea, a boy serves to stand at the helm, but he that gives him the orders is pilot.”
Derived terms
- conning line
- conning officer
- conning tower
Old Irish
Etymology
Back-formation from the genitive singular and nominative plural cuinn and dative singular cunn, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kʷennom (“head”). In Primitive Irish, the genitive singular *kʷennī (attested as -ᚉᚓᚅᚅᚔ (-cennī)) raised to *kʷinnī and then the resulting *i was rounded by the initial labiovelar to result in Old Irish cuinn. In case-forms without raising, the etymological e remained as such since it was not regularly rounded by labiovelars, hence an original nominative singular cenn. Since u in o-stem nouns usually alternates with o, not e (which usually alternates with i in o-stems), two separate nouns, cenn and conn arose.
Inflection
Masculine o-stem | |||
---|---|---|---|
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
Nominative | conn | connL | cuinnL |
Vocative | cuinn | connL | cunnuH |
Accusative | connN | connL | cunnuH |
Genitive | cuinnL | conn | connN |
Dative | cunnL | connaib | connaib |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
|
Mutation
Old Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
conn | chonn | conn pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/ |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Further reading
- G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “conn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language