mellt

Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *meldʰ-. Related to Old Norse Mjǫllnir.

Pronunciation

Noun

mellt f (collective, singulative mellten)

  1. lightning
    Synonym: lluched
    Maen nhw'n darogan mellt a tharanau.
    They're predicting thunder and lightning.
  2. (in the singulative) a flash or bolt of lightning
    Fe gafodd ei daro gan fellten.
    He/It was struck by (a bolt of) lightning.

Usage notes

Welsh may employ the plural/collective mellt or singular/singulative mellten to correspond to English collective noun lightning depending on the context, e.g.

  • Welest ti’r mellt ’na?
    Did you see that lightning? (i.e. those (several) flashes of lightning)
  • Welest ti’r fellten ’na?
    Did you see that lightning? (i.e. that (single) flash of lightning)

Coordinate terms

Derived terms
  • fel mellten (“like lightning, like a flash”)
  • mellt a tharanau (“thunder and lightning”)

Mutation
Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
mellt fellt unchanged unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading
  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “mellt”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.