imb

• imb’ (superseded)

Univerbation of ma’ +‎ b’, fossilised in fixed impressions.

• IPA^(key): /(ɪ)mp/

imb

1. Alternative form of b’ used in a few expressions.

   wiċċ imb wiċċ ― face to face

   ras imb ras ― head to head

   mpar ― of the same age

   mbilli ― inasmuch as

• imm (both etymologies)

• IPA^(key): /imʲbʲ/

From Proto-Celtic *amban (compare Welsh ymenyn), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃engʷen- (compare Latin unguen (“grease”), Old High German ancho (“butter”)), from *h₃engʷ- (“anoint”).^[1]

imb n or m (genitive imme, no plural)

1. butter

Neuter n-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	imbN	—	—
Vocative	imbN	—	—
Accusative	imbN	—	—
Genitive	imme	—	—
Dative	immimL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

• Irish: im
• Manx: eeym
• Scottish Gaelic: ìm

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “imb, imm ‘butter’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

From Proto-Celtic *ambi (compare Welsh am), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”). Cognate with Latin ambi-, Sanskrit अभि (abhí, “towards, over, upon”), Old Persian 𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎹 (a-b-i-y /⁠abiy⁠/, “towards, against, upon”), Old High German umbi, Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “about, around”) and the first part of Old Armenian ամբ-ողջ (amb-ołǰ, “whole”).

imb

1. around
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 27^b16

     Gaibid immib a n‑étach macc coím-sa, amal nondad maicc coím-a, .i. uiscera is hé in dechellt as·beir.

     Put on this raiment of servants, as you all are servants, i.e. viscera is the garment that he mentions.

     (literally, “Put around you”)

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 23^b10

     Hó goistiu .i. do·bert goiste imma brágait fadesin ɔid·marb, húare nád ndigni Abisolón a chomairli.

     By a noose, i.e. he put a noose around his own neck so that it killed him, because Absalom did not follow his advice.

     (literally, “do his advice”)

Forms with a definite article:

• immin, immun (“around the (masculine/feminine accusative singular)”)

Forms with a possessive determiner:

• imdu (“around your sg”)
• imma, imme (“around his/her/its/their”)

Forms with a relative pronoun:

• immo·, immua·

• Irish: um
• Scottish Gaelic: mu
• Manx: mysh

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 imm, imb ‘around’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2017) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, pages 273, 516–18

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
imb (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)	unchanged	n-imb
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.