feum

Borrowed from Old French or Old Occitan feu/fieu; see the main entry for more.

feum n (genitive feī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) Alternative form of feudum (“fief, fee”)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

feum

1. Alternative form of fume

From Old Irish feidm (“effort”), from Proto-Celtic *wedesman, from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to lead”). Cognate with Irish feidhm.

• IPA^(key): /feːm/

feum m (genitive singular feuma or fèim)

1. need, necessity

   ann 'am fheum ― in my time of need

   'S e am feum a thug air sin a dhèanamh. ― Dire necessity made him do that.

2. use, usefulness

   Chan eil feum annad. ― There is no use in you.

   Dè is feum dha? ― What is the use of it?

   Is beag feum a tha ort. ― You are quite useless.

3. poverty
4. worth
5. occasion

   Chan eil feum ort. ― There is no occasion for (or need of) you.

feum

1. (intransitive) to need to, have to, must
2. (transitive) to need

The future tense feumaidh is used with present meaning:

• feumaidh mi ― I must

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “feum”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[1], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “feidm”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language