Talk:chert

Etymology

Irish CEART (pebble)[4], has been compared. The year of its first appearance in English is what counts. It was confined to local use found in 1670 and then assimulated into Geological vocabulary. Until that is known it is not possible to conjecture, with accuracy, whether this word is derived from the Irish or not. If there were an Old English word spelled as CEART[3], then it could have been borrowed from Irish then; but no evidence has yet manifested itself for this, because it is not found in the concise Anglo-Saxon distionary. The Irish form is too generic in meaning for it to have been borrowed from English.

[0] means 'Absolutely not; [1] means 'Exceedingly unlikely'; [2] means 'Very dubious'; [3] means 'Questionable'; [4] means 'Possible'; [5] means 'Probable'; [6] means 'Likely'; [7] means 'Most Likely' or *Unattested; [8] means 'Attested'; [9] means 'Obvious' - only used for close matches within the same language or dialect, at linkable periods.

Andrew H. Gray 13:09, 14 September 2015 (UTC) Andrew (talk)

I'm not finding any evidence of an Irish word ceart that means "pebble". —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 15:53, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

@Aɴɢʀ It is certainly not translated as such in Geddes & Grosset Irish-English dictionary where méaróg is its form; and ceart simply means correct, right. Can only summize that the second meaning had died out after professor Skeat presented it in his concise etymological dictionary (1967) and in the early 20th century edition of Gresham's - unless they were both wrong. I shall check the online etymology, although I have lost confidence in that O.E.D., especially since the reconstructed P.G. root is inaccurate for sulk (if it even exists) as compared with that which Leasnam presented. Kind Regards. Andrew H. Gray 17:21, 25 September 2017 (UTC)Andrew (talk)