From Middle Irish lethén.[2] By surface analysis, leath- (“one of a pair”) + éan (“bird”).
leathéan m (genitive singular leathéin, nominative plural leathéin)
- one of a pair of birds, a bird's mate
Canann an filiméala fireann chun leathéan a fháil.- The male nightingale sings to find a mate.
- (figurative) unmarried person (past the usual marriageable age); a bachelor or spinster
- ^ “leathéan”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
- ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “leth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
- ^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, § 242, page 122
