- deathach
- deathach, deatachsmoke, Irish, Middle Irish deatach, Old Irish dé, g. diad, Early Irish dethach, detfadach, smoky, Welsh dywy, vapour. From Indo-European root dhêu, dheu, dhu, dhve, smoke, air; Latin fûmus, smoke; Greek $$Gqumiáw, to smoke; Church Slavonic dymu$$u (n.); Sanskrit dhûmas. Irish dé is for di$$-vâ, from dhêu, or dhêv; the gen. diad is phonetically like the nom. biad, food (*bivoto-n). The form deatach is probably for *dett-acos, dett being from dhve (cf. Greek $$Gqeós, for $$Gqes-ós, from dhve-s-). The t (= tt) of deatach is difficult to account for. For phonetics cf. beathach.
Etymological dictionary of the Gaelic language. Alexander Gairm Publications. 1982.