seanachas

conversation, story, Irish seanachas, seanchus, tale, history, genealogy, Old Irish senchas, vetus historia, lex, Old Welsh hencass, monimenta. Stokes refers this to *seno-kastu-, "old story", from *kastu-, root kans, speak (see cainnt and Stokes' derivation of it). Regarded by others as a pure derivative of *seno- or its longer stem *seneko- (Latin senex, Gothic sineigo, old, Sanskrit sanakás, old), that is *senekastu-. Hence seanachaidh, a reciter of ancient lore, a historian, Irish seanchuidh, a form which favours the second derivation.