beithir

I.

a serpent, any wild beast, monster, a huge skate, Irish beithir, wild beast, bear, Early Irish beithir, Gaelic bethrach. In the sense of "bear", the word is, doubtless, borrowed; but there seems a genuine Celtic word betrix behind the other meanings, and the beithir or beithir béimneach is famed in myth. Cf. Latin be$$-stia, for bet-tia? Norse bera, bear (fem.), beirfhall, bearskin, English bear (Zim. K.B.$$+1 286).

II.

peithir, beithir

thunderbolt; a mythic and metaphoric use of beithir, q.v.