Index of Names in Irish Annals: Descriptive Bynames: na nAmus
by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan (Kathleen M. O'Brien)
© 2000-2007 by Kathleen M. O'Brien. All rights reserved.
Version 2.3, updated 27 March 2007
Descriptive Bynames: na nAmus
Meaning:
"[of] the Onsets/Attacks"
Spellings:
What we know as a set of Irish Annals are manuscripts that were each compiled during a
particular time period, usually using older material as sources. For example, when
the Annals of the Four Masters were written from 1632 to 1636, they covered events
that occurred centuries and millenia before (including legendary history). So, when
an entry in this set of annals refers to a person who lived in the year 738, the
spelling used for that person's name is very likely not using the spelling that
would have been used in 738.
Standard forms of this name (based on spelling systems of different periods) would be:
| Early Modern Irish Gaelic (c1200-c1700) genitive form: | na nAmus |
Frequency & Dates:
| Number of men found in the annals with this name: | 1 |
| Found in Years: | 1158, 1159, 1199 |
Research Notes:
[Answering a question about the meaning of na n-Amus:]
[info is from the DIL:] ammus is "attempt, effort; act of tempting,
temptation; act of attacking, attack; guess, conjecture; act
of hitting the mark". In view of MCB1437.9, you want the
third sense (which is what I'd have guessed from the
translation "of the onsets" anyway).
[email from Talan Gwynek - 19 Jul 2002]
[Answering my question, "So, would na n-Ammus be the standardized form of this byname for pre-1200?"]
Good question. It began as a u-declension masc. noun
ammus and later became an o-declension masc. noun amus,
but it's not clear when this occurred. Before the change
you'd have na n-Ammsae, I think; afterward, na n-Amus.
[email from Talan Gwynek - 20 Jul 2002]
Per email from Africa filia Kennoci (05 Nov 2002), the hyphen in this byname is a
modern editorial convention. Therefore, I have removed it from the standard forms
in this page.
Sources:
Further information about the byname na nAmus, may be found in:
The Sources page lists the Annals referenced below.
Information about secondary sources is included on that page as well.
Raw Data
In the table below, I have separated individuals with a blank line. That is, when there are multiple
entries in the annals that refer to a single person, those entries are grouped together.
Within the list of entries refering to a single person, I have sorted the entries
primarily by orthography when it is obvious that what I am seeing is the same entry
showing up in multiple annals. The entries that tend to use older spellings are listed first.
NOTE: The Annals referenced below under the code letters A, B, C, E, & F tend to use
later spellings than the other Annals. In some cases, the spellings listed in these Annals
may not be appropriate for the year referenced in the Annal entry.
In some Gaelic scripts, there is a character that looks approximately like a lowercase f,
but without the crossbar. This character (represented by an underscored , e, in
the entries below) sometimes represents e and sometimes ea depending upon the
context of the text.
| [Standardized form of this man's name] |
| Annals | Entry | Context | Citation (formatting preserved) |
| |
| [Áed na nAmus] |
| U | U1159.3 | | mac Aedha na n-Amus, airri Conmaicne ["the son of Aedh 'of the onsets,' sub-king [?] of Conmaicni"] |
| T | T1158.7 | | mac Aedha na n-Amus |
| B | M1158.7 | | Ferghal, mac Aodha na n-Amhus Uí Ruairc |
| B | M1158.16 | | mac Aedha na n-Amhus |
| LC | LC1199.6 | | mac Oedha na n-amus |
Medieval Scotland | Medieval Names Archive | Index of Names in Irish Annals
Feminine Given Names | Feminine Descriptive Bynames | Masculine Given Names | Masculine Descriptive Bynames
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(Jan 2006)
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