ysgyfaint ysgydwol shaking lungs
Well, I had a vague thought that ysgyfaint might have something to do with "light" and that lungs etc are called "lights" by butchers. You know how you do.
Anyway, I had a little look ( some people call it research but it's just cipolwg-ing really ) and I decided to see what the prefix -ysg meant. It seemed a good idea at the time.So I looked it up in the ever-reliable Collins-Spurrell Little Gem , often marketed as the "pocket-sized powerhouse of prose." (®)(me)
Aha!
And what did I find ?
ysg- see sg-
I turn eagerly to sg-
sg- see also ysg-
It's marvellous isn't it !? Lovely. Life-affirming.
Almost transcendental in its Zen-like circularity.
Before I forget, I must remember to add this Little Gem to my two giant articles about looking stuff up in Welsh Dictionaries*, for which , I gather, I might be elevated to Bardd-ity at the next one of those Eisteddfod things.
The "big" dictionaries were downstairs, but after the hours of whizzing around and around the ysg-/ sg- loop I was far too dizzy to do any descending.
Nobody told me Welsh was going to be like this! Well, actually, Pamela Petro did.
Maybe some calming music would be good .... one of those soothing Welsh songs with a harp and all that ..... you know the sort of thing. This is the closest I could get in the short time available before I fell downstairs. They're not called greasy-eye for nothing ...
* An easy way to find both of my "looking up Welsh words in the dictionary" posts is to click on August 2014 up there, and just scroll down to find them both ...