Macalisteu — Notes on Certain Irish Inscriptions. 83 



with a following consonant, producing gemination. Moreover, the prefix 

 rarely stands first, being usually preceded by another preposition ; but 

 among the exceptions we might perhaps expect proper names. It means 

 ' out, from, away,' and is cognate with English ' out.' 



" We might tal-ce the name to be foreign, and so indeclinable (like Patraic, 

 Brenainn = Brenhin, Conaing, etc.), and this would relieve us of all necessity 

 to look for an Irish explanation or a MS. equivalent. But Uddmensa was a 

 cele of Nat-Sluaigh, and it seems to me that we must take cele in the sense of 

 the law-tracts, i.e. a vassal or tenant; and one does not expect to find a 

 foreigner in that status. He would more probably be a magus {maug, mug) 

 or slave. Otherwise I should suggest that the name might represent 

 something like Osivin. 



" If we admit a very late date for the inscription, then possibly TIddmcnsa 

 is an -0 stem (or even an -io stem), with the final i of the genitive dropped 

 as is muco{i). Cf. Veqicoancci. However, we find Fiachnai, Retai, Riatai, etc., 

 through the 0. I. period, so that ')mico{i), if authentic, may have to be 

 explained, like 0. I. mocio, as having become an indeclinable proclitic. This 

 explanation clearly could not hold for a name like Uddmensa. 



" A possible or probable connexion with uddami obviously arises. 

 Uddami is an eponym (i.e. is preceded by miicoi), but has not been identified or 

 equated with any name otherwise known. Nor is there any known analogue 

 for the derivative ending -ensa. We might imagine as possible the use of the 

 Latin ending -ensis. The gens named Conchuhuirne or Dal Gonchuhdr were 

 also called by the Latinists Conchuburnenses ; Ultanus episcopus Conchu- 

 burnensium = Ultdn moccu Conchubuir. Conceivably, then, a man surnamed 

 maqi mucoi Uddami would be called ' the Uddamensis ' in Latin, just as 

 Oenu mocu Loigse could have been called ' in Loigsech ' in Irish. In a 

 strange district this Uddamensis might easily become a proper name. In Tir 

 Conaill at present, every bearer of the surname Duinn Sleibhc is called 

 Ultacli, because the family originally belonged to the Ulaidh of East Ulster. 

 The difficulty lies in the substitution of a Latin for an Irish ending 

 (Uddam-)ach<acos. Such substitution would imply that Uddmensa belonged 

 to a Latinist, i.e. Christian, community. In that case Nat-Sluagh would 

 probably have been the superior of the community, and Uddmensa one of his 

 manach tenants ; for it is fairly clear from Riagail Patraic that the relation 

 of the manach to the aircliinnech was similar to the relation of the cele to the 

 Jlaith in a civil community. It is no wild suggestion that in a Christian 

 ecclesiastical community, a man of the gens mucoi Uddami, coming from some 

 distance, should have entered as a sort of lay-brother (= cele = manacJi), and 



should have become known as ' Uddamensis.' 



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