fid

Origin unknown.

• IPA^(key): /fɪd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪd

fid (plural fids)

1. (nautical) A pointed tool without any sharp edges, used in weaving or knotwork to tighten and form up weaves or complex knots; used in sailing ships to open the strands of a rope before splicing.

   Coordinate term: marlinspike

2. (nautical) A square bar of wood or iron, with a shoulder at one end, to support the weight of the topmast (on a ship).
3. A plug of oakum for the vent of a gun.
4. A small thick piece of anything.
   • 1872, The Eclectic Magazine: Foreign Literature:

     Four — dreadfully unclad — men, carefully oiled, to protect their skin against the great heat, are moving about with long iron spoons, stirring here and mixing there, or kneading into little fids various compounds of coarse sugar and rancid butter […]

5. A wooden or metal bar or pin, used to support or steady anything.
6. (nautical, slang) The penis.

fid (third-person singular simple present fids, present participle fidding, simple past and past participle fidded)

1. To support a topmast using a fid.

• DFI, DIF, FDI, IDF, dif

From Proto-Celtic *widus.

• IPA^(key): [ɸʲið]

fid m

1. tree
2. wood, timber
3. letter of an alphabet
4. vowel

Masculine u-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	fid	fidL	fedaeH
Vocative	fid	fidL	fidu
Accusative	fidN	fidL	fidu
Genitive	fedoH, fedaH	fedoL, fedaL	fedaeN
Dative	fidL	fedaib	fedaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

• Irish: fiodh
• Scottish Gaelic: fiodh
• ⇒ Manx: fuygh

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
fid	ḟid	fid pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “fid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

fid (nominative plural fids)

1. food

fid

1. Soft mutation of bid.