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WELSH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rhieni.

parents

6 characters2 syllables approx.Cymraeg language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈr̥jɛni/North-Wales/ˈr̥jeːni/South-Wales/ˈr̥jɛni/South-Wales
  1. parents

    plural
  2. forefathers, ancestors

    plural
  3. forebears, precursor

    figuratively · plural
Where this word comes from

Derived by Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru from rhy- (“before”) + geni (“birth”), possibly continuing a Proto-Celtic stem *ɸro-gany-. Compare Ancient Greek πρόγονος (prógonos, “ancestor”) for an equivalent formation. In the 1990s, Lambert and Schrijver found a possible Gaulish cognate, relating rhieni with Gaulish regenia. They disagreed on the words' shared Proto-Celtic reconstruction, however. Lambert opts for *ɸrogenyā while Schrijver opts for *ɸrogenesa. Both reconstructions face phonological difficulties. Lambert has no explanation for the -i ending in Welsh (final *-yā after a consonant is normally lost in Welsh) while Schrijver assumes a tenuous deletion of weakened -s- in Gaulish (which has many counterexamples).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.