A Wee Bit Of Ireland

I've intended to do a "Word History" article for St. Patrick's Day for a couple of years now, but I always get distracted. I've actually had the words picked out and much of the info done, but I keep procrastinating. So, to move along without waiting for St. Paddy's Day here are some words associated with Ireland. 

Celt-This word traces back to Greek "Keltoi," a word used to describe a particular tribe of ancient people, the Gauls, but where the Greeks got the word is unknown. Latin borrowed the word as "Celtae," and Old French, a Latin-based language, inherited a form as "Celtes." English borrowed the word in the very early 1600s. Interestingly the word was not used by the Romans for the people living in the British Isles, and it was only because of archaeology and language study much later that the term came to be applied to the ethnic-linguistic group the Celts, or Celtic peoples, which include the Irish, the Welsh, and the Scots of the British Isles. A large part of western and southern Europe was once dominated by Celtic settlements, but other groups gradually moved in, often destroying or absorbing the Celtic population in many regions, which is what happened in most of what became the English part of Britain; that is, England. In Ireland, the Celtic population was able to maintain a large degree of its own existence, although North Germanic raiders made incursions, and of course the English eventually gained control of the island, which continued until the early 1920s, with the exception of the northern region, Northern Ireland, often called Ulster, remaining a part of the United Kingdom thereafter.

Irish-This word apparently traces back to Indo European "peiwr," which had the notion of "fat, fertile." This gave its Old Celtic offspring "Iwerju/Iweriu," which seems to have meant "fertile land area." This then gave Old Irish "Eriu," which produced "Eire," the ancient name for Ireland (later "Erin"). Old English borrowed the word as "Irland/Iraland" ("land" being a common Germanic word, with one of its meanings being "home territory/region"), the base of which gave Old English "Iras," meaning "an inhabitant of Ireland." This then became "Irisce, before the modern version. The "isc(e)" (modern English "ish") was a form of a common Germanic suffix used to denote "belonging to a particular group" (like modern Engl"ish", German has "isch").  

Whiskey-(Also spelled "whisky") This word was actually a compound of Old Irish "uisce," which means "water," and "beatha," which means "life." This has usually been translated as "water of life," but I have also seen it as "lively water," which was perhaps the actual old meaning behind the term, if you get my drift..."Hic! 'scuse me." "Uisce" traces back to Indo European "wed," which meant "water." This then gave its Celtic offspring "uisge," which was passed to Old Irish as "uisce." "Beatha" traces back to Indo European "gwei/gwej," which had the notion of "alive, lively, life." This gave Old Irish "bethu" ("life") which then spawned "beatha." English borrowed "uisge beatha" as "usquebaugh" in the early 1500s, which then became "usquebea/whiskybae," before the modern version.