prep., with, at, near, etc. With
personal pronouns it becomes: agam, 252; agat, 1056; aige, 251; (f.) aice, 8552; againn, 2751; agaibh, 295; aca, 2775. With
poss. pron.: agam’, 2935; agod’, 2632; agá, 184; ’gá, 489; agabhar, 4596. With
rel., agá, 5134; agar, 3622. With
art., ’gon, 5353 (in verse). 1. It denotes ‘possession’ with
subst. verb.: ní fhuil duine agam ‘
hominem non habeo.’ 4735; go bhfuilid dá charcair ag Dia, 4449; truaighe do bheith aca, 4756; bíodh a fhios agat, 4504; (bí) gearán ag na marbhaibh, 4511; --after other verbs, (sealbha) fhágbhaid aca, ‘the wealth they bequeathe to them,’ 4604,
cf. 5134; congbháil aca féin, 4669;--constantly in the construction...ag...ar: gráin do bheith ag Dia orra, 4721:
see under ar. 2. ‘In (the writings of),’ léaghthar ag Eóin, 126; ‘in (the judgment of),’ fuathmhar ag Dia, ‘hateful in God’s sight,’ 8057. 3. With
rel. pron. often in a weakened sense ‘concerning, with regard to,’ sinking to a mere introductory particle [
agá is further weakened in the spoken language to
’ga or
go], with another
prep., or
ag repeated, later in clause: daoine agá mbí eagla na péine...orra (= ar a mbí eagla na péine), 4440; an t-ógán agá mbí drochfhuadar faoi (= fá mbí d.), 5315; athair agá raibhe dias mac aige, 3445. Similarly, agá...a, as substitute for missing
gen. of
rel.
pron., íomháigh...agá raibhe a ceann d’ór, ‘an image whose head was of gold,’ 4034; agá bhféadfaidhe a fhios d’fhagháil, agá ndearnsad...fromhadh ar a oibreachaibh, ‘whose works they have tested,’ 5006.—In one case, agar chuirsead na hósdóire se i gcarcair...iad, ‘whom these inn-keepers put in prison,’ 3622, this construction is used to avoid ambiguity, for otherwise the understood relative might be taken as the
subj. instead of the
obj. 4. Partitive, only with
plur. pron.: aon aca (= díobh), 3900; beatha gach aoin aca, 407. 5. Often ag so, ‘here is,’ 178, 269, 2235. 6. With verbal nouns, forming substitute for
pres. ptcple.: 17, 59; agam’ inghreim, ‘persecuting me,’ 4595.—(When the verbal noun governs a
pron. in the
gen., if the latter refers to the subj. of the clause the phrase is equivalent to a
pass. part. Thus: agam’ bualadh lit, ‘at my striking’; atáid agam’ bualadh, ‘they are striking me,’ but, atáim agam’ bualadh, ‘I am being struck’), agá leaghadh, ‘a-melting,’ 5053; agá chéasadh, ‘being tortured’; agá phianadh, 6141; often in alternation with
do. q.v. 7. Of the agent or cause: agá bhuaidhreadh ag an saoghal, ‘troubled by the world,’ 10299; agá chéasadh ag an iota, ‘tortured by thirst,’ 6250. 8. Used idiomatically after gabhaim to denote (
a) ‘setting to work
at,’ 317; (
b) ‘passing
over, forgiving,’ 3593,
see gabhaim.