Etymograph

English

Fife

Fife comes from Scottish Gaelic Fìobha.

  1. Scottish GaelicmodernFìobha
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606Fife

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Scottish GaelicmodernFìobha
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606Fife

Earliest quotation: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Ross: Will you to Scone? Macduff: No, cousin, I'll…”

The story

Possibly related to the Uip attested in the Pictish kings lists, in turn possibly related to the Latin Vepogenus, in which the first element is the Proto-Brythonic predecessor of Welsh gwep (‘face’).

Every English word from Scottish Gaelic Fìobha

Today it means

name A traditional county of Scotland succeeded by Fife Region in 1975, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with landward boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Scottish Gaelic Fìobha / Fife

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