| 释义 |
ogham, ogam|ˈɒgəm|
Also ogum, oghum.
[a. OIr. ogam, ogum (gen. oguim), mod.Ir. ogham, pl. -uim, Gaelic oghum, a name traditionally connected with a mythical inventor called in Irish legends Ogma, said to have invented the Ogam ‘to provide signs for secret speech only known to the learned’. Cf. Ὄγµιος, the name according to Lucian of a Gaulish deity, who seems to have presided over language or eloquence. Rhŷs takes the word as possibly connected with Gr. ὄγµος straight line, row, furrow, Skr. ajma course, road.]
1. An alphabet of twenty characters used by the ancient British and Irish; the system of writing, or an inscription written, in such characters; also one of the characters themselves.
The characters consist each of a thin line or stroke, or a group of from two to five such parallel strokes, arranged along either side of, or drawn across, a continuous medial or guiding line. Thus b, l, w (v, f), s, n, are represented by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 strokes under the line; χ (h), d, t, c, q by the same above the line; m, g, y, z, r, by long strokes crossing obliquely, thus /; a, o, u, e, i by short strokes crossing at right angles. In inscriptions, the edge of a squared stone usually serves as the continuous base line.
1677O'Molloy Grammatica 133 Obscurum loquendi modum, vulgo ogham, Antiquarijs Hiberniæ satis notum... Alia adhuc vtebantur methodo in scribendo preter abbreuiationes, quam insuper vocabant ogham, peritioribus tantum⁓modo familiare. 1729T. Innes Crit. Ess. Anc. Inhab. North. Parts Brit. II. 445 That the first author..was Fenius-Farsaidh, who composed..the alphabets of the Hebrews, Greeks and Latins; the Bethluisnion, and the Ogum. Ibid. 451 Waræus..tells us, that the Ogum did not contain the Irish vulgar character, but a hidden way of writing. 1794Sullivan View Nat. V. 77 The Ogham was the sacred character of the Druids. 1845O'Donovan Gram. Irish Lang. Introd. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. ii. 212 The Newton Stone oghams have hitherto baffled all attempts at interpretation. 1877Rhŷs Lect. Welsh Philol. vi. 272 Monuments in Ogam are known only in the British Isles. Ibid. 273 The continuous line merely represents the edge or ridge of the stones on which the Ogams are written.
2. An obscure mode of speaking used by the ancient Irish.
1627C. Mageoghegan tr. Annals of Clonmacnoise (in O'Donovan), a.d. 1328. Morish O'Gibelan,..an excellent poet in Irish, an eloquent and exact speaker of the speech, which in Irish is called Ogham. 1677[see 1].
3. attrib., as ogham alphabet, ogham inscription, ogham stone.
1784T. Astle Orig. Writing vi. 180 King Charles I corresponded with the Earl of Glamorgan when in Ireland, in the Ogham cipher. 1814Scott Wav. xxviii, Detecting the Oggam character..upon the key-stones of a vault. 1827G. Higgins Celtic Druids 21 These were the Ogham-beith, the Ogham-coll, and the Ogham-craoth, which means Ogum⁓branches. 1861E. O'Curry Lect. MS. Materials 464 Monumental stones with Oghuim characters and words. 18..Whitley Stokes in Rhŷs Lect. Welsh Philol. (1877) 272 Genuine Ogham Inscriptions exist both in Ireland and Wales which present grammatical forms agreeing with those of the Gaulish linguistic monuments. |