geisn.
/ɡɛʃ//ɡeɪʃ//ɡiːʃ/ In Irish folklore: a solemn injunction, prohibition, or taboo; a moral obligation.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > prohibition > [noun] > taboo
taboo1777
tapu1833
geis1880
shibboleth1930
society > morality > duty or obligation > [noun] > a duty or moral necessity
needOE
deedc1400
necessitya1500
office1534
work (also duty) of necessitya1602
incumbency?1608
remorsea1616
incumbence1684
call1704
commitment1837
calling1857
geis1965
1880 S. Ferguson Poems 63 This journey at this season was ill-timed, As made in violation of the gaysh.
1899 D. Hyde Lit. Hist. Ireland 344 He thought he saw Gradh son of Lir upon the plain, and it was a geis (tabu) to him to see that.
1899 D. Hyde Lit. Hist. Ireland 373 Every man who entered the Fenian ranks had four geasa (gassa, i.e., tabus) laid upon him.
1928 Observer 22 Jan. 5/4 Apparently a man could be either:—(1) Born under a ‘geis’ prohibiting certain actions on his part, or (2) Laid under ‘geis’ either at birth or any time during his life, either by divine or human agency.
1965 New Statesman 23 July 129/2 In a sense which most Irish people will know, this put Fallon under a geas, a moral compulsion, to say his bit.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1880