A generalization of the third-person masculine singular inflected form, fromOld Irishfoí, the third-person masculine singular inflected form offo(“under”),[1] fromProto-Celtic*uɸo, fromProto-Indo-European*upo. CompareAncient Greekὑπό(hupó),Middle Welshgo. During the Early Modern Irish period, this preposition began to take over the meaning of Old Irishimm(“around, about”) (modernum), which had variant formsma and lenitedfa, bha that were probably conflated withfaoi.[2][3]Doublet ofó(“-wards”).
2015 [2014], Will Collins, translated by Proinsias Mac a' Bhaird, edited by Maura McHugh,Amhrán na Mara (fiction; paperback), Kilkenny, County Kilkenny; Howth, Dublin: Cartoon Saloon; Coiscéim, translation ofSong of the Sea (in English),→ISBN, page 1:
Thuas i dteach an tsolais,faoi réaltaí geala, canann Bronach Amhrán na Mara dá mac Ben atá cúig bliana d'aois.
[original:Up in the lighthouse,under twinkling stars, Bronach sings the Song of the Sea to her five-year-old son, Ben.]
The standard Irish and Connacht formfaoi and the Munster formfé mean both“under” and“about”. In Ulster, these two meanings are split:faoi means“under”, whilefá means“about”.
^Damian McManus (1994), chapter IV, in K. McCone, D. McManus, C. Ó Háinle, N. Williams, L. Breatnach, editors,Stair na Gaeilge: in ómós do P[h]ádraig Ó Fiannachta (in Irish), Maynooth: Roinn na Sean-Ghaeilge, Coláiste Phádraig,→ISBN,(7), page438: “Is dócha gurb é tionchar an réamhfhocailfa 'faoi' faoi dear na foirmeachama, bha, fa deum (TD lxxii).”
^Eleanor Knott (1922-26),The Bardic poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (1550–1591), volume 1, Lúndain,page lxxii
^Finck, F. N. (1899),Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect] (in German), Zweiter Band: Wörterbuch [Second volume: Dictionary], Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page118
