I came across ‘ansbaradigaethus’ together with the translation ‘amazing, beyond belief’. Then another translation as ‘worse than worthless’. A look up in the University of Wales dictionary came up with a blank. Same result in other dictionaries. Can anyone throw some light on the meaning/use of the word please? I can see the possibility of both meanings being true/similar but any further observations from anyone would be helpful.
Wow - express response Aran! I came across the word on you-tube. Something about Welsh words - can’t remember exactly. Just thought that it was an interesting sound more than anything. Thanks for the reply.
All words are made up aran. It means either terrible beyond belief or amazing beyond belief. Like you can y use the word unbelievable for negative or for positive
Well, yes, technically true - and if people are still using ansbaradigaethus in a couple of hundred years, it’ll have earned its stripes - but in the meantime, it’s important for learners to know if a word is a recent neologism and not likely to be recognised (at all, or as a ‘real’ word) by everyone they talk to…
ansbaradigaethus, ansbaradigeiddus, &c.
[?ymgais i greu gair doniol; ?cf. annosbarthedig]
a.
Gwych, rhagorol, nodedig; eithafol, dieithr, anesboniadwy:
excellent, splendid, outstanding; extreme, strange, inexplicable.
Ar lafar, hefyd yn y ff. ansbarthadigaethus, ansbaradigaethol.
Note: Used by a welsh football commentator as early as 1976 everytime a Welsh side scored a goal
It was used on cariad@iaith as a buzz word and can be heard on S4C Childrens program as well as in the Eistedfodd yr Urdd.
I have heard it used as the Welsh equivalent to OMG.but I wouldn’t use it in any form of written work.
New words (as opposed to borrowed) show the language is alive and kicking
I teach Welsh Second language to GCSE and I have just used this word on a facebook post to mean beyond amazing (out of this world, stunningly beautiful) but I have never nor would never use it to mean anything negative otherwise people wouldn’t know if you were being damning/sarcastic/negative. I have never seen it used as a negative either. For a negative I would use huffernol, huffernol o salw (hellishly ugly) huffernol o dwp (hellishly stupid) also twp huffernol. At the moment I can’t think of any good ones other than that, which is a bit lame.
All of us in my family speak Welsh as we were brought up in Ystradgynlais, which is a Welsh speaking community, even if Iaith Cwmtawe comes in for flack at times because we use a lot of different terms to the other regions and there is a tendency to use Wenglish. (Bratiaith some would call it). I teach Welsh at Maesydderwen and I have taught Welsh since 1988. All four of my grandchildren attended a Welsh primary (at least for a few years) and two spent a few years at Welsh medium secondary until they moved recently. My name is Annwyn Lewis when I’m not on facebook, where I have altered my name to make it harder for pupils to find.
Lovely to meet you! We do have other kind folk on here to help rather than learn! Mr. Gareth R King being a prime example! I am an aged exile in Yr Alban and much appreciate all help!
Some of the uses of the word (at least earlier in the thread) sound to me a bit like: floccinaucinihilipilification - ‘the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.’