Geas

[watervole]

'Geas' isn't even in SOWPODS.

Whoever compiles dictionaries obviously never played D+D - that's a word I started using at least 20 years ago!

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

OED has Geis as the primary spelling and gaysh and geas as variants. Earliest usage cited 1880. Plural is either geasa or geise

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Or "ducks".

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

AFAIK geis is the Irish word, geas the Scots Gaelic.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I've been using it since the first time I read Clark Ashton Smith. Not very often (it would be rather a worry if one had daily use for it...)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I first came across it while reading Irish "legends" in my student days. There was this hero who had a geis (Oh, I use the other spelling) never refuse a meal and never eat dog. He knew he was in trouble when he was offered a plate of dog stew.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I first came across it in Rosemary Sutcliff's The Hound of Ulster (pubd. 1963).