{{Table Oghamletters Straif is the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

name of the fourteenth letter of the

Ogham Ogham (Modern Irish: ; mga, ogum, ogom, later mga, ogam, label=none ) is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the "orthodox" inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries AD), and later the Old Irish langua ...

alphabet, ᚎ. Old Irish spelling variants are ''straif'', ''straiph'', ''zraif'', ''sraif'', ''sraiph'', ''sraib''. The

Bríatharogam In Early Irish literature a ''Bríatharogam'' ("word ogham", plural ''Bríatharogaim'') is a two word kenning which explains the meanings of the names of the letters of the Ogham alphabet. Three variant lists of ''bríatharogaim'' or 'word-oghams' ...

kennings for the letter are: *''tressam rúamnai'' "strongest reddening" *''mórad rún'' "increase of secrets" *''saigid nél'' "seeking of clouds" The probable meaning of the name is "

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

". The first two kennings could be explained by the main use of sulphur as dye, and its

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

significance, respectively. The third kenning could be a corruption of ''saiget nél'' "arrow of the clouds", i.e. ''sraibtine'' "

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

". An alternative kenning has ''aire srábae'' "chief of streams", and glossators adhering to the "Tree Alphabet" base an identification with ''draigen'' "

blackthorn ''Prunus spinosa'', called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. The species is native to Europe, western Asia, and regionally in northwest Africa. It is locally naturalized in New Zealand, Tasmania, ...

" on this, by thinking of a "hedge on a river". The "chief of streams" kenning may be referring to sulphur by reference to the stream of brimstone, ''sruth uibhe'', mentioned in

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

30:33. The letter's original phonetic value is uncertain, but it may have been t sor w The medieval manuscript tradition transcribes it with Latin Z.

References

*Damian McManus, ''Irish letter-names and their kennings'', Ériu 39 (1988), 127-168. Ogham letters