What is the Gaelic/Celtic/Old Irish word or symbol for "Free Spirit"?

Question

I'm looking for a new tattoo... I'm half Irish & half Scottish... I was looking for a knot/symbol/word that would represent this but can't find anything...

Answer 1

http://www.ceantar.org/cgi-bin/search.cg...

spirit, will=Old Irish "menme"  or "spirut"

spirit= from Scottish "smeddum".

Scottish Gaelic:

fuasgail = free, liberate

feum-sgaoilte = lithe, free

meanmna =  spirit, bravery, courage

meanmnach =  high-spirited, brave, courageous

http://www.addanto.com/index.asp?PageAct...  shows some Celtic Knot Rings to show you what it looks like.

Yahoo image search--Celtic knot tattoos: Clear, close-up pictures of them ( 297 pictures on 10+ pages)

www.tribal-celtic-tattoo.com

www.tattoonow.com

www.tattooartists.org

Couldn't find the words in the Celtic languages. Every search took me back to either Scottish Gaelic, or Irish Gaelic. Hope the ones I DID find were what you wanted.

Answer 2

Im not quite sure what you want.

In Gàidhlig (Scots gaelic)

free spirit = spiorad saor

You also mention old Irish.

Do you mean sean ghaeilge? Sean ghaeilge (or old Irish) hasnt been spoken since the 12th century. I have a book with sean ghaeilge words and it give free spirit as "spirut saer" but personally i would go with nua-ghaeilge which is what we've spoken since the 1700's.

In nua ghaeilge (modern Irish) it happens to be the same as the scots,

free spirit = spiorad saor

Answer 3

The Scottish Gaelic word for freedom is "saorsa", which means liberty, freedom, deliverance, and redemption.  

The nearest one-word equivalent in Scottish Gaelic for free spirit is "misneach", meaning courage, fortitude, or spirit.

Did you want a Scottish Gaelic or an Irish Gaelic word?

Below are some links for Celtic tattoos:

http://www.celticlady.com/flash/index.ht...

http://www.tribal-celtic-tattoo.com

Then again, you could just buy some Celtic-themed jewelry from all those vendors that make the Highland Games circuit.