CLAIM / COUNTERCLAIM / LIMITRECORD 668
DISPUTE
RECORD.
One scholarly question. Every attached source. The present editorial state, without pretending the last word has been written.
openproposed
Did love develop into hate, hate into love, or both from another meaning?
No reviewed source establishes one direction. The citations show an opposition; they do not date a semantic transition.
WORD UNDER REVIEWDISPUTE 668
cais
not directly recoverable · Middle Irish noun
eDIL separates two Irish headwords written cais. The first, also recorded as caise, is explicitly explained both as love and as hate; its cited passages and glossary equations range from searc and grádh "love" to miscais and mioscais "hatred", with context deciding individual readings. One Éigse line is tentatively translated so that the same visible form occurs on both sides: "my love ... is met by hatred(?)". The question mark matters. The second eDIL headword cais means "eye" and is excluded from this semantic lineage. These records establish a remarkable lexicographic opposition, not one timeless essence, a chronology from love to hate, or proof that every occurrence belongs to one historically indivisible sense. John T. Koch compares the noun with Proto-Celtic *katsi- < *kad-t/si- and a wider *kad- family, but that ancestry and its proposed Germanic comparison remain open. eDIL itself generally supplies etymologies only selectively. No manuscript pixels were directly inspected, no earliest-use or historical-frequency claim is made, and no exact pronunciation is invented.
01DIRECT CLAIM EVIDENCE
2 SOURCES WITH A STANCE
A citation is not a vote. Each record says whether the work supports, challenges, contradicts, or contextualizes the position—and identifies the exact locus used.
SOURCE 01supportshistorical dictionary
eDIL — 1 cais, noun explained as both love and hate
Documents semantic opposition without a dated change sequence.
Love and hate explanation plus mixed citation inventory- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Royal Irish Academy · eDIL editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Royal Irish Academy
SOURCE 02challengesscholarly essay
The shortest history of hatred continued and partly concluded
Rejects easy reversal stories from the dual gloss alone.
Opposing meanings and limits of semantic explanations- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Anatoly Liberman
- YEAR
- 2018
- PUBLISHER
- Oxford University Press
02 / EDITORIAL STATE
THE QUESTION REMAINS OPEN.
- CONFIDENCE
- proposed
- STATUS
- open
- LEGACY SOURCE SUMMARY
- The lexicographic record lacks a secure chronological series, and comparative cautions reject an easy semantic skeleton key.
WHY NO RESOLUTIONThe reviewed evidence does not yet warrant collapsing the competing or incomplete analyses into one secure answer.