Hidden Love (Cariad Cymraeg Part II)

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Sut mae, cariadon!

There’s more to love in Welsh than cariad and caru. So in addition to last week’s blogpost about Welsh love (“at first sight”, as it were), here’s another about the less obvious. Let’s dive a little deeper into the language to see what other kinds of love we can come up with.

If you are a regular surfer of your geiriadur, you will already be a specialist in all kinds of word endings. And you will have come across two popular expressions of hidden love, i.e. in suffixes (note to blogging self: avoid unnecessary grammartalk!) = words ending in -gar and -garwch. Looks familiar? Sounds familiar? Yep, because there’s a softly mutated form of caru in there.

So the basic meaning of -gar is “loving”. Here are some examples (there’s loads of them!):

diolchgar = thanks (diolch) + loving = grateful, thankful, appreciative

cyfeillgar = friend (cyfaill) + loving = friendly, nice, amicable

amyneddgar = patience (amynedd) + loving = patient

hawddgar = easy (hawdd) + loving = amiable

cymwynasgar =favour (cymwynas) + loving = friendly, obliging

dialgar = revenge (dial) + loving = revengeful

dioddefgar = suffer (dioddef) + loving = patient

meddylgar = thought (meddwl) + loving = thoughtful

blaengar = front (blaen) + loving = progressive

ariangar = money (arian) + loving = avaricious

sylwgar = attention (sylw) + loving = attentive

croesawgar = welcome (croeso) + loving = welcoming, hospitable

hunangar = self (hunan) + loving = selfish

gwladgar / gwlatgar = country (gwlad) + loving = pariotic

Most of these you can turn into nouns by simply replacing – gar with


brawdgarwch = brother (brawd) + love = brotherly love, companionship

hunangarwch = self (hunan) + love = selfishness

(On a more positive note: hunangariad = self love.)

gwladgarwch / gwlatgarwch -= country (gwlad) + love = patriotism

lletygarwch = accomodation (llety) + love = hospitality

Ac yn y blaen. And. So. On.

There are plenty more where these came from. Surf your dictionaries for further examples and start your very own collection of -gar‘s and –garwch‘s.

Cofion a chofgarwch,


PS: If you enjoyed this post, please remember to share & like, and do follow me on Ymlaen WelshDiolch o galon!

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