cefn

Welsh

From Middle Welsh keuen, from Proto-Celtic *kebno- (“back”), related to Breton kein (“back”), Cornish keyn (“back”), Gaulish Cebenna (“ridge, height”) (whence French Cévennes).

(North Wales) IPA^(key): /kɛvn/
(South Wales) (standard) (colloquial) IPA^(key): /kɛvn/, [ˈkʰɛvn̩]
- (South Wales) (colloquial) IPA^(key): /ˈkeːvɛn/, /ˈkɛvɛn/

cefn m (plural cefnau or cefnoedd)

back, rear; (figuratively) support, second; body as needing clothing, etc.
support, ridge; butt of ploughed land between two parallel furrows; opening furrows of such a butt; (biblical) furlong; vertical fissure or fault in a rock
1. garden bed
middle, centre

ar gefn (“in addition to, as a consequence of, with regard to; at the expense of; on top, upon, up to”)
cefn cynhaeaf (“mid-harvest; prime of life”)
cefn dydd; cefn dydd golau (“midday, broad daylight”)
cefn dyn (“successful man, man of substance”)
cefn esgid (“uppers”) (of a boot)
cefn gefn, cefngefn (“back to back, addorsed; at variance”)
cefn gweilgi (“mid-ocean”)
cefn gwlad (“mid-country, heart of the countryside”)
cefn llaw (“back of the hand; back-hander”)
cefn lloer (“full moon; crescent of the moon, half moon”)
cefn nos, cefn y nos (“midnight, dead of night”)
cefn troed (“instep”)
cefn y drin (“rearguard”)
wrth gefn (“in reserve; following, in support”)
yng nghefn (“behind one's back, underhand; following, pursuing”)

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
cefn	gefn	nghefn	chefn
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Angharad Fychan and Ann Parry Owen, editors (2014), “cefn”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

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