Today’s word of the day is the simple cryf, meaning strong. It’s an adjective, although historically it has been sometimes used as a noun to mean a very strong man.
cryf
strong
As with many old Welsh words, the meaning can be more flexible and fluid than you might expect. In every day conversation, it’s generally employed to mean strong as in powerful, tough, brawny, not easily broken, or as in a smell or taste that is not mild. But it’s also often used to mean successful, healthy or flourishing. And a meddyginiaeth gryf (strong medicine) means one that can cause constipation!
Another thing it has in common with words that have evolved all the way from proto-Brittonic is that it’s got cousins in Breton (krenv) and Cornish (krev), meaning exactly the same thing. Tracing things further back, they all come from the proto-Indo-European root krep. And its own windy way, krep is also the ancestor of the Welsh word corff (body).
Here is how cryf mutates:
Soft mutation
gryf
Nasal mutation
nghryf
Aspirate mutation
chryf
But unfortunately for learners, mutations aren’t the only kind of change this word undergoes! It also has a feminine form, cref, to describe feminine nouns, and a plural form cryfion, to describe plural nouns. How much native speakers actually use these words rather than sticking to the basic form varies by region.
When using cref, remember that a feminine noun will also cause the adjective to take a soft mutation. So a strong woman is actually a dynes gref.
Also helpful are the comparative forms. Stronger than is cryfach na, stronger is cryfaf, and as strong as is cyn gryfed â.
Cyn gryfed â march ydy hi.
She is as strong as a horse.
Finally, you might want to know how to translate words like strength and to strengthen. Luckily, these all come from the same root cryf too, and follow fairly predictable patterns to change it from an adjective to a noun or a verb. Strength is cryfder or cryfdwr (though the word nerth, power, is a very common choice too), and to strengthen is cryfhau. In North Wales, this can be reduced to cryffa in colloquial speech.
Here are some terms in which cryf makes an appearance:
- curiad cryf = a strong beat
- cerrynt cryf / cerrynt nerthol = a strong current
- llais cryf = a powerful voice
- goleuadau cryf = bright lights
- caws cryf = strong-tasting cheese
- arogl cryf = a strong smell
- cryf a chadarn = strong and hard / sturdy
- baban cryf = a healthy baby
- tir cryf = fertile land
- cryfder meddwl = strong-mindedness
As you can see, it covers a wide but nuanced range of meanings beyond just strong!
Mae’r cwmni’n dod yn gryf iawn erbyn hyn.
The company is now beginning to flourish.
There are a couple of Welsh proverbs which refer to cryfder. Firstly, a wise old Welsh nain (gran) or taid (grandpa) might suggest that oni byddi gryf, bydd gyfrwys (if you’re not strong, be crafty). Good advice for getting by in life!
And a more wholesome saying that really captures the spirit of the Welsh is cryfach edau yn gyfrodedd. You’ll recognise the word cryfach, meaning stronger. Edau is an old, literary word for a thread, but it’s often used in a metaphorical sense to refer to connection and interdependence. Yn gyfrodedd means intertwined. So the phrase overall translates literally to intertwined threads are stronger, and what it conveys is that we’re all cryfach when we stand gyda’n gilydd (together).
