Welsh Word of the Day: Rhag (against / from)

Today’s Welsh word of the day is rhag. This little word is quite difficult to translate; it can have so many different meanings, including against, before, from and lest. In broad terms, rhag is used when discussing precautions and prevention. You will often see rhag appear where the prefix pre- appears in English.

Rhag is a rhagddodiad (preposition), a word that describes the relationship between things. You may have noticed that the word rhagddodiad itself contains rhag! This is because, similarly to the English word preposition, rhagddodiad can be broken up into a word meaning before and a word referring to position; dodiad comes from dodi, to put/place. So rhagddodiad can be literally translated as pre-putting/placement.

This makes sense once you consider that rhagddodiadau (prepositions) like rhag tend to appear at the start of phrases. For example, take rhag ofn (literally against fear), the Welsh equivalent of the English (just) in case.

Like many Welsh prepositions, rhag changes according to which rhagenw (pronoun) it’s referring to. Let’s take a look at the different forms of rhag in the table below!

Remember, you don’t have to change rhag at all if you’re pairing it with a noun.

Rhag is used with the verbs dianc (to escape), atal (to stop) and gwarchod (to protect).

• atal rhag = to stop from, to prevent from
• dianc rhag = to escape from
• gwarchod rhag = to guard against, to protect from

Don’t be tempted to use another, more familiar, preposition such as o in this context!

Rhag appears as a prefix in several useful Welsh terms, where it is combined with the softly mutated version of another word. Let’s finish up today’s article by taking a close look at a few of these words.

Rhagrith (m)

Rhagrith is the Welsh word for hypocrisy. Closely related is the word rhagrithiol (hypocritical). This word is built out of our old friend rhag and rith, the softly mutated version of the world rhith. Rhith is another tricky word to translate, but it generally refers to things of a superficial or transparent nature. Translations of rhith include: appearance, disguise, image and ghost. So the word rhagrith suggests that someone is putting an image out into the world that doesn’t reflect their true self; it makes me picture someone letting a hologram walk before them and hiding behind it.

Rhagfarn (f)

Rhagfarn, meaning bias or prejudice, is made up of rhag and barn (opinion), mutated to farn. It’s a bit easier to see the origins of this word; if someone is prejudiced, they form opinions before having access to the facts. In fact, the English word prejudice came about in a similar way, combining the Latin prae- (“before”) and iūdicium (“judgment”).

Rhagfynegi / Rhagweld

Rhagfynegi and rhagweld are both used to mean predict in Welsh, but they have subtly different implications. Rhagfynegi derives from the word mynegi (to express), while rhagweld derives from gweld (to see). As such, rhagfynegi is usually used when someone has stated their prediction out loud or in writing; it is perhaps best translated as to foretell, and it is often used when stating a hypothesis in a scientific context. On the other hand, rhagweld implies knowledge of the future that isn’t necessarily shared with anyone; more like to foresee than to foretell. I also find that rhagweld tends to have supernatural, rather than scientific, connotations.

Rhagolwg (m)

Rhagolwg is closely related to the word rhagweld; it’s made up of rhag and golwg (sight, glance). This is the word we use in Welsh to refer to the weather forecast, rhagolwg y tywydd. It is also used more generally to refer to an outlook or prospect.