Editing Dian Cecht (section)

== Etymology ==
The name Dian Cecht may be a combination of the [[Old Irish]] common words ''dían'' 'swift' and ''cécht'', glossed as 'power', hence the literal meaning may be literally "swift power".<ref name=mackillop-dict/><ref name=williams/><!--ref>Koch, J. T. (2006),''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vSIZAQAAIAAJ&q=Dian Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia]'', Vols. 1-4 - p. 586.</ref [not verified by preview]-->{{efn|See "[http://dil.ie/8433 2 cécht]", [[eDIL]], usage includes the instance from ''[[Cóir Anmann]]'', so [[Cormac's Glossary]] is not the sole attestation as {{harvp|Williams|2018|pp=113–114 note 126}} suggests.}} The {{illm|Cóir Anmann{{!}}''Cóir Anmann''|ga|Cóir Anmann}} refers to him as the "god of power", with ''cécht'' glossed as "power" ({{langx|sga|cumachtae}}).{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|p=167}}

In Old Irish, there is also the word ''cécht'' meaning 'plough-beam' (or less accurately 'ploughshare'),<ref>[http://dil.ie/8432 1 cécht]", [[eDIL]] "plough, plough-beam".</ref> but this makes "little sense in the light of his activities",{{sfnp|Shaw|2006|p=167}} and this lexical meaning is "presumably not relevant".<ref name=williams/>

[[Linguistics|Linguistic]] knowledge about regular [[sound change]]s in [[Celtic languages]] (McCone, 1996) and analysis of the [[University of Wales]]’ [[Proto-Celtic]] [[lexicon]] and of [[Julius Pokorny]]’s ''[[Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch]]'' permit ''*Deino-kwekwto-'' ‘swift concoction’ as a plausible [[Proto-Celtic]] reconstruction for this [[theonym]], hence the original name of the deity may have signified 'swift potion' or, by extrapolation even 'He-who-is-Swift-with-Healing-Remedies'.<ref name=williams/> However this suggestion is problematic since the root is not attested in Old Irish, but only in the [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] cousin languages.<ref name=williams/>