(2) Adj. llawer [rad.] ‘many a’ followed by a sg. noun.
a llawer damwein a ẟigawn bot w.m. 28 ‘and many an accident may happen’.
- Llawer merch weddw o’i pherchen,
- Llawer gŵr mewn llurig wen.—D.Ỻ., tr. 249.
‘Many a woman widowed of her lord, many a man in a white corselet.’
(3) W. llawer < *(p)luu̯eros formed by adding the cpv. suffix ‑ero- to *plu‑, *p(a)lu- < *pₑlu‑ Gk. πολύς < *pₑlu‑.
iii. (1) Subst. llḯaws ‘many, a multitude’; lluosydd id.
llẏaus b.b. 5 (ẏ ≡ i); yn llvyr ẏ guyr lluossit b.b. 66 (‑it ≡ ‑yẟ) ‘thoroughly does a multitude know it’. Na ddilyn liaws i wneuthur drwg Ex. xxiii 2; lliaws o flynyddoedd Job xxxii 7. With a dependent genitive: lliaws dy dosturiaethau Ps. li 1.
(2) Adj. llḯaws [soft] ‘many a, much’, with a sg. or a pl. noun; this is the noun llḯaws compounded with another noun. The adj., used as a complement, is Ml. W. lluossawc, Mn. W. lluosog.
Lliaws gurẏaw r.p. 1216 ‘much suffering’; Ceveis i liaws awr eur a phali M. m.a. i 192 ‘I had many a time gold and silk’; o lïaws eirchẏeid m.a. i 259 ‘of many suppliants’; i lios lu § 71 ii (1); Mor lluosog yw dy weithredoedd Ps. civ 24.
(3) llḯaws < *plēiōs-tā(t)s. The longer forms have u as lluossauc r.p. 1043, lluossogrwyẟ w.m. 34, r.m. 22, lluosog in 1620 Bible. These are not formed from llïaws but from an old adj. *plēiŏsto‑s) see § 74 i (2), § 75 iii (3) and § 76 ix (2).
iv. (1) Subst. peth ‘some, a certain quantity’.
Dywedadwy yw rac llaw o beth o vucheẟ Veuno Ỻ.A. 118 ‘[the story] is to be told in what follows of some of the life of Beuno’; ac wrth hau, peth a syrthiodd ar ymyl y fford … a pheth arall, etc. Luc viii 5–8.
In an adverbial case, beth ‘to some extent, for some time’:
- Dir yw in dario ennyd,
- Ac aros beth gwrs y byd.—D.Ỻ., Ỻ 120/258 r.
‘We must tarry a little, and await awhile the course of events.’
(2) peth is the interrogative pronoun § 163 i (3) used indefinitely (cf. Gk. τις); from ‘some, something’ it came to mean ‘thing’, and thus became an ordinary noun, pl. pethau; see § 163 vi.
v. (1) Subst. bychydic, ychydig ‘a little, a few’.
