Beith (áÂÂ) is the Irish name of the first letter (Irish "letter": sing.fid, pl.feda) of the Ogham alphabet, meaning "birch". In Old Irish, the letter name was Beithe, which is related to Welsh bedw(en), Breton bezv(enn), and Latin betula. Its Proto-Indo-European root was *g÷et- 'resin, gum'. Its phonetic value is .
The Auraicept na n-ÃÂces contains the tale of the mythological origins of Beith
Peith (<span style="font-size:125%;">áÂÂ</span>) is a later addition to the Forfeda, a variant of Beith with a phonetic value of [p]. It is also called beithe bog "soft beithe", being considered a "soft" variant of . It replaced IfÃÂn <span style="font-size:125%;">áÂÂ</span>, one of the "original" five Forfeda likely named initially pÃÂn (influenced by Latin pinus) with an original value [p] but whose phonetic value was altered to a vowel diphthong due to later medieval schematicism.
In the medieval kennings, called BrÃÂatharogaim (sing. BrÃÂatharogam) or Word Oghams the verses associated with Beith are:
Féocos foltchaÃÂn: "Withered foot with fine hair" in the BrÃÂatharogam Morann mic MoÃÂn
Glaisem cnis: "Greyest of skin" in the BrÃÂatharogam Mac ind ÃÂc
Maise malach: "Beauty of the eyebrow" in the BrÃÂatharogam Con Culainn.
While medieval and modern neopagan arboreal glosses (i.e. tree names) for the Ogham have been widely popularised (even for fade whose names do not translate as trees), the Old Irish In Lebor Ogaim (the Ogam Tract) also lists many other word values classified by type (e.g. birds, occupations, companies) for each fid. The filÃÂ (Old Irish filid, sing. fili) or poets of this period learned around one hundred and fifty variants of Ogham during their training, including these word-list forms.
Some of the notable Old Irish values of these for Beith include:
Enogam/Bird-ogam: besan "pheasant?" (this translation may be incorrect as the text predates the approximately sixteenth century introduction of pheasants to Ireland)
Dathogam/Colour-ogam: bán "white"
Ogam tirda/Agricultural ogam: biail "axe"
Danogam/Art-ogam: bethumnacht "livelihood"
Ogam Cuidechtach/Company Ogam: Bachlaid "Priests"