rath

plural raths

1. historicalA walled enclosure, especially in Ireland; a ringfort built sometime between the Iron Age and the Viking Age.

   There are numerous Danish raths in the parish.

   1907, James Woods, Annals of Westmeath, Ancient and Modern

   2 more examples

   The Legend of Knock-Grafton tells how a little hunchback, while sitting to rest at nightfall at the side of a Rath or Moat, heard the fairies within singing over and over again, Da Luan, Da Mart! (i.e., Monday, Tuesday!) and added, weary with the monotony, Agus da Cadin! (i.e., and Wednesday!).

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 364

   Those with Celtic legendry in their heritage—mainly the Scotch-Irish element of New Hampshire, and their kindred who had settled in Vermont on Governor Wentworth’s colonial grants—linked them vaguely with the malign fairies and “little people” of the bogs and raths, and protected themselves with scraps of incantation handed down through many generations.

   1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 1, in The Whisperer in Darkness

plural raths

1. A Burmese carriage of state.

comparative more rath · superlative most rath

1. alternativeAlternative form of rathe.

plural Raths

1. A surname from German.