Argues that the borrowings into Norse of these Irish words presuppose a semantic evolution ‘heap’ ⁓ ‘head’ > ‘hair of the head’ > ‘hair in general’ ⁓ ‘grass’ already in Old Irish.
Discusses the semantic change (need >) lack >
desire in (II) Irish (díth, dígbál (> mod. díobháil), feidhm, do-esta (> mod. teastuighidh), atá …ó, oireann …do, (III) Manx (laccal, feme), and (IV) Scottish Gaelic (tha …a dhìth air …, is e a tha bho …).
Argues that OIr. conas ‘quarrel, fight’ (whence ScG connsaich) is an abstract noun derived from cú by means of the suffix -as, originally meaning ‘characteristic qualities of a hound’ and therefore an example of semantic shift. Cf. D. Greene, in Ériu 28 (1977), pp. 155-167.
Argues that mennán and bennán are etymologically unrelated but that the former attracted the latter to its semantic range because of the sporadic sound change b > m.
Argues that the semantic shift of OIr. lín from ‘full’ to ‘number’ is due to the preservation of a borrowed Near-Eastern cultural concept as an archaic semantic feature of the Proto-Indo-European root *plē.