Middle Welsh dihynnyon ‘fragments, bits of meat’ and Breton dienn, Cornish dehen ‘cream’

This paper argues for an interpretation of Middle Welsh dihynnion as ‘skimmings’, i.e. ‘scum and fat skimmed from the cooking-pot’, rather than the traditional ‘fragments, bits of meat’. With this interpretation, Middle Welsh dihynnion can be connected to the otherwise etymologically isolated Breton dienn and Cornish dehen ‘cream’. All three words are derived from a Proto-Brittonic compound verb *di-hɪnn- ‘to skim, to scoop off’ which in turn ultimately stems from the Proto-Celtic verbal root *sem- ‘to pour, to scoop’.