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From Old Irish cú (“dog, hound”),^[3] from Proto-Celtic *kū (compare Welsh ci), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”).

cú m or f (genitive singular cú or con, nominative plural cúnna or coin)

hound, greyhound
Nuair a chonaic Séadanta an cú ag teacht chuige, bhuail sé an crag leis an oiread sin nirt go ndeachaigh sé síos i mbéal an chon, agus trína chorp.
When Sétanta saw the hound coming at him, he hit the ball with so much force that it went into the hound's mouth and through its body.[1]
(figuratively) hero, champion

cú

(Latin-script letter names) litir; á, bé, cé, dé, é, eif, gé, héis, í, jé, cá, eil, eim, ein, ó, pé, cú, ear, eas, té, ú, vé, wae, ex, yé, zae
Note: The English names are also widely used by Irish speakers.

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
cú	chú	gcú
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

^ Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 20
^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 74
^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 cú”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cú”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “cú”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 204
de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “cú”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
“cú”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024

cú (cu², Zhuyin ㄘㄨˊ)

cú m (genitive con, nominative plural coin)

dog, hound
- c. 1000, “The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig”, in Ernst Windisch, editor, Irische Texte, volume 1, published 1800, section 1:
  Bui cu oca, no ditned in cu Lagniu uile. Ailbe ainm in chon, ocus lan hEriu dia aurdarcus.
  He had a dog; the dog protected all Leinster. Ailbhe was the name of the dog, and all Ireland was full of his fame.

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cú	chú	cú pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 cú”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

cú m (genitive con, nominative plural coin)

The nominative singular cú irregularly causes lenition when used to create male given names, such as Cú Chulainn.

Masculine n-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	cú	coin^L	coin
Vocative	cú	coin^L	cona^H
Accusative	coin^N	coin^L	cona^H
Genitive	con	con^L	con^N
Dative	coin^L, cú^L	conaib	conaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cú	chú	cú pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 cú”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

cú m

From Proto-Vietic *kuːʔ, of imitative origin. Compare Proto-Tai *ɡawꟲ (“owl”) (whence Thai เค้า (káo), Lao ເຄົ້າ (khao)), Chinese 鵂 (OC *qʰ(r)u), 鴞 (OC *[ɢ]ʷ(r)aw) (B-S).

(classifier con) cú • (鴝, 𫚱)

cú

cú