cíall

See also: ciall

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *kʷeislā; cognate to Welsh pwyll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʲiːa̯l͈/

Noun

cíall f (genitive céille, nominative plural cíalla)

1. sense, intelligence, mind (of persons)
2. wisdom, good sense, skill
3. sense (means of perception)
4. intention, cause, reason, idea
5. signification, meaning (of words, texts, etc.)
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 38^c3

     Ní hé apstal cita·rogab in testimin so. Aliter: Ní fóu da·uc int apstal fon chéill fuand·rogab in fáith.

     It is not (the) apostle who first uttered this text. Otherwise: The apostle did not apply it in the sense in which the prophet uttered it.

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 56^b31

     Cía techtid nach aile ní ad·chobrai-siu ⁊ ní techtai-siu ón immurgu, ní étaigther-su immanísin, .i. ní ascnae ⁊ ní charae; is sí indala ch[í]all les isindí as emulari in sin.

     Though another may possess what you may desire and you may however not possess, you should not be jealous of that thing, i.e. you should not seek after and love it; that is one of the two meanings that he finds in emulari.

6. force, function, meaning (of grammatical forms)

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	cíallL	céillL	cíallaH
Vocative	cíallL	céillL	cíallaH
Accusative	céillN	céillL	cíallaH
Genitive	céilleH	cíallL	cíallN
Dative	céillL	cíallaib	cíallaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• fris·cuirethar céill

Descendants

• Irish: ciall
• Manx: keeall
• Scottish Gaelic: ciall

Mutation

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

Further reading

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