meitheal

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish methel,[1] from Proto-Celtic *metelā (“troop of reapers”) (whence also Welsh medel (“reaping party”)), from the root of *meteti (“to reap, cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *met- (“to cut, reap”) (compare Latin metō, Czech and Polish motyka (“hoe”), English mattock.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmʲɛhəlˠ/[2]

Noun

meitheal f (genitive singular meithle, nominative plural meithleacha) or
meitheal m (genitive singular meithil, nominative plural meithil)

  1. group of people employed in the same agricultural work (e.g. making hay, cutting turf)
  2. (especially) band of reapers
  3. work party, gang (company of laborers)
  4. contingent (quota of troops)
  5. team (group of people)
    Synonym: foireann

Declension

As a feminine second-declension noun:

Declension of meitheal (second declension)
bare forms
singular plural
nominative meitheal meithleacha
vocative a mheitheal a mheithleacha
genitive meithle meithleacha
dative meitheal
meithil (archaic, dialectal) 		meithleacha
forms with the definite article
singular plural
nominative an mheitheal na meithleacha
genitive na meithle na meithleacha
dative leis an meitheal
leis an meithil (archaic, dialectal)
don mheitheal
don mheithil (archaic, dialectal) 		leis na meithleacha

As a masculine first-declension noun:

Declension of meitheal (first declension)
bare forms
singular plural
nominative meitheal meithil
vocative a mheithil a mheitheala
genitive meithil meitheal
dative meitheal meithil
forms with the definite article
singular plural
nominative an meitheal na meithil
genitive an mheithil na meitheal
dative leis an meitheal
don mheitheal 		leis na meithil

Derived terms

  • meitheal mhachnaimh (“think tank”)

Mutation

Mutated forms of meitheal
radical lenition eclipsis
meitheal mheitheal not applicable

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 meithel”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
  2. ^ Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, § 82, page 34

Further reading

  • “meitheal”, in Historical Irish Corpus, 1600–1926, Royal Irish Academy
  • Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927) “meiṫeal”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 736; reprinted with additions 1996, →ISBN
  • Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “meitheal”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
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