Etymograph

English

Gael

Gael comes from Irish Gael ‘Gael, Gaelic person’, from Proto-Celtic *weidus ‘wild’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to separate, divide’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-‘to separate, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*weidus‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Celtic, derivedc. 1300–800 BCE*weidelosreconstructed
  4. Proto-Brythonicc. 100 BCE–500 CE*Guɨðelreconstructed
  5. Old Irishc. 600–900Goídel
  6. Irishc. 1200–presentGael‘Gael, Gaelic person’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1911same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-‘to separate, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*weidus‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Celtic, derivedc. 1300–800 BCE*weidelosreconstructed
  4. Proto-Brythonicc. 100 BCE–500 CE*Guɨðelreconstructed
  5. Old Irishc. 600–900Goídel
  6. Irishc. 1200–presentGael‘Gael, Gaelic person’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1911same form

Earliest quotation: 1911, G.K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse: “For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men…”

The story

Gaol, from earlier Gaoidheal, cognate with Scottish Gaelic Gàidheal and Manx Gael, from Middle Irish Gaídel, from Old Irish Goídel (‘Irishman’), a loanword from Old Welsh Guoidel (‘wild man, warrior’) (also recorded as a personal name in the Book of Llandaff), from Proto-Brythonic *Guɨðel (‘savage, woodsman’), from Proto-Celtic *weidelos (‘savage, woodsman’), related to *weidus (‘wild’), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (‘wood, wilderness’). Medieval Irish traditions, including the Lebor Gabála Érenn, trace the origin of the Goídels to an eponymous ancestor, Goídel Glas, but this is no longer held to be the ultimate etymology of the word.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to separate, divide’

individual, wide, division, wood, device, divide, widow, devise, divisible, fid, 12 more

Today it means

noun A member of an ethnic group in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, whose language is one that is Gaelic.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- / Gael

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