ceilidh

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See also: céilidh and cèilidh

English

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WOTD – 30 November 2023

Etymology

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People participating in a ceilidh (sense 2) called Roger de Coverley in Alexandra, Virginia, U.S.A., in 2019.

The noun is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic cèilidh (“a pilgrimage; a social call, visit; a sojourn; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”) and Irish célidhe (archaic), céilí (“a social call, visit; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”), both from Old Irish célide (“social call, visit”), from céile (“companion, fellow; neighbour”)[1] (ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kēiliyos (“companion; servant”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to settle”)) + -ide.

The plural form ceilidhean is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic cèilidhean.

The verb is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ceilidh (plural ceilidhs or ceilidhean) (Ireland, Scotland, also attributive)

  2. An informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.
    • 1875 December, Alastair Og, “The Highland Ceilidh”, in Alexander Mackenzie, Alexander MacGregor, editors, The Celtic Magazine: […], volume I, number II, Inverness, Inverness-shire: A[lexander] & W. Mackenzie, […], published 1876, →OCLC, pages 40–41:
      The fire in the centre of the room was almost a necessity of the good old Ceilidh days. When the people congregated in the evening, the circle could be extended to the full capacity of the room, and occasionally it became necessary to have a circle within a circle. […] The circle became extended by merely pushing back the seats, and this arrangement became absolutely necessary in the houses which were most celebrated as the great Ceilidh centres of the district. The Ceilidh rendezvous is the house in which all the Folk-lore of the country, all the old sgculachdan or stories, the ancient poetry known to the bards or Seanachaidhean, and old riddles and proverbs are recited from night to night by old and young.
    • 1916, The Celtic Monthly: A Magazine for Highlanders, Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, →OCLC, page 72; republished in John Mac Cormick, The Island of Mull = An t-Eilean Muileach: Its History, Scenes and Legends: An Interesting Guide to the Island, Glasgow: Alex[ander] Maclaren, 1934, →OCLC, page 164:
      [A]ll the details of it are recited with minute exactness around the fireside during the winter ceilidhean.
    • 1930, William Mackenzie, Skye Traditions Reflections and Memories, Glasgow: Alexander Maclaren & Sons, →OCLC, page 32:
      These happy and informative ceilidhean are past, and we are the poorer.
    • 1953 July, Karen Armstrong, “Women, Tourism, Politics”, in Michael Kenny, editor, Anthropological Quarterly, volume 50, number 3, Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, →ISSN, →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 140, column 2:
      Traditionally, while the men were away fishing, the women would gather in the evening for a ceilidh where they would sew and sing or talk and then finish with tea. But in an older informant's memory, ceilidhean became less frequent after World War I.
    • 1956, Piping Times, volume 9, Glasgow: League of Young Scots, College of Piping, →OCLC, page 7:
      Members of the College contributed to the enjoyment at local ceilidhs by playing the pipes and supplying an accordionist and a fiddler and dancers.
    • 1972, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, volume 47, Inverness, Inverness-shire: Gaelic Society of Inverness, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 84–85:
      The event proved that most of those who loved to attend ceilidhean, to attend the Mods and join in the chorus of "Suas leis a' Ghaidhlig" were not prepared to lay out the penny a week which would have brought to their doors the only wholly-Gaelic newspaper ever published in this country.
    • 2021, Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN:
      We went to a pub huddled in a corner, sitting close together to hear one another over the noise of the ceilidh band playing.
  4. (dance) Short for ceilidh dance.
    • 2009, Michael Gardiner, “Arcades – The 1980s and 1990s”, in Ian Brown, Alan Raich, editors, Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-century Scottish Literature, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 188:
      Looking for the Possible Dance [by Alison Louise Kennedy] sets up the 'dance', the ceilidh, as a site of personal and possibly national salvation, but one plagued by insecurities.
    • 2009, “Performing Arts”, in Andrew Whittaker, editor, Britain: Be Fluent in British Life and Culture (Speak the Culture; 3), London: Thorogood Publishing, →ISBN, page 208:
      'Traditional' British dance is a rather woolly genre; its bounds drawn without much discrimination and inclusive of folk dancing, ceilidh, country dancing and pretty much anything pre-20th century that didn't involve a tutu.
    • 2015, Jodie Gould, quoting “Clark”, “#4: Create: Expressing and Expanding the Inner Self”, in High: Six Principles for Guilt-free Pleasure and Escape, Center City, Minn.: Hazelden Publishing, →ISBN, Part 2 (The Six Pleasure Principles), page 174:
      We asked guests to bring something to share: poems, songs, short stories, music, even juggling—whatever they wanted to perform. Afterwards, we all danced the ceilidh, […]

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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ceilidh (third-person singular simple present ceilidhs, present participle ceilidhing, simple past and past participle ceilidhed) (intransitive)

  1. To attend a ceilidh (noun sense 1).
    • 1983, Christine Marion Fraser, chapter 1, in Children of Rhanna, London: Fontana, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, part I (Winter 1941), page 7:
      Captain Mac was certainly making the most of his enforced stay at safe anchorage. He had told Fergus he would ceilidh the night away with the help of Tam McKinnon's home-brewed malt whisky. From the sound of it one half of the ceilidh was on board ship, the other half no doubt in Tam McKinnon's cottage.
    • 1988, William K. Parke, “Escape from the Village”, in A Fermanagh Childhood, Belfast, Northern Ireland: The Friar’s Bush Press, →ISBN, page 102:
      Some nights we went ceilidhing to the home of Danny and Paddy. Their mother was a beautiful singer and she taught many of us how to dance while Danny played the accordion. There were nights when we all sat around the hearth fire singing the old Irish songs and locally composed ballads which are long since forgotten.
  2. (dance) To dance a ceilidh dance.
    • 2001, Brendan Graham, chapter 5, in The Element of Fire, London: HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, page 27:
      Nightly the scratch of fiddles and the thud of a reel-set staccatoed the timbers [of the ship sailing from Londonderry to Boston], as the peasant Irish ceilidhed their way to 'Amerikay'.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Compare “ceilidh, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “ceilidh, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Irish

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Verb

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ceilidh

  1. inflection of ceil:
    1. (archaic, Munster) second-person plural imperative
    2. (obsolete) third-person singular present indicative independent
    3. (obsolete) second-person plural present indicative

Mutation

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Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
ceilidh cheilidh gceilidh
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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