fidchell

English

Etymology

From Middle Irish fidchell.

Noun

fidchell (uncountable)

1. An ancient Celtic board game somewhat resembling chess.

Translations

Celtic board game

• Breton: gwezboell (br) m
• Irish: ficheall (ga) f
• Scottish Gaelic: fidhcheall m
• Welsh: gwyddbwyll (cy) f

Middle Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *widukʷeislā (literally “wood intelligence”), from *widus (“wood”) + *kʷeislā (“sense”), cognate with Welsh gwyddbwyll, Cornish gwydhbol, and Breton gwezboell.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɸʲiðxʲəl͈/

Noun

fidchell f (genitive fidchille, nominative plural fidchella)

1. An ancient Celtic board game somewhat resembling chess.

Derived terms

• fidchelda (“pertaining to fidchell”)
• fidchellach (“fidchell player”)
• fidchellacht (“playing fidchell”)
• fidchellaire (“fidchell player”)
• fidchleóracht (“playing fidchell”)

Descendants

• Irish: ficheall
• Manx: feeal
• Scottish Gaelic: fidhcheall
• → English: fidchell

Mutation

Mutation of fidchell

radical	lenition	nasalization
fidchell	ḟidchell	fidchell pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/

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

Further reading

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