nél

See also: nel, Nel, ńel, and -nél

Old Irish

Etymology

Cognate with Welsh niwl; a Celtic loanword either from Vulgar Latin *nībulus, a modification of Latin nūbilus (“cloudy”), or from Proto-Germanic *nebulaz (“cloud, mist”). It cannot come from a Proto-Celtic form with *-bl-, as this cluster remained in Old Irish (e.g. mebul (“shame”) from *meblā).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n͈ʲeːl/

Noun

nél m (genitive niúil, nominative plural niúil)

1. cloud

Inflection

Masculine o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	nél	nélL	niúilL
Vocative	niúil	nélL	níuluH
Accusative	nélN	nélL	níuluH
Genitive	niúilL	nél	nélN
Dative	níulL	nélaib	nélaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: néal
• Manx: neeal, niaul
• Scottish Gaelic: neul

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “nél”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language