ficheall

Irish

Ficheall

Alternative forms

• fidhcheall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old Irish fidchell, from Proto-Celtic *widukʷēslā (literally “wood intelligence”). Compare Welsh gwyddbwyll.

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): [ˈfʲɪhəl̪ˠ]
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): [ˈfʲɪhəl̪ˠ], [fʲiːl̪ˠ]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): [ˈfʲɪçəl̪ˠ]

Noun

ficheall f (genitive singular fichille)

1. chess (two-player board game)
2. chessboard

Declension

Declension of ficheall

Second declension

Bare forms (no plural form of this noun) Case Singular Nominative ficheall Vocative a fhicheall Genitive fichille Dative ficheall

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Nominative an fhicheall Genitive na fichille Dative leis an bhficheall don fhicheall

Synonyms

• (chessboard): clár fichille

Derived terms

• fear fichille (“chess piece, chessman”)
• fiann fichille, foireann fichille (“set of chessmen”)
• ficheallaí, imreoir fichille (“chess player”)
• fichillín (“pawn”)

 

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
ficheall	fhicheall	bhficheall
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “ficheall”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “fidchell”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language