ficheall

Irish

Ficheall

Alternative forms

• fidhcheall (superseded)

Etymology

From Middle 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, no plural)

bare forms singular nominative ficheall vocative a fhicheall genitive fichille dative ficheall fichill (archaic, dialectal) forms with the definite article singular nominative an fhicheall genitive na fichille dative leis an bhficheall leis an bhfichill (archaic, dialectal) don fhicheall don fhichill (archaic, dialectal)

Synonyms

• (chessboard): clár fichille

Derived terms

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

Mutation

Mutated forms of ficheall

radical	lenition	eclipsis
ficheall	fhicheall	bhficheall

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

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