gell

Noun

gell (plural gells)

1. Eye dialect spelling of girl.
   • 1861, George Eliot, “Chapter 14”, in Silas Marner:

     Well, mayhap that'll do, as it's a little gell, for they're easier persuaded to sit i' one place nor the lads.

   • 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, Chapter 4: "The engine-burglar":

     "You're a naughty little gell, that's what you are," said the fireman, and the engine-driver said:--

     "Daring little piece, I call her," but they made her sit down on an iron seat in the cab and told her to stop crying and tell them what she meant by it.

2. Alternative form of gill (a leech)

Noun

gell

1. Soft mutation of kell.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛlː/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *gello- (“yellow”) or *gelo- (“white”) (compare Middle Welsh gell (“yellow”), Old Irish gel (“white, fair, shining”), whence Irish geal (“white, bright”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“gleam, yellow”) (compare English yellow, Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós, “light green”), Latin helvus (“dull yellow”), Lithuanian žalias (“green”), Persian زر‎ (zar, “yellow”), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “greenish-yellow”), Welsh gwelw (“pale”))).

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Mutation

Etymology

From gelten (“to be valid”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛl/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

Adverb

gell

1. (colloquial, regional, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria) right?; is it?; is it not?

   Wir gehen, gell? ― We’re going, aren’t we?

   Du verstehst mich, gell? ― You understand me, right?

Verb

gell (strong)

1. first-person singular present indicative of gjalla

Alternative forms

• geall

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *geldo- (“pledge”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeldʰ- (compare Proto-Germanic *geldaną (“to pay”)).

Noun

gell n, m

1. a pledge, a surety.
   1. a hostage
2. a stake, a wager
3. (by extension of the previous senses) the equal, the equivalent
4. in prepositional phrases
   • do gheall ar

     for the sake of

   • i ... ngeall

     in need of; depending on

   • i ngeall ar

     by means of; on account of; in exchange for; pledged to

   • i ngeall re

     in pledge for; in lieu of; as the equivalent of; depending on; on account of

   • mar gheall air

     in return for

Mutation

References

• “gell” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɛɬ/

Noun

gell

1. Soft mutation of cell.

Mutation