What's this cùil thing

The wonderful thing about the Gaelic people is the fact that they are undependable, and this is also a characteristic of the old tongue. It can mean one thing, or another, and sometimes nothing at all; or my name is not ruairdh mhnacaoidh! Some crazed descendant of the Irish branch of the Gaels has taken the above word to describe a new web browser. Google is not content and this also holds for a number of holders of such venerable Gaelic Word sources as Teach Yourself Gaelic by Roderick MacKinnon (1971). This is actually a very good book, but not the last word when it comes to Gaelic.

“Cùil” is not the precise equivalent of the English word “knowledge” but I can appreciate where they are coming from:

I have used some older dictionaries, but remain partial to “An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language” by Alexander MacBain. It was first published as a 1st edition in 1896 and was revised in
1911 A Photolitho Reprint of 1911 edition was offered for sale in 1982, and that was the one I owned until the dictionary appeared online.

MacBain likes to refer his readers to associated words, and here they are:

cuile

an apartment where stores are kept, Old Irish cuile fínda, vinaria, *koliâ; Greek @Gkalía, hut, Sanskrit kula@-/ya, hut, nest (Stokes); from *kol-io-, root qel of ceil.

cuilm

a feast; Dialectic for cuirm, q.v.

cuilidh

cellar, secret place, treasury; See cuile.

This last definition comes close to “knowledge?

And the pronunciation is ok at “cool.”

Consider, CUILIONN, holly, holy, EIr, cuilenn, W, celyn, Br. kelenn, AS. holegn. One of the three important Quarter Day plants used in the decoration of homes to protect them from evil. Note
that the famed southern hero Fionn mac Cumhaill (i.e. Finn Mc Cool) was the “Son of Holly.” From Rod Mackay’s “druidheachd.”

There are all kinds of similar compound words in Gaelic which support or negate the argument or do neither:

maor cúil = goal umpire

ceosholas cúil = rear fog lamp

adj (in compounds) doras/seomra cúil = back door/room

dramhghloine (cuilléad) = waste glass (cullet)

solas uimhirphláta cúil = rear registration plate lamp

But then, all of these words are far too modern in origins to have any influence on what “cool” really implies?

I tender this support to cùil although their references to my web pages are out of date by about a decade (you just can’t get there from there!) . Althougn my Glossary of Gaelic Magic is doing great guns on Scribd and on my own page under druidheachd it is not presently indexed on this new browser, and they do not yet produce enough meaningful results for my liking! I remain, however, your obedient servant,,,