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Definition 2025
gell
gell
English
Noun
gell (plural gells)
- 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.
-
- Alternative form of gill (a leech)
Cornish
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”))).
Adjective
gell
- light brown
Etymology 2
Non-lemma forms.
Noun
gell
- Soft mutation of kell.
German
Etymology
From gelten (“to be valid”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡɛl/
- Rhymes: -ɛl
Adverb
gell
- (colloquial, regional, southern Germany, Austria) right?; is it?; is it not?
- Wir gehen, gell?
- We’re going, aren’t we?
- Du verstehst mich, gell?
- You understand me, right?
- Wir gehen, gell?
Synonyms
Old Irish
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Proto-Celtic *geldo- (“pledge”).
Noun
gell n, m
- a pledge, a surety.
- a hostage
- a stake, a wager
- (by extension of the previous senses) the equal, the equivalent
- 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
- do gheall ar
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Derived terms
Descendants
Mutation
Old Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
gell | gell pronounced with /ɣ(ʲ)-/ |
ngell |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
References
- “gell” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.