sùil

See also: súil

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish súil, from Primitive Irish *sūli, alteration of Proto-Celtic *sūle (“suns”), dual of *sūlos, genitive of *sāwol (compare Welsh haul, Breton heol), from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥. The change in meaning in Irish is apparently due to the mythological view of the sun as the “eye of the sky”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s̪uːl/

Noun

sùil f (genitive sùla, plural sùilean, genitive plural sùl)

1. (anatomy) eye
2. vision, eyesight
3. look, glance
4. expectation, hope

Declension

Declension of sùil (type IVa feminine noun)

indefinite
	singular	plural
nominative	sùil	sùilean
genitive	sùla	shùilean
dative	sùil	sùilean; sùilibh✝
definite
	singular	plural
nominative	(an) t-sùil	(na) sùilean
genitive	(na) sùla	(nan) sùilean
dative	(an) t-sùil	(na) sùilean; sùilibh✝
vocative	shùil	shùla; shùilean

^✝ obsolete form, used until the 19th century

• Alternative genitive singular and plural: sùl

Synonyms

• (glance): plathadh

Derived terms

• dà-shùileach (“binocular”, adjective)
• droch shùil
• neul-sùla
• sùil air ais

Mutation

Mutation of sùil

radical	lenition
sùil	shùil after "an", t-sùil

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

References

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “sùil”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “súil”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language