béile

See also: beile, Beile, and bèilè

Irish

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle English mel, From Old English mǣl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą. The m was changed to b as a back-formation from the mutated forms, where *méile and *mhéile were reinterpreted as mbéile and bhéile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʲeːlʲə/

Noun

béile m (genitive singular béile, nominative plural béilí)

1. meal (food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time)

   Synonyms: proinn, séire

Declension

Declension of béile

Fourth declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative béile béilí Vocative a bhéile a bhéilí Genitive béile béilí Dative béile béilí

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an béile na béilí Genitive an bhéile na mbéilí Dative leis an mbéile don bhéile leis na béilí

Derived terms

• béile bainise
• béile beag
• Béile Chonáin
• béile oíche

 

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
béile	bhéile	mbéile
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “béile”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “béile”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “meal”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2024
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 73