caile

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish caile (“serving-girl, maid”).

Noun

caile m or f (genitive singular caile, nominative plural cailí)

1. girl, wench

Declension

Masculine

Declension of caile (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative caile cailí vocative a chaile a chailí genitive caile cailí dative caile cailí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an caile na cailí genitive an chaile na gcailí dative leis an gcaile don chaile leis na cailí

Feminine

Declension of caile (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative caile cailí vocative a chaile a chailí genitive caile cailí dative caile cailí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an chaile na cailí genitive na caile na gcailí dative leis an gcaile don chaile leis na cailí

Derived terms

• caile daibhche (“washerwoman”)
• cailín

Descendants

• →? English: callet

Mutation

Mutated forms of caile

radical	lenition	eclipsis
caile	chaile	gcaile

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

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “caile”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 caile”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “caile”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025