Céilí
A traditional Irish music-and-dance gathering. In its older sense, an informal evening visit by neighbours - 'going on a céilí' meant calling round for a chat. The dance-evening sense is the modern dominant use; the visiting sense survives in older rural speech.
Etymology
From Irish 'céilí' (a visit, a social call), derived from Old Irish 'céile' (= companion, fellow). The same root that gave 'ceili' in Irish gave 'ceilidh' in Scottish Gaelic, with the same dual senses (visit and gathering). The structured dance-evening sense developed in the late nineteenth century with the cultural-revival movement, particularly Conradh na Gaeilge's promotion of céilí dances as social gatherings.
In a sentence
"There's a céilí in the parish hall on Saturday - bring the wee ones."
Historical notes
Céilí carries two distinct registers in modern Hiberno-English. The older sense - 'go for a céilí' meaning to drop by a neighbour's house for an unstructured evening of chat - is still heard in rural speech, especially Donegal. The newer sense - a céilí as a formal dance with set steps and a band - is the urban and revival-era meaning, and is what most modern speakers think of first. The Scottish 'ceilidh' is the same word at the same etymological depth, with the same dance-evening sense in modern Scots Gaelic culture.
Alternate spellings
ceilidh · ceili
Sources
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry céilí. · dictionary