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Tha am facal gille inntinneach. Tha Faclair Dwelly ag innse dhuinn gu bheil e a’ ciallachadh ‘boy, lad, youth, man-servant...’ Chuirinn ‘son’ ris an liosta. Bidh daoine ag ràdh, ‘seo an gille agam’ airson ‘seo mo mhac’. Canaidh sinn gille a’ mhansa ri mac ministeir.

Gu tric, bidh gille air a chur ri eileamaid eile airson facal-fillte a dhèanamh. Mar eisimpleir – ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-²õ³Ùà²ú²¹¾±±ô±ô ‘a stableboy’ no gille-turais ‘an errand boy’. Anns an t-seann aimsir, bhiodh gille-airm a’ cumail armachd airson a mhaighstir.

Bha eadhon gille cas-fhliuch ann. ’S e sin fear a bhiodh a’ togail ceann-cinnidh air a dhruim airson a thoirt tarsainn allt no abhainn. Bhiodh an gille a’ faighinn a chasan fliuch ach bhiodh casan a mhaighstir air an gleidheadh tioram!

Tha am facal gille feumail cuideachd ann an co-cheangal ri nàdar. Tha ainmhidhean ann, agus ‘gille’ anns an ainm aca. Mar eisimpleir – ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-µþ°ùì»å±ð ‘oystercatcher’. Tha an t-eun co-cheangailte ri Naomh Brìde. Agus gille-fionn – ’s e sin ‘dogwhelk’, maorach bàn a bhios beò air a’ chladach. Dh’inns mi dhuibh mun ghille-ruadh – nàdar de dh’iasg – ann an Litir Bheag ceithir cheud ’s a còig (405). 

Agus tha ainmean lusan againn anns a bheil am facal gille. ’S e gille-gorm no gille-guirmein a tha againn air ‘cornflower’ ann an Gàidhlig. ’S e ainm eile air ròs an t-solais no an ‘round-leaved sundew’ – ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-»å°ù¾±Ã¹³¦³ó»å. Gu litreachail, tha ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-»å°ù¾±Ã¹³¦³ó»å a’ ciallachadh ‘lad or son of [the] dew’. Bidh boinneagan lionna air na duilleagan a tha a’ coimhead coltach ri boinneagan driùchd.

Bha am facal gille air a chleachdadh uiread air an t-seann Ghàidhealtachd ’s gun do ghabh muinntir na Beurla ris mar fhacal feumail. Tha e air a dhol a-steach don Bheurla mar ‘gillie’ no ‘ghillie’ – le, no às aonais, ‘h’ an dèidh an ‘g’. Ann am Beurla, tha e a’ ciallachadh ‘a man or boy who attends someone on a hunting or fishing expedition’ agus cuideachd, gu h-eachdraidheil, ‘a Highland chief’s attendant’.

Tha na faclairean eadhon ag innse dhuinn gun tàinig gille-cas-fhliuch a-steach don Bheurla mar gilliewetfoot. Bha na Goill ga chleachdadh mar fhacal tàireil airson Gàidheil a bha dìleas do cheann-cinnidh.

The word gille is interesting. Dwelly’s dictionary tells us that it means ‘boy, lad, youth, manservant...’ I would add ‘son’ to the list. People say, ‘here is my lad’ for ‘here is my son’. We say son of the manse for a minister’s son.

Often, gille is added to another element to make a compound word. For example –  ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-²õ³Ùà²ú²¹¾±±ô±ô ‘a stableboy’ or gille-turais ‘an errand boy’. In olden times, a gille-airm would keep arms for his master.

There was even a gille cas-fhliuch. That is a young man who would lift a clan chief on his back to carry him over a burn or river. The lad would get his feet wet but his master’s feet would be kept dry!

The word gille is also useful in connection with nature. There are animals which have gille in their name. For example – ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-µþ°ùì»å±ð ‘oystercatcher’. The bird is connected with Saint Bride. And gille-fionn – that’s the ‘dogwhelk’, a white mollusc that lives on the seashore. I told you about the gille-ruadh – a sort of fish – in Litir Bheag 405. 

And we have plant names in which there is the word gille. It’s gille-gorm or gille-guirmein that we call ‘cornflower’ in Gaelic. Another name for ròs an t-solais or the ‘round-leaved sundew’ is ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-»å°ù¾±Ã¹³¦³ó»å. Literally, ²µ¾±±ô±ô±ð-»å°ù¾±Ã¹³¦³ó»å means ‘lad or son of [the] dew’. Droplets of liquid on the leaves look like droplets of dew.

The word gille was used so much in the old Gàidhealtachd that English-speakers accepted it as a useful word. It’s gone into English as ‘gillie’ or ‘ghillie’ – with or without an ‘h’ after the ‘g’. In English, it means ‘a man or boy who attends someone on a hunting or fishing expedition’ and also, historically, ‘a Highland chief’s attendant’.

The dictionaries even tell us that gille-cas-fhliuch came into English as ‘gilliewetfoot’. Lowlanders used it as a contemptuous term for Gaels who were loyal to a clan chief.