Gàidhlig / English
Toiteal

Toiteal

Posted by Alasdair on 9 February 2017
Toiteal can be found in two records from Scalpay, Harris, in the Fieldwork Archive.  The word is defined as “smoke rising from a vessel at sea, or from a house”, e.g. “Tha e air toiteal a chuir an àird”, and “little smoke rising from a slow burning fire”.
 
In relation to the second definition, the word toit is defined as “smoke” in the same record.  Thus, toiteal would appear to have been understood as a diminutive of toit in this record, given that it is defined as “little smoke”.  Another diminutive of toit is recorded in the same record: toiteag is defined as “smoke rising cigarette fashion, cigarette. [SLIP: Puff of smoke, as from cigarette.]”.
 
Toiteal, however, is defined elsewhere as ‘flock of birds in a feeding frenzy; frantic movement (esp. fray, skirmish, attack, splashing)’ in the LearnGaelic Dictionary.  The term is clearly used in the second of these senses in Iain Lom MacDonald’s famous song about the Battle of Inverlochy (1645) entitled Latha Inbhir Lòchaidh.  The quatrain in which toiteal appears is recorded as follows in Annie M. Mackenzie’s Òrain Iain Luim: Songs of John MacDonald, Bard of Keppoch, a text which can be found in DASG’s Corpas na Gàidhlig:
 
“Thug sibh toiteal teth mu Lòchaidh, // Bhith ’gam bualadh mu na srònaibh: // ’S lìonmhor claidheamh claisghorm còmhnard // Bha bualadh ’n lamhan Chlann Dòmhnaill.”
 
This song and the quatrain above were published in several texts which can now be found in Corpas na Gàidhlig.  Toiteal can be found in a number of other contexts using the search function.  John MacKenzie, for example, defines it as follows in Sar-Obair nam Bard Gaelach: “an attack in battle, a warlike movement, a flock of water fowls”.
 
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