23-06-2014, 10:44 PM
I can't give a complete answer, but the following may help:
- my dictionary (first published in the 19th century, so maybe not too reliable) gives taileasg as the translation of chess (if anyone still has a t-shirt from the 1995 Lewis Chess Festival, you'll see it shows the inscription "Fir-Taileisg Leodhais", i.e. "Lewis Chess Men"); careful, though - the Gaelic-English section of the dictionary translates Taileasg as "backgammon" (I think the literal meaning is "board game"). At any rate, Fidchell does not look Gaelic, and there's nothing remotely like it in the dictionary.
- ceatharnach is certainly plausible as a word for a pawn: it could be a development of ceathairneach, defined as "a sturdy fellow; a freebooter, a robber, a hero".
- ridire is a knight in the non-chess sense, so that or a shortened form ridir would seem likely for the chess term.
- the remaining four terms I would guess are spot-on. Banrighinn will, of course, be familiar to anyone who passes through Glasgow Queen Street Station; and Easbuig is at the heart of the name Gillespie.
- my dictionary (first published in the 19th century, so maybe not too reliable) gives taileasg as the translation of chess (if anyone still has a t-shirt from the 1995 Lewis Chess Festival, you'll see it shows the inscription "Fir-Taileisg Leodhais", i.e. "Lewis Chess Men"); careful, though - the Gaelic-English section of the dictionary translates Taileasg as "backgammon" (I think the literal meaning is "board game"). At any rate, Fidchell does not look Gaelic, and there's nothing remotely like it in the dictionary.
- ceatharnach is certainly plausible as a word for a pawn: it could be a development of ceathairneach, defined as "a sturdy fellow; a freebooter, a robber, a hero".
- ridire is a knight in the non-chess sense, so that or a shortened form ridir would seem likely for the chess term.
- the remaining four terms I would guess are spot-on. Banrighinn will, of course, be familiar to anyone who passes through Glasgow Queen Street Station; and Easbuig is at the heart of the name Gillespie.