Is it Irish to be Cuil?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 8:32 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> The "About" page for the new search engine Cuil claims "Cuil is an
> old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil."  Do you
> experts agree, or is this another instance of the class "all English
> words derive from Irish"?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/28/technology/cuil.ap/index.htm
"Costello's Irish heritage inspired Cuil's odd name. It was derived
from a character named Finn McCuill in Celtic folklore."

In beta-testing, it was spelled "Cuill":
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/cuill-secures-25m-for-next-generation-search/

They want us to pronounce it "cool", but "quill" would be a bit closer
to the Irish pronunciation.


--Ben Zimmer

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