English Wiktionary account
Source-reportedMeaning: “ship”
From ċēol (“ship”).
Sources for this account (1)
- Wiktionary: CeolCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
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“ship”
/t͡ʃe͜oːl/ · Old English
01 / Meaning & origin
Ceol is a masculine given name documented in Old English. English Wiktionary records the meaning “ship”.
Meaning: “ship”
From ċēol (“ship”).
02 / Across borders
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03 / By the numbers
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04 / Through time
Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.
CEOL— “ship”
…But as the cooling of iron involved its turning black, _kolbrünn_ meant a black breastplate, and was thus used as a by-name; and it may be in this sense of black that _kol_ enters into the composition of Kolbjorn, black bear, Kolgrim, Kolgrima; Kolskegg would thus be black-beard; but Kolbein can hardly be black-leg, so, perhaps, it may refer to the bones being strong as wrought iron; and Kolfinn and its feminine are either cool-white or refer to Finn’s strength. Colbrand is…
…But as the cooling of iron involved its turning black, _kolbrünn_ meant a black breastplate, and was thus used as a by-name; and it may be in this sense of black that _kol_ enters into the composition of Kolbjorn, black bear, Kolgrim, Kolgrima; Kolskegg would thus be black-beard; but Kolbein can hardly be black-leg, so, perhaps, it may refer to the bones being strong as wrought iron; and Kolfinn and its feminine are either cool-white or refer to Finn’s strength. Colbrand is in English romance the name of the Danish giant killed by Guy of Warwick, at Winchester; but the Heptarchy displays a very perplexing set of Cols, as they have been modernized, though they used to be spelt Ceol. There were three Ceolwulfs in Bernicia, Mercia, and Wessex; Ceolred in Mercia, Ceolwald in Wessex, Ceolnoth on the throne of Canterbury. Are these the relatives of the northern _kol_, cool, or are they _ceol_, keel, meaning rather a ship than merely the keel, as it does now? Or, on the other hand, are both these, and the northern _col_, adaptations of the Keltic _col_ or _gall_, like those already mentioned of Finn?…
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part VI, Chapter VI (Descriptive Names), Section VIII (Appearance) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)
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06 / Behind the facts
Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-15.
Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.