Authority
Walker is an earlier source than Bunting and the footnote contains the diphthong UA.
Taken on face value, it thus seems to be using the Gaelic verb 'fuaigheal' (sewing), now
spelled 'fuáil' in Irish. Being a feminine word in modern Irish, the spellings which appear in
pp 36 & 38 of Bunting duplicate Walker/Beauford's grammatical errors by lacking an FH
after the word 'uan' (taken to mean 'one') and by not placing an H after the M of 'mór'.
This might indicate that Bunting is dependent on Walker as his source for the entries in
pp33 & 36.
The form 'fuigheall' only appears in p28 of Bunting where most terms presented in Irish
typeface generally receive more polished spellings and are sometimes re-interpreted. It
may be that the 'fuigheall' spelling came at a later stage from a separate authority. The
same authority may have obtained the word from Bunting/Walker and re-interpreted it
etymologically, ignoring the sound of the word most obviously represented by the
Walker/Beauford spelling, eg 'fuaigheal', not 'fuigheal' missing the first A. This authority
may also be responsible for the kind of etymologising which might also have affected the
word 'comhlaí' (etymologised and spelled apparently as the verbal noun 'lying together')
and 'feola' (etymologised as 'sinew-knowledgeable').
If the separate authority is guessing at the meaning of this word, then the reader is
entitled to second-guess and take Walker's evidence at face value. This would mean that
the three terms should be rendered in modern Irish as 'fuáil bheag', 'fuáil mhór' and 'aon
fhuáil', translatable as 'little stitch', 'big stitch' and 'one stitch'.
The designation 'uan fuaighel' looks almost like a misrepresentation of the entry 'uaim .i.
fuaighel' (sewing, that is, sewing) in Sanasán Mhíchil Uí Chléirigh (1643). Bunting more
clearly seems to misrepresent information from the same glossary in relation to its entry
for urnaidhm. The word 'úaimm' of course is also used to refer to different kinds of
alliteration in poetry but this word is not attested as a musical term in and O' Clery as a
solitary source would not imply in his glossary any meaning for the words 'úaim' or
'fuaighel' other than the obvious of 'sewing'.