Teach yourself Gaelic

Oil: spite/annoyance

Pronounced ol, despite looking like oil. The Gaelic for oil, as in $130 barrel, is actually ola, pronounced ol-la. Oil is not a common word in modern Gaelic, but it is worth knowing because it crops up in a nice idiomatic phrase well worth learning. Ge b' oil leam – Ge bol luhwm – means 'in spite of me', or 'regardless of what I think or say'. It means literally, 'although it were spite with me'. Thèid sinn dhan chèilidh ge b' oil leis – hayjd sheen ghan khayl-lee ge bol lush – we'll go to the ceilidh regardless of what he thinks. Ge b' oil leo – ge bol law – means 'regardless of what they think' or 'in spite of them'. Don't confuse this little word with another Gaelic prefix oil-, which refers to education.