Today I discovered that the Welsh word llan (church, parish), which is used mainly in place names, such as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, has cognates in the other Celtic languages: lann in Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish and Manx, and lan in Breton. These words all come from the Proto-Indo-European root *lendʰ- (land, heath) [source].
Another word church-related word that is used mainly in Irish and Scottish place names is kil(l), as in Kildare (Cill Dara), Kilkenny (Cill Chainnigh) and Kilmarnock (Cill Mheàrnaig). It means church or graveyard and comes from the Irish cill (cell (of a hermit), church, burial place), from the Old Irish cell (church), from the Latin cella [source] (a small room, a hut, barn, granary; altar, sanctuary, shrine, pantry), which comes from the Proto-Indo-European *ḱelnā, which is made up of *ḱel- (to cover) and a suffix -nā.
The Welsh word cell (cell); the Scottish Gaelic cill (chapel, church yard, hermit’s cell); the Manx keeill (church, cell); and the Breton kell (cell) all come from the same root.
The more commonly-used words for church in the Celtic languages are: eglwys (Welsh), eaglais (Irish and Scottish Gaelic), eglos (Cornish), iliz (Breton) and agglish (Manx). These all come from the Latin ecclēsia (church), from the Ancient Greek ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía – church).
I wonder, then, whether there is any connection with Welsh cil (nook, corner) and hence cul (narrow).
Irish has an apparent cognate with Welsh cil: cúil (=corner) – a frequent element in Irish placenames, often anglicised to Cool- or Coole (e.g. Cúil Aodha – Coolea). Cil-/Gil- is not uncommon in Welsh placnames.
In Manx, the word ‘agglish’ is more commonly used to mean the congregation / people of a church, whilst ‘keeill’ is used for the building itself. ‘Moir-agglish’ (literally, ‘mother-church’) means ‘cathedral’, which can also be ‘ard-çhiamble’ (‘high temple’) or ‘keeill aspickagh’ (‘bishop’s church’).
Manx lan does get a bit of use in location names as well as placenames:
* lioarlann – library
* tashtlann – archive
* armlann – magazine, armoury
* possibly cairtlann – cartulary, if this referred to the place where records were kept
* caravaanlann – caravanserai
* ellynlann – art gallery
and so on
Manx has keeill (church, chapel), keyl (narrow), cooil(l) (nook or inner corner), killag (cell), and, in passing, keyll (woodland) and keeil (jawbone). Use with care.
At a wild guess, I would assume a connection between narrowness, nooks and cells. The original tiny chapel-cells of early missionaries retained their name as they grew into churches.
And to take ekklēsía further, it comes from ekkalein “to call out,” from ek “out” (see ex-) + kalein “to call”; the latter from PIE *kele- (2) “to shout,”
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ecclesiastic
“…and, in passing, keyll (woodland)”
Welsh has gelli/gellau as one of several words for a piece of woodland.
“….Welsh has gelli/gellau as one of several words for a piece of woodland.”
That’s the soft mutated form of celli (pl. cellïoedd, cellïau) which would be mutated after the definite article as y gelli – “the wood”. It does appear in some place name formations in its mutated ‘gelli’ form eg. Gelligaer, Caerphilly (gelli’r gaer, instead of celli’r gaer)
It’s from the same Celtic root giving us Irish coille (wood) and related words in other languages are: Latin: callis (glade), Greek κλάδος klados (branch), German das Holz (wood) and English holt (in place names = wood)