adj., adv., n.
Cl mukel; Pat mukel; WA mekill, mekil, mykle
'large, great; size' (Modern English mickle)
PGmc Ancestor
*mekila
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
mikill, mykill 'great, large'; cp. miklu, mikit (etc.) (n.) 'much'
(ONP mikill (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far mikil, mekil, Icel mikill, ODan megel, møgel, OSw mykil
OE Cognate
micel, mycel (adj.) ‘great, large’; cp. mycelu (n.) 'largeness, size'
Phonological and morphological markers
[absence of palatalization of */k/] (possibly diagnostic)
Summary category
CC2c
Spellings indicating medial /k/ are typically N and E, but are also sometimes met with elsewhere; the earliest unambiguous instances are in Orrm.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 142, Cl 52, 366, 514 etc.; Pat 268, 324; Erk 27, 286; WA 69, 130, 215 etc.
At WA 4310 MS A has mekills, emended by TPD on the basis of MS D. Two instances in WA (130, 5468) occur as the first element of a compound pron. mekil(l) quat ' many things', often printed as one word.