Other forms: gales
A gale is a very strong wind, just below storm strength. Gale-force winds, a gale blowing, a severe gale.
It is a defined term rather than a loose one: on the Beaufort scale a gale is force 8, around 34 to 40 knots, and gale warning is issued by shipping forecasts at that threshold. Gale-force is the everyday adjective. There is also a warm figurative use for laughter: gales of laughter, meaning great bursts of it, which is one of the pleasanter fixed phrases in English.
1noungaleA very strong wind, near storm strength.
“A gale took three tiles off the roof.”
2nounburstA burst of laughter.
“The line brought gales of laughter from the back.”
gale is a strong wind.
GALE → the wind that took the GATE off
The wind came in the night and took the gate clean off its post.
hooks ontogate
The origin is uncertain — possibly Old Norse galinn, meaning mad or frantic, describing weather rather than people. The connection to Old English galan, to sing or cry out, is tempting and unproven, though a gale does sound like something shouting.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰel- — to shout, scream, charm away
Proto-Germanic
*galaną — to roop, sing, charm
Old English
galan — to sing, enchant, call, cry, scream; sing charms, practice incantation
Middle English
galen
English, today
gale
From Middle English galen, from Old English galan (“to sing, enchant, call, cry, scream; sing charms, practice incantation”), from Proto-Germanic galaną (“to roop, sing, charm”), from Proto-Indo-European gʰel- (“to shout, scream, charm away”). Cognate with Danish gale (“to crow”), Swedish gala (“to crow”), Icelandic gala (“to sing, chant, crow”), Dutch galm (“echo, sound, noise”). Related to yell.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Nature & Weather, Weather & Seasons