What is a wheal?
Indulging some idle curiosity about Cornish mining I noticed that many of the mines are named wheal: Wheal Kitty, Wheal Jane and East Wheal Rose, among others.
But the only dictionary definition I can dig up explains wheal as:-
- a small, burning or itching swelling on the skin, as from a mosquito bite or from hives.
- a wale or welt.
This doesn't appear to be what is meant. There is also a mention in passing here, but no clue as to the actual meaning. So, what is a wheal, in the mining sense of the word?
Solution 1:
OED has
wheal n.3
Etymology: < Cornish huel.
local.A mine.
1830 Eng. & For. Mining Gloss.
Wheal is an Anglicisation of the Cornish word.
It's interesting that Wiktionary's earliest citation appears to predate OED:
1829, Thomas Moore, The History of Devonshire, page 528,
The four last-mentioned mines, Wheal Crowndale, Wheal Crebor, East Liscombe, and Wheal Tamar, are on the same lode, which ranges as usual from east to west, and are included in a space of about four miles in length.
although since it contains data for 1830, it cannot have been published in 1829. The book contains a better citation in the footnote on page 527:
Wheal (or rather huel) is said to be derived from the Cornish language, and to signify a work or mine.
Solution 2:
It's just the local name for a mine, as tor is for a hill. The OED says it derives from Cornish huel, but I can find no such word in modern Cornish (though admittedly all variants of Cornish now in use were created some time after the mines closed down).