Sicel

S1I1C3E1L1
/ˈsɪsəl//ˈsɪkəl/

noun

A member of an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age.

Scrabble 7

Meanings

nounSicel (plural Sicels)

plural Sicels

  1. historicalA member of an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age.

    Synonyms: Siculi, Siculian

proper nounSicel (uncountable)
  1. uncountablehuman sciencesThe unclassified, sparsely attested language of the Sicels.

    2010, Philip Baldi, The Foundations of Latin, Walter de Gruyter (Mouton de Gruyter) page 116, Their language, Sicel or Siculan, is considered by most scholars to be an independent IE language whose deeper connections with Italic are poorly demonstrated.

    2 more examples

    In Sicily were spoken at least two languages during the first millennium BC that are widely thought to have been Indo-European. The first, Sicel (or Siculian), was spoken by the Siculians in eastern Sicily.

    2010, Benjamin W. Fortson, IV, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, page 469

    Although the contribution of the Sicel language to coin inscriptions is not great, there is another case where Sicel is often invoked, and which unusually is not a proper name.

    2012, Oliver Simkin, “Coins and language in ancient Sicily”, in Olga Tribulato, editor, Language and Linguistic Contact in Ancient Sicily, Cambridge University Press, page 170

    Synonyms: Siculian

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA member of an Italic tribe who inhabited eastern Sicily during the Iron Age.

proper nounThe unclassified, sparsely attested language of the Sicels.

Similar

Origin

  1. Ancient GreekΣικελός
  2. LatinSiculi
  3. EnglishSicel

From Latin Siculi, from Ancient Greek Σικελός (Sikelós). See also Sicily. Greek historians including Thucydides suggested Siculus, a legendary king and son of Italus, as the progenitor of the Sicels.

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Rhymes & wordplay

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Cite this entry
APA

Sicel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sicel

MLA

“Sicel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sicel. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sicel,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sicel.

Source: Sicel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.