cuailean

the hair, a lock, curl, Irish cuailen (Stokes). This Stokes refers to a stem *koglenno-, and cfs. Greek $$Gkóhlos, a spiral-shelled shell-fish, $$Gkohlías, spiral-shelled snail, Latin cochlea. As the Greek may be for hóhlos, the derivation is uncertain. Irish cuailín, a bundle, faggot, suggests that a similar derivation from cual was used metaphorically for a "bundle or cord of hair".