ONlwSG

mol m./f. 

Masculine: MacLennan 1925: mol, mal; Cox 2002a, 341; Wentworth 2003, s.v. stony (shore): Gairloch; Grannd 2013, s.v. shingle: North Sutherland; AFB^˄; feminine: HSS 1828; Dwelly 1911: (but mul m.); Stahl 2000, 99.

[mɔ̃ɫ̪], gen. muil [mə̃l] (Cox 2002a, 216), moil (len.) [vɔ̃l] (Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: North Uist) and mola *[ˈmɔ̃ɫ̪ə] (Dwelly 1911), ‘shingle, pebbles; pebble beach’ is derived from ON mǫl 

Frequently cited as möl, cf. Ice. möl (Cleasby 1874).

f. ‘a layer or bank of pebbles’ (NO) by MacBain (1896; 1911), Goodrich-Freer (1897, 67–68), Henderson (1910, 138, 215), Marstrander (1915a, 97), MacLennan (1925), Christiansen (1938, 3, 9), de Vries (1962), Fraser (1978, 8: ON mol [sic]), Oftedal (1980, 173; 1983, 155), Cox (1991, 492; 2002a, 341), Stewart (2004, 411) and McDonald (2009, 388–89).

Cf. Scots (Shetland) mol, moll ‘pebble ridge’ (Jakobsen 1928). For Scots (Orkney) muller ‘pebbly beach’, see Marwick 1929 and SND^˄.

The following variants occur in Scottish Gaelic:

SG mol
This form occurs throughout the Western Isles, 

For the following, see Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: Lewis (also Cox 2002a, 341), Harris, Scalpay, North Uist, South Uist (also McDonald 1972); for Barra, see Stahl 2000, 99.

North Sutherland, 

Grannd 2013, s.v. shingle; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: [mɔ̃ɫ], Portskerra.

West Sutherland, 

Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄: [mɔ̃ɫ], Kinlochbervie.

Wester Ross, 

Wentworth 2003, s.vv. shore (of stones), stony (shore): Gairloch.

Skye and Raasay.

Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄.

The phonetic development from ON mǫl is as expected, cf. ON *slǫkk > SG sloc ‘pit, hollow’, q.v.

The form mol is also listed in HSS 1828 and AFB^˄.

SG mal
This form, with o ~ a alternation in Gaelic, is cited by MacBain (1896; 1911), Henderson (1910, 138, and so de Vries), Dwelly (1911), MacLennan (1925) and McDonald (2009, 388–89), although it seems restricted to North Sutherland: HSS 1828, s.v. mal: N[orth] H[ighlands]; Robertson 1907a, 92: mol, with a, Strathy, cf. SG (Strathy) moladh ‘praise’, also with a; Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. mal: [mɑ̃ɫ], Durness, Laide and Portnacon.

SG mul
This form is cited by Henderson (1910, 138, 215), Dwelly (1911), Marstrander (1915a, 97) and McDonald (2009, 388–89), and is recorded for Tiree in Faclan bhon t-Sluagh^˄, s.v. mul: [mũ̜ɫ].

Christiansen (1938, 3, 9) erroneously describes (Lewis) muil (in mullach a mhuil [sic] [‘the top of the shingle beach’]) as the genitive of mul rather than mol, a mistake perseverated in de Vries 1962.

It may, however, be the result of confusion with SG mul ‘heap, mound; a large amount’, 

Shaw 1780: ‘congregation, multitude’; MacFarlane 1815: ‘conical heap’; Armstrong 1825: ‘conical heap, mound, multitude’; MacEachen 1842: ‘bank or heap of sand’; Dwelly 1911: ‘conical heap, mound; bank or heap of sand; multitude’; MacLennan 1925: ‘conical heap, mound’ (which is compared with ON múli ‘jutting crag, mull’, but the development is unlikely; for the possibility of ON múli > Scots mull > SG mulla, see Cox 2016, 210); Dieckhoff 1932: ‘heap, e.g. of sand’; and AFB^˄: ‘heap, mound, pile’.

from EG mul, mol, moil ‘mass, heap, pile’ (eDIL^˄; Vendryes 1996); cf. the by-forms SG mol (Shaw 1780: ‘assembly, flock, number’; Armstrong 1825: ‘gathering, assembly, number, heap’; Dwelly 1911: ‘flock of birds’, also †mol: ‘number, flock, assembly, gathering; heap’) and moil (Shaw 1780: ‘heap cast up’; Armstrong 1825: ‘heap cast up’, citing Shaw 1780; HSS 1828: ‘heap cast up’, citing O’Brien’s (1768) Ir. moil ‘heap cast up’; Dwelly 1911: ‘heap cast up’). In addition to O’Brien’s Ir. moil, cf. O’Clery’s (1643) mol, mul ‘cruinniughadh [“gathering etc.”]’, Lhuyd’s (1707) †moil ‘heap cast up’, †mol and †mul ‘cruinniughadh, congregation’, as well as O’Brien’s mol ‘congregation, flock or number’ and mul ‘congregation or multitude’. Ó Dónaill (1977) cross-references Ir. mol in the sense ‘heap, large amount or number’ with moll, a form perhaps influenced by its plural form mollta etc.: ‘moll [mo̤ːL] “a heap, pile” (Dinneen and O’Reilly mol) may have been influenced by the plural [mo̤ːLtriː] to differentiate it from mol [mo̤ːl] “the shaft of a mill wheel” (EG mol), with which it is really identical’ 

Cf. SG mol, mul in the senses ‘hub, axle, shaft, beam etc.’ (e.g. Armstrong 1825; Dwelly 1911), Ir. mol ‘hub, spindle, boss etc.’ (Ó Dónaill 1977) and EG mol ‘axle or rotating shaft’ (eDIL^˄, s.v. ¹mol).

(≈Quiggin 1906, 80). Alternatively, Ir. moll may have been influenced by Eng. mull, moll ‘particles, dust, ashes, mould, rubbish’ (OED^˄), which was borrowed as W mwl (GPC^˄); cf. SG moll ‘chaff, dust’, which is perhaps from MScots mol(l) ‘fragmented rubbish, dust, ashes‘ (DOST^˄, now Scots mow (SND^˄)), although note the variant SG mull (Wentworth 2003, s.v. chaff: Gairloch); cf. also O’Reilly’s (1817) Ir. moll ‘chaff, dust, refuse’.

Holliday (2021, 566) suggests that the Tiree place-name Mùlainn (NL935411) ‘has possibly developed from a simplex Norse loan-name in ON mǫl ... with the post-positioned bound definite article’, but ON ǫ [ɔ] yielding SG ù is untenable.

Derivatives: Fraser (1978, 9) cites the Scottish Gaelic place-name Molan Ban (Point, Lewis), leg. Am Molan Bàn ‘the fair-coloured shingle beach’, with molan, 

As distinct from SG molan (e.g. Dwelly 1911: ‘small temporary stack of corn’), variant of mulan, diminutive of mul in the sense ‘heap’.

with the diminutive suffix -an. Note also SG molag ‘pebble’ (AFB^˄), with the diminutive suffix -ag.