Editing Uilleann pipes (section)

==Etymology==
{{lang|ga|Uilleann}} is a [[genitive]] form of the Irish word for "elbow”, {{lang|ga|uillinn}}. The Irish term for uilleann pipes is {{lang|ga|píb uilleann}} (alt. {{lang|ga|píob uilleann}}), which means "pipes(s) of the elbow(s)”.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla (Ó Dónaill): uillinn |url=https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/uillinn |access-date=2024-01-08 |website=www.teanglann.ie |language=en}}</ref>

However, the first attested written form is "Union pipes", at the end of the 18th century, perhaps to denote the union of the chanter, drones, and regulators. Another theory is that it was played throughout a prototypical full union of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} This is definitely untrue, because this name for the instrument predates the [[Act of Union 1800|Act of Union]], which took effect in 1801. Alternatively, the uilleann pipes were certainly a favourite of the upper classes in Scotland, Ireland and the North-East of England and were fashionable for a time in formal social settings, where the term Union pipes may also originate.<ref>Brian E. McCandless. "The Pastoral Bagpipe" ''Iris na bPiobairi'' (The pipers review); 17 (Spring 1998), 2: pp. 19–28.</ref>

The term "uilleann pipes" is first attested at the beginning of the 20th century. [[W. H. Grattan Flood|William Henry Grattan Flood]], an Irish music scholar, proposed the theory that the name "''uilleann''" came from the Irish word for "elbow". He cited to this effect [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' published in 1600 (Act IV, sc. I, l. 55) where the expression "woollen pipes" appears. This theory originated in correspondence between two earlier antiquarians, and was adopted as gospel by the Gaelic League. The use of ''uilleann'' was perhaps also a rebellion against the term ''union'', with its connotations of the Act of Union. It was however shown by [[Breandán Breathnach]] that it would be difficult to explain the [[anglicization]] of the word ''uilleann'' into 'woollen' before the 16th century (when the instrument did not exist as such) and then its adaptation as 'union' two centuries later.<ref name="OssianPubs" />