Meaning

noun an informal social gathering at which there is Scottish or Irish folk music and singing and folk dancing and story telling

originThe noun is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic cèilidh (“a pilgrimage; a social call, visit; a sojourn; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”) and Irish célidhe (archaic), céilí (“a social call, visit; a social gathering with dancing, etc., ceilidh”), both from Old Irish célide (“social call, visit”), from céile (“companion, fellow; neighbour”) (ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kēiliyos…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0