Gale, to sing, whence nightingale, the bird that sings by night. The word is usually derived from the Teutonic, in which language, however, it only exist in the single word nachtigall. Jamieson refers it to the Swedish gäll (gale), a sharp, penetrating, or piercing sound. Probably, however, it is akin to the Gaelic guil, to lament, and guileag, that which sings or warbles; and a gale of wind is referable to the Kymric or Welsh galar, mourning, lamentation; gahv, (galu), to call, to invoke; and galaries, mournful, sad, so called because of the whistling, piping sound of a storm.

In May the gowk (cuckoo) begins to gale,
In May deer draw to down and dale,
In May men mell with feminie,
And ladies meet their lovers leal,
When Phebus is in Gemini.
—Allan Ramsay : The Evergreen