Able; strong, muscular, and vigorous:—'Nagle was a strong able man.'Able dealer; a schemer. (Limerick.)Acushla; see Cushlamochree.Adam's ale; plain drinking-water.Affirming, assenting, and saluting,9.Agra or Agraw: a term of endearment; my love: vocative of Irishgrádh, love.Ahaygar; a pet term; my friend, my love: vocative of Irishtéagur, love, a dear person.Aims-ace; a small amount, quantity, or distance. Applied in the following way very generally in Munster:—'He was within an aim's-ace of being drowned' (very near). A survival in Ireland of the old Shakesperian wordambs-ace, meaning two aces or two single points in throwing dice, the smallest possible throw.Air: a visitor comes in:—'Won't you sit down Joe and take anairof the fire.' (Very usual.)Airt used in Ulster and Scotland for a single point of the compass:—'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.'(Burns.)It is the Irisháird, a point of the compass.Airy; ghostly, fearsome: anairyplace, a haunted place. Same as Scotcheerie. From Gaelicáedharaigh, same sound and meaning. A survival of the old Irish pagan belief that air-demons were the most malignant of all supernatural beings: see Joyce's 'Old Celtic Romances,' p. 15.Alanna; my child: vocative case of Irishleanbh[lannav], a child.Allow; admit. 'I allow that you lent me a pound': 'if you allow that you cannot deny so and so.' This is an old English usage. (Ducange.) To advise or recommend: 'I would not allow you to go by that road' ('I would not recommend'). 'I'd allow you to sow that field with oats' (advise).All to; means except:—'I've sold my sheep all to six,' i.e. except six. This is merely a translation from the Irish as inDo marbhadh na daoine uile go haon triúr: 'The people were slain all to a single three.' (Keating.)Along of; on account of. Why did you keep me waiting [at night] so long at the door, Pat?' 'Why then 'twas all along of Judy there being so much afraid of the fairies.' (Crofton Croker.)Alpeen, a stick or hand-wattle with a knob at the lower end: diminutive of Irishalp, a knob. Sometimes called aclehalpeen: whereclehis the Irishcleatha stick.Clehalpeen, a knobbed cudgel.Amadaun, a fool (man or boy), a half-fool, a foolish person. Irishamadán, a fool: a form ofonmitán; fromón, a fool: seeOanshagh.American wake; a meeting of friends on the evening before the departure of some young people forAmerica, as a farewell celebration. (See my 'Old Irish Folk-Music and Songs,' p. 191.)Amplush, a fix, a difficulty: he was in a great amplush. (North and South.) (Edw. Walsh in Dub. Pen. Journal.)Amshagh; a sudden hurt, an accident. (Derry.)Ang-ishore; a poor miserable creature—man or woman. It is merely the Irish wordaindeiseóir. (Chiefly South.)Any is used forno(inno more) in parts of West and North-west. 'James, you left the gate open this morning and the calves got out.' 'Oh I'm sorry sir; I will do it any more.' This is merely a mistranslation ofníos mo, from some confused idea of the sense of two (Irish) negatives (níosbeing one, with another preceding) leading to the omission of an English negative from the correct construction—'I willnotdo it anymore:'Níos momeaning in English 'no more' or 'any more' according to the omission or insertion of an English negative.Aree often used afterochone(alas) in Donegal and elsewhere.Areegives the exact pronunciation ofa Righ, andneimhe(heaven) is understood. The full Irish exclamation isochón a Righ neimhe, 'alas, O King of heaven.'Arnaun or arnaul, to sit up working at night later than usual. Irishairneánorairneál, same meaning.Aroon, a term of endearment, my love, my dear:Eileen Aroon, the name of a celebrated Irish air: vocative of Irishrún[roon], a secret, a secret treasure. In Limerick commonly shortened toaroo. 'Where are you going nowaroo?'Art-loochra or arc-loochra, a harmless lizard five or six inches long: Irishartorarcis a lizard:luachra, rushes; the 'lizard of the rushes.'Ask, a water-newt, a small water-lizard: fromescoreasc[ask], an old Irish word for water. From the same root comes the next word, the diminutive form—Askeen; land made by cutting away bog, which generally remains more or less watery. (Reilly: Kildare.)Asthore, a term of endearment, 'my treasure.' The vocative case of Irishstór[store], treasure.Athurt; to confront:—'Oh well I will athurt him with that lie he told about me.' (Cork.) Possibly a mispronunciation ofathwart.Avourneen, my love: the vocative case of Irishmuirnín, a sweetheart, a loved person.Baan: a field covered with short grass:—'A baan field': 'abaanof cows': i.e. a grass farm with its proper number of cows. Irishbán, whitish.Back; a faction: 'I have a good back in the country, so I defy my enemies.'Back of God-speed; a place very remote, out of the way: so far off that the virtue of your wish ofGod-speedto a person will not go with him so far.Bacon: to 'save one's bacon'; to succeed in escaping some serious personal injury—death, a beating, &c. 'They fled from the fight to save their bacon': 'Here a lodging I'd taken, but loth to awaken, for fear of my bacon, either man, wife, or babe.' (Old Anglo-Irish poem.)Bad member; a doer of evil; a bad character; a treacherous fellow: 'I'm ruined,' says he, 'for some bad member has wrote to the bishop about me.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')Baffity, unbleached or blay calico. (Munster.)Bails or bales, frames made of perpendicular wooden bars in which cows are fastened for the night in the stable. (Munster.)Baithershin; may be so, perhaps. Irishb'féidir-sin, same sound and meaning.Ballowr (Bal-yore in Ulster); to bellow, roar, bawl, talk loudly and coarsely.Ballyhooly, a village near Fermoy in Cork, formerly notorious for its faction fights, so that it has passed into a proverb. A man is late coming home and expectsBallyhoolyfrom his wife, i.e. 'the length and breadth of her tongue.' Father Carroll has neglected to visit his relatives, the Kearneys, for a long time, so that he knows he'sin the black bookswith Mrs. Kearney, and expects Ballyhooly from her the first time he meets her. ('Knocknagow.')Ballyorgan in Co. Limerick,146.Banagher and Ballinasloe,192.Bannalanna: a woman who sells ale over the counter. Irishbean-na-leanna, 'woman of the ale,' 'ale-woman' (leann, ale).Ballyrag; to give loud abuse in torrents. (General.)Bandle; a 2-foot measure for home-made flannel. (Munster.)Bang-up; a frieze overcoat with high collar and long cape.Banshee´; a female fairy: Irishbean-sidhe[banshee], a 'woman from thesheeor fairy-dwelling.' This was the original meaning; but in modern times, and among English speakers, the wordbansheehas become narrowed in its application, and signifies a female spirit that attends certain families, and is heardkeeningor crying aloud at night round the house when some member of the family is about to die.Barcelona; a silk kerchief for the neck:—'His clothes spick and span new without e'er a speck;A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.'(Edward Lysaght, in 'The Sprig of Shillelah.')So called because imported from Barcelona, preserving a memory of the old days of smuggling.Barsa, barsaun; a scold. (Kild. and Ulst.)Barth; a back-load of rushes, straw, heath, &c. Irishbeart.Baury, baura, baur-yă, bairy; the goal in football, hurling, &c. Irishbáire[2-syll.], a game, a goal.Bawn; an enclosure near a farmhouse for cattle, sheep, &c.; in some districts, simply a farmyard. Irishbadhun[bawn], a cow-keep, fromba, cows, anddún, a keep or fortress. Now generally applied to the green field near the homestead where the cows are brought to be milked.Bawneen; a loose whitish jacket of home-made undyed flannel worn by men at out-door work. Very general:banyanin Derry. From Irishbán[bawn], whitish, with the diminutive termination.Bawnoge; a dancing-green. (MacCall: Leinster.)Frombán[baan], a field covered with short grass; and the dim.óg(p.90).Bawshill, afetchor double. (See Fetch.) (MacCall: S. Wexford.) I think this is a derivative ofBow, which see.Beestings; new milk from a cow that has just calved.Be-knownst; known: unbe-knownst; unknown. (Antrim.)Better than; more than:—'It is better than a year since I saw him last'; 'better than a mile,' &c. (Leinster and Munster.)Bian´ [by-ann´]; one of Bianconi's long cars. (See Jingle.)Binnen; the rope tying a cow to a stake in a field. (Knowles: Ulster.)Birragh; a muzzle-band with spikes on a calf's or a foal's muzzle to prevent it sucking its mother. From Irishbir, a sharp spit:birragh, full of sharp points or spits. (Munster: see Gubbaun.)Blackfast: among Roman Catholics, there is a 'black fast' on Ash Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, and Good Friday, i.e. no flesh meat orwhitemeatis allowed—no flesh, butter, eggs, cheese, or milk.Blackfeet. The members of one of the secret societies of a century ago were called 'Ribbonmen.' Some of them acknowledged the priests: those were 'whitefeet': others did not—'blackfeet.'Black man, black fellow; a surly vindictive implacable irreconcilable fellow.Black man; the man who accompanies a suitor to the house of the intended father-in-law, to help to make the match.Black of one's nail. 'You just escaped by the black of your nail': 'there's no cloth left—not the size of the black of my nail.' (North and South.)Black swop. When two fellows have two wretched articles—such as two old penknives—each thinking his own to be the worst in the universe, they sometimes agree for the pure humour of the thing to make ablack swop, i.e. to swop without first looking at the articles. When they are looked at after the swop, there is always great fun. (See Hool.)Blarney; smooth, plausible, cajoling talk. From Blarney Castle near Cork, in which there is a certain stone hard to reach, with this virtue, that if a person kisses it, he will be endowed with the gift ofblarney.Blast; when a child suddenly fades in health and pines away, he has got a blast,—i.e. a puff of evil wind sent by some baleful sprite has struck him.Blastwhen applied to fruit or crops means a blight in the ordinary sense—nothing supernatural.Blather, bladdher; a person who utters vulgarly foolish boastful talk: used also as a verb—to blather. Henceblatherumskite, applied to a person or to his talk in much the same sense; 'I never heard such a blatherumskite.' Ulster and Scotch formblether,blethering: Burns speaks of stringing 'blethers up in rhyme.' ('The Vision.')Blaze, blazes, blazing: favourite words everywhere in Ireland. Why are you in such a blazing hurry? Jack ran away like blazes: now work at that job like blazes: he is blazing drunk. Used also by the Englishpeasantry:—'That's a blazing strangeanswer,' says Jerry Cruncher in 'A Tale of Two Cities.' There's a touch of slang in some of these: yet the word has been in a way made classical by Lord Morley's expression that Lord Salisbury never made a speech without uttering 'some blazing indiscretion.'Blind Billy. In coming to an agreement take care you don't make 'Blind Billy's Bargain,' by either overreaching yourself or allowing the other party to overreach you. Blind Billy was the hangman in Limerick, and on one particular occasion he flatly refused to do his work unless he got £50 down on the nail: so the high sheriff had to agree and the hangman put the money in his pocket. When all was over the sheriff refused point-blank to send the usual escort without a fee of £50 down. So Blind Billy had to hand over the £50—for if he went without an escort he would be torn in pieces—and had nothing in the end for his job.Blind lane; a lane stopped up at one end.Blind window; an old window stopped up, but still plain to be seen.Blink; to exercise an evil influence by a glance of the 'evil eye'; to 'overlook'; hence 'blinked,' blighted by the eye. When the butter does not come in churning, the milk has beenblinkedby some one.Blirt; to weep: as a noun, a rainy wind. (Ulster.)Blob (blaboften in Ulster), a raised blister: a drop of honey, or of anything liquid.Blue look-out; a bad look-out, bad prospect.Boal or bole; a shelved recess in a room. (North.)Boarhaun; dried cowdung used for fuel like turf. Irishboithreán[boarhaun], from bo, a cow.Boccach [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster, but elsewhere on 1st]; a lame person. From the fact that so many beggars are lame or pretend to be lame,boccachhas come to mean a beggar. Irishbacach, a lame person: frombac, to halt.Bockady, another form ofboccachin Munster.Bockeen(the diminutive added on tobac), another form heard in Mayo.Boddagh [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster; in Ulster on 1st], a rich churlish clownish fellow. Tom Cuddihy wouldn't bear insult from any purse-proud oldboddagh. ('Knocknagow.')Body-coat; a coat like the present dress-coat, cut away in front so as to leave a narrow pointed tail-skirt behind: usually made of frieze and worn with the knee-breeches.Body-glass; a large mirror in which the whole body can be seen. (Limerick.)Body-lilty; heels over head. (Derry.)Bog; what is called in England a 'peat moss.' Merely the Irishbog, soft. Bog (verb), to be bogged; to sink in a bog or any soft soil or swampy place.Bog-butter; butter found deep in bogs, where it had been buried in old times for a purpose, and forgotten: a good deal changed now by the action of the bog. (See Joyce's 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 260.)Bog-Latin; bad incorrect Latin; Latin that had been learned in the hedge schools among the bogs. This derisive and reproachful epithet was given in bad old times by pupils and others of the favoured, legal, and endowed schools, sometimes with reason,but oftener very unjustly. For thosebogor hedge schools sent out numbers of scholarly men, who afterwards entered the church or lay professions. (See p.151.)Boghaleen; the same as Crusheen, which see.Bohaun; a cabin or hut. Irishboth[boh], a hut, with the diminutiveán.Bold; applied to girls and boys in the sense of 'forward,' 'impudent.'Boliaun, also calledbooghalaun bweeandgeōsadaun; the common yellow ragwort: all these are Irish words.Bolting-hole; the second or backward entrance made by rats, mice, rabbits, &c., from their burrows, so that if attacked at the ordinary entrance, they can escape by this, which is always left unused except in case of attack. (Kinahan.)Bones. If a person magnifies the importance of any matter and talks as if it were some great affair, the other will reply:—'Oh, you'remaking great bonesabout it.'Bonnive, a sucking-pig. Irishbanbh, same sound and meaning. Often used with the diminutive—bonniveen, bonneen. 'Oh look at thebaby pigs,' says an Irish lady one day in the hearing of others and myself, ashamed to use the Irish word. After that she always bore the nickname 'Baby pig':—'Oh, there's the Baby pig.'Bonnyclabber; thick milk. Irishbainne[bonny] milk; andclabar, anything thick or half liquid. 'In use all over America.' (Russell.)Boochalawn bwee; ragweed: same as boliaun, which see.Boolanthroor; three men threshing together, instead of the usual two: striking always in time. Irishbuail-an-triúr, 'the striking of three.'Booley as a noun; a temporary settlement in the grassy uplands where the people of the adjacent lowland village lived during the summer with their cattle, and milked them and made butter, returning in autumn—cattle and all—to their lowland farms to take up the crops. Used as a verb also:to booley. See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 431; or 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 239.Boolthaun, boulhaun, booltheen, boolshin: the striking part of a flail: from Irishbuail[bool], to strike, with the diminutive.Boon in Ulster, same asMihulelsewhere; which see.Boreen or bohereen, a narrow road. Irishbóthar[boher], a road, with the diminutive.Borick; a small wooden ball used by boys in hurling or goaling, when the proper leather-covered ball is not to hand. Called in Ulster anagand also agolley. (Knowles.)Borreen-brack, 'speckled cake,' speckled with currants and raisins, from Irishbairghin[borreen], a cake, andbreac[brack], speckled: specially baked for Hallow-eve. Sometimes corruptly calledbarm-brackorbarn-brack.Bosthoon: a flexible rod or whip made of a number of green rushes laid together and bound up with single rushes wound round and round. Made by boys in play—as I often made them. Hence 'bosthoon' is applied contemptuously to a softworthless spiritless fellow, in much the same sense aspoltroon.Bother; merely the Irish wordbodhar, deaf, used both as a noun and a verb in English (in the sense of deafening, annoying, troubling, perplexing, teasing): a person deaf or partially deaf is said to bebothered:—'Who should come in butbotheredNancy Fay. Now be it known thatbotheredsignifies deaf; and Nancy was a little old crankybotheredwoman.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You 'turn thebotheredear' to a person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request. In these applicationsbotheris universal in Ireland among all classes—educated as well as uneducated: accordingly, as Murray notes, it was first brought into use by Irishmen, such as Sheridan, Swift, and Sterne; just as Irishmen of to-day are bringing into currencygalore,smithereens, and many other Irish words. In its primary sense of deaf or to deafen,botheris used in the oldest Irish documents: thus in the Book of Leinster we have:—Ro bodrais sind oc imradud do maic, 'You have made us deaf (you havebotheredus) talking about your son' (Kuno Meyer): and a similar expression is in use at the present day in the very common phrase 'don'tbotherme' (don't deafen me, don't annoy me), which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish phrasená bí am' bhodradh. Those who derivebotherfrom the Englishpothermake a guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun.Bottheen, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irishbatawith the diminutive:—baitin.Bottom; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricksof girls on Hallow-eve to find out the destined husband is to go out to the limekiln at night with a ball of yarn; throw in the ball still holding the thread; re-wind the thread, till it is suddenly stopped; call out 'whohowldsmy bottom of yarn?' when she expects to hear the name of the young man she is to marry.Bouchal or boochal, a boy: the Irishbuachaill, same meaning.Bouilly-bawn, white home-made bread of wheaten flour; often calledbully-bread. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irishbulorbúilidhe, a loaf, andbán, white.Boundhalaun, a plant with thick hollow stem with joints, of which boys make rude syringes. From Irishbanndalorbannlamh, abandle(which see), with the dim. terminationán, I never saw true boundhalauns outside Munster.Bourke, the Rev. Father,71,161.Bownloch, a sore on the sole of the foot always at the edge: frombonnthe foot-sole [pron. bown in the South], andlocha mere termination. Also called aBine-lock.Bowraun, a sieve-shaped vessel for holding or measuring out corn, with the flat bottom made of dried sheepskin stretched tight; sometimes used as a rude tambourine, from which it gets the namebowraun; Irishbodhur[pron. bower here], deaf, from thebotheredor indistinct sound. (South.)Bow [to rhyme withcow]; abanshee, afetch(both which see. MacCall: South Leinster). This word has come down to us from very old times, for it preserves the memory ofBugh[Boo], abansheeor fairy queen once very celebrated, the daughter ofBove Derg king of the Dedannans or faery-race, of whom information will be obtained in the classical Irish story, 'The Fate of the Children of Lir,' the first in my 'Old Celtic Romances.' She has given her name to many hills all through Ireland. (See my 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 182, 183. See Bawshill.)Box and dice; used to denote the whole lot: I'll send you all the books and manuscripts, box and dice.Boxty; same as the Limerickmuddly, which see.Boy. Every Irishman is a 'boy' till he is married, and indeed often long after. (Crofton Croker: 'Ir. Fairy Legends.')Brablins: a crowd of children: a rabble. (Monaghan.)Bracket; speckled: a 'bracket cow.' Ir.breac, speckled.Braddach; given to mischief; roguish. Ir.bradach, a thief: in the same sense as when a mother says to her child, 'You young thief, stop that mischief.' Often applied to cows inclined to break down and cross fences. (Meath and Monaghan.)Brander; a gridiron. (North.) From Eng.brand.Brash; a turn of sickness (North.) Water-brash (Munster), severe acidity of the stomach with a flow of watery saliva from the mouth. Brash (North), a short turn at churning, or at anything; a stroke of the churndash: 'Give the churn a few brashes.' In Donegal you will hear 'that's a good brash of hail.'Brave; often used as an intensive:—'This is a brave fine day'; 'that's a brave big dog': (Ulster.) Also fine or admirable 'a brave stack of hay':tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in fighting):—'I have as brave a set of sons as you'd find in a day's walk.' 'How is your sick boy doing?' 'Oh bravely, thank you.'Braw; fine, handsome: Ir.breagh, same sound and meanings. (Ulster.)Break. Youbreaka grass field when you plough or dig it up for tillage. 'I'm going to break the kiln field.' ('Knocknagow.') Used all over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray's Elegy:—'Their furrow oft the stubborn glebehas bróke.'Break; to dismiss from employment: 'Poor William O'Donnell wasbrokelast week.' This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:—'Cid nod m-bris in fer-so a bo-airechus?' 'What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) this man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position asbo-aireor chief)?' My car-driver asked me one time:—'Can an inspector of National Schools be broke, sir?' By which he meant could he be dismissed at any time without any cause.Breedoge [dsounded likethinbathe]; a figure dressed up to represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve of the saint's festival), to collect small money contributions. With this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next day, 1st Feb. 'Breedoge' means 'littleBrighidorBrighit,'Breed(or ratherBreedh) representing the sound of Brighid, withógthe old diminutive feminine termination.Brecham, the straw collar put on a horse's or an ass's neck: sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.)Brehon Law; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was called a 'brehon.'Brew; a margin, a brink: 'that lake is too shallow to fish from the brews': from the Irishbru, same sound and meaning. See Broo.Brief; prevalent: 'fever is very brief.' Used all over the southern half of Ireland. Perhaps a mistake forrife.Brillauns or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in a peasant's cottage. Dick O'Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married as soon as they can gather up the fewbrill-yaunsof furniture. (South-east of Ireland.)Brine-oge; 'a young fellow full of fun and frolic.' (Carleton: Ulster.)Bring: our peculiar use of this (for 'take') appears in such phrases as:—'he brought the cows to the field': 'he brought me to the theatre.' (Hayden and Hartog.) See Carry.Brock, brockish; a badger. It is just the Irishbroc.Brock, brocket, brockey; applied to a person heavily pock-marked. I suppose frombroc, a badger. (Ulster.)Brogue, a shoe: Irishbróg. Used also to designate the Irish accent in speaking English: for the old Irish thong-stitched brogue was considered so characteristically Irish that the word was applied to our accent; as a clown is called acauboge(which see: Munster).Brohoge or bruhoge; a small batch of potatoes roasted. See Brunoge.Broken; bankrupt: quite a common expression is:—Poor Phil Burke is 'broken horse and foot'; i.e. utterly bankrupt and ruined.Broo, the edge of a potato ridge along which cabbages are planted. Irishbru, a margin, a brink.Brosna, brusna, bresna; a bundle of sticks for firing: a faggot. This is the Irishbrosna, universally used in Ireland at the present day, both in Irish and English; and used in the oldest Irish documents. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, written in Irish ten centuries ago, we are told that when Patrick was a boy, his foster-mother sent him one day for abrossnaof withered branches to make a fire.Broth of a boy; agoodmanly brave boy: the essence of manhood, as broth is the essence of meat.Brough; a ring or halo round the moon. It is the Irishbruach, a border.Broughan; porridge or oatmeal stirabout. Irishbrochán. (Ulster.)Bruggadauns [dsounded likethinthey]; the stalks of ferns found in meadows after mowing. (Kerry.)Brulliagh; a row, a noisy scuffle. (Derry.)Brunoge; a little batch of potatoes roasted in a fire made in the potato field at digging time: always dry, floury and palatable. (Roscommon.) Irishbruithneóg. See Brohoge.Bruss or briss; small broken bits mixed up with dust: very often applied to turf-dust. Irishbrus,bris, same sounds and meaning. (South.)Brutteen, brutin, bruteens; the Ulster words for caulcannon; which see. Irishbrúightín.Buckaun; the upright bar of a hinge on which the other part with the door hangs. Irishbocán.Buckley, Father Darby,68,146.Bucknabarra; any non-edible fungus. (Fermanagh.) See Pookapyle.Buck teeth; superfluous teeth which stand out from the ordinary row. (Knowles: Ulster.)Buddaree [ddsounded likethinthey]; a rich purse-proud vulgar farmer. (Munster.) Irish.Buff; the skin; to strip to one's buff is to strip naked. Two fellows going to fight with fists strip to their buff, i.e. naked from the waist up. (Munster.)Buggaun (Munster), buggeen (Leinster); an egg without a shell. Irishbog, soft, with the dim. termination.Bullaun, a bull calf. Irish, as in next word.Bullavaun, bullavogue; a strong, rough, bullying fellow. Frombullathe Irish form ofbull. (Moran: Carlow.)Bullaworrus; a spectral bull 'with fire blazing from his eyes, mouth, and nose,' that guards buried treasure by night. (Limerick.) Irish.Bullia-bottha (or boolia-botha); a fight with sticks. (Simmons: Armagh.) Irishbuaileadh, striking; andbata, a stick.Bullagadaun [dsounded likethinthey]; a short stout pot-bellied fellow. (Munster.) From Irishbolg[pron. bullog], a belly, and the dim.dán.Bullshin, bullsheen; same asBullaun.Bum; to cart turf to market:bummer, a person who does so as a way of living, like Billy Heffernan in 'Knocknagow.' Bum-bailiff, a bog bailiff. (Grainger: Arm.) Used more in the northern half of Ireland than in the southern.Bun; the tail of a rabbit. (Simmons: Arm.) Irishbun, the end.Bunnans; roots or stems of bushes or trees. (Meath.) From Irishbunas in last word.Bunnaun; a long stick or wattle. (Joyce: Limerick.)Bunnioch; the last sheaf bound up in a field of reaped corn. The binder of this (usually a girl) will die unmarried. (MacCall: Wexford.)Butt; a sort of cart boarded at bottom and all round the sides, 15 or 18 inches deep, for potatoes, sand, &c. (Limerick.) In Cork any kind of horse-cart or donkey-cart is called abutt, which is a departure from the (English) etymology. In Limerick any kind of cart except a butt is called acar; the wordcartis not used at all.Butthoon has much the same meaning aspotthalowng, which see. Irishbutún, same sound and meaning. (Munster.)Butter up; to flatter, to cajole by soft sugary words, generally with some selfish object in view:—'I suspected from the way he was buttering me up that he came to borrow money.'Byre: the place where the cows are fed and milked; sometimes a house for cows and horses, or a farmyard.By the same token: this needs no explanation; it is a survival from Tudor English. (Hayden and Hartog.)Cabin-hunting; going about from house to house to gossip. (South.)Cabman's Answer, The,208.Cadday´ [strong accent on -day] to stray idly about. As a noun an idlestrayof a fellow.Cadge; to hawk goods for sale. (Simmons: Armagh.) To go about idly from house to house, picking upa bit and a sup, wherever they are to be had. (Moran: Carlow.)Caffler; a contemptible little fellow who gives saucycheekyfoolish talk. Probably a mispronunciation ofcaviller. (Munster.)Cagger; a sort of pedlar who goes to markets and houses selling small goods and often taking others in exchange. (Kinahan: South and West.)Cahag; the little cross-piece on the end of a spade-handle, or of any handle. (Mon.)Cailey; a friendly evening visit in order to have a gossip. There are usually several persons at a cailey, and along with the gossiping talk there are songs or music. Irishcéilidh, same sound and meaning. Used all over Ireland, but more in the North than elsewhere.Calleach na looha [Colleagh: accented on 2nd syll. in South; on 1st in North] 'hag of the ashes.' Children—and sometimesold children—think that a little hag resides in the ashpit beside the fire. Irishcailleach, an old woman:luaith, ashes.Calleach-rue ('red hag'); a little reddish brown fish about 4 inches long, plentiful in small streams. We boys thought them delicious when broiled on the turf-coals. We fished for them either with a loop-snare made of a singlehorsehair on the end of a twig, with which it was very hard to catch them; for, as the boys used to say, 'they were cute little divels'—or directly—like the sportsmen of old—with a spear—the same spear being nothing butan ould fork.Caish; a growing pig about 6 months old. (Munster.)Call; claim, right: 'put down that spade; you have no call to it.''Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer,My eyes it does bedizen—O;Whatcallhave you marauding here,Or how daar you leave your prison—O?'(Repeal Song: 1843.)Need, occasion: they lived so near each other that there was no call to send letters. 'Why are you shouting that way?' 'I have a good call to shout, and that blackguard running away with my apples.' Father O'Flynn could preach on many subjects:—'Down from mythology into thayology, Troth! and conchology if he'd the call.' (A. P. Graves.) Used everywhere in Ireland in these several senses.Call; custom in business: Our new shopkeeper is getting great call, i.e. his customers are numerous. (South.)Cam or caum; a metal vessel for melting resin to makeslutsor long torches; also used to melt metal for coining. (Simmons: Armagh.) Called agrissetin Munster. Usually of a curved shape: Irishcam, curved.Candle. 'Jack Brien is a good scholar, but he couldn't hold a candle to Tom Murphy': i.e. heis very inferior to him. The person that holds a candle for a workman is a mere attendant and quite an inferior.Cannags; the stray ears left after the corn has been reaped and gathered. (Morris: Mon.) Calledliscaunsin Munster.Caper: oat-cake and butter. (Simmons: Armagh.)Caravat and Shanavest; the names of two hostile factions in Kilkenny and all round about there, of the early part of last century. Like Three-year-old and Four-year-old. IrishCaravat, a cravat; andShanavest, old vest: which names were adopted, but no one can tell why.Card-cutter; a fortune-teller by card tricks. Card-cutters were pretty common in Limerick in my early days: but it was regarded as disreputable to have any dealings with them.Cardia; friendship, a friendly welcome, additional time granted for paying a debt. (All over Ireland.) Ir.cáirde, same meanings.Cardinal Points,168.Carleycue; a very small coin of some kind. Used likekeenogeandcross. (Very general.)Carn; a heap of anything; a monumental pile of stones heaped up over a dead person. Irishcarn, same meanings.Caroline or 'Caroline hat'; a tall hat. ('Knocknagow': all over Munster.)Caroogh, an expert or professional card-player. (Munster.) Irishcearrbhach, same sound and meaning.Carra, Carrie; a weir on a river. (Derry.) Irishcarra, same meaning.Carrigaholt in Clare,145.Carry; to lead or drive: 'James, carry down those cows to the river' (i.e. drive): 'carry the horse to the forge' (lead). 'I will carry my family this year to Youghal for the salt water.' (Kinahan: South, West, and North-west.) See Bring.Case: the Irishcás, and applied in the same way: 'It is a poor case that I have to pay for your extravagance.'Nách dubhach bocht un cás bheith ag tuitim le ghrádh: 'isn't it a poor case to be failing through love.'—Old Irish Song. Our dialectical Irishcase, as above, is taken straight from the Irishcás; but this and the standard Englishcaseare both borrowed from Latin.Cassnara; respect, anything done out of respect: 'he put on his new coat for acasnara.' (Morris: South Mon.)Castor oil was our horror when we were children. No wonder; for this story went about of how it was made. A number of corpses were hanging from hooks round the walls of thefactory, and drops were continually falling from their big toes into vessels standing underneath. This was castor oil.Catin clay; clay mixed with rushes or straws used in building the mud walls of cottages. (Simmons: Arm.)Cat of a kind: they're 'cat of a kind,' both like each other and both objectionable.Cat's lick; used in and around Dublin to express exactly the same as the MunsterScotch lick, which see. A cat has a small tongue and does not do much licking.Caubeen; an old shabby cap or hat: Irishcáibín: he wore a 'shocking bad caubeen.'Cauboge; originally an old hat, like caubeen; but now applied—as the symbol of vulgarity—to an ignorant fellow, a boor, a bumpkin: 'What else could you expect from that cauboge?' (South.)Caulcannon, Calecannon, Colecannon, Kalecannon; potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs. In Munster often made and eaten on Hallow Eve. The first syllable is the Irishcál, cabbage;cannonis also Irish, meaning speckled.Caur, kindly, good-natured, affable. (Morris: South Mon.)Cawmeen; a mote: 'there's a cawmeen in my eye.' (Moran: Carlow.) Irish with the diminutive.Cawsha Pooka; the big fungus often seen growing on old trees or elsewhere. From Irishcáise, cheese: the 'Pooka's cheese.' See Pooka and Pookapyle and Bucknabarra.Cead míle fáilte [caidh meela faultha], a hundred thousand welcomes. Irish, and universal in Ireland as a salute.Ceólaun [keolaun], a trifling contemptible little fellow. (Munster.)Cess; very often used in the combinationbad cess(bad luck):—'Bad cess to me but there's something comin' over me.' (Kickham: 'Knocknagow.') Some think this is a contraction ofsuccess; others that it is to be taken as it stands—acessor contribution; which receives some little support from its use in Louth to mean 'a quantity of corn in for threshing.'Chalk Sunday; the first Sunday after Shrove Tuesday (first Sunday in Lent), when those young men who should have been married, but were not, were marked with a heavy streak of chalk on the back of theSunday coat, by boys who carried bits of chalk in their pockets for that purpose, and lay in wait for the bachelors. The marking was done while the congregation were assembling for Mass: and the young fellow ran for his life, always laughing, and often singing the concluding words of some suitable doggerel such as:—'And you are not married though Lent has come!' This custom prevailed in Munster. I saw it in full play in Limerick: but I think it has died out. For the air to which the verses were sung, see my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' p. 12.Champ (Down); the same as 'caulcannon,' which see. Also potatoes mashed with butter and milk; same as 'pandy,' which see.Chanter; to go about grumbling and fault-finding. (Ulster.)Chapel: Church: Scallan,143.Chaw forchew,97. 'Chawing the rag'; continually grumbling, jawing, and giving abuse. (Kinahan.)Cheek; impudence;brass: cheeky; presumptuous.Chincough, whooping-cough: fromkink-cough. See Kink.Chittering; constantly muttering complaints. (Knowles.)Chook chook [theoosounded rather short]; a call for hens. It is the Irishtiuc, come.Christian; a human being as distinguished from one of the lower animals:—'That dog has nearly as much sense as a Christian.'Chuff: full.—'I'm chuffey after my dinner.' (MacCall: Wexford.)Clabber, clobber, or clawber; mud: thick milk. See Bonnyclabber.Clamp; a small rick of turf, built up regularly. (All through Ireland.)Clamper; a dispute, a wrangle. (Munster.) Irishclampar, same meaning.Clarsha; a lazy woman. (Morris: South Monaghan.)Clart; an untidy dirty woman, especially in preparing food. (Simmons: Armagh.)Clash, to carry tales: Clashbag, a tale-bearer. (Simmons: Armagh.)Classy; a drain running through a byre or stable-yard. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irishclais, a trench, with the diminutiveyadded.Clat; a slovenly untidy person; dirt, clay: 'wash theclatoff your hands': clatty; slovenly, untidy—(Ulster): calledclottyin Kildare;—a slattern.Clatch; a brood of chickens. (Ulster.) See Clutch.Cleean [2-syll.]; a relation by marriage—such as a father-in-law. Two persons so related arecleeans. Irishcliamhan, same sound and meaning.Cleever; one who deals in poultry; because he carries them in acleeveor large wicker basket. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irishcliabh[cleeve], a basket.Cleevaun; a cradle: also a crib or cage for catching birds. The diminutive of Irishcliabhor cleeve, a wicker basket.Clegg; a horsefly. (Ulster and Carlow.)Clehalpeen; a shillelah or cudgel with a knob at the end. (South.) From Irishcleath, a wattle, andailpindim. ofalp, a knob.Clever is applied to a man who is tall, straight, and well made.Clevvy; three or four shelves one over another in a wall: a sort of small open cupboard like a dresser. (All over the South.)Clibbin, clibbeen; a young colt. (Donegal.) Irishclibín, same sound and meaning.Clibbock; a young horse. (Derry.)Clift; a light-headed person, easily roused and rendered foolishly excited. (Ulster.)Clipe-clash: a tell-tale. (Ulster.) See Clash.Clochaun, clochan; a row of stepping-stones across a river. (General.) From Irishcloch, a stone, with the diminutiveán.Clock; a black beetle. (South.)Clocking hen; a hen hatching. (General.) From the sound orclockshe utters.Clooracaun or cluracaun, another name for a leprachaun, which see.Close; applied to a day means simply warm:—'This is a very close day.'Clout; a blow with the hand or with anything. Also a piece of cloth, a rag, commonly used in the diminutive form in Munster—cloutheen.Cloutheensis specially applied to little rags used with an infant.Cloutis also applied to a clownish person:—'It would be well if somebody would teach thatcloutsome manners.'Clove; to clove flax is toscutchit—to draw each handful repeatedly between the blades of a 'cloving tongs,' so as to break off and remove the brittle husk, leaving the fibre smooth and free. (Munster.)Clutch; a brood of chickens or of any fowls: same as clatch. I suppose this is English: Waterton (an English traveller) uses it in his 'Wanderings'; but it is not in the Dictionaries of Chambers and Webster.Cluthoge; Easter eggs. (P. Reilly; Kildare.)Cly-thoran; a wall or ditch between two estates. (Roscommon.) Irishcladh[cly], a raised dyke or fence;teóra, gen.teórann[thoran], a boundary.Cobby-house; a little house made by children for play. (Munster.)Cockles off the heart,194.Cog; to copy surreptitiously; to crib something from the writings of another and pass it off as your own. One schoolboy will sometimes copy from another:—'You cogged that sum.'Coghil; a sort of long-shaped pointed net. (Armagh.) Irishcochal, a net.Coldoy; a bad halfpenny: a spurious worthless article of jewellery. (Limerick.)Colleen; a young girl. (All over Ireland.) Irishcailín, same sound and meaning.Colley; the woolly dusty fluffy stuff that gathers under furniture and in remote corners of rooms. Light soot-smuts flying about.Colloge; to talk and gossip in a familiar friendly way. An Irish form of the Latin or English word 'colloquy.'Collop; a standard measure of grazing land, p.177.Collop; the part of a flail that is held in the hand. (Munster.) See Boolthaun. Irishcolpa.Come-all-ye; a nickname applied to Irish Folk Songs and Music; an old country song; from thebeginning of many of the songs:—'Come all ye tender Christians,' &c. This name, intended to be reproachful, originated among ourselves, after the usual habit of many 'superior' Irishmen to vilify their own country and countrymen and all their customs and peculiarities. Observe, this opening is almost equally common in English Folk-songs; yet the English do not make game of them by nicknames. Irish music, which is thus vilified by some of our brethren, is the most beautiful Folk Music in the world.Comether;come hetherorhither,97.Commaun, common; the game of goaling or hurley. So called from thecommaunor crooked-shaped stick with which it is played: Irishcamorcom, curved or crooked; with the diminutive—camán. Calledhurlingandgoalingby English speakers in Ireland, andshinneyin Scotland.Commons; land held in common by the people of a village or small district: see p.177.Comparisons,136.Conacre; letting land in patches for a short period. A farmer divides a large field into small portions—¼ acre, ½ acre, &c.—and lets them to his poorer neighbours usually for one season for a single crop, mostly potatoes, or in Ulster flax. He generally undertakes to manure the whole field, and charges high rents for the little lettings. I saw this in practice more than 60 years ago in Munster. Irishcon, common, and Eng.acre.Condition; in Munster, to 'change your condition' is to get married.Condon, Mr. John, of Mitchelstown,155.Conny, canny; discreet, knowing, cute.Contrairy, forcontrary, but accented on second syll.; cross, perverse, cranky, crotchety,102.Convenient: see Handy.Cool: hurlers and football players always put one of their best players tomind coolorstand cool, i.e. to stand at their own goal or gap, to intercept the ball if the opponents should attempt to drive it through. Universal in Munster. Irishcúl[cool], the back. The full word iscool-baur-yawhere 'baur-ya' is the goal or gap. The man standing cool is often called 'the man in the gap' (see p.182).Cool; a good-sized roll of butter. (Munster.)Cooleen or coulin; a fair-haired girl. This is the name of a celebrated Irish air. Fromcúlthe back [of the head], andfionn, white or fair:—cúil-fhionn, [pron. cooleen or coolin].Coonagh; friendly, familiar,great(which see):—'These two are verycoonagh.' (MacCall: Wexford.) Irishcuaine, a family.Coonsoge, a bees' nest. (Cork.) Irishcuansa[coonsa], a hiding-place, with the diminutiveóg.Cooramagh; kindly, careful, thoughtful, provident:—'No wonder Mrs. Dunn would look well and happy with such acooramaghhusband.' Irishcuramach, same meaning.Coord [dsounded likethinbathe], a friendly visit to a neighbour's house. Irishcuaird, a visit. Coordeeagh, same meaning. (Munster.)Cope-curley; to stand on the head and throw the heels over; to turn head over heels. (Ulster.)Core: work given as a sort of loan to be paid back.I send a man oncorefor a day to my neighbour: when next I want a man he will send me one for a day in return. So with horses: two one-horse farmers who work their horses in pairs, borrowing alternately, are said to be incore. Very common in Munster. Irishcobhairorcabhair[core or co-ir, 2-syll.] help, support.Coreeagh; a man who has a great desire to attend funerals—goes to every funeral that he can possibly reach. (Munster.) Same root as last.Corfuffle; to toss, shake, confuse, mix up. (Derry.)Correesk; a crane. (Kildare.) Irishcorr, a bird of the crane kind, andriasc[reesk], a marsh.Cōsher [theolong as inmotion]; banqueting, feasting. In very old times in Ireland, certain persons went about with news from place to place, and were entertained in the high class houses: this was calledcoshering, and was at one time forbidden by law. In modern times it means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour's house to have a quiet talk. Irishcóisir; a banquet, feasting.Costnent. When a farm labourer has a cottage and garden from his employer, and boards himself, he livescostnent. He is paid small wages (calledcostnentwages) as he has house and plot free. (Derry.)Cot; a small boat: Irishcot. See 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 226, for places deriving their names fromcots.Cowlagh; an old ruined house. (Kerry.) Irishcoblach[cowlagh].Coward's blow; a blow given to provoke a boy to fight or else be branded as a coward.Cow's lick. When the hair in front over the forehead turns at the roots upward and backward, that is acow's lick, as if a cow had licked it upwards. The idea of a cow licking the hair is very old in Irish literature. In the oldest of all our miscellaneous IrishMSS.—The Book of the Dun Cow—Cuculainn's hair is so thick and smooth that king Laery, who saw him, says:—'I should imagine it is a cow that licked it.'Cox, Mr. Simon, of Galbally,156.Craags; great fat hands; big handfuls. (Morris: South Mon.)Crab; a cute precocious little child is often called anold crab. 'Crabjaw' has the same meaning.Cracked; crazy, half mad.Cracklins; the browned crispy little flakes that remain afterrenderingor melting lard and pouring it off. (Simmons: Armagh.)Crahauns or Kirraghauns; very small potatoes not used by the family: given to pigs. (Munster.) Irishcreathán.Crans (always in pl.); little tricks or dodges. (Limk).Crapper; a half glass of whiskey. (Moran: Carlow.)Craw-sick; ill in the morning after a drunken bout.Crawtha; sorry, mortified, pained. (Limerick.) Irishcráidhte[crawtha], same meaning.Crawthumper; a person ostentatiously devotional.Creelacaun; see Skillaun.Creel; a strong square wicker frame, used by itself for holding turf, &c., or put on asses' backs (in pairs), or put on carts for carrying turf or for taking calves,bonnives, &c., to market. Irishcriol. (All through Ireland.)Creepy; a small stool, a stool. (Chiefly in Ulster.)Crith; hump on the back. Irishcruit, same sound and meaning. From this comescrittheraandcrittheen, both meaning a hunchback.Cro, or cru: a house for cows. (Kerry.) Irishcro, a pen, a fold, a shed for any kind of animals.Croaked; I am afraid poor Nancy is croaked, i.e. doomed to death. The raven croaks over the house when one of the family is about to die. (MacCall: Wexford.)Croft; a water bottle, usually for a bedroom at night. You never hearcarafein Ireland: it is alwayscroft.Cromwell, Curse of,166.Crumel´ly. (Limerick.) More correctlycurr amílly. (Donegal.) An herb found in grassy fields with a sweet root that children dig up and eat. Irish 'honey-root.'Cronaun, croonaun; a low humming air or song, any continuous humming sound: 'the old woman was cronauning in the corner.'Cronebane, cronebaun; a bad halfpenny, a worthless copper coin. From Cronebane in Co. Wicklow, where copper mines were worked.Croobeen or crubeen; a pig's foot. Pigs' croobeens boiled are a grand and favourite viand among us—all through Ireland. Irishcrúb[croob], a foot, with the diminutive.Croost; to throw stones or clods from the hand:—'Those boys are alwayscroostingstones at my hens.' Irishcrústa[croostha], a missile, a clod.Croudy: see Porter-meal.Crowl or Croil; a dwarf, a very small person: the smallestbonniveof the litter. An Irish word.Cruiskeen; a little cruise for holding liquor. Used all over Ireland.'In a shady nook one moonlight nightAleprechaunI spied;With scarlet cap and coat of green,Acruiskeenby his side.'TheCruiskeen Launis the name of a well-known Irish air—the Scotch call it 'John Anderson my Jo.' Irishcruiscín, a pitcher:lán[laun], full: i.e. in this case full ofpottheen.Crusheen; a stick with a flat crosspiece fastened at bottom for washing potatoes in a basket. Irishcros, a cross, with the diminutive. Also called aboghaleen, from Irishbachal, a staff, with diminutive. (Joyce: Limerick.)Cuck; a tuft: applied to the little tuft of feathers on the head of some birds, such as plovers, some hens and ducks, &c. Irishcoc: same sound and meaning. (General.)Cuckles; the spiky seed-pods of the thistle: thistle heads. (Limerick.)Cuckoo spit; the violet: merely the translation of the Irish name,sail-chuach, spittle of cuckoos. Also the name of a small frothy spittle-like substance often found on leaves of plants in summer, with a little greenish insect in the middle of it. (Limerick.)Cugger-mugger; whispering, gossiping in a low voice: Jack and Bessie had a greatcugger-mugger. Irishcogar, whisper, with a similar duplication meaning nothing, like tip-top, shilly-shally, gibble-gabble, clitter-clatter, &c. I think'hugger-mugger' is a form of this: forhuggercan't be derived from anything, whereascugger(cogur) is a plain Irish word.Cull; when the best of a lot of any kind—sheep, cattle, books, &c.—have been picked out, the bad ones that are left—the refuse—are theculls. (Kinahan: general.)Culla-greefeen; when foot or hand is 'asleep' with the feeling of 'pins and needles.' The name is Irish and means 'Griffin's sleep'; but why so called I cannot tell. (Munster.)Cup-tossing; reading fortunes from tea-leaves thrown out on the saucer from the tea-cup or teapot. (General.)Cur; a twist: acurof a rope. (Joyce: Limerick.)Curate; a common little iron poker kept in use to spare the grand one: also a grocer's assistant. (Hayden and Hartog.)Curcuddiagh; cosy, comfortable. (Maxwell: 'Wild Sports of the West': Irish: Mayo.)Curifixes; oddcuriousornaments orfixturesof any kind. (General.) Peter Brierly, looking at the knocker:—'I never see suchcurifixeson adooreafore.' (Edw. Walsh: very general.)Curragh; a wicker boat covered formerly with hides but now with tarred canvass. (See my 'Smaller Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland.')Current; in good health: he is not current; his health is not current. (Father Higgins: Cork.)Curwhibbles, currifibbles, currywhibbles; any strange, odd, or unusual gestures; or any unusual twisting of words, such as prevarication; wild puzzles and puzzling talk:—'The horsemen are in regular currywhibles about something.' (R. D. Joyce.)Cush; a sort of small horse, fromCushendallin Antrim.Cushlamochree; pulse of my heart. IrishCuislĕ, vein or pulse;mo, my;croidhe[cree], heart.Cushoge; a stem of a plant; sometimes used the same astraneen, which see. (Moran: Carlow; and Morris: Monaghan.)Cut; a county or barony cess tax; hence Cutman, the collector of it. (Kinahan: Armagh and Donegal.) 'The three blackcutswill be levied.' (Seumas MacManus: Donegal.)Daisy-picker; a person who accompanies two lovers in their walk; why so called obvious. Brought to keep off gossip.Dalk, a thorn. (De Vismes Kane: North and South.) Irishdealg[dallog], a thorn.Dallag [dsounded likethinthat]; any kind of covering to blindfold the eyes (Morris: South Monaghan): 'blinding,' from Irishdall, blind.Dallapookeen; blindman's buff. (Kerry.) From Irishdalladh[dalla] blinding; andpuicín[pookeen], a covering over the eyes.Daltheen [thedsounded likethinthat], an impudent conceited little fellow: a diminutive ofdalta, a foster child. The diminutivedalteenwas first applied to a horseboy, from which it has drifted to its present meaning.Dancing customs,170,172.Dannagh; mill-dust and mill-grains for feeding pigs. (Moran: Carlow: also Tip.) Irishdeanach, same sound and meaning.Dander [seconddsounded likethinhither], to walk about leisurely: a leisurely walk.Dandy; a small tumbler; commonly used for drinking punch.Darradail or daradeel [thed's sounded likethinthat] a sort of long black chafer or beetle. It raises its tail when disturbed, and has a strong smell of apples. There is a religious legend that when our Lord was escaping from the Jews, barefoot, the stones were marked all along by traces of blood from the bleeding feet. The daradail followed the traces of blood; and the Jews following, at length overtook and apprehended our Lord. Hence the people regard the daradail with intense hatred, and whenever they come on it, kill it instantly. Irishdarbh-daol.Dark; blind: 'a dark man.' (Very general.) Used constantly even in official and legal documents, as in workhouse books, especially in Munster. (Healy.)Darrol; the smallest of the brood of pigs, fowl, &c. (Mayo.) Irishdearóil, small, puny, wretched.Davis, Thomas, vi.83, &c.Dead beat or deadbet; tired out.Dear; used as a sort of intensive adjective:—'Tom ran for the dear life' (as fast as he could). (Crofton Croker.) 'He got enough to remember all the dear days of his life.' ('Dub. Pen. Journ.')Dell; a lathe. Irishdeil, same sound and meaning. (All over Munster.)Devil's needle; the dragon-fly. Translation of the Irish namesnathad-a'-diabhail[snahad-a-dheel].Deshort [to rhyme withport]; a sudden interruption, a surprise: 'I was taken at adeshort.' (Derry.)Devil, The, and his 'territory,'56.Dickonce; one of the disguised names of the devil used inwhitecursing: 'Why then the dickonce take you for one gander.' (Gerald Griffin.)Diddy; a woman's pap or breast: a baby sucks its mother's diddy. Diminutive of Irishdid, same.Dido; a girl who makes herself ridiculous with fantastic finery. (Moran: Carlow.)Didoes (singulardido); tricks, antics: 'quit your didoes.' (Ulster.)Dildron or dildern; a bowraun, which see.Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (askitchen), and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by basket-women in Dublin. Irishduilesc.Dip. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You will sometimes read of 'potatoes and point,' namely, that each person, before taking a bite,pointedthe potato at a salt herring or a bit of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and never occurred in real life.Disciple; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), and another says to him—jibing and railing—'Away with ye, ye miserabledisciple. Arrah, by the holeof my coat, after you dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I'll coax yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.' (Edw. Walsh in 'Pen. Journ.')Disremember; to forget. Good old English; now out of fashion in England, but common in Ireland.Ditch. In Ireland a ditch is a raised fence or earthen wall or mound, and a dyke (orsheuchas they call it in Donegal and elsewhere in Ulster) is a deep cutting, commonly filled with water. In England both words mean exactly the reverse. Hence 'hurlers on the ditch,' or 'the best hurlers are on the ditch' (where speakers of pure English would use 'fence') said in derision of persons who are mere idle spectators sitting up on high watching the game—whatever it may be—and boasting how they woulddo the devil an' allif they were only playing. Applied in a broad sense to those who criticise persons engaged in any strenuous affair—critics who think they could do better.Dollop; to adulterate: 'that coffee is dolloped.'Donny; weak, in poor health. Irishdonaidhe, same sound and meaning. Hencedonnaun, a poor weakly creature, same root with the diminutive. From still the same root isdonsy, sick-looking.Donagh-dearnagh, the Sunday before Lammas (1st August). (Ulster.) IrishDomnach, Sunday; anddeireannach, last, i.e. last Sunday of the period before 1st August.Doodoge [the twod's sounded likethinthus]; a big pinch of snuff. [Limk.] Irishdúdóg.Dooraght [dsounded as in the last word]; tender care and kindness shown to a person. Irishdúthracht, same sound and meaning. In parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is purchased (Simmons and Knowles); called elsewhere atilly, which see. This word, in its sense of kindness, is very old; for in the Brehon Law we read of land set aside by a father for his daughter throughdooraght.Doorshay-daurshay [din both sounded asthinthus], mere hearsay or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound ofdubhairt-sé, 'said he.' The second part is a mere doubling of the first, as we find in many English words, such as 'fiddle-faddle,' 'tittle-tattle' (which resembles our word). Often used by Munster lawyers in court, whether Irish-speaking or not, in depreciation of hearsay evidence in contradistinction to the evidence of looking-on. 'Ah, that's all meredoorshay-daurshay.' Common all over Munster. The information about the use of the term in law courts I got from Mr. Maurice Healy. A different form is sometimes heard:—D'innis bean dom gur innis bean di, 'a woman told me that a woman told her.'Dornoge [dsounded as in doodoge above]; a small round lump of a stone, fit to be cast from the hand. Irishdorn, the shut hand, with the dim.óg.Double up; to render a person helpless either in fight or in argument. The old tinker in the fair got a blow of an amazon's fist which 'sent him sprawling anddoubledhim up for the rest of the evening.' (Robert Dwyer Joyce: 'Madeline's Vow.')Down in the heels; broken down in fortune (one mark of which is the state of the heels of shoes).Down blow; a heavy or almost ruinous blow of any kind:—'The loss of that cow was a down blow to poor widow Cleary.'Downface; to persist boldly in an assertion (whether true or no): He downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never did.Down-the-banks; a scolding, a reprimand, punishment of any kind.Dozed: a piece of timber is dozed when there is a dry rot in the heart of it. (Myself for Limk.: Kane for North.)Drad; a grin or contortion of the mouth. (Joyce.)Drag home. (Simmons; Armagh: same as Hauling home, which see.)Drass; a short time, a turn:—'You walk a drass now and let me ride': 'I always smoke a drass before I go to bed of a night.' ('Collegians,' Limerick.) Irishdreas, same sound and meaning.Drench: a form of the Englishdrink, but used in a peculiar sense in Ireland. Adrenchis a philtre, a love-potion, a love-compelling drink over which certain charms were repeated during its preparation. Made by boiling certain herbs (orchis) in water or milk, and the person drinks it unsuspectingly. In my boyhood time a beautiful young girl belonging to a most respectable family ran off with an ill-favoured obscure beggarly diseased wretch. The occurrence was looked on with great astonishment and horror by the people—no wonder; and the universal belief was that the fellow's old mother had given the poor girl adrench. To this hour I cannot make any guess at the cause of that astounding elopement: and it isnot surprising that the people were driven to the supernatural for an explanation.Dresser; a set of shelves and drawers in a frame in a kitchen for holding plates, knives, &c.Drisheen is now used in Cork as an English word, to denote a sort of pudding made of the narrow intestines of a sheep, filled with blood that has been cleared of the red colouring matter, and mixed with meal and some other ingredients. So far as I know, this viand and its name are peculiar to Cork, wheredrisheenis considered suitable for persons of weak or delicate digestion. (I should observe that a recent reviewer of one of my books states that drisheen is also made in Waterford.) Irishdreasor driss, applied to anything slender, as a bramble, one of the smaller intestines, &c.—with the diminutive.Drizzen, a sort of moaning sound uttered by a cow. (Derry).Drogh; the worst and smallest bonnive in a litter. (Armagh.) Irishdroch, bad, evil. (See Eervar.)Droleen; a wren: merely the Irish worddreóilín.Drop; a strain of any kind 'running in the blood.' A man inclined to evil ways 'has a bad drop' in him (or 'a black drop'): a miser 'has a hard drop.' The expression carries an idea of heredity.Drugget; a cloth woven with a mixture of woollen and flaxen thread: so called from Drogheda where it was once extensively manufactured. Now much used as cheap carpeting.Druids and Druidism,178.Drumaun; a wide back-band for a ploughing horse,with hooks to keep the traces in place. (Joyce: Limerick.) From Irishdruim, the back.Drummagh; the back strap used in yoking two horses. (Joyce: Limerick.) Irishdruim, the back, with the termination-ach, equivalent to English-ousand-y.Dry potatoes; potatoes eaten without milk or any other drink.Dry lodging; the use of a bed merely, without food.Drynaun-dun or drynan-dun [twod's sounded likethinthat]; the blackthorn, the sloe-bush. Irishdroigheanán[drynan or drynaun], anddonn, brown-coloured.Ducks; trousers of snow-white canvas, much used as summer wear by gentle and simple fifty or sixty years ago.Dudeen [bothd's sounded likethinthose]; a smoking-pipe with a very short stem. Irishdúidín,dúd, a pipe, with the diminutive.Duggins; rags: 'that poor fellow is all in duggins.' (Armagh.)Dull; a loop or eye on a string. (Monaghan.)Dullaghan [dsounded asthinthose]; a large trout. (Kane: Monaghan.) An Irish word.Dullaghan; 'a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in churchyards, who can take off and put on his head at will.' (From 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 193, which see for more about this spectre. See Croker's 'Fairy Legends.')Dullamoo [dsounded likethinthose]; a wastrel, a scapegrace, ane'er-do-weel. Irishdul, going;amudha[amoo], astray, to loss:—dullamoo, 'a person going to the bad,' 'going to the dogs.'Dundeen; a lump of bread without butter. (Derry.)Dunisheen; a small weakly child. (Moran: Carlow.) Irishdonaisín, an unfortunate being; fromdonas, with diminutive. See Donny.Dunner; to knock loudly at a door. (Ulster.)Dunt (sometimesdunch), to strike or butt like a cow or goat with the head. A certain lame old man (of Armagh) was nicknamed 'Dunt the pad (path'). (Ulster.)Durneen, one of the two handles of a scythe that project from the main handle. Irishdoirnín, same sound and meaning: diminutive fromdorn, the fist, the shut hand.Durnoge; a strong rough leather glove, used on the left hand by faggot cutters. (MacCall: Wexford.)Dornoge, given above, is the same word but differently applied.Duty owed by tenants to landlords,181.Earnest; 'in earnest' is often used in the sense of 'really and truly':—'You're a man in earnest, Cus, to strike the first blow on a day [of battle] like this.' (R. D. Joyce.)Eervar; the last pig in a litter. Thisbonnivebeing usually very small and hard to keep alive is often given to one of the children for a pet; and it is reared in great comfort in a warm bed by the kitchen fire, and fed on milk. I once, when a child, had an eervar of my own which was the joy of my life. Irishiarmhar[eervar], meaning 'something after all the rest'; the hindmost. (Munster.) See Drogh for Ulster.Elder; a cow's udder. All over Ireland.Elegant. This word is used among us, not in its proper sense, but to designate anything good or excellent of its kind:—An elegant penknife, an elegant gun: 'That's an elegant pig of yours, Jack?' Our milkman once offered me a present for my garden—'An elegant load of dung.'I haven't thejaniusfor work,For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys;But I'd make a mostelegantTurk,For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies.(Lever.)
Able; strong, muscular, and vigorous:—'Nagle was a strong able man.'
Able dealer; a schemer. (Limerick.)
Acushla; see Cushlamochree.
Adam's ale; plain drinking-water.
Affirming, assenting, and saluting,9.
Agra or Agraw: a term of endearment; my love: vocative of Irishgrádh, love.
Ahaygar; a pet term; my friend, my love: vocative of Irishtéagur, love, a dear person.
Aims-ace; a small amount, quantity, or distance. Applied in the following way very generally in Munster:—'He was within an aim's-ace of being drowned' (very near). A survival in Ireland of the old Shakesperian wordambs-ace, meaning two aces or two single points in throwing dice, the smallest possible throw.
Air: a visitor comes in:—'Won't you sit down Joe and take anairof the fire.' (Very usual.)
Airt used in Ulster and Scotland for a single point of the compass:—
'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.'(Burns.)
'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.'
'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.'
(Burns.)
(Burns.)
It is the Irisháird, a point of the compass.
Airy; ghostly, fearsome: anairyplace, a haunted place. Same as Scotcheerie. From Gaelicáedharaigh, same sound and meaning. A survival of the old Irish pagan belief that air-demons were the most malignant of all supernatural beings: see Joyce's 'Old Celtic Romances,' p. 15.
Alanna; my child: vocative case of Irishleanbh[lannav], a child.
Allow; admit. 'I allow that you lent me a pound': 'if you allow that you cannot deny so and so.' This is an old English usage. (Ducange.) To advise or recommend: 'I would not allow you to go by that road' ('I would not recommend'). 'I'd allow you to sow that field with oats' (advise).
All to; means except:—'I've sold my sheep all to six,' i.e. except six. This is merely a translation from the Irish as inDo marbhadh na daoine uile go haon triúr: 'The people were slain all to a single three.' (Keating.)
Along of; on account of. Why did you keep me waiting [at night] so long at the door, Pat?' 'Why then 'twas all along of Judy there being so much afraid of the fairies.' (Crofton Croker.)
Alpeen, a stick or hand-wattle with a knob at the lower end: diminutive of Irishalp, a knob. Sometimes called aclehalpeen: whereclehis the Irishcleatha stick.Clehalpeen, a knobbed cudgel.
Amadaun, a fool (man or boy), a half-fool, a foolish person. Irishamadán, a fool: a form ofonmitán; fromón, a fool: seeOanshagh.
American wake; a meeting of friends on the evening before the departure of some young people forAmerica, as a farewell celebration. (See my 'Old Irish Folk-Music and Songs,' p. 191.)
Amplush, a fix, a difficulty: he was in a great amplush. (North and South.) (Edw. Walsh in Dub. Pen. Journal.)
Amshagh; a sudden hurt, an accident. (Derry.)
Ang-ishore; a poor miserable creature—man or woman. It is merely the Irish wordaindeiseóir. (Chiefly South.)
Any is used forno(inno more) in parts of West and North-west. 'James, you left the gate open this morning and the calves got out.' 'Oh I'm sorry sir; I will do it any more.' This is merely a mistranslation ofníos mo, from some confused idea of the sense of two (Irish) negatives (níosbeing one, with another preceding) leading to the omission of an English negative from the correct construction—'I willnotdo it anymore:'Níos momeaning in English 'no more' or 'any more' according to the omission or insertion of an English negative.
Aree often used afterochone(alas) in Donegal and elsewhere.Areegives the exact pronunciation ofa Righ, andneimhe(heaven) is understood. The full Irish exclamation isochón a Righ neimhe, 'alas, O King of heaven.'
Arnaun or arnaul, to sit up working at night later than usual. Irishairneánorairneál, same meaning.
Aroon, a term of endearment, my love, my dear:Eileen Aroon, the name of a celebrated Irish air: vocative of Irishrún[roon], a secret, a secret treasure. In Limerick commonly shortened toaroo. 'Where are you going nowaroo?'
Art-loochra or arc-loochra, a harmless lizard five or six inches long: Irishartorarcis a lizard:luachra, rushes; the 'lizard of the rushes.'
Ask, a water-newt, a small water-lizard: fromescoreasc[ask], an old Irish word for water. From the same root comes the next word, the diminutive form—
Askeen; land made by cutting away bog, which generally remains more or less watery. (Reilly: Kildare.)
Asthore, a term of endearment, 'my treasure.' The vocative case of Irishstór[store], treasure.
Athurt; to confront:—'Oh well I will athurt him with that lie he told about me.' (Cork.) Possibly a mispronunciation ofathwart.
Avourneen, my love: the vocative case of Irishmuirnín, a sweetheart, a loved person.
Baan: a field covered with short grass:—'A baan field': 'abaanof cows': i.e. a grass farm with its proper number of cows. Irishbán, whitish.
Back; a faction: 'I have a good back in the country, so I defy my enemies.'
Back of God-speed; a place very remote, out of the way: so far off that the virtue of your wish ofGod-speedto a person will not go with him so far.
Bacon: to 'save one's bacon'; to succeed in escaping some serious personal injury—death, a beating, &c. 'They fled from the fight to save their bacon': 'Here a lodging I'd taken, but loth to awaken, for fear of my bacon, either man, wife, or babe.' (Old Anglo-Irish poem.)
Bad member; a doer of evil; a bad character; a treacherous fellow: 'I'm ruined,' says he, 'for some bad member has wrote to the bishop about me.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')
Baffity, unbleached or blay calico. (Munster.)
Bails or bales, frames made of perpendicular wooden bars in which cows are fastened for the night in the stable. (Munster.)
Baithershin; may be so, perhaps. Irishb'féidir-sin, same sound and meaning.
Ballowr (Bal-yore in Ulster); to bellow, roar, bawl, talk loudly and coarsely.
Ballyhooly, a village near Fermoy in Cork, formerly notorious for its faction fights, so that it has passed into a proverb. A man is late coming home and expectsBallyhoolyfrom his wife, i.e. 'the length and breadth of her tongue.' Father Carroll has neglected to visit his relatives, the Kearneys, for a long time, so that he knows he'sin the black bookswith Mrs. Kearney, and expects Ballyhooly from her the first time he meets her. ('Knocknagow.')
Ballyorgan in Co. Limerick,146.
Banagher and Ballinasloe,192.
Bannalanna: a woman who sells ale over the counter. Irishbean-na-leanna, 'woman of the ale,' 'ale-woman' (leann, ale).
Ballyrag; to give loud abuse in torrents. (General.)
Bandle; a 2-foot measure for home-made flannel. (Munster.)
Bang-up; a frieze overcoat with high collar and long cape.
Banshee´; a female fairy: Irishbean-sidhe[banshee], a 'woman from thesheeor fairy-dwelling.' This was the original meaning; but in modern times, and among English speakers, the wordbansheehas become narrowed in its application, and signifies a female spirit that attends certain families, and is heardkeeningor crying aloud at night round the house when some member of the family is about to die.
Barcelona; a silk kerchief for the neck:—
'His clothes spick and span new without e'er a speck;A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.'(Edward Lysaght, in 'The Sprig of Shillelah.')
'His clothes spick and span new without e'er a speck;A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.'
'His clothes spick and span new without e'er a speck;
A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.'
(Edward Lysaght, in 'The Sprig of Shillelah.')
(Edward Lysaght, in 'The Sprig of Shillelah.')
So called because imported from Barcelona, preserving a memory of the old days of smuggling.
Barsa, barsaun; a scold. (Kild. and Ulst.)
Barth; a back-load of rushes, straw, heath, &c. Irishbeart.
Baury, baura, baur-yă, bairy; the goal in football, hurling, &c. Irishbáire[2-syll.], a game, a goal.
Bawn; an enclosure near a farmhouse for cattle, sheep, &c.; in some districts, simply a farmyard. Irishbadhun[bawn], a cow-keep, fromba, cows, anddún, a keep or fortress. Now generally applied to the green field near the homestead where the cows are brought to be milked.
Bawneen; a loose whitish jacket of home-made undyed flannel worn by men at out-door work. Very general:banyanin Derry. From Irishbán[bawn], whitish, with the diminutive termination.
Bawnoge; a dancing-green. (MacCall: Leinster.)Frombán[baan], a field covered with short grass; and the dim.óg(p.90).
Bawshill, afetchor double. (See Fetch.) (MacCall: S. Wexford.) I think this is a derivative ofBow, which see.
Beestings; new milk from a cow that has just calved.
Be-knownst; known: unbe-knownst; unknown. (Antrim.)
Better than; more than:—'It is better than a year since I saw him last'; 'better than a mile,' &c. (Leinster and Munster.)
Bian´ [by-ann´]; one of Bianconi's long cars. (See Jingle.)
Binnen; the rope tying a cow to a stake in a field. (Knowles: Ulster.)
Birragh; a muzzle-band with spikes on a calf's or a foal's muzzle to prevent it sucking its mother. From Irishbir, a sharp spit:birragh, full of sharp points or spits. (Munster: see Gubbaun.)
Blackfast: among Roman Catholics, there is a 'black fast' on Ash Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, and Good Friday, i.e. no flesh meat orwhitemeatis allowed—no flesh, butter, eggs, cheese, or milk.
Blackfeet. The members of one of the secret societies of a century ago were called 'Ribbonmen.' Some of them acknowledged the priests: those were 'whitefeet': others did not—'blackfeet.'
Black man, black fellow; a surly vindictive implacable irreconcilable fellow.
Black man; the man who accompanies a suitor to the house of the intended father-in-law, to help to make the match.
Black of one's nail. 'You just escaped by the black of your nail': 'there's no cloth left—not the size of the black of my nail.' (North and South.)
Black swop. When two fellows have two wretched articles—such as two old penknives—each thinking his own to be the worst in the universe, they sometimes agree for the pure humour of the thing to make ablack swop, i.e. to swop without first looking at the articles. When they are looked at after the swop, there is always great fun. (See Hool.)
Blarney; smooth, plausible, cajoling talk. From Blarney Castle near Cork, in which there is a certain stone hard to reach, with this virtue, that if a person kisses it, he will be endowed with the gift ofblarney.
Blast; when a child suddenly fades in health and pines away, he has got a blast,—i.e. a puff of evil wind sent by some baleful sprite has struck him.Blastwhen applied to fruit or crops means a blight in the ordinary sense—nothing supernatural.
Blather, bladdher; a person who utters vulgarly foolish boastful talk: used also as a verb—to blather. Henceblatherumskite, applied to a person or to his talk in much the same sense; 'I never heard such a blatherumskite.' Ulster and Scotch formblether,blethering: Burns speaks of stringing 'blethers up in rhyme.' ('The Vision.')
Blaze, blazes, blazing: favourite words everywhere in Ireland. Why are you in such a blazing hurry? Jack ran away like blazes: now work at that job like blazes: he is blazing drunk. Used also by the Englishpeasantry:—'That's a blazing strangeanswer,' says Jerry Cruncher in 'A Tale of Two Cities.' There's a touch of slang in some of these: yet the word has been in a way made classical by Lord Morley's expression that Lord Salisbury never made a speech without uttering 'some blazing indiscretion.'
Blind Billy. In coming to an agreement take care you don't make 'Blind Billy's Bargain,' by either overreaching yourself or allowing the other party to overreach you. Blind Billy was the hangman in Limerick, and on one particular occasion he flatly refused to do his work unless he got £50 down on the nail: so the high sheriff had to agree and the hangman put the money in his pocket. When all was over the sheriff refused point-blank to send the usual escort without a fee of £50 down. So Blind Billy had to hand over the £50—for if he went without an escort he would be torn in pieces—and had nothing in the end for his job.
Blind lane; a lane stopped up at one end.
Blind window; an old window stopped up, but still plain to be seen.
Blink; to exercise an evil influence by a glance of the 'evil eye'; to 'overlook'; hence 'blinked,' blighted by the eye. When the butter does not come in churning, the milk has beenblinkedby some one.
Blirt; to weep: as a noun, a rainy wind. (Ulster.)
Blob (blaboften in Ulster), a raised blister: a drop of honey, or of anything liquid.
Blue look-out; a bad look-out, bad prospect.
Boal or bole; a shelved recess in a room. (North.)
Boarhaun; dried cowdung used for fuel like turf. Irishboithreán[boarhaun], from bo, a cow.
Boccach [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster, but elsewhere on 1st]; a lame person. From the fact that so many beggars are lame or pretend to be lame,boccachhas come to mean a beggar. Irishbacach, a lame person: frombac, to halt.Bockady, another form ofboccachin Munster.Bockeen(the diminutive added on tobac), another form heard in Mayo.
Boddagh [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster; in Ulster on 1st], a rich churlish clownish fellow. Tom Cuddihy wouldn't bear insult from any purse-proud oldboddagh. ('Knocknagow.')
Body-coat; a coat like the present dress-coat, cut away in front so as to leave a narrow pointed tail-skirt behind: usually made of frieze and worn with the knee-breeches.
Body-glass; a large mirror in which the whole body can be seen. (Limerick.)
Body-lilty; heels over head. (Derry.)
Bog; what is called in England a 'peat moss.' Merely the Irishbog, soft. Bog (verb), to be bogged; to sink in a bog or any soft soil or swampy place.
Bog-butter; butter found deep in bogs, where it had been buried in old times for a purpose, and forgotten: a good deal changed now by the action of the bog. (See Joyce's 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 260.)
Bog-Latin; bad incorrect Latin; Latin that had been learned in the hedge schools among the bogs. This derisive and reproachful epithet was given in bad old times by pupils and others of the favoured, legal, and endowed schools, sometimes with reason,but oftener very unjustly. For thosebogor hedge schools sent out numbers of scholarly men, who afterwards entered the church or lay professions. (See p.151.)
Boghaleen; the same as Crusheen, which see.
Bohaun; a cabin or hut. Irishboth[boh], a hut, with the diminutiveán.
Bold; applied to girls and boys in the sense of 'forward,' 'impudent.'
Boliaun, also calledbooghalaun bweeandgeōsadaun; the common yellow ragwort: all these are Irish words.
Bolting-hole; the second or backward entrance made by rats, mice, rabbits, &c., from their burrows, so that if attacked at the ordinary entrance, they can escape by this, which is always left unused except in case of attack. (Kinahan.)
Bones. If a person magnifies the importance of any matter and talks as if it were some great affair, the other will reply:—'Oh, you'remaking great bonesabout it.'
Bonnive, a sucking-pig. Irishbanbh, same sound and meaning. Often used with the diminutive—bonniveen, bonneen. 'Oh look at thebaby pigs,' says an Irish lady one day in the hearing of others and myself, ashamed to use the Irish word. After that she always bore the nickname 'Baby pig':—'Oh, there's the Baby pig.'
Bonnyclabber; thick milk. Irishbainne[bonny] milk; andclabar, anything thick or half liquid. 'In use all over America.' (Russell.)
Boochalawn bwee; ragweed: same as boliaun, which see.
Boolanthroor; three men threshing together, instead of the usual two: striking always in time. Irishbuail-an-triúr, 'the striking of three.'
Booley as a noun; a temporary settlement in the grassy uplands where the people of the adjacent lowland village lived during the summer with their cattle, and milked them and made butter, returning in autumn—cattle and all—to their lowland farms to take up the crops. Used as a verb also:to booley. See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,' p. 431; or 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 239.
Boolthaun, boulhaun, booltheen, boolshin: the striking part of a flail: from Irishbuail[bool], to strike, with the diminutive.
Boon in Ulster, same asMihulelsewhere; which see.
Boreen or bohereen, a narrow road. Irishbóthar[boher], a road, with the diminutive.
Borick; a small wooden ball used by boys in hurling or goaling, when the proper leather-covered ball is not to hand. Called in Ulster anagand also agolley. (Knowles.)
Borreen-brack, 'speckled cake,' speckled with currants and raisins, from Irishbairghin[borreen], a cake, andbreac[brack], speckled: specially baked for Hallow-eve. Sometimes corruptly calledbarm-brackorbarn-brack.
Bosthoon: a flexible rod or whip made of a number of green rushes laid together and bound up with single rushes wound round and round. Made by boys in play—as I often made them. Hence 'bosthoon' is applied contemptuously to a softworthless spiritless fellow, in much the same sense aspoltroon.
Bother; merely the Irish wordbodhar, deaf, used both as a noun and a verb in English (in the sense of deafening, annoying, troubling, perplexing, teasing): a person deaf or partially deaf is said to bebothered:—'Who should come in butbotheredNancy Fay. Now be it known thatbotheredsignifies deaf; and Nancy was a little old crankybotheredwoman.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You 'turn thebotheredear' to a person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request. In these applicationsbotheris universal in Ireland among all classes—educated as well as uneducated: accordingly, as Murray notes, it was first brought into use by Irishmen, such as Sheridan, Swift, and Sterne; just as Irishmen of to-day are bringing into currencygalore,smithereens, and many other Irish words. In its primary sense of deaf or to deafen,botheris used in the oldest Irish documents: thus in the Book of Leinster we have:—Ro bodrais sind oc imradud do maic, 'You have made us deaf (you havebotheredus) talking about your son' (Kuno Meyer): and a similar expression is in use at the present day in the very common phrase 'don'tbotherme' (don't deafen me, don't annoy me), which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish phrasená bí am' bhodradh. Those who derivebotherfrom the Englishpothermake a guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun.
Bottheen, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irishbatawith the diminutive:—baitin.
Bottom; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricksof girls on Hallow-eve to find out the destined husband is to go out to the limekiln at night with a ball of yarn; throw in the ball still holding the thread; re-wind the thread, till it is suddenly stopped; call out 'whohowldsmy bottom of yarn?' when she expects to hear the name of the young man she is to marry.
Bouchal or boochal, a boy: the Irishbuachaill, same meaning.
Bouilly-bawn, white home-made bread of wheaten flour; often calledbully-bread. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irishbulorbúilidhe, a loaf, andbán, white.
Boundhalaun, a plant with thick hollow stem with joints, of which boys make rude syringes. From Irishbanndalorbannlamh, abandle(which see), with the dim. terminationán, I never saw true boundhalauns outside Munster.
Bourke, the Rev. Father,71,161.
Bownloch, a sore on the sole of the foot always at the edge: frombonnthe foot-sole [pron. bown in the South], andlocha mere termination. Also called aBine-lock.
Bowraun, a sieve-shaped vessel for holding or measuring out corn, with the flat bottom made of dried sheepskin stretched tight; sometimes used as a rude tambourine, from which it gets the namebowraun; Irishbodhur[pron. bower here], deaf, from thebotheredor indistinct sound. (South.)
Bow [to rhyme withcow]; abanshee, afetch(both which see. MacCall: South Leinster). This word has come down to us from very old times, for it preserves the memory ofBugh[Boo], abansheeor fairy queen once very celebrated, the daughter ofBove Derg king of the Dedannans or faery-race, of whom information will be obtained in the classical Irish story, 'The Fate of the Children of Lir,' the first in my 'Old Celtic Romances.' She has given her name to many hills all through Ireland. (See my 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 182, 183. See Bawshill.)
Box and dice; used to denote the whole lot: I'll send you all the books and manuscripts, box and dice.
Boxty; same as the Limerickmuddly, which see.
Boy. Every Irishman is a 'boy' till he is married, and indeed often long after. (Crofton Croker: 'Ir. Fairy Legends.')
Brablins: a crowd of children: a rabble. (Monaghan.)
Bracket; speckled: a 'bracket cow.' Ir.breac, speckled.
Braddach; given to mischief; roguish. Ir.bradach, a thief: in the same sense as when a mother says to her child, 'You young thief, stop that mischief.' Often applied to cows inclined to break down and cross fences. (Meath and Monaghan.)
Brander; a gridiron. (North.) From Eng.brand.
Brash; a turn of sickness (North.) Water-brash (Munster), severe acidity of the stomach with a flow of watery saliva from the mouth. Brash (North), a short turn at churning, or at anything; a stroke of the churndash: 'Give the churn a few brashes.' In Donegal you will hear 'that's a good brash of hail.'
Brave; often used as an intensive:—'This is a brave fine day'; 'that's a brave big dog': (Ulster.) Also fine or admirable 'a brave stack of hay':tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in fighting):—'I have as brave a set of sons as you'd find in a day's walk.' 'How is your sick boy doing?' 'Oh bravely, thank you.'
Braw; fine, handsome: Ir.breagh, same sound and meanings. (Ulster.)
Break. Youbreaka grass field when you plough or dig it up for tillage. 'I'm going to break the kiln field.' ('Knocknagow.') Used all over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray's Elegy:—'Their furrow oft the stubborn glebehas bróke.'
Break; to dismiss from employment: 'Poor William O'Donnell wasbrokelast week.' This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:—'Cid nod m-bris in fer-so a bo-airechus?' 'What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) this man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position asbo-aireor chief)?' My car-driver asked me one time:—'Can an inspector of National Schools be broke, sir?' By which he meant could he be dismissed at any time without any cause.
Breedoge [dsounded likethinbathe]; a figure dressed up to represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve of the saint's festival), to collect small money contributions. With this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next day, 1st Feb. 'Breedoge' means 'littleBrighidorBrighit,'Breed(or ratherBreedh) representing the sound of Brighid, withógthe old diminutive feminine termination.
Brecham, the straw collar put on a horse's or an ass's neck: sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.)
Brehon Law; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was called a 'brehon.'
Brew; a margin, a brink: 'that lake is too shallow to fish from the brews': from the Irishbru, same sound and meaning. See Broo.
Brief; prevalent: 'fever is very brief.' Used all over the southern half of Ireland. Perhaps a mistake forrife.
Brillauns or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in a peasant's cottage. Dick O'Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married as soon as they can gather up the fewbrill-yaunsof furniture. (South-east of Ireland.)
Brine-oge; 'a young fellow full of fun and frolic.' (Carleton: Ulster.)
Bring: our peculiar use of this (for 'take') appears in such phrases as:—'he brought the cows to the field': 'he brought me to the theatre.' (Hayden and Hartog.) See Carry.
Brock, brockish; a badger. It is just the Irishbroc.
Brock, brocket, brockey; applied to a person heavily pock-marked. I suppose frombroc, a badger. (Ulster.)
Brogue, a shoe: Irishbróg. Used also to designate the Irish accent in speaking English: for the old Irish thong-stitched brogue was considered so characteristically Irish that the word was applied to our accent; as a clown is called acauboge(which see: Munster).
Brohoge or bruhoge; a small batch of potatoes roasted. See Brunoge.
Broken; bankrupt: quite a common expression is:—Poor Phil Burke is 'broken horse and foot'; i.e. utterly bankrupt and ruined.
Broo, the edge of a potato ridge along which cabbages are planted. Irishbru, a margin, a brink.
Brosna, brusna, bresna; a bundle of sticks for firing: a faggot. This is the Irishbrosna, universally used in Ireland at the present day, both in Irish and English; and used in the oldest Irish documents. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, written in Irish ten centuries ago, we are told that when Patrick was a boy, his foster-mother sent him one day for abrossnaof withered branches to make a fire.
Broth of a boy; agoodmanly brave boy: the essence of manhood, as broth is the essence of meat.
Brough; a ring or halo round the moon. It is the Irishbruach, a border.
Broughan; porridge or oatmeal stirabout. Irishbrochán. (Ulster.)
Bruggadauns [dsounded likethinthey]; the stalks of ferns found in meadows after mowing. (Kerry.)
Brulliagh; a row, a noisy scuffle. (Derry.)
Brunoge; a little batch of potatoes roasted in a fire made in the potato field at digging time: always dry, floury and palatable. (Roscommon.) Irishbruithneóg. See Brohoge.
Bruss or briss; small broken bits mixed up with dust: very often applied to turf-dust. Irishbrus,bris, same sounds and meaning. (South.)
Brutteen, brutin, bruteens; the Ulster words for caulcannon; which see. Irishbrúightín.
Buckaun; the upright bar of a hinge on which the other part with the door hangs. Irishbocán.
Buckley, Father Darby,68,146.
Bucknabarra; any non-edible fungus. (Fermanagh.) See Pookapyle.
Buck teeth; superfluous teeth which stand out from the ordinary row. (Knowles: Ulster.)
Buddaree [ddsounded likethinthey]; a rich purse-proud vulgar farmer. (Munster.) Irish.
Buff; the skin; to strip to one's buff is to strip naked. Two fellows going to fight with fists strip to their buff, i.e. naked from the waist up. (Munster.)
Buggaun (Munster), buggeen (Leinster); an egg without a shell. Irishbog, soft, with the dim. termination.
Bullaun, a bull calf. Irish, as in next word.
Bullavaun, bullavogue; a strong, rough, bullying fellow. Frombullathe Irish form ofbull. (Moran: Carlow.)
Bullaworrus; a spectral bull 'with fire blazing from his eyes, mouth, and nose,' that guards buried treasure by night. (Limerick.) Irish.
Bullia-bottha (or boolia-botha); a fight with sticks. (Simmons: Armagh.) Irishbuaileadh, striking; andbata, a stick.
Bullagadaun [dsounded likethinthey]; a short stout pot-bellied fellow. (Munster.) From Irishbolg[pron. bullog], a belly, and the dim.dán.
Bullshin, bullsheen; same asBullaun.
Bum; to cart turf to market:bummer, a person who does so as a way of living, like Billy Heffernan in 'Knocknagow.' Bum-bailiff, a bog bailiff. (Grainger: Arm.) Used more in the northern half of Ireland than in the southern.
Bun; the tail of a rabbit. (Simmons: Arm.) Irishbun, the end.
Bunnans; roots or stems of bushes or trees. (Meath.) From Irishbunas in last word.
Bunnaun; a long stick or wattle. (Joyce: Limerick.)
Bunnioch; the last sheaf bound up in a field of reaped corn. The binder of this (usually a girl) will die unmarried. (MacCall: Wexford.)
Butt; a sort of cart boarded at bottom and all round the sides, 15 or 18 inches deep, for potatoes, sand, &c. (Limerick.) In Cork any kind of horse-cart or donkey-cart is called abutt, which is a departure from the (English) etymology. In Limerick any kind of cart except a butt is called acar; the wordcartis not used at all.
Butthoon has much the same meaning aspotthalowng, which see. Irishbutún, same sound and meaning. (Munster.)
Butter up; to flatter, to cajole by soft sugary words, generally with some selfish object in view:—'I suspected from the way he was buttering me up that he came to borrow money.'
Byre: the place where the cows are fed and milked; sometimes a house for cows and horses, or a farmyard.
By the same token: this needs no explanation; it is a survival from Tudor English. (Hayden and Hartog.)
Cabin-hunting; going about from house to house to gossip. (South.)
Cabman's Answer, The,208.
Cadday´ [strong accent on -day] to stray idly about. As a noun an idlestrayof a fellow.
Cadge; to hawk goods for sale. (Simmons: Armagh.) To go about idly from house to house, picking upa bit and a sup, wherever they are to be had. (Moran: Carlow.)
Caffler; a contemptible little fellow who gives saucycheekyfoolish talk. Probably a mispronunciation ofcaviller. (Munster.)
Cagger; a sort of pedlar who goes to markets and houses selling small goods and often taking others in exchange. (Kinahan: South and West.)
Cahag; the little cross-piece on the end of a spade-handle, or of any handle. (Mon.)
Cailey; a friendly evening visit in order to have a gossip. There are usually several persons at a cailey, and along with the gossiping talk there are songs or music. Irishcéilidh, same sound and meaning. Used all over Ireland, but more in the North than elsewhere.
Calleach na looha [Colleagh: accented on 2nd syll. in South; on 1st in North] 'hag of the ashes.' Children—and sometimesold children—think that a little hag resides in the ashpit beside the fire. Irishcailleach, an old woman:luaith, ashes.
Calleach-rue ('red hag'); a little reddish brown fish about 4 inches long, plentiful in small streams. We boys thought them delicious when broiled on the turf-coals. We fished for them either with a loop-snare made of a singlehorsehair on the end of a twig, with which it was very hard to catch them; for, as the boys used to say, 'they were cute little divels'—or directly—like the sportsmen of old—with a spear—the same spear being nothing butan ould fork.
Caish; a growing pig about 6 months old. (Munster.)
Call; claim, right: 'put down that spade; you have no call to it.'
'Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer,My eyes it does bedizen—O;Whatcallhave you marauding here,Or how daar you leave your prison—O?'(Repeal Song: 1843.)
'Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer,My eyes it does bedizen—O;Whatcallhave you marauding here,Or how daar you leave your prison—O?'
'Bedad,' says he, 'this sight is queer,
My eyes it does bedizen—O;
Whatcallhave you marauding here,
Or how daar you leave your prison—O?'
(Repeal Song: 1843.)
(Repeal Song: 1843.)
Need, occasion: they lived so near each other that there was no call to send letters. 'Why are you shouting that way?' 'I have a good call to shout, and that blackguard running away with my apples.' Father O'Flynn could preach on many subjects:—'Down from mythology into thayology, Troth! and conchology if he'd the call.' (A. P. Graves.) Used everywhere in Ireland in these several senses.
Call; custom in business: Our new shopkeeper is getting great call, i.e. his customers are numerous. (South.)
Cam or caum; a metal vessel for melting resin to makeslutsor long torches; also used to melt metal for coining. (Simmons: Armagh.) Called agrissetin Munster. Usually of a curved shape: Irishcam, curved.
Candle. 'Jack Brien is a good scholar, but he couldn't hold a candle to Tom Murphy': i.e. heis very inferior to him. The person that holds a candle for a workman is a mere attendant and quite an inferior.
Cannags; the stray ears left after the corn has been reaped and gathered. (Morris: Mon.) Calledliscaunsin Munster.
Caper: oat-cake and butter. (Simmons: Armagh.)
Caravat and Shanavest; the names of two hostile factions in Kilkenny and all round about there, of the early part of last century. Like Three-year-old and Four-year-old. IrishCaravat, a cravat; andShanavest, old vest: which names were adopted, but no one can tell why.
Card-cutter; a fortune-teller by card tricks. Card-cutters were pretty common in Limerick in my early days: but it was regarded as disreputable to have any dealings with them.
Cardia; friendship, a friendly welcome, additional time granted for paying a debt. (All over Ireland.) Ir.cáirde, same meanings.
Cardinal Points,168.
Carleycue; a very small coin of some kind. Used likekeenogeandcross. (Very general.)
Carn; a heap of anything; a monumental pile of stones heaped up over a dead person. Irishcarn, same meanings.
Caroline or 'Caroline hat'; a tall hat. ('Knocknagow': all over Munster.)
Caroogh, an expert or professional card-player. (Munster.) Irishcearrbhach, same sound and meaning.
Carra, Carrie; a weir on a river. (Derry.) Irishcarra, same meaning.
Carrigaholt in Clare,145.
Carry; to lead or drive: 'James, carry down those cows to the river' (i.e. drive): 'carry the horse to the forge' (lead). 'I will carry my family this year to Youghal for the salt water.' (Kinahan: South, West, and North-west.) See Bring.
Case: the Irishcás, and applied in the same way: 'It is a poor case that I have to pay for your extravagance.'Nách dubhach bocht un cás bheith ag tuitim le ghrádh: 'isn't it a poor case to be failing through love.'—Old Irish Song. Our dialectical Irishcase, as above, is taken straight from the Irishcás; but this and the standard Englishcaseare both borrowed from Latin.
Cassnara; respect, anything done out of respect: 'he put on his new coat for acasnara.' (Morris: South Mon.)
Castor oil was our horror when we were children. No wonder; for this story went about of how it was made. A number of corpses were hanging from hooks round the walls of thefactory, and drops were continually falling from their big toes into vessels standing underneath. This was castor oil.
Catin clay; clay mixed with rushes or straws used in building the mud walls of cottages. (Simmons: Arm.)
Cat of a kind: they're 'cat of a kind,' both like each other and both objectionable.
Cat's lick; used in and around Dublin to express exactly the same as the MunsterScotch lick, which see. A cat has a small tongue and does not do much licking.
Caubeen; an old shabby cap or hat: Irishcáibín: he wore a 'shocking bad caubeen.'
Cauboge; originally an old hat, like caubeen; but now applied—as the symbol of vulgarity—to an ignorant fellow, a boor, a bumpkin: 'What else could you expect from that cauboge?' (South.)
Caulcannon, Calecannon, Colecannon, Kalecannon; potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs. In Munster often made and eaten on Hallow Eve. The first syllable is the Irishcál, cabbage;cannonis also Irish, meaning speckled.
Caur, kindly, good-natured, affable. (Morris: South Mon.)
Cawmeen; a mote: 'there's a cawmeen in my eye.' (Moran: Carlow.) Irish with the diminutive.
Cawsha Pooka; the big fungus often seen growing on old trees or elsewhere. From Irishcáise, cheese: the 'Pooka's cheese.' See Pooka and Pookapyle and Bucknabarra.
Cead míle fáilte [caidh meela faultha], a hundred thousand welcomes. Irish, and universal in Ireland as a salute.
Ceólaun [keolaun], a trifling contemptible little fellow. (Munster.)
Cess; very often used in the combinationbad cess(bad luck):—'Bad cess to me but there's something comin' over me.' (Kickham: 'Knocknagow.') Some think this is a contraction ofsuccess; others that it is to be taken as it stands—acessor contribution; which receives some little support from its use in Louth to mean 'a quantity of corn in for threshing.'
Chalk Sunday; the first Sunday after Shrove Tuesday (first Sunday in Lent), when those young men who should have been married, but were not, were marked with a heavy streak of chalk on the back of theSunday coat, by boys who carried bits of chalk in their pockets for that purpose, and lay in wait for the bachelors. The marking was done while the congregation were assembling for Mass: and the young fellow ran for his life, always laughing, and often singing the concluding words of some suitable doggerel such as:—'And you are not married though Lent has come!' This custom prevailed in Munster. I saw it in full play in Limerick: but I think it has died out. For the air to which the verses were sung, see my 'Old Irish Music and Songs,' p. 12.
Champ (Down); the same as 'caulcannon,' which see. Also potatoes mashed with butter and milk; same as 'pandy,' which see.
Chanter; to go about grumbling and fault-finding. (Ulster.)
Chapel: Church: Scallan,143.
Chaw forchew,97. 'Chawing the rag'; continually grumbling, jawing, and giving abuse. (Kinahan.)
Cheek; impudence;brass: cheeky; presumptuous.
Chincough, whooping-cough: fromkink-cough. See Kink.
Chittering; constantly muttering complaints. (Knowles.)
Chook chook [theoosounded rather short]; a call for hens. It is the Irishtiuc, come.
Christian; a human being as distinguished from one of the lower animals:—'That dog has nearly as much sense as a Christian.'
Chuff: full.—'I'm chuffey after my dinner.' (MacCall: Wexford.)
Clabber, clobber, or clawber; mud: thick milk. See Bonnyclabber.
Clamp; a small rick of turf, built up regularly. (All through Ireland.)
Clamper; a dispute, a wrangle. (Munster.) Irishclampar, same meaning.
Clarsha; a lazy woman. (Morris: South Monaghan.)
Clart; an untidy dirty woman, especially in preparing food. (Simmons: Armagh.)
Clash, to carry tales: Clashbag, a tale-bearer. (Simmons: Armagh.)
Classy; a drain running through a byre or stable-yard. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irishclais, a trench, with the diminutiveyadded.
Clat; a slovenly untidy person; dirt, clay: 'wash theclatoff your hands': clatty; slovenly, untidy—(Ulster): calledclottyin Kildare;—a slattern.
Clatch; a brood of chickens. (Ulster.) See Clutch.
Cleean [2-syll.]; a relation by marriage—such as a father-in-law. Two persons so related arecleeans. Irishcliamhan, same sound and meaning.
Cleever; one who deals in poultry; because he carries them in acleeveor large wicker basket. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irishcliabh[cleeve], a basket.
Cleevaun; a cradle: also a crib or cage for catching birds. The diminutive of Irishcliabhor cleeve, a wicker basket.
Clegg; a horsefly. (Ulster and Carlow.)
Clehalpeen; a shillelah or cudgel with a knob at the end. (South.) From Irishcleath, a wattle, andailpindim. ofalp, a knob.
Clever is applied to a man who is tall, straight, and well made.
Clevvy; three or four shelves one over another in a wall: a sort of small open cupboard like a dresser. (All over the South.)
Clibbin, clibbeen; a young colt. (Donegal.) Irishclibín, same sound and meaning.
Clibbock; a young horse. (Derry.)
Clift; a light-headed person, easily roused and rendered foolishly excited. (Ulster.)
Clipe-clash: a tell-tale. (Ulster.) See Clash.
Clochaun, clochan; a row of stepping-stones across a river. (General.) From Irishcloch, a stone, with the diminutiveán.
Clock; a black beetle. (South.)
Clocking hen; a hen hatching. (General.) From the sound orclockshe utters.
Clooracaun or cluracaun, another name for a leprachaun, which see.
Close; applied to a day means simply warm:—'This is a very close day.'
Clout; a blow with the hand or with anything. Also a piece of cloth, a rag, commonly used in the diminutive form in Munster—cloutheen.Cloutheensis specially applied to little rags used with an infant.Cloutis also applied to a clownish person:—'It would be well if somebody would teach thatcloutsome manners.'
Clove; to clove flax is toscutchit—to draw each handful repeatedly between the blades of a 'cloving tongs,' so as to break off and remove the brittle husk, leaving the fibre smooth and free. (Munster.)
Clutch; a brood of chickens or of any fowls: same as clatch. I suppose this is English: Waterton (an English traveller) uses it in his 'Wanderings'; but it is not in the Dictionaries of Chambers and Webster.
Cluthoge; Easter eggs. (P. Reilly; Kildare.)
Cly-thoran; a wall or ditch between two estates. (Roscommon.) Irishcladh[cly], a raised dyke or fence;teóra, gen.teórann[thoran], a boundary.
Cobby-house; a little house made by children for play. (Munster.)
Cockles off the heart,194.
Cog; to copy surreptitiously; to crib something from the writings of another and pass it off as your own. One schoolboy will sometimes copy from another:—'You cogged that sum.'
Coghil; a sort of long-shaped pointed net. (Armagh.) Irishcochal, a net.
Coldoy; a bad halfpenny: a spurious worthless article of jewellery. (Limerick.)
Colleen; a young girl. (All over Ireland.) Irishcailín, same sound and meaning.
Colley; the woolly dusty fluffy stuff that gathers under furniture and in remote corners of rooms. Light soot-smuts flying about.
Colloge; to talk and gossip in a familiar friendly way. An Irish form of the Latin or English word 'colloquy.'
Collop; a standard measure of grazing land, p.177.
Collop; the part of a flail that is held in the hand. (Munster.) See Boolthaun. Irishcolpa.
Come-all-ye; a nickname applied to Irish Folk Songs and Music; an old country song; from thebeginning of many of the songs:—'Come all ye tender Christians,' &c. This name, intended to be reproachful, originated among ourselves, after the usual habit of many 'superior' Irishmen to vilify their own country and countrymen and all their customs and peculiarities. Observe, this opening is almost equally common in English Folk-songs; yet the English do not make game of them by nicknames. Irish music, which is thus vilified by some of our brethren, is the most beautiful Folk Music in the world.
Comether;come hetherorhither,97.
Commaun, common; the game of goaling or hurley. So called from thecommaunor crooked-shaped stick with which it is played: Irishcamorcom, curved or crooked; with the diminutive—camán. Calledhurlingandgoalingby English speakers in Ireland, andshinneyin Scotland.
Commons; land held in common by the people of a village or small district: see p.177.
Comparisons,136.
Conacre; letting land in patches for a short period. A farmer divides a large field into small portions—¼ acre, ½ acre, &c.—and lets them to his poorer neighbours usually for one season for a single crop, mostly potatoes, or in Ulster flax. He generally undertakes to manure the whole field, and charges high rents for the little lettings. I saw this in practice more than 60 years ago in Munster. Irishcon, common, and Eng.acre.
Condition; in Munster, to 'change your condition' is to get married.
Condon, Mr. John, of Mitchelstown,155.
Conny, canny; discreet, knowing, cute.
Contrairy, forcontrary, but accented on second syll.; cross, perverse, cranky, crotchety,102.
Convenient: see Handy.
Cool: hurlers and football players always put one of their best players tomind coolorstand cool, i.e. to stand at their own goal or gap, to intercept the ball if the opponents should attempt to drive it through. Universal in Munster. Irishcúl[cool], the back. The full word iscool-baur-yawhere 'baur-ya' is the goal or gap. The man standing cool is often called 'the man in the gap' (see p.182).
Cool; a good-sized roll of butter. (Munster.)
Cooleen or coulin; a fair-haired girl. This is the name of a celebrated Irish air. Fromcúlthe back [of the head], andfionn, white or fair:—cúil-fhionn, [pron. cooleen or coolin].
Coonagh; friendly, familiar,great(which see):—'These two are verycoonagh.' (MacCall: Wexford.) Irishcuaine, a family.
Coonsoge, a bees' nest. (Cork.) Irishcuansa[coonsa], a hiding-place, with the diminutiveóg.
Cooramagh; kindly, careful, thoughtful, provident:—'No wonder Mrs. Dunn would look well and happy with such acooramaghhusband.' Irishcuramach, same meaning.
Coord [dsounded likethinbathe], a friendly visit to a neighbour's house. Irishcuaird, a visit. Coordeeagh, same meaning. (Munster.)
Cope-curley; to stand on the head and throw the heels over; to turn head over heels. (Ulster.)
Core: work given as a sort of loan to be paid back.I send a man oncorefor a day to my neighbour: when next I want a man he will send me one for a day in return. So with horses: two one-horse farmers who work their horses in pairs, borrowing alternately, are said to be incore. Very common in Munster. Irishcobhairorcabhair[core or co-ir, 2-syll.] help, support.
Coreeagh; a man who has a great desire to attend funerals—goes to every funeral that he can possibly reach. (Munster.) Same root as last.
Corfuffle; to toss, shake, confuse, mix up. (Derry.)
Correesk; a crane. (Kildare.) Irishcorr, a bird of the crane kind, andriasc[reesk], a marsh.
Cōsher [theolong as inmotion]; banqueting, feasting. In very old times in Ireland, certain persons went about with news from place to place, and were entertained in the high class houses: this was calledcoshering, and was at one time forbidden by law. In modern times it means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour's house to have a quiet talk. Irishcóisir; a banquet, feasting.
Costnent. When a farm labourer has a cottage and garden from his employer, and boards himself, he livescostnent. He is paid small wages (calledcostnentwages) as he has house and plot free. (Derry.)
Cot; a small boat: Irishcot. See 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 226, for places deriving their names fromcots.
Cowlagh; an old ruined house. (Kerry.) Irishcoblach[cowlagh].
Coward's blow; a blow given to provoke a boy to fight or else be branded as a coward.
Cow's lick. When the hair in front over the forehead turns at the roots upward and backward, that is acow's lick, as if a cow had licked it upwards. The idea of a cow licking the hair is very old in Irish literature. In the oldest of all our miscellaneous IrishMSS.—The Book of the Dun Cow—Cuculainn's hair is so thick and smooth that king Laery, who saw him, says:—'I should imagine it is a cow that licked it.'
Cox, Mr. Simon, of Galbally,156.
Craags; great fat hands; big handfuls. (Morris: South Mon.)
Crab; a cute precocious little child is often called anold crab. 'Crabjaw' has the same meaning.
Cracked; crazy, half mad.
Cracklins; the browned crispy little flakes that remain afterrenderingor melting lard and pouring it off. (Simmons: Armagh.)
Crahauns or Kirraghauns; very small potatoes not used by the family: given to pigs. (Munster.) Irishcreathán.
Crans (always in pl.); little tricks or dodges. (Limk).
Crapper; a half glass of whiskey. (Moran: Carlow.)
Craw-sick; ill in the morning after a drunken bout.
Crawtha; sorry, mortified, pained. (Limerick.) Irishcráidhte[crawtha], same meaning.
Crawthumper; a person ostentatiously devotional.
Creelacaun; see Skillaun.
Creel; a strong square wicker frame, used by itself for holding turf, &c., or put on asses' backs (in pairs), or put on carts for carrying turf or for taking calves,bonnives, &c., to market. Irishcriol. (All through Ireland.)
Creepy; a small stool, a stool. (Chiefly in Ulster.)
Crith; hump on the back. Irishcruit, same sound and meaning. From this comescrittheraandcrittheen, both meaning a hunchback.
Cro, or cru: a house for cows. (Kerry.) Irishcro, a pen, a fold, a shed for any kind of animals.
Croaked; I am afraid poor Nancy is croaked, i.e. doomed to death. The raven croaks over the house when one of the family is about to die. (MacCall: Wexford.)
Croft; a water bottle, usually for a bedroom at night. You never hearcarafein Ireland: it is alwayscroft.
Cromwell, Curse of,166.
Crumel´ly. (Limerick.) More correctlycurr amílly. (Donegal.) An herb found in grassy fields with a sweet root that children dig up and eat. Irish 'honey-root.'
Cronaun, croonaun; a low humming air or song, any continuous humming sound: 'the old woman was cronauning in the corner.'
Cronebane, cronebaun; a bad halfpenny, a worthless copper coin. From Cronebane in Co. Wicklow, where copper mines were worked.
Croobeen or crubeen; a pig's foot. Pigs' croobeens boiled are a grand and favourite viand among us—all through Ireland. Irishcrúb[croob], a foot, with the diminutive.
Croost; to throw stones or clods from the hand:—'Those boys are alwayscroostingstones at my hens.' Irishcrústa[croostha], a missile, a clod.
Croudy: see Porter-meal.
Crowl or Croil; a dwarf, a very small person: the smallestbonniveof the litter. An Irish word.
Cruiskeen; a little cruise for holding liquor. Used all over Ireland.
'In a shady nook one moonlight nightAleprechaunI spied;With scarlet cap and coat of green,Acruiskeenby his side.'
'In a shady nook one moonlight nightAleprechaunI spied;With scarlet cap and coat of green,Acruiskeenby his side.'
'In a shady nook one moonlight night
AleprechaunI spied;
With scarlet cap and coat of green,
Acruiskeenby his side.'
TheCruiskeen Launis the name of a well-known Irish air—the Scotch call it 'John Anderson my Jo.' Irishcruiscín, a pitcher:lán[laun], full: i.e. in this case full ofpottheen.
Crusheen; a stick with a flat crosspiece fastened at bottom for washing potatoes in a basket. Irishcros, a cross, with the diminutive. Also called aboghaleen, from Irishbachal, a staff, with diminutive. (Joyce: Limerick.)
Cuck; a tuft: applied to the little tuft of feathers on the head of some birds, such as plovers, some hens and ducks, &c. Irishcoc: same sound and meaning. (General.)
Cuckles; the spiky seed-pods of the thistle: thistle heads. (Limerick.)
Cuckoo spit; the violet: merely the translation of the Irish name,sail-chuach, spittle of cuckoos. Also the name of a small frothy spittle-like substance often found on leaves of plants in summer, with a little greenish insect in the middle of it. (Limerick.)
Cugger-mugger; whispering, gossiping in a low voice: Jack and Bessie had a greatcugger-mugger. Irishcogar, whisper, with a similar duplication meaning nothing, like tip-top, shilly-shally, gibble-gabble, clitter-clatter, &c. I think'hugger-mugger' is a form of this: forhuggercan't be derived from anything, whereascugger(cogur) is a plain Irish word.
Cull; when the best of a lot of any kind—sheep, cattle, books, &c.—have been picked out, the bad ones that are left—the refuse—are theculls. (Kinahan: general.)
Culla-greefeen; when foot or hand is 'asleep' with the feeling of 'pins and needles.' The name is Irish and means 'Griffin's sleep'; but why so called I cannot tell. (Munster.)
Cup-tossing; reading fortunes from tea-leaves thrown out on the saucer from the tea-cup or teapot. (General.)
Cur; a twist: acurof a rope. (Joyce: Limerick.)
Curate; a common little iron poker kept in use to spare the grand one: also a grocer's assistant. (Hayden and Hartog.)
Curcuddiagh; cosy, comfortable. (Maxwell: 'Wild Sports of the West': Irish: Mayo.)
Curifixes; oddcuriousornaments orfixturesof any kind. (General.) Peter Brierly, looking at the knocker:—'I never see suchcurifixeson adooreafore.' (Edw. Walsh: very general.)
Curragh; a wicker boat covered formerly with hides but now with tarred canvass. (See my 'Smaller Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland.')
Current; in good health: he is not current; his health is not current. (Father Higgins: Cork.)
Curwhibbles, currifibbles, currywhibbles; any strange, odd, or unusual gestures; or any unusual twisting of words, such as prevarication; wild puzzles and puzzling talk:—'The horsemen are in regular currywhibles about something.' (R. D. Joyce.)
Cush; a sort of small horse, fromCushendallin Antrim.
Cushlamochree; pulse of my heart. IrishCuislĕ, vein or pulse;mo, my;croidhe[cree], heart.
Cushoge; a stem of a plant; sometimes used the same astraneen, which see. (Moran: Carlow; and Morris: Monaghan.)
Cut; a county or barony cess tax; hence Cutman, the collector of it. (Kinahan: Armagh and Donegal.) 'The three blackcutswill be levied.' (Seumas MacManus: Donegal.)
Daisy-picker; a person who accompanies two lovers in their walk; why so called obvious. Brought to keep off gossip.
Dalk, a thorn. (De Vismes Kane: North and South.) Irishdealg[dallog], a thorn.
Dallag [dsounded likethinthat]; any kind of covering to blindfold the eyes (Morris: South Monaghan): 'blinding,' from Irishdall, blind.
Dallapookeen; blindman's buff. (Kerry.) From Irishdalladh[dalla] blinding; andpuicín[pookeen], a covering over the eyes.
Daltheen [thedsounded likethinthat], an impudent conceited little fellow: a diminutive ofdalta, a foster child. The diminutivedalteenwas first applied to a horseboy, from which it has drifted to its present meaning.
Dancing customs,170,172.
Dannagh; mill-dust and mill-grains for feeding pigs. (Moran: Carlow: also Tip.) Irishdeanach, same sound and meaning.
Dander [seconddsounded likethinhither], to walk about leisurely: a leisurely walk.
Dandy; a small tumbler; commonly used for drinking punch.
Darradail or daradeel [thed's sounded likethinthat] a sort of long black chafer or beetle. It raises its tail when disturbed, and has a strong smell of apples. There is a religious legend that when our Lord was escaping from the Jews, barefoot, the stones were marked all along by traces of blood from the bleeding feet. The daradail followed the traces of blood; and the Jews following, at length overtook and apprehended our Lord. Hence the people regard the daradail with intense hatred, and whenever they come on it, kill it instantly. Irishdarbh-daol.
Dark; blind: 'a dark man.' (Very general.) Used constantly even in official and legal documents, as in workhouse books, especially in Munster. (Healy.)
Darrol; the smallest of the brood of pigs, fowl, &c. (Mayo.) Irishdearóil, small, puny, wretched.
Davis, Thomas, vi.83, &c.
Dead beat or deadbet; tired out.
Dear; used as a sort of intensive adjective:—'Tom ran for the dear life' (as fast as he could). (Crofton Croker.) 'He got enough to remember all the dear days of his life.' ('Dub. Pen. Journ.')
Dell; a lathe. Irishdeil, same sound and meaning. (All over Munster.)
Devil's needle; the dragon-fly. Translation of the Irish namesnathad-a'-diabhail[snahad-a-dheel].
Deshort [to rhyme withport]; a sudden interruption, a surprise: 'I was taken at adeshort.' (Derry.)
Devil, The, and his 'territory,'56.
Dickonce; one of the disguised names of the devil used inwhitecursing: 'Why then the dickonce take you for one gander.' (Gerald Griffin.)
Diddy; a woman's pap or breast: a baby sucks its mother's diddy. Diminutive of Irishdid, same.
Dido; a girl who makes herself ridiculous with fantastic finery. (Moran: Carlow.)
Didoes (singulardido); tricks, antics: 'quit your didoes.' (Ulster.)
Dildron or dildern; a bowraun, which see.
Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (askitchen), and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by basket-women in Dublin. Irishduilesc.
Dip. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You will sometimes read of 'potatoes and point,' namely, that each person, before taking a bite,pointedthe potato at a salt herring or a bit of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and never occurred in real life.
Disciple; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), and another says to him—jibing and railing—'Away with ye, ye miserabledisciple. Arrah, by the holeof my coat, after you dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I'll coax yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.' (Edw. Walsh in 'Pen. Journ.')
Disremember; to forget. Good old English; now out of fashion in England, but common in Ireland.
Ditch. In Ireland a ditch is a raised fence or earthen wall or mound, and a dyke (orsheuchas they call it in Donegal and elsewhere in Ulster) is a deep cutting, commonly filled with water. In England both words mean exactly the reverse. Hence 'hurlers on the ditch,' or 'the best hurlers are on the ditch' (where speakers of pure English would use 'fence') said in derision of persons who are mere idle spectators sitting up on high watching the game—whatever it may be—and boasting how they woulddo the devil an' allif they were only playing. Applied in a broad sense to those who criticise persons engaged in any strenuous affair—critics who think they could do better.
Dollop; to adulterate: 'that coffee is dolloped.'
Donny; weak, in poor health. Irishdonaidhe, same sound and meaning. Hencedonnaun, a poor weakly creature, same root with the diminutive. From still the same root isdonsy, sick-looking.
Donagh-dearnagh, the Sunday before Lammas (1st August). (Ulster.) IrishDomnach, Sunday; anddeireannach, last, i.e. last Sunday of the period before 1st August.
Doodoge [the twod's sounded likethinthus]; a big pinch of snuff. [Limk.] Irishdúdóg.
Dooraght [dsounded as in the last word]; tender care and kindness shown to a person. Irishdúthracht, same sound and meaning. In parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is purchased (Simmons and Knowles); called elsewhere atilly, which see. This word, in its sense of kindness, is very old; for in the Brehon Law we read of land set aside by a father for his daughter throughdooraght.
Doorshay-daurshay [din both sounded asthinthus], mere hearsay or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound ofdubhairt-sé, 'said he.' The second part is a mere doubling of the first, as we find in many English words, such as 'fiddle-faddle,' 'tittle-tattle' (which resembles our word). Often used by Munster lawyers in court, whether Irish-speaking or not, in depreciation of hearsay evidence in contradistinction to the evidence of looking-on. 'Ah, that's all meredoorshay-daurshay.' Common all over Munster. The information about the use of the term in law courts I got from Mr. Maurice Healy. A different form is sometimes heard:—D'innis bean dom gur innis bean di, 'a woman told me that a woman told her.'
Dornoge [dsounded as in doodoge above]; a small round lump of a stone, fit to be cast from the hand. Irishdorn, the shut hand, with the dim.óg.
Double up; to render a person helpless either in fight or in argument. The old tinker in the fair got a blow of an amazon's fist which 'sent him sprawling anddoubledhim up for the rest of the evening.' (Robert Dwyer Joyce: 'Madeline's Vow.')
Down in the heels; broken down in fortune (one mark of which is the state of the heels of shoes).
Down blow; a heavy or almost ruinous blow of any kind:—'The loss of that cow was a down blow to poor widow Cleary.'
Downface; to persist boldly in an assertion (whether true or no): He downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never did.
Down-the-banks; a scolding, a reprimand, punishment of any kind.
Dozed: a piece of timber is dozed when there is a dry rot in the heart of it. (Myself for Limk.: Kane for North.)
Drad; a grin or contortion of the mouth. (Joyce.)
Drag home. (Simmons; Armagh: same as Hauling home, which see.)
Drass; a short time, a turn:—'You walk a drass now and let me ride': 'I always smoke a drass before I go to bed of a night.' ('Collegians,' Limerick.) Irishdreas, same sound and meaning.
Drench: a form of the Englishdrink, but used in a peculiar sense in Ireland. Adrenchis a philtre, a love-potion, a love-compelling drink over which certain charms were repeated during its preparation. Made by boiling certain herbs (orchis) in water or milk, and the person drinks it unsuspectingly. In my boyhood time a beautiful young girl belonging to a most respectable family ran off with an ill-favoured obscure beggarly diseased wretch. The occurrence was looked on with great astonishment and horror by the people—no wonder; and the universal belief was that the fellow's old mother had given the poor girl adrench. To this hour I cannot make any guess at the cause of that astounding elopement: and it isnot surprising that the people were driven to the supernatural for an explanation.
Dresser; a set of shelves and drawers in a frame in a kitchen for holding plates, knives, &c.
Drisheen is now used in Cork as an English word, to denote a sort of pudding made of the narrow intestines of a sheep, filled with blood that has been cleared of the red colouring matter, and mixed with meal and some other ingredients. So far as I know, this viand and its name are peculiar to Cork, wheredrisheenis considered suitable for persons of weak or delicate digestion. (I should observe that a recent reviewer of one of my books states that drisheen is also made in Waterford.) Irishdreasor driss, applied to anything slender, as a bramble, one of the smaller intestines, &c.—with the diminutive.
Drizzen, a sort of moaning sound uttered by a cow. (Derry).
Drogh; the worst and smallest bonnive in a litter. (Armagh.) Irishdroch, bad, evil. (See Eervar.)
Droleen; a wren: merely the Irish worddreóilín.
Drop; a strain of any kind 'running in the blood.' A man inclined to evil ways 'has a bad drop' in him (or 'a black drop'): a miser 'has a hard drop.' The expression carries an idea of heredity.
Drugget; a cloth woven with a mixture of woollen and flaxen thread: so called from Drogheda where it was once extensively manufactured. Now much used as cheap carpeting.
Druids and Druidism,178.
Drumaun; a wide back-band for a ploughing horse,with hooks to keep the traces in place. (Joyce: Limerick.) From Irishdruim, the back.
Drummagh; the back strap used in yoking two horses. (Joyce: Limerick.) Irishdruim, the back, with the termination-ach, equivalent to English-ousand-y.
Dry potatoes; potatoes eaten without milk or any other drink.
Dry lodging; the use of a bed merely, without food.
Drynaun-dun or drynan-dun [twod's sounded likethinthat]; the blackthorn, the sloe-bush. Irishdroigheanán[drynan or drynaun], anddonn, brown-coloured.
Ducks; trousers of snow-white canvas, much used as summer wear by gentle and simple fifty or sixty years ago.
Dudeen [bothd's sounded likethinthose]; a smoking-pipe with a very short stem. Irishdúidín,dúd, a pipe, with the diminutive.
Duggins; rags: 'that poor fellow is all in duggins.' (Armagh.)
Dull; a loop or eye on a string. (Monaghan.)
Dullaghan [dsounded asthinthose]; a large trout. (Kane: Monaghan.) An Irish word.
Dullaghan; 'a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in churchyards, who can take off and put on his head at will.' (From 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 193, which see for more about this spectre. See Croker's 'Fairy Legends.')
Dullamoo [dsounded likethinthose]; a wastrel, a scapegrace, ane'er-do-weel. Irishdul, going;amudha[amoo], astray, to loss:—dullamoo, 'a person going to the bad,' 'going to the dogs.'
Dundeen; a lump of bread without butter. (Derry.)
Dunisheen; a small weakly child. (Moran: Carlow.) Irishdonaisín, an unfortunate being; fromdonas, with diminutive. See Donny.
Dunner; to knock loudly at a door. (Ulster.)
Dunt (sometimesdunch), to strike or butt like a cow or goat with the head. A certain lame old man (of Armagh) was nicknamed 'Dunt the pad (path'). (Ulster.)
Durneen, one of the two handles of a scythe that project from the main handle. Irishdoirnín, same sound and meaning: diminutive fromdorn, the fist, the shut hand.
Durnoge; a strong rough leather glove, used on the left hand by faggot cutters. (MacCall: Wexford.)Dornoge, given above, is the same word but differently applied.
Duty owed by tenants to landlords,181.
Earnest; 'in earnest' is often used in the sense of 'really and truly':—'You're a man in earnest, Cus, to strike the first blow on a day [of battle] like this.' (R. D. Joyce.)
Eervar; the last pig in a litter. Thisbonnivebeing usually very small and hard to keep alive is often given to one of the children for a pet; and it is reared in great comfort in a warm bed by the kitchen fire, and fed on milk. I once, when a child, had an eervar of my own which was the joy of my life. Irishiarmhar[eervar], meaning 'something after all the rest'; the hindmost. (Munster.) See Drogh for Ulster.
Elder; a cow's udder. All over Ireland.
Elegant. This word is used among us, not in its proper sense, but to designate anything good or excellent of its kind:—An elegant penknife, an elegant gun: 'That's an elegant pig of yours, Jack?' Our milkman once offered me a present for my garden—'An elegant load of dung.'
I haven't thejaniusfor work,For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys;But I'd make a mostelegantTurk,For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies.(Lever.)
I haven't thejaniusfor work,For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys;But I'd make a mostelegantTurk,For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies.
I haven't thejaniusfor work,
For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys;
But I'd make a mostelegantTurk,
For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies.
(Lever.)
(Lever.)
'How is she [the sick girl] coming on?''Elegant,' was the reply. ('Knocknagow.')
'How is she [the sick girl] coming on?'
'Elegant,' was the reply. ('Knocknagow.')