Patrick Weston Joyce

“ But he offers the natural explanation: that a person is liable to sink suddenly with hunger if he undertakes a hard mountain walk with a long interval after food. Irish feur, grass; gorta, hunger.
Fairy breeze. Sometimes on a summer evening you suddenly feel a very warm breeze: that is a band of fairies travelling from one fort to another; and people on such occasions usually utter a short prayer, not knowing whether the 'good people' are bent on doing good or evil. (G. H. Kinahan.) ”

“ Fair-gurthra; 'hungry grass.' There is a legend all through Ireland that small patches of grass grow here and there on mountains; and if a person in walking along happens to tread on one of them he is instantly overpowered with hunger so as to be quite unable to walk, and if help or food is not at hand he will sink down and perish. That persons are attacked and rendered helpless by sudden hunger on mountains in this manner is certain. ”

“ So it comes that we in Ireland regard convenient and near as exactly synonymous, which they are not. In fact on almost every possible occasion, we—educated and uneducated—use convenient when near would be the proper word. An odd example occurs in the words of the old Irish folk-song:— 'A sailor courted a farmer's daughter, Who lived convaynient to the Isle of Man.' Hannel; a blow with the spear or spike of a pegging-top (or 'castle-top') down on the wood of another top. Boys often played a game of tops for a certain number of hannels. ”

“ Rabble; used in Ulster to denote a fair where workmen congregate on the hiring day to be hired by the surrounding farmers. See Spalpeen. Rack. In Munster an ordinary comb is called a rack: the word comb being always applied and confined to a small close fine-toothed one. Rackrent; an excessive rent of a farm, so high as to allow to the occupier a bare and poor subsistence. Not used outside Ireland except so far as it has been recently brought into prominence by the Irish land question. Rag on every bush; a young man who is caught by and courts many girls but never proposes. ”

“ From the Irish scall, burn, singe, scald. Sconce; to chaff, banter, make game of:—'None of your sconcing.' (Ulster.) Sconce; to shirk work or duty. (Moran: Carlow.) Scotch Dialect: influence of, on our Dialect, 6, 7. Scotch lick; when a person goes to clean up anything—a saucepan, a floor, his face, a pair of shoes, &c.—and only half does it, he (or she) has given it a Scotch lick. General in South. In Dublin it would be called a 'cat's lick': for a cat has only a small tongue and doesn't do much in the way of licking. Scout; a reproachful name for a bold forward girl. ”

“ Sky farmer; a term much used in the South with several shades of meaning: but the idea underlying all is a farmer without land, or with only very little—having broken down since the time when he had a big farm—who often keeps a cow or two grazing along the roadsides. Many of these struggling men acted as intermediaries between the big corn merchants and the large farmers in the sale of corn, and got thereby a percentage from the buyers. A 'sky farmer' has his farm in the sky. Slaan [aa long as the a in car] ; a sort of very sharp spade, used in cutting turf or peat. ”

“ You 'turn the bothered ear' to a person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request. In these applications bother is 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 currency galore, smithereens, and many other Irish words. ”

“ The word is used merely as soft sawder, to butter them up, to curry favour with them—to show them great respect at least from the teeth out—lest they might do some injury to the speaker. Googeen [two g's as in good and get] ; a simple soft-minded person. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish guag, same meaning, with the diminutive: guaigín. Gopen, gowpen; the full of the two hands used together. (Ulster.) Exactly the same meaning as Lyre in Munster, which see. Gor; the coarse turf or peat which forms the surface of the bog. (Healy: for Ulster.) Gorb; a ravenous eater, a glutton. (Ulster.) ”

“ When the hair in front over the forehead turns at the roots upward and backward, that is a cow's lick, as if a cow had licked it upwards. The idea of a cow licking the hair is very old in Irish literature. ”

“ But the goblin does not do worse: he does not kill people. Irish púca. Shakespeare has immortalised him as Puck, the goblin of 'A Midsummer-Night's Dream.' Pookapyle, also called Pookaun; a sort of large fungus, the toadstool. Called also causha pooka. All these names imply that the Pooka has something to do with this poisonous fungus. See Causha-pooka (pooka's cheese) . Pookeen; a play—blindman's buff: from Irish púic, a veil or covering, from the covering put over the eyes. Pookeen is also applied in Cork to a cloth muzzle tied on calves or lambs to prevent sucking the mother. ”

“ Irish sruth [sruh] stream, with dim. Strammel; a big tall bony fellow. (Limerick.) Strap; a bold forward girl or woman; the word often conveys a sense slightly leaning towards lightness of character. Strath; a term used in many parts of Ireland to denote the level watery meadow-land along a river. Irish srath. Stravage [to rhyme with plague] ; to roam about idly:—'He is always stravaging the streets.' In Ulster it is made stavage. Streel; a very common word all through Ireland to denote a lazy untidy woman—a slattern: often made streeloge in Connaught, the same word with the diminutive. ”

“ In parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is purchased (Simmons and Knowles) ; called elsewhere a tilly, 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 through dooraght.
Doorshay-daurshay [d in both sounded as th in thus] , mere hearsay or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound of dubhairt-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) . ”

“ Irish gríscín. Grisset; a shallow iron vessel for melting things in, such as grease for dipping rushes, resin for dipping torches (sluts or paudioges, which see) , melting lead for various purposes, white metals for coining, &c. If a man is growing rapidly rich:—'You'd think he had the grisset down.' Groak or groke; to look on silently—like a dog—at people while they are eating, hoping to be asked to eat a bit. (Derry.) ”

“ Grogue; three or four sods of turf standing on end, supporting each other like a little pyramid on the bog to dry. (Limerick.) Irish gruag, same meaning. Groodles; the broken bits mixed with liquid left at the bottom of a bowl of soup, bread and milk, &c. Group or grup; a little drain or channel in a cow-house to lead off the liquid manure. (Ulster.) Grue or grew; to turn from with disgust:—'He grued at the physic.' (Ulster) . Grug; sitting on one's grug means sitting on the heels without touching the ground. (Munster.) Same as Scotch hunkers. ”

“ Irish seach, same sound and meaning. Shaughraun; wandering about: to be on the shaughraun is to be out of employment and wandering idly about looking for work. Irish seachrán, same sound and meaning. Shebeen or sheebeen; an unlicensed public-house or alehouse where spirits are sold on the sly. (Used all over Ireland.) Irish síbín, same sound and meaning. Shee; a fairy, fairies; also meaning the place where fairies live, usually a round green little hill or elf-mound having a glorious palace underneath: Irish sidhe, same sound and meanings. Shee often takes the diminutive form—sheeoge. ”

“ It is the Irish troigh [thro] , a foot, with the diminutive—troighthín [triheen] . In Roscommon this word is applied to the handle of a loy or spade which has been broken and patched together again. (Connaught and Munster.) Trindle; the wheel of a wheelbarrow. (Morris for South Monaghan.) Trinket; a small artificial channel for water: often across and under a road. (Simmons and Patterson: East Ulster.) See Linthern. Turf; peat for fuel: used in this sense all over Ireland. We hardly ever use the word in the sense of 'Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap.' Turk ”

“ Irish caedh [quay] , for which and for the names derived from it, see 'Irish Names of Places': II. 396. Quality; gentlemen and gentlewomen as distinguished from the common people. Out of use in England, but general in Ireland:—'Make room for the quality.' Queer, generally pronounced quare; used as an intensive in Ulster:—This day is quare and hot (very hot) ; he is quare and sick (very sick) : like fine and fat elsewhere (see p. 89) . Quin or quing; the swing-tree, a piece of wood used to keep the chains apart in ploughing to prevent them rubbing the horses. (Cork and Kerry.) ”

“ They congregated in the towns on market and fair days, where the farmers of the surrounding districts came to hire them. Each farmer brought home his own men, fed them on good potatoes and milk, and sent them to sleep in the barn on dry straw—a bed—as one of them said to me—'a bed fit for a lord, let alone a spalpeen.' The word spalpeen is now used in the sense of a low rascal. Irish spailpín, same sound and meaning. (See my 'Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,' p. 216; and for the Ulster term see Rabble above.) ”

“ Irish scallach-croidhe, same sound and meaning: a 'heart scald'; from scalladh, scalding, and croidhe, heart. Scollop; the bended rod pointed at both ends that a thatcher uses to fasten down the several straw-wisps. (General.) Irish scolb [scollub] . Scolsheen or scalteen; made by boiling a mixture of whiskey, water, sugar, butter and pepper (or caraway seeds) in a pot: a sovereign cure for a cold. In the old mail-car days there was an inn on the road from Killarney to Mallow, famous for scolsheen, where a big pot of it was always kept ready for travellers. (Kinahan and Kane.) ”

“ Mag; a swoon:—'Light of grace,' she exclaimed, dropping in a mag on the floor. (Edward Walsh: used all over Munster.) Maisled; speckled; a lazy young fellow's shins get maisled from sitting before the fire. (Knowles: Ulster.) Make; used in the South in the following way:—'This will make a fine day': 'That cloth will make a fine coat': 'If that fellow was shaved he'd make a handsome young man' (Irish folk-song) : 'That Joe of yours is a clever fellow: no doubt he'll make a splendid doctor.' The noun makings is applied similarly:—'That young fellow is the makings of a great scholar.' Man above. ”

“ Puck; to play the puck with anything: a softened equivalent of playing the devil. Puck here means the Pooka, which see. Puck; a blow:—'He gave him a puck of a stick on the head.' More commonly applied to a punch or blow of the horns of a cow or goat. 'The cow gave him a puck (or pucked him) with her horns and knocked him down.' The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his caman or hurley is always called a puck. ”

“ Loody; a loose heavy frieze coat. (Munster.) Loof; the open hand, the palm of the hand. (Ulster.) Irish lámh [lauv] , the hand. Loo-oge or lu-oge; the eel-fry a couple of inches long that come up the southern Blackwater periodically in myriads, and are caught and sold as food. (Waterford: Healy.) Irish luadhóg, same sound and meaning. Loose leg; when a person is free from any engagement or impediment that bound him down—'he has a loose leg'—free to act as he likes. ”

“ Cool: hurlers and football players always put one of their best players to mind cool or stand 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. Irish cúl [cool] , the back. The full word is cool-baur-ya where '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.) ”

“ Grawvar; loving, affectionate:—'That's a grawver poor boy.' (Munster.) Irish grádhmhar, same sound and meaning: from grádh, love. Grazier; a young rabbit. (South and West.) Great; intimate, closely acquainted:—'Tom Long and Jack Fogarty are very great.' (All over Ireland.) 'Come gie's your hand and sae we're greet.' (Burns.) Greedy-gut; a glutton; a person who is selfish about stuffing himself, wishing to give nothing to anyone else. ”

“ Those who derive bother from the English pother make a guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun.
Bottheen, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irish bata with the diminutive:—baitin.
Bottom; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricks of 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 'who howlds my bottom of yarn?' when she expects to hear the name of the young man she is to marry. ”