Irishisms

Miss Lockhart

My English friends think I'm weird for saying:

"Thanks a million" (maybe derives from céad míle fáilte) I thought this was used outside Ireland though, but they think it's odd.

"That place is a kip"

"I put it in the hotpress"

The Irishism I find the weirdest, even though I'm Irish, is when my friend from Carlow says "I'm foggin' it". Apparantly it means she's tired?

teddy_303

Can't do right for doing wrong?

admiralofthefleet

shove it up your brenda/bollix/swiss

also, my granny would call me a 'cur' if i was bold when i was a kid

mikemac

"What time are you going for lunch?

"I'll beat (pronounced bate) off right now so"
Cue a load of sniggers

Why? It just means you're heading off somewhere.
Oh, I get the double meaning but realy that wouldn't occurr to me. Seems a perfectly acceptable thing to say you're beating off somewhere

Miss Lockhart

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

shove it up your brenda/bollix/swiss

also, my granny would call me a 'cur' if i was bold when i was a kid

Mine would call me that too!

If I was good she would call me what sounded like "cujeen" - no idea what that is though.

mikemac

xOxSinéadxOx wrote: »

we say o, as in the letter for zero the number, why do we do that?

Most definitly not an Irish thing. I come across this every day in work, people in Luxembourg always say O
And tbh, I usually say zero

MizzLolly

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

when my friend from Carlow says "I'm foggin' it". Apparantly it means she's tired?

Yep, I grew up in Kilkenny and when we say someone is 'foggin' it' it meant that they were fast asleep.

Scrambled egg

Twas in the States there recently. In the airport waiting at the luggage belt when an immigration officer comes up to me and asks me how am I? I reply with "grand" then he looks at me funny, asks for my boarding card and makes me get screened. an odd moment none the less. :pac:

admiralofthefleet

Scrambled egg wrote: »

Twas in the States there recently. In the airport waiting at the luggage belt when an immigration officer comes up to me and asks me how am I? I reply with "grand" then he looks at me funny, asks for my boarding card and makes me get screened. an odd moment none the less. :pac:

sort of reminds me of a story i was told last week.

the singer paddy reilly was playing in new york and was in a pub with a mate. he said to his mate 'lets go to the pub down the road for the 'craic'
when he left the other pub he was surrounded by peelers looking to see where this 'craic' was, thinking he was after getting his hands on crack cocaine

TriceMarie

Larianne wrote: »

The Australians always got confused when I said "yer man".
"which man? Who? Huh?"

And one poor German lad never understood when someone was talking about a 'fillim'. When I explained, it solved the mystery of quite a few conversations where he got lost.

Your one that I worked with....


That must confuse all foreigners

TriceMarie

I have a friend in wexford that says "I got traypt" = "I got drunk" lol :P

Rebelheart

liah wrote: »

What's the most confusing Irishism you can think of?

When I first got here they took a hell of a lot of getting used to. "Come here" (the conversation version, not the actual command) especially. First time someone said that to me all I could think is "what the fúck? I'm already literally right beside you, how much closer can I possibly get?! Creep!"

"I'm after doing x" is another one that makes no sense to me. And I kept waiting for the remainder of the sentence every time someone ended one with "like" or "so."

I won't even get into "do be" and "amn't," much less "craic." :pac:

So, what's the strangest Irishism you can think of that you may or may not have used to confuse a poor innocent foreigner like me?

"On me" "on you" "on him" etc, particularly when they are used to indicate loss - e.g. "he took my coat on me"; "he robbed his car on him"; "he pulled one over on you" and so forth.

The same words used to indicate feelings, characteristics etc are also not understood outside Ireland, e.g. he has a bad cold on him; he has a great laugh on him etc.

I also love the "in it" phrase, which I heard a ten-year-old lad, who owns a champion greyhound, from Limerick use when interviewed on Morning Ireland about 7.45am this morning: "there's be a good race in it alright". You would hear older people especially say things such as "Is it yourself that's in it"; "there were two of them in it" (e.g. in a fight/argument implying that they deserved their comeuppance).

More anon.

blinding

This Donegal fella used to always greet me with "what do you know" which always used to throw me a bit. Is this widely used as a greeting in Donegal.

MmmmmCheese

Scumbag: Ah lad do ya have a fag?
American: A fag?
Scumbag: Ya jano like a fag
American: Are you asking me if I'm gay?
Scumbag: Ah for **** sake, like a fag you smoke!
American: *looks confused*

Steo46

Are you reading that paper you'e sitting on.

Miss Lockhart

MmmmmCheese wrote: »

Scumbag: Ah lad do ya have a fag?
American: A fag?
Scumbag: Ya jano like a fag
American: Are you asking me if I'm gay?
Scumbag: Ah for **** sake, like a fag you smoke!
American: *looks confused*

Of course, "bumming a fag" is likely to horrify them altogether.

I HATE hearing "in anyways" or, even worse, "in all and anyways".

TriceMarie

Steo46 wrote: »

Are you reading that paper you'e sitting on.

*pointing to an empty chair beside a stranger*
"Sorry,are you using this chair?"


"Ah sure,I didn't see him until he was gone"

ttm

so

Rebelheart

Come here ...

Go on ...

Go away ...

Ara don't be talking.

I'll go away from you now/Imeoidh mé uait anois

....

Crumble Froo

noticed quite a lot of this stuff while overseas, but one that's not been mentioned yet is 'yoke' for 'thing'...

'wouldya pass's that yoke over there? *points*... y'no, the yoke-me-bob...'

mikemac

Well? (on greeting somebody)
veh-ick-el

Now every county claims their own expressions but all I can say is this is done in Tipp North.
And as a consequence gardai are fond of the old veh-ick-le expression. They must pick it up while training

Is it true they don't have Red lemonade in England? :eek:
I've heard it from a few people
I know they have something called brown lemonade. Ewwwwwww
Sounds disgusting

irish_bob

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Of course, "bumming a fag" is likely to horrify them altogether.

I HATE hearing "in anyways" or, even worse, "in all and anyways".

we,ve all heard the story of the young irish man who heads to new york for the summer to work as a painter and decorator , tells his yank work mate he,s going outside to smoke a fag , que , paddy up against the wall with his legs spread and hands against the wall listening to sirens in the backround

brummytom

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Of course, "bumming a fag" is likely to horrify them altogether.

I HATE hearing "in anyways" or, even worse, "in all and anyways".

I walked into my RE class and went "Jesus it stinks of fags in here"
My teacher goes "Well I don't know what homosexuals smell like Tom"


Twát

ttm

Crumble Froo wrote: »

noticed quite a lot of this stuff while overseas, but one that's not been mentioned yet is 'yoke' for 'thing'...

'wouldya pass's that yoke over there? *points*... y'no, the yoke-me-bob...'

Ah that all encompassing word..... yoke and its plural yokes.

I was just about to search this yoke when I spotted this as it seemed very strange it hadn't been mentioned before.

irish_bob

Michellenman wrote: »

'Grand'.

That's a uniquely Irish thing apparently that tends to confuse people who aren't from here!

grand is not uniquely irish , the saying shur is uniquely irish , its used in every conversation , shur your only over the road , shur why dont you come in for a cup of tea

ttm

irish_bob wrote: »

grand is not uniquely irish , the saying shur is uniquely irish , its used in every conversation , shur your only over the road , shur why dont you come in for a cup of tea

But grand has a uniquely Irish meaning. It can mean absolutely nothing, it can mean something good and quite often is used when the reply the speaker is actually thinking about doesn't bare saying or when the speaker didn't even hear the question, grand just fills in the gap. Grand is one of those unique Irish words that never offends the person it is said to yet never really answers any question or supplies any useful infomation yet indicates the speaker is still listening to the conversation - maybe....so.

Grand

-Leelo-

Michellenman wrote: »

'Grand'.

That's a uniquely Irish thing apparently that tends to confuse people who aren't from here!

I say Grand every day about a hundred times. Bugs the cr@p out of me, but I cant stop!

Bonkers_xOx

Ah shur, everything's grand.

-Leelo-

Lil Kitten wrote: »

Here are some great Dublinisms: Crips, hostibal, pasgetti, chimley, drownded, babby, go me toilet/dirt

And "Here, giz a shot o' dat!" when you want a turn of something.

I've also heard a balcony be called a bankly from time to time

ttm

mikemac wrote: »

Well? (on greeting somebody)

Grand so (in reply)