Words the older generation use.

dlofnep

I noticed a huge difference in the type of Lingo my grandparents use(d) compared to the lingo around today. A lot of these are taken directly from Irish and used in an English sentence.

My grandmother is a good example of this. If she saw a woman of poor character, she'd refer to her as a gadhar. When I was driving her to see her father's grave in Hugginstown, she made sure to call the backroads as boreens (bóithrín). Even the way she pronounced Bally (in terms of anglecized names for towns), she pronounced it 'Balla' opposed to the commonly used 'Bally' today.

A few others stand-out - she always refers to shady characters as a slíbhín. I find that these terms are not to be heard in the newer generation of Irish people.

Any other terms/words people can think of that the older generation tend to use, oppose to the newer?

Enkidu

Well my parents always say "wee gasur/gasoon" for any toddler boy.

deise go deo

My Grandmother would always call a snail a shellicky-booky.

dlofnep

deise go deo wrote: »

My Grandmother would always call a snail a shellicky-booky.

So did I as a kid We even had a song for it. Is it derived from Gaeilge though? Snail is seilide as Gaeilge.

deirdremf

dlofnep wrote: »

Even the way she pronounced Bally (in terms of anglecized names for towns), she pronounced it 'Balla' opposed to the commonly used 'Bally' today.

When they were standardising the English spelling of placenames in Ireland in the 19th century, they used the letter "y" to represent a "neutral" vowel, the one we often represent by the letters "uh" when trying to write English phonetically.
But English speakers in the 19th century colonial Administration (many many of them came over from England to work in the civil service and the courts service here in the 1800s) didn't realise what the "y" stood for, and pronounced it "ee".
What you say about your grandmother is true though - if you have ever heard Ian Paisley speaking, you'll probably have heard him talk about "Ballamena".

Micilin Muc

I regulary hear 'flaithiúil' being used. And gombeen!

AnamGlas

"ín" seems to be blended in a bit, boyín/girlín etc.

whatthefeck

The little "scut"
Very derogatory term used for a bold child/boy

dlofnep

whatthefeck wrote: »

The little "scut"
Very derogatory term used for a bold child/boy

What Irish word is Scut derived from?

whatthefeck

??

AnamGlas

whatthefeck wrote: »

??

The topic is Irish words that the older generation use. If there's an Irish base for "scut", then fair enough.

Not exclusive to the older generation, but gabhal/gowl is frequent enough.

Su Campu

It would appear "scut" is short for the word "scutter".....

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=scut

In certain parts of Ireland the word scut was used to tell off their children. Like feck is the softer version of ****. Scut would have been used in this way as it was the softer version of ****e. Being a lad from the West of Ireland this word was bandied about in my area quite a bit.

Scut would have been shortened from scutter which as any farmer will tell you is not a pretty sight out the backside of an afflicted cow (terribly bad liquid diarrhoea). So when your ma was saying 'you're some scut,' 'you little scut,' or 'come here you scut ya,' she was calling you a **** or a ****e but in the nice clean way. Not swearing at all was she!

Also is you were on the town for a night out and say, the food you ate turned out to be bad, you might find yourself sitting on the loo for a few days after evacuating your bowels at a tremendous rate you would have a 'dose of the scuts.'

If someone is talking **** or ****e in certain parts of Ireland they could be said to be 'talking pure scutter.'


You're some scut.

Come here you scut ya.

You little scut.

He has a dose of the scuts.

He's talking pure scutter.

byhookorbycrook

amadán/oinseach for an eejit. morry ya -pretending - mar dhea
tough as taw hale in from the Irish for the honeysuckle
whisky of course is from Irish
ciotóg for a left handed person.

whatthefeck

Sorry I am not sure how to spell these.

Cish - small bridge
Ag bohantiocht - wandering / gone walk about

pog it

whatthefeck wrote: »

Sorry I am not sure how to spell these.

Cish - small bridge
Ag bohantiocht - wandering / gone walk about

Gorgeous!
I was watching TG4 the other night. The young sean nós singer Nell Ní Chróinín was presenting a programme about a well known singer from her family, think it was a grand-aunt of hers, and the word 'gliodar(n)ach' came up for 'light-hearted'. The old woman who used this word said she didn't think it was a word the younger generation had.

I used to hear 'Smithereens' a lot but I think it's used less and less all the time.

An gal gréine

I've heard it claimed that the Hiberno-English phrase that many of us use: "it's smashin" derives from "is maith sin".
Definitely from Gaelic is 'slogan', from 'slua-ghairm' which is another term for 'rosc catha' or war-cry.

Rabid50

From rabid50. My mother used the word clute for a cleaning cloth, but that is archaic English and still in the Oxford dictionary.

Gaeilge72

Meas (respect) is another word commonly heard; "I wouldn't have any meas in him". Heard a lot around Cork / Waterford anyway. Anyone else heard this much?

dlofnep

Gaeilge72 wrote: »

Meas (respect) is another word commonly heard; "I wouldn't have any meas in him". Heard a lot around Cork / Waterford anyway. Anyone else heard this much?

Not off the top of my head, I'm from Waterford.

A more modernly used one - Slug (as in a slug of a pint), which is derived from slog (swallow).

Gaeilge72

dlofnep wrote: »

Not off the top of my head, I'm from Waterford.

A more modernly used one - Slug (as in a slug of a pint), which is derived from slog (swallow).

I never thought of that one!

odds_on

My mother used to refer to pigs' feet as pigs' trotters or more frequently as cruibins but she never knew any Irish.

youcancallmeal

Anyone ever heard of a hill being referred to as a Breagh (I'm sure thats not spelt right?)

Dun

Yeah, brae would get used up around Donegal a bit - it's an archaic English word though: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=brae

dambarude

We have loads of them in our everyday speech that we picked up from grandparents. We don't live in a Gaeltacht area, and none of our immediate grandparents/great grandparents did. We're not very far removed geographically from Connemara though.

Off the top of my head, the words we'd use commonly are:
gluggers (glugair)- bad eggs
cipíns - small sticks for starting a fire, kindling
"That'll take the machnas out of him" - that'll calm him down a bit
boreens - as used by many people
mar dhea - as byhookorbycrook pointed out
geansaí - my grandmother never called it a jumper
Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo aris - my grandmother was forever saying
poirthín ? - I'm not sure of this, maybe somebody here could enlighten me. Does it mean small egg? It's the word we'd use for baby potatoes!

What's funny is these are the only words we'd have for these things! We'd know these things in Irish before in English.

There are more but I can't think of them now.

dlofnep

Not sure - Prátaí is potatoes, so maybe prátín?

An gal gréine

Póiríní is in use for small potatoes.

P. Breathnach

dambarude wrote: »

...
geansaí - my grandmother never called it a jumper...

That is in fact an English loan-word: from Guernsey shirt to gansey to geansaí.

We never Gaelicised the rather similar word jersey. I don't think it was a matter of sartorial preference, but because it did not sit so comfortably with the Irish phonic system.

teileann

Yes, I have a friend from Clonakilty and she uses it all the time.
"He has no meas on it". Ffor example when referring to a teenager not appreciating something that was bought for him.

deirdremf

teileann wrote: »

Yes, I have a friend from Clonakilty and she uses it all the time.
"He has no meas on it". Ffor example when referring to a teenager not appreciating something that was bought for him.

Yes, it sounds very much a Cork thing to my ear. I went out with someone once who used it a lot.

deirdremf

P. Breathnach wrote: »

That is in fact an English loan-word: from Guernsey shirt to gansey to geansaí.

We never Gaelicised the rather similar word jersey. I don't think it was a matter of sartorial preference, but because it did not sit so comfortably with the Irish phonic system.

Possibly so, but isn't it interesting that two of the Channel Islands gave Irish and English words for the same thing?
Does anyone know how whether knitting came to Ireland from that part of the world?
Also, our word cniotáil is obviously the same word as knit in English (which is also used in the sense of broken bones mending).
Interestingly, Spanish doesn't have a specific word for knitting: it uses the word tejer which is the same word as they use for weaving.
Finally, ganzee is also used in the Carribean for a (much lighter) sort of garment!

An gal gréine

"I'll see you back" used be widely said for "I'll see you again"...ón Ghaeilge ar ndóighe...tchfidh mé ar ais tú