An Irish word

InchicoreDude

There is an old land road near where I live. It doesnt have an official name but the olde people in the village (i.e. My Dad) calls it "boirin na háit" or "boirin na hodge", something like that. What would be the correct last word? And what does it mean?

Gumbi

bóithrín means "small road".

bóithrín na háite would mean "small road of the place" which doesn't make much sense to me (on it's own, at least).

InchicoreDude

Thanks.

Yeah, knew what bóithrín meant.

Thought the last word might be some variation of áit alright. Could it also mean "place of the small road"?

Gumbi

InchicoreDude wrote: »

Thanks.

Yeah, knew what bóithrín meant.

Thought the last word might be some variation of áit alright. Could it also mean "place of the small road"?

No, that would be the other way around. It's not strictly a "variation" of áit, but a grammatical mutation of it.

InchicoreDude

but a grammatical mutation of it.

Aah ok, fair enough!

mr chips

Could it be bóithrín na hailte"? Alt means rise or hillock - you see it a lot in placenames like Altmore, Altnahinch, Altananam and so on. So in this case it could be "the little road of the hillock" or "the little road on the rise" or something like that.

InchicoreDude

mr chips wrote: »

Could it be bóithrín na hailte"? Alt means rise or hillock - you see it a lot in placenames like Altmore, Altnahinch, Altananam and so on. So in this case it could be "the little road of the hillock" or "the little road on the rise" or something like that.

That would make sense! As the road starts at the top of a small hill and gradually works its way down!

Gumbi

It can also mean ravine. "na hailte" of the ravine".

mr chips

Wow, that's confusing - same word to describe two geographic features which are the complete opposite of one another! :pac:

CSOC

try

http://www.logainm.ie