Phrases and the likes you never hear outside Ireland

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118343239#Comment_118343239

There were kids in my school who scutted home every day. Up the Malahide Road from Griffith Avenue hanging out the back of a lorry, hoping that the traffic lights in Donnycarney would be red, otherwise they'd end up in Artane.

Here's a scientific paper about it from 1989: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0020138389900065

mrslancaster

What part of the country did "howz she cuttin" originate?

Has it something to do with farming/hay?

RandomViewer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118343324#Comment_118343324

Would assume any implement , saw, axe, turfspade,scythe, if she's cutting well all is good with the world

mrslancaster

Dont teach yer granny to suck eggs...

Hold yer whisht..

The cheek of ya..

just lettin on...

Me hair's a show...

She's a little dote...

That's grand/ I'm grand/ you're grand thanks..

Overheard recently, "we're after havin a gorgeous coddle"

Morris Garren

When purchasing fuel for an agricultural vehicle, certain parts of the country speak of 'gettin a bitta DAYZIL!' It probably translates into something delicious in German or Swedish, however the English speaking world tends to purchase Diesel most of the time

Sebastian Dangerfield

If we tried to get out of school or jobs around the house, my mam used to say "I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking".

Day Lewin

Of quarrelling:

Oh, wigs on the green and no holds barred...

There was skin and hair flying.

They'd ate him and bate him!

He was et, bet and thrung up!

dxhound2005

Atin'n. E.g. a person from Carrickmacross (Carrickmearse), might say "Dem shower a fux atin'n Dundalk".

I thought it might be a South Monaghan, Mid Louth thing, but is probably more widespread.

On the subject of relations from earlier, an agricultural inspector was at the back of beyond visiting an old farmer. The conversation turned to marriage, and why the farmer had remained single. "Me father never got married, and his father before him never got married, so I never got married".

black & white

Particular to parts of Limerick city is "c'mere 'til I tell you a question"

Gaoth Laidir

One allegedly Irish phrase that I've actually never heard in Ireland but every where else is "Top o' the mornin' to ya". Has anyone actually ever heard an Irish person say this?

Rosita

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118348340#Comment_118348340

Only with tongue firmly in cheek.

Surely "in terms of" is the leading Irish phrase these days, in the public arena at least.

deirdremf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118343324#Comment_118343324

I don't know why, but I always thought it had to do with sailing ships.

Gaoth Laidir

If you're involved in GAA then there's only a limited vocabulary of words and set phrases that you may use when interviewed after a match. Just rearrange these phrases to give different answers to different questions, without actually saying anything. Having a thick Tipperary accent helps too.

Such an interview goes something like this:

Marty: Well, Seany Joe, that was some match there. You must be overjoyed to win it.

Seany Joe: Ah sure lookit, Marty, I suppose at the end of de day sure, ya know, like.

Marty: And the others put up a real fight.

Seany Joe: Indeedn, as I said, sure, I suppose, ya know, like, at the end of the day, sure lookit.

ablelocks

ah shure lookit, isnt' that it? - when there's not much can be done about the situation and/or when fishing for an alternative solution

Lookit, that's it now and no more about it - when a final decision has been made and there'll be no arguing it.

dxhound2005

At the end of the day we all have to get up in the morning.

Esel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118348975#Comment_118348975

and put our trousers on one leg at a time.

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118349214#Comment_118349214

And make sure one of our socks isn't inside out because it's bad luck but if we've done it don't take it off and put it on properly because that's even worse luck.

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118340304#Comment_118340304

Its a dublin thing, i never heard of 'santy' til i went to dublin at xmas in my teens. Was santa/dadaí na nollaig where i was from

Day Lewin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118350110#Comment_118350110

Just be glad it wasn't "Santo"!!

mariaalice

"Has he no woman" very rural but even said by young people.... In a sentence it woul be something like he's no woman that's why he is odd.

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118351506#Comment_118351506

As an 80-something customer said to one of our barstaff recently "You haven't got a boyfriend? That's an awful waste of a woman!".

"A Professional DJ will be at the Kids Disco"

The "professional dj" is not named on the poster.

"As seen on RTË television!!"

"The late late toy show 2020"

"The billy Barry kids school of dance"

"Toyman"

"IMPARTIAL REVIEW!!!"

"BTYS Winner 2022"

mariaalice

A 30 something said this, telling a story about a neighbor, she said the problem is she is a townie that married a farmer and never got used to the countryside.

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118329243#Comment_118329243

I wouldn't give him the itch for fear he might enjoy scratching it.

Dublin phrase that I first heard in late 70s.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118347343#Comment_118347343

Wigs on the green.... I was told a long time ago that the phrase originated as Whigs on the green.

Whigs being members of a UK 19th century political party that was known to protest frequently outside the houses of parliment on the grass space where protests are still held to this day. The idea being you had better be careful what you say in the house in case you annoy the whigs and they head out to protest - so ... 'there'll be whigs on the green'.

That being said.... google seems to favour 'wigs' with an explanation that wigs would be pulled off in a fight and discarded on the ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whigs_%28British_political_party%29

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118353162#Comment_118353162

Ask the Parish Council Secretary. They'll want to know why you're asking. Might be helpful if you're a parent of a kid that the event is aimed at.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118340304#Comment_118340304

Buried down in Jerpoint Abbey.

But on the third day he arose again and handed out presents.

'now/and' .... "What's this else?" - Is usually preceded by one of the two aforementioned words,... a rhetorical/thinking out loud question, often used when a person has almost remembered something, but is buying some time until the thought comes to them; or somesuch....

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118348340#Comment_118348340

No, never. One of those stage Irish expressions that the Yanks probably invented. Another one is begorragh. Possibly the result of them mishearing By God or BeGod.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118348340#Comment_118348340

The phrase originated in Great Britain - it turns up in English and Scottish novels of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century - but dropped out of use in the later nineteenth century. By the mid-twentieth it was well and truly archaic. At some point in the 1930s Hollywood decided that "archaic" = "Irish", and began to use it to signal a character's Irishness. In 1949 Bing Crosby made an Irish-themed film called Top o' the Morning in which he plays an American investigator who comes to Ireland to recover the Blarney stone (which has been stolen), to woo a feisty colleen, played by Ann Blyth and to be roundly abused by her police sergeant father, played by Barry Fitzgerald. It's a pretty awful film, but it firmly established the phrase in Hollywood as distinctively Irish. It has, however, never been colloquial in Ireland.