🧙🏻‍♂️☘️ Draíocht: Uncovering Hidden Meanings in our Irish Words

Some Irish words capture a feeling or concept in a unique way. It may have a historic origin or capture a timeless quality. The sound might reflect a particular feeling reflected in the natural or other world.
If you have an example, perhaps you could add it, in context/sentence and why you find it interesting. ☘️

Siobháinín an Bhóthair - The Wag Tail (bird), frequently seen running along a path or road.

The Irish name has a humorous quality, ‘Little Siobhán of the Road’. It feels lighthearted that a bird gets the name Siobhán & if I see one running along a footpath , remembering the Irish name makes me smile. “There’s Siobháinín an bhóthair” 😅…doing what she does.

Saighdiúir – The Soldier

Saighdiúir means soldier, and it echoes the word saghd—an old Irish word for arrow.

It’s easy to imagine that the earliest saighdiúirí were those skilled with bow and arrow. 

Describing someone, you could say Is saighdiúir mná í, meaning ‘She is a patient and courageous woman.’

Patience, and courage, being the skill of an archer.

Fuarán – The Spring

Fuarán is a spring—where water flows from deep underground. The word carries fuar(cold) at its core, echoing uisce fuar—the cold, fresh water that rises from the earth.

It’s as if the land itself is offering a quiet sip—and you can feel that in the word.

On a hot day, “Chuirfeadh sé na ba chun fuaráin” — it would make the cattle take to the pools.

A Fuarán Feasa is a spring of knowledge.

Fios means to know—like in “Tá a fhios agam” (I know it), which literally means “I have its knowledge”. It suggests knowledge can be sought, mastered or aquired from a source.

Like water, knowledge may bubble at the surface—yet sourced from hidden, perhaps other-worldly places.

Smashing, used as an adjective.

“The weather was smashing!” , “It was a smashing game!”, or just plain ‘smashing’ !

Ón Ghaeilge “Is maith sin!” a thagann sé!

Or when said quickly “ ‘s maith sin” , meaning ‘that’s great/good” 👍 …one of our linguistic exports 🙂