English words and expressions used in Ireland only

enda1 · 26-02-2010 05:18PM

homeOwner wrote: »

Some of our peculiarities are due to the direct translation from how you would say it as gaeilge:
eg Bhi me tar eis dul isteach - I was after coming inside

To be honest though, our version makes sense. The English one is a pile of bollocks!

flowersagogo · 26-02-2010 07:02PM

stabber...straight thats been stabbed out and re-lit

flowersagogo · 26-02-2010 07:04PM

ps some of our names for cannabis are good too...my favorite is -moody

MungoMan · 26-02-2010 07:14PM

One thing I have often heard my father saying (if something is empty) is "There isn't a tint in it"
meaning, it's empty

Is this proper english, I never heard anyone else saying it.

flowersagogo · 26-02-2010 07:23PM

i hope nobody from the racist taxi driver thread reads this-call a spade a spade.....gets funny looks abroad(here too these days)

UpCork · 26-02-2010 08:15PM

Hold Your Whist

Meaning 'hang on a minute' or 'wait a while'.

DublinWriter · 26-02-2010 08:18PM

It was only when I worked in London that I realised that to put something on the long finger was a uniquely Irish expression.

Chicken Run · 26-02-2010 08:20PM

UpCork wrote: »

Hold Your Whist

Meaning 'hang on a minute' or 'wait a while'.

"Whist" is in use in the North East of England...meaning "Shut up a second"

Chicken Run · 26-02-2010 08:21PM

Also possibly a West thing - "above" and "below" to refer to places..... no matter what altitude they're at.... ???

Nodster · 26-02-2010 08:24PM

Why do we usually nod our heads in agreement when someone says "you know yer man, whats his name?...."

LionelNashe · 26-02-2010 08:38PM

CiaranC wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English

That's a great article:
"
........the second-person possessive adjective your, largely in inner-city areas of Dublin, has an alternate form when the subject is plural: yezzer.

Would youse ever get yezzer shoes on?
Take yezzer coats in case it rains.

"

UpCork · 26-02-2010 08:38PM

I am not sure if its a rural Cork thing or if it occurs elsewhere, but people saying things like

They were dog rough meaning they were very rough
I was dog tired meaning I was very tired.

MungoMan · 26-02-2010 08:55PM

homeOwner wrote: »

Delph (as in kitchen plates) - english people have never heard of the word.

I wonder is it Delft as in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delftware

Annuv · 26-02-2010 08:58PM

dub02 wrote: »

I live with alot of Jamaicans and Trinidadians here in New York and they to use a broken form of English too (alot worse than ours btw) called patois or creole.

Like ours, its funny but very interesting, I've come to the conclusion that like my Caribbean friends...I'm from a small island too thats being influenced by a larger country so in order to create some differences or identity we've developed small changes in the most basic of things....the language, food, mannerisms

On a side note...they absolutely love it when i say "whats the story" or call them "horse" or "boss". Also, how can I put this mildly... sometimes you can hear a country twang off the Trinidadians:eek: i do be in tears especially when they say "hey boy" I read somewhere before that centuries ago Irish farmers from the west immigrated to the Caribbean so who knows.

Irish surnames are also very common throughout the Caribbean islands...i have friends with Prendergast, McDonagh, Brown etc...:)

You might the book "To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland" interesting, it explains why there are so many Irish names found in the Caribbean and also the expression/accent similiarities. Particulary interesting is the story of the Redlegs in barbados

Hagar · 26-02-2010 09:12PM

MungoMan wrote: »

I wonder is it Delft as in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delftware

Correct, that is exactly where it comes from.

M O N T O · 26-02-2010 09:17PM

Sap / Spa/ Mongo?

Don't think theyre used anywhere else?

monkles · 26-02-2010 09:25PM

"Who took the current off your bun?!?" and 'craetureen'. Or putting 'een' at the end of words in general!

Pete M. · 26-02-2010 09:28PM

C U N T I S H

May even only be used with regularity in my home town in easht mayo.

Also, I do love to tell foreigners, especially yanks, that the traditional response to 'slainte' is 'yacuntcha'...

mel.b · 26-02-2010 09:30PM

Great thread

As an Aussie living in Ireland these things stand out like a sore thumb to me!

Some i've noticed (some already mentioned)
- yer man
- I'm just after...
- it's in the press
- using 'so' at the end of sentences, such as 'open the door so', or 'let's go home so'
- using 'well' such as 'i'm well good' or 'that's well enough'
- bold to refer to cheeky or naughty
- ye for you really bugs me (especially when it is written - one person I work with always writes 'ye' in emails)
- when referring to age, using 'since' such as 'he's six since Sept' rather than saying 'he was six in Sept'
-Grown women referring to their mums as 'mammy'

One that really stumped me recently was 'they're a good line then?' after I told her that my brother and girlfriend were expecting. I thought she was referring to their genes (!) when it actually meant 'have they been together for a long time?'

'root' as others mentioned does have another meaning in OZ, however 'root' to have a look around is used in OZ. Someone also mentioned 'yonder' and that would also be used in oz, as 'I'm down yonder', or 'it's out yonder'.

DublinWriter · 26-02-2010 09:49PM

Annuv wrote: »

You might the book "To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland" interesting, it explains why there are so many Irish names found in the Caribbean and also the expression/accent similiarities. Particulary interesting is the story of the Redlegs in barbados

No word of a lie, I once worked with a lad who was a redhead Cork 'Norrie' who the previous summer had been working the building sites in NYC - only the blacks could understand him and they had to translate what he was saying to the Italian Union Foreman.

falan · 27-02-2010 12:36AM

Gowl...

Shades=Guards.

Describing a 'fight' where you had the upper hand you could say "I fcuked him down on the ground." This would mean that you threw him on the ground".

Fcuked means to throw something.

Down in my neck of the woods "I will ya"=No...

Chipper/Chippy

Like A Fox · 27-02-2010 12:48AM

Sound = Thanks

I always thought it was a universal one, until I used it in front of a friend from Dublin who had never heard it before! :eek:

stovelid · 27-02-2010 01:05AM

M O N T O wrote: »

Sap / Spa/ Mongo?

Don't think theyre used anywhere else?

Spastic and especially Mong are widely used in England.

PostHack · 27-02-2010 01:17AM

DublinWriter wrote: »

No word of a lie, I once worked with a lad who was a redhead Cork 'Norrie' who the previous summer had been working the building sites in NYC - only the blacks could understand him and they had to translate what he was saying to the Italian Union Foreman.

A friend of my dads used to work on the building sites in New york, probably in the seventies. Would have been his first time out of Kerry. When he was talking to the yanks he'd be saying that "the craic at home is mighty". They were fascinated that a young innocent Irish lad like him was able to get hard drugs in rural Ireland!

falan · 27-02-2010 01:36AM

Like A Fox wrote: »

Sound = Thanks

I always thought it was a universal one, until I used it in front of a friend from Dublin who had never heard it before! :eek:

I used to live in the north of England and it is widely used there. Its also widely used around Limerick and most places i know. Dubs are strange:p

InTheTrees · 27-02-2010 02:02AM

The jacks...

where does that come from?

bernyh · 27-02-2010 04:49AM

"Put on your pants?!?!"

I still find it hilarious when ppl call trousers "pants"... to me "pants" either means underwear or that something is rubbish!! (Scot's slang!)

If colleagues ask me "how are you?" my natural reply is "i'm fine" but mostly ppl start to ask me what is wrong with me, or am I in a mood, cos in Dublin if you don't say "I'm grand or that's grand".. there has to be something wrong?!

stovelid · 27-02-2010 05:29AM

InTheTrees wrote: »

The jacks...

where does that come from?

Somebody once told me it was an army phrase. I'm sure somebody can confirm.

Dudess · 27-02-2010 05:50AM

falan wrote: »

Gowl...

A great one - I use it all the time. It just has the same meaning as "muppet" - i.e. a generic insult. Although I've seen it used here as a slang word for... gee.

Tar.Aldarion · 27-02-2010 06:02AM

Only ever heard it as the latter

English words and expressions used in Ireland only

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