'Cat'

HOS 1997 · 06-02-2012 12:31pm #1

I heard some bad news yesterday from a friend from the town, he described the situation as 'cat'.

It made my think does anyone apart from us in Sligo use this term to describe something bad or is it unique to us?

Can anyone explain how we started using it as I can't think what word it could be derived from?

sealgaire · 06-02-2012 12:33pm

its used in galway too

magnumlady · 06-02-2012 2:38pm

I asked the same thing on twitter. It's not Sligo thing as years ago I heard people from other parts of Ireland say it. Anyway this might explain it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodeon_%28organ%29

Plazaman · 06-02-2012 4:01pm

I always thought "cat" was short for "catastrophe" or "catastrophic".

Only ever heard it used here in Sligo though usually preceded by "Ahhh here, dat's...." etc. You can have the option of putting "Sham" in there as well.

Any time I've heard it used or I've used it myself, usually summed up the situation quite well.

mongoman · 06-02-2012 5:19pm

Sligo is the only place where I have come across the use of this expression.

mountainy man · 06-02-2012 8:53pm

Sometimes followed by Melodium (sic) if the situation is worse that just "cat".

Eddie Ere · 07-02-2012 1:23am

Yeah friends from other parts don't really get what I'm on about when I use it as an expression.

SligoLady · 09-02-2012 3:15pm

I'm from the Dublin/ meath/ louth border area originally and it's used up there too although it wouldn't be as common as it is in Sligo. I always wondered what the whole 'malojan' thing was about... Having read that 'Wiki' the pronuniciation has probably gotten lost along the way.... I'm sure there's tons of other phrases that we use regularly and don't have a notion what they mean or where they originated..strange isn't it!?:P Like 'Getting the shift'...or 'steamed/ steamboats' for being drunk or 'such a dive' for somewhere awful or putting 'pure' in front of everything

Scarlet42 · 09-02-2012 3:40pm

used a great deal in Belfast as well, infact I thought it was just a Belfast thing!

DC81 · 25-10-2014 9:16pm

We use it in Donegal too
Lol

bobmalooka · 25-10-2014 9:19pm

Catastrophic

It's used everywhere a little bit but I have heard it a lot more around Sligo

dardevle · 26-10-2014 7:04pm

...some musings on the origins here:

http://stancarey.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/this-blog-post-is-cat-melodeon/

.

26-10-2014 7:11pm

You'll hear it all over the connacht anyway. It's cat since the dog died.

Kettleson · 16-05-2015 10:04pm

Hopefully not too much of a bump. Watching a programme tonight about Cornwall and remembered this thread.

It mentioned a saying in Cornwall: "When the fishing's scat, the mining's scat and the farming's scat, take to the smuggling".

Scat is a recognised word in the Cornish dialect: "to hit or break" = smashed up.

At a guess, I'd suggest fishing/trade routes/ports would have some significance in its common shared use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cornish_dialect_words

Kettleson · 16-05-2015 10:10pm

It would be interesting to see if any others notice similarities in common dialect. I've spotted quite a few.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cornish_dialect_words

Radharc na Sleibhte · 18-05-2015 4:03pm

Plus 1 for "Catastrophe"

I lost me job
Ah man that's cat so it is

TireeTerror · 31-05-2015 7:50pm

Im not from Ireland so when I heard it I questioned its meaning. Lots of people Ive met in Louth use it.

Kettleson · 01-06-2015 10:21pm

My vote would be the Cornish origin.

"Scat " has various meanings in ancient Cornish and nearly all of them bad.

"To slap, to break, to smash to be bankrupt. Diarrhea. Anything burst or broken open".

"Scat Merchant" = "One who has failed in business. Formerly a term of great contempt".

"A scat-to" To quarrel.

They all sound pretty cat/scat to me.

https://books.google.ie/books?id=xJJxBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA256&lpg=PA256&dq=scat+cornish&source=bl&ots=cGwZMUxt0_&sig=lHG5F8SuWCeQ8OoKsjxZcnTUVLA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8cpsVZi4AcmOsAG-roGgBg&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=scat%20cornish&f=false

redarmyblues · 02-06-2015 8:34pm

I don't now the origin but I do know that folk etymology is almost always wrong from reading the great and and now late Diarmaid Ó Muirithethough in the Irish Times. I would guess that the melojan part is an addition derived from cat used to describe a bad singer or musician.

The Cornish scat mentioned earlier is possibly dialect for **** from the Greek skat, (ye who like German porn will know all about that) and not related to the Irish cat, one a noun the other an adjective. One source suggests it may be related to the old Fomorian phrase 'key yat' meaning very bad, new linguistic research indicates that the last monolingual Fomorian speaker, Wanadee Murns didn't die until 1777, which is a much later date than previously thought. Wanadee was born about 1692 in the area around Slish Wood, then a wolf infested wilderness, he lived in Cranmore Village in later life, which was itself an isolated rural hamlet separate from the town. So there may be a Sligo connection.

Kettleson · 02-06-2015 11:15pm

an interesting post Red Army Blues. I wasn't sure momentarily, if I was still of sane mind.

Where can I read more about Wanadee Murns?

redarmyblues · 03-06-2015 10:45am

Kettleson wrote: »

an interesting post Red Army Blues. I wasn't sure momentarily, if I was still of sane mind.

Where can I read more about Wanadee Murns?

A document was discovered by a colleague, browsing in the shop of Alfredo Breitfeld, Librería de Antaño, Buenos Aires, the recto of the manuscript contained only the accounts of an Andean convent, and was of no particular interest but on closer inspection , versō foliō, my friend discerned faint marks in what appeared to be code. He was able to buy the book quite cheaply and after much work discovered the key to what seems to be a journal, encrypted no doubt, to conceal the um, unconventional tastes of the author, here is a section he just emailed me.

“Whilst carrying out my research in the vicinity of Sligoe, it was with the greatest of pleasure that I dined with Dr Bull Luffer the noted natural philosopher and antiquarian. The good Doctor keeps a splendid table and an even better cellar of Sillery, Claret and Sack, however my chief delight that evening was to auscultate to his discourse on the Old Fommorian. Upon learning of my interest on the subject and the remarks I had made concerning this curious tongue to the Royal Society he advised me to travel the next day to Sligoe Towne. Opun reaching that district and making inquiries I was directed to a rustic hamlet some furlongs east of the towne, it was a place of rude cabins which had in common with that towne, more shebeens than dwellings, and it was In the lowest of these drinking dens that I first made the aquaintance of Wanadee Murns, last of the Fomorians.”

Kettleson · 03-06-2015 2:35pm

A very entertaining read redarmyblues. Is this fact or fiction? I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

il gatto · 09-07-2015 7:25am

redarmyblues wrote: »

A document was discovered by a colleague, browsing in the shop of Alfredo Breitfeld, Librería de Antaño, Buenos Aires, the recto of the manuscript contained only the accounts of an Andean convent, and was of no particular interest but on closer inspection , versō foliō, my friend discerned faint marks in what appeared to be code. He was able to buy the book quite cheaply and after much work discovered the key to what seems to be a journal, encrypted no doubt, to conceal the um, unconventional tastes of the author, here is a section he just emailed me.

“Whilst carrying out my research in the vicinity of Sligoe, it was with the greatest of pleasure that I dined with Dr Bull Luffer the noted natural philosopher and antiquarian. The good Doctor keeps a splendid table and an even better cellar of Sillery, Claret and Sack, however my chief delight that evening was to auscultate to his discourse on the Old Fommorian. Upon learning of my interest on the subject and the remarks I had made concerning this curious tongue to the Royal Society he advised me to travel the next day to Sligoe Towne. Opun reaching that district and making inquiries I was directed to a rustic hamlet some furlongs east of the towne, it was a place of rude cabins which had in common with that towne, more shebeens than dwellings, and it was In the lowest of these drinking dens that I first made the aquaintance of Wanadee Murns, last of the Fomorians.”

Sorry for bumping this again but that is epic

Sorry kettleson. You'd gotten away with it and all

il gatto · 09-07-2015 7:28am

For the record, I always heard it was from catastrophe or catastrophic. And it was incredibly common in Sligo going back years. I'm sure it's used elsewhere but I've often been asked by outsiders what it means so I assume nowhere as commonly as in Sligo. "Dat's cat, dat is."

Kettleson · 09-07-2015 7:29pm

il gatto wrote: »

Sorry for bumping this again but that is epic
Sorry kettleson. You'd gotten away with it and all

It's a damn good read for sure. Reminds me of my student 'Moroccan' days in Edinburgh. I'd love to read more. (Slowly exhales).....:)

redarmyblues · 09-07-2015 9:47pm

Funny I got an email from Argentina the other day, a little more of the text has been painfully deciphered.

“The place was kept by a knowing publican named Scanlin, upon stating my business, Mr Scanlin indicated a decrepit individual seated in a corner and said that if I wanted to meet Wanadee Murns then that fellowe there was my man he confirmed that Murns was indeed often away with the Faeries, Faeries being the term the simple papist people have for the Fommorians. Upon being presented to Mr Murns, I bade him good day with my compliments and asked him how he did. Mr Scanlin made Murns, by divers antic gestures and guttural sounds understand my words, to which he replied ’owenie keyatt, owenie keyatt ‘, at this point Scanlin turned to me and said ‘Sorr, the gintleman says he does very badly, would Sorr maybe buy the gintleman a drink in order to revive him a biteen’”. A pint tumbler of Useagh Bathye was placed in front of Murns, he tossed this off with the greatest of complancency before falling into an alcoholic coma. I left the inn promising to return on the morrow to continue my studies. I cannot communicate the joy I felt at hearing the small scrap of that aynchent tongue but I did determine at once to celebrate the fact in the buggery of a painted boy, of which Dr Luffer assured me the Citye of Sligoe was famous”.

'Cat'

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