Vocabulary: A to K.

**Chapter XIII.

Vocabulary and Index.**

[p.209]

[In this Vocabulary, as well indeed as through the whole book, gh and ch are to sound guttural, as in lough and lock, unless otherwise stated or implied. Those who cannot sound the guttural may take the sound of k instead, and they will not be far wrong.] **

Able**; strong, muscular, and vigorous:- ‘Nagle was a strong able man.’ **

Able dealer**; a schemer. (Limerick.) **

Acushla**; see Cushlamochree. **

Adam’s ale**; plain drinking-water. **

Affirming**, assenting, and saluting, 9. **

Agra or Agraw**: a term of endearment; my love: vocative of Irish *grádh, *love. **

Ahaygar**;* *a pet term; my friend, my love: vocative *of *Irish *téagar, *love a dear person. **

Aims-ace**; a small amount, quantity, or distance. Applied in the following way very generally in Munster:- ‘He was within an aim’s-ace of being drowned’ {very near). A survival in Ireland of the old Shakesperian wora *ambs-ace, *meanLng two aces or two single points in throwing dice, the smallest possible throw. **

Air**: a visitor comes in:- ‘Won’t you sit down Joe and take an *air *of the fire.’ (Very usual.) **

Airt** used in Ulster and Scotland for a single point of the compass:-

‘Of a’ the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.’ (Burns)

It is the Irish *áird, *a point of the compass.

[p.210] **

Airy**; ghostly, fearsome: an *airy *place, a haunted place. Same as Scotch *eerie. *From Gaelic *áedharaigh, *same sound and meaning. A survival of the old Irish pagan belief that air-demons were the most malignant of all supernatural beings: see Joyce’s ‘Old Celtic Romances,’ p.15. **

Alanna**; my child: vocative case of Irish *leanbh *[lannav], a child.

Allow; admit. ‘I allow that you lent me a pound’: ‘if you allow that you cannot deny so and so.’ This is an old English usage. (Ducange.) To advise or recommend: ‘I would not allow you to go by that road’ (‘I would not recommend’). ‘I’d allow you to sow that field with oats’ (advise). **

All to**; means except:- ‘I’ve sold my sheep all to six,’ i.e. except six. This is merely a translation from the Irish as in *Do marbhadh na daoine go haoin triúr: *‘The people were slain all to a single three.’ (Keating.) **

Along of**; on account of. ‘Why did you keep me waiting [at night] so long at the door, Pat?’ ‘Why then ‘twas all along of Judy there being so much afraid of the fairies.’* *(Crofton Croker.) **

Alpeen**, a stick or hand-wattle with a knob at the lower end: diminutive of Irish *alp *a limb. Sometimes called a *clehalpeen: *where *cleh *is the Irish *cleath *a stick. *Clehalpeen, *a knobbed cudgel. **

Amadaun**, a fool (man or boy), a half-foot, a foolish person. Irish *amdán, *a fool: a form of onmitán; from ón, a fool: see Oanshagh.

American wake**; a meeting of friends on the evening before the departure of some young people for [p.201] America, as a farewell celebration (See my ‘Old Irish Folk-Music and Songs,’ p. l91.) **

Amplush**, a fix, a difficulty: he was in a great amplush. (North and South.) Edw. Walsh in Dub. Pen. Journal.) **

Amshagh**; a sudden hurt, an accident. (Derry.) **

Ang-ishore**; a poor miserable creature - man or woman. It is merely the Irish word *aindeiseóir. *(Chiefly South.) **

Any** is used for *no *(in *no more) in parts of West and North-west. ‘James, you left the gate open this morning and the calves got oat.’ ‘Oh I’m sorry sir; I will do it any mare.’ This is merely a mistranslation of níos mo ***from some confused idea of the sense of two *(Irish) *negatives *(níos *being one, with another preceding) leading to the omission of an English negative from the correct construction - “I will *not *do it any more:’ Níos mo meaning in English ‘no more ‘or ‘any more’ according to the omission or insertion of an English negative. **

Aree** often used after *ochone *(alas) in Donegal and elsewhere. *Aree *gives the exact pronunciation of a Rígh and *neimhe *(heaven) is understood. The full Irish exclamation is *ochón a Rígh neimhe, *‘alas, O King of heaven.’ **

Arnaun** or arnaul, to sit up working at night later than usual. Irish airneán or airneál*, *same meaning. **

Aroon**, a term of endearment, ‘my love, my dear:* Eileen Aroon, *the name of a celebrated Irish air: vocative of Irish rún [roon], *a *secret, a secret treasure. In Limerick common]y shortened to *aroo. *‘Where are you going now aroo?’

[p.212] **

Art-loochra** or arc-loochra, a harmless lizard five or six inches long: Irish art or *arc *is a lizard: *luachra, *rushes; the ‘lizard of the rushes.’ **

Ask**, a water-newt, a small water-lizard: from *esc *or *easc *[ask] an old Irish word for water. From the same root comes the next word, the diminutive form- **

Askeen**; land made by cutting away bog which generally remains more or less watery. (Reilly: Kildare.) **

Asthore**, a term of endearment, ‘my treasure.’ The vocative case of Irish stór [store] treasure. **

Athurt**; to confront:- ‘Oh well I will athurt him with that lie he told about me.’ (Cork.) Possibly a mispronunciation of athwart.**

Avourneen**, my love: the vocative case of Irish *muirnin, *a sweetheart, a loved person. **

Baan**: a field covered with short grass:- ‘A baan field’: ‘a *baan *of cows’: i.e. a grass farm with its proper number of cows. Irish bán, whitish. **

Back**; a faction: ‘I have a good back in the country, so I defy my enemies. **

Back of God-speed**; a place very remote, out of the way: so far off that the virtue of your wish of *God-speed *to a person will not go with him so far. **

Bacon**: to ‘save one’s bacon’; to succeed in escaping some serious personal injury - death, a beating, &c. ‘They fled from the fight to save their bacon’: ‘Here a lodging I’d taken, but loth to awaken, for fear of my bacon, either man, wife, or babe.’ (Old Anglo-Irish poem.)

[p.213] **

Bad member**: a doer of evil; a bad character; a treacherous fellow: ‘I’m ruined,’ says he, ‘for some bad member has wrote to the bishop about me.’ (‘Wild Sports of the West.’) **

Baffity**, unbleached or blay calico. (Munster.) **

Bails** or bales, frames made of perpendicular wooden bars in which cows are fastened for the night in the stable. (Munster.) **

Baithershin**; may be so, perhaps. Irish *b’féidir sin, *same sound and meaning. **

Ballowr** (Bal-yore in Ulster); to bellow, roar, bawl, talk loudly and coarsely. **

Ballyhooly**, a village near Fermoy in Cork, formerly notorious for its faction fights, so that it has passed into a proverb. A man is late coming home and expects *Baflyhooly *from his wife, i.e. ‘the length and breadth of her tongue.’ Father Carroll has neglected to visit his relatives, the Kearneys, for a long time, so that he knows he’s *in the black books *with Mrs. Kearney, and expects Ballyhooly from her the first time he meets ‘her. (‘Knocknagow.’) **

Ballyorgan** in Co Limerick, 146. **

Banagher** and Ballinasloe, 192. **

Bannalanna**: a woman who sells ale over the counter. Irish *bean-na-leanna, *‘woman of the ale.’ ale-woman’ *(leann, *ale). **

Ballyrag**; to give loud abuse in torrents. (General) **

Bandle**; a 2-foot measure for home-mado flannel. (Munster.)

Bang-up; a frieze overcoat with high collar and long cape.

[p.214] **

Banshee**; a female fairy: Irish bean-sidhe [ban-shee], a ‘woman from the *shee *or fairy-dwelling.’ This was the original meaning; but in modern times, and among English speakers, the word *banshee *has become narrowed in its application, and signifies a female spirit that attends certain families, and is heard *keening *or crying aloud at night round the house when some member of the family is about to die. **

Barcelona**; a silk kerchief for the neck

‘His clothes spick and span new without e’er a speck;

A neat Barcelona tied round his white neck.’

(Edward Lysaght, in ‘The Sprig of Shillelah.’]

So called because imported from Barcelona, preserving a memory of the old days of smuggling. **

Barsa, barsaun**; a scold. (Kild. and Ulst.) **

Barth**; a back-load of rushes, straw, heath, &c. Irish beart.**

Baury, baura, baur-ya, bairy**; the goal in football, hurling, &c. Irish *báire *[2-syll.], a game, a goal. **

Bawn**; an enclosure near a farmhouse for cattle, sheep, &c.; in some districts, simply a farmyard. Irish *badhun *[bawn], a cow-keep, from ba, cows, and *dún, *a keep or fortress. Now generally applied to the green field near the homestead where the cows are brought to be milked. **

Bawneen**; a loose whitish jacket of home-made undyed flannel worn by men at out-door work. Very general: *banyan *in Derry. From Irish *bán *[bawn], whitish, with the diminutive termination.

Bawnoge; a dancing-green. (MacCall; Leinster.)

[p.215]

From *bán *[baan], a field covered with short grass; and the dim. óg (p.90). **

Bawshill**, a fetch or double. (See Fetch.) (MacCall: S. Wexford.) I think this is a derivative of *Bow, *which see. **

Beestings**; new milk from a cow that has just calved. **

Be-knownst**; known: unbe-knownst; unknown. (Antrim.) **

Better than**; more than:- ‘It is better than a year since I saw him last’; ‘better than a mile,’ &c. (Leinster and Munster.) **

Bian**, [by-ann’]; one of Bianconi’s long cars. (See Jingle.) **

Binnen**; the rope tying a cow to a stake in a field. (Knowles: Ulster.) **

Birragh**; a muzzle-band with spikes on a calf’s or a foal’s muzzle to prevent it sucking its mother. From Irish *bir, *a sharp spit: birragh, full off sharp points or spits. (Munster: see Gubbaun.) **

Blackfast**: among Roman Catholics, there is a ‘black fast’ on Ash Wednesday, Spy Wednesday, and Good Friday, i.e. no flesh meat or whitemeat is allowed - no flesh, butter, eggs, cheese, or milk. **

Blackfeet**. The members of one of the secret societies of a century ago were called ‘Ribbonmen.’ Some of them acknowledged the priests: those were ‘whitefeet’: others did not - ‘blackfeet.’ **

Black man**, black fellow; a surly vindictive implacable irreconcilable fellow. **

Black man**; the man who accompanies a suitor to the house of the intended father-in-law, to help to make the match.

[p.215] **

Black of one’s nail**. ‘You just escaped by the black your nail’: ‘there’s no cloth left - not the size of the black of my nail.’ (North and South.) **

Black swop**. When two fellows have two wretched articles - such as two old penknives - each thinking his own to be the worst in the universe, they sometimes agree for the pure humour of the thing to make a *black swop, *i.e. to swop without first looking at the articles. When they are looked at after the swop, there is always great fun (See Hool.) **

Blarney**; smooth, plausible, cajoling talk. From Blarney Castle near Cork, in which there is a certain stone hard to reach, with this virtue, that if a person kisses it, he will be endowed with the gift of blarney.**

Blast**; when a child suddenly fades in health and pines away, he has got a blast, - i.e. a puff of evil wind sent by some baleful sprite has struck him. *Blast *when applied to fruit or crops means a blight in the ordinary sense - nothing supernatural. **

Blather, bladdher**; a person who utters vulgarly foolish boastful talk: used also as a verb - to blather. Hence *blatherumskite, applied to a *person or to his talk in much the same sense; ‘I never heard such a blatherumskite.’ Ulster and Scotch form *blether, blethering: *Burns speaks of stringing ‘blethers up in rhyme.’ (‘The Vision.’) **

Blaze, blazes, blazing**: favourite words everywhere in Ireland. Why are you in such a blazing hurry? Jack ran away like blazes: now work at that job like blazes: he is blazing drunk. Used also by the English peasantry:- ‘That’s a blazing strange

[p.217]

answer,’ says Jerry Cruncher in *‘*A Tale of Two Cities.’ There’s a touch of slang in some of these: yet the word has been in some way made classical by Lord Morley’s expression that Lord Salisbury never made a speech without uttering ‘some blazing indiscretion.’ **

Blind Billy**. In coming to an agreement take care you don’t make ‘Blind *Billy’s *Bargain,’ by either overreaching yourself or allowing the other party to overreach you. Blind Billy was the hangman in Limerick, and on one particular occasion he flatly refused to do his work unless he got £50 down on the nail: so the high sheriff had to agree and the hangman put the money in his pocket. When all was over the sheriff refused point-blank to send the usual escort without a fee of £60 down. So Blind Billy had to hand over the £50 - for if lie wont without an escort he would be torn in pieces - and had nothing in the end for his job. **

Blind lane**; a lane stopped up at one end. **

Blind window**; an old window stopped up, but still plain to be seen. **

Blink**; to exercise an evil influence by a glance of the ‘evil eye’; to ‘overlook’; hence ‘blinked,’ blighted by the eye. When the butter does not come in churning, the milk has been blinked by some one. **

Blirt**; to weep: as a noun, a rainy wind, (Ulster.) **

Blob** (blab often in Ulster), a raised blister: a drop of honey, or of anything liquid. **

Blue look out**; a bad look-out, bad prospect. **

Boal **or bole; a shelved recess in a room. (North.) **

Boarhaun**; dried cowdung used for fuel like turf. Irish boithreán [boarhaun], from bo, a cow.

[p.218] **

Boccach** [accented on 2nd syll. in Munster, but elsewhere on 1st]; a lame person. From the fact that so many beggars are lame or pretend to be lame, *boccach *has come to mean a beggar. Irish *bacach, *a lame person: from bac, to halt. *Bockady, *another form of *boccach in *Munster. *Bockeen *(the diminutive added on to *bac), *another form heard in Mayo. **

Boddagh** [accented on 2nd syl]. in Munster; in Ulster on lst], a rich churlish clownish fellow. Tom Cuddihy wouldn’t bear insult from any purse-proud old *boddagh. *(‘Knocknagow.’) **

Body-coat**; a coat like the present dress-coat, cut away in front so as to leave a narrow pointed tail skirt behind: usually made of frieze and worn with the knee-breeches. **

Body-glass**; a large mirror in which the whole body can be seen. (Limerick.) **

Body-lilty**; heels over head. (Derry.) **

Bog**; what is called in England a ‘peat moss.’ Merely the Irish *bog, *soft. Bog (verb) to be bogged; to sink in a bog or any soft soil or swampy place. **

Bog-butter**; butter found deep in bogs, where it had been buried in old times for a purpose, and forgotten: a good deal changed now by the action of the bog. (See Joyce’s ‘Smaller Soc Hist. of Anc. Ireland,’ p. 200.) **

Bog-Latin**; bad incorrect Latin; Latin that had been learned in the hedge schools among the bogs. This derisive and reproachful epithet was given in bad old times by pupils and others of the favoured, legal, and endowed schools, sometimes with reason,

[p.219]

but oftener very unjustly. For those *bog *or hedge schools sent out numbers of scholarly men, who afterwards entered the church or lay professions. (See p.151.) **

Boghaleen**; the same as Crusheen, which see. **

Bohaun**; a cabin or hut. Irish *both *[boh], a hut, with the diminutive án. **

Bold**; applied to girls and boys in the sense of ‘forward,’ impudent.’ **

Boliaun**, also called *booghalaun bwee *and geosadaun; the common yellow ragwort : all these are Irish word S **

Bolting-hole**; the second or backward entrance made by rats, mice, rabbits, &c., from their burrows, so that if attacked at the ordinary entrance, they can escape by this, which is always left unused except in case of attack. (Kinahan.) **

Bones**. If a person magnifies the importance of any matter and talks as if it were some great affair, the other will reply:- ‘Oh, you’re *making great bones *about it.’ **

Bonnive**, a sucking-pig. Irish *banbh, *same sound and meaning. Often used with the diminutive - bonniveen, bonneen. ‘Oh look at the baby pigs,’ says an Irish lady one day in the hearing of others and myself, ashamed to use the Irish word. After that she always bore the nickname ‘Baby pig’: - ‘Oh, there’s the Baby pig.’ **

Bonnyclabber**; thick milk Irish *bainne [bonny] *milk; and *clabar, *anything thick or half liquid. ‘In use all over America.’ (Russell.) **

Boochalawn bwee**; ragweed: same as boliam, which see.

[p.220] **

Boolanthroor**; three men threshing together, instead of the usual two: striking always in time. Irish *buail-an-triúr, *‘the striking of three. **

Booley** as a noun; a temporary settlement in the grassy uplands where the people of the adjacent lowland village lived during the summer with their cattle, and milked them and made butter, returning in autumn

• cattle and all - to their lowland farms to take up the crops. Used as a verb also:* to booley. *See my ‘Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc. Ireland,’ p.431; or ‘Irish Names of Places,’ p. 239. **

Boolthaun**, boulhaun, booltheen, boolshin: the striking part of a flail: from Irish *buail *[bool], to strike, with the diminutive. **

Boon** in Ulster, same as *Mihul *eLsewhere; which see. **

Boreen or bohereen**, a narrow road. Irish bóthar [boher], a road, with the diminutive. **

Borick**; a small wooden ball used by boys in hurling or goaling, when the proper leather-covered ball is not to hand. Called in Ulster a nag and also a *golley. *(Knowles.) **

Borreen-brack**, ‘speckled cake,’ speckled with currants and raisins, from Irish *bairghín *[borreen], a cake, and *breac *[brack], speckled: specially baked for Hallow-eve. Sometimes corruptly called barmbrack or barn-brack.

Bosthoon**: a flexible rod or whip made of a number of green rushes laid together and bound up with single rushes wound round and round. Made by boys in play - as I often made them. Hence *‘bosthoon *is applied contemptuously to a soft

[p.221]

worthless spiritless fellow, in much the same sense as poltroon**

Bother**; merely the Irish word *bodhar, *deaf, used both as a noun and a verb in English (in the sense of deafening, annoying, troubling, perplexing, teasing): a person deaf or partially deaf is said to be bothered:- ‘Who should come in but *bothered *Nancy Fay. Now be it known that *bothered *signifies deaf and Nancy was a little old cranky bothered woman.’ (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You ‘turn the *bothered *ear’ to a person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request. In these applications there is universal in Ireland among all classes - educated as well as uneducated accordingly, as Murray notes, it was first brought into use by Irishmen, such as Sheridan, Swift and Sterne; just as Irishmen of to-day are bringing into currency *galore, smithereens, *and many other Irish words. In its primary sense of deaf or to deafen, *bother *is used in the oldest Irish documents: thus in the Book of Leinster we have:- Ro bodrais sind oc imradud do maic, ‘Yoy have made us deaf (you have bothered us) talking about your son’ (Kuno Meyer): and a similar expression is in use at the present day in the very common phrase ‘don’t *bother *me ‘(don’t deafen me, don’t annoy me), which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish phrase *ná bi am’ bhodradh. *Those who derive *bother *from the English pother make *a *guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun. **

Bottheen**, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irish bata with the diminutive:- baitín.

Bottom**; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricks

[p.222]

of girls on Hallow-eve to find out the destined husband is to go out to the limekiln at night with a ball of yarn; throw in the ball still holding the thread; re-wind the thread, till it is suddenly stopped; call out ‘who howlds my bottom of yarn?’ when she expects to hear the name of the young man she is to marry. **

Bouchal or boochal**, a boy: the Irish *buachaill, *same meaning. **

Bouilly-bawn**, white home-made bread of wheaten flour; often called *bully-bread. *(MacCall: Wexford) From Irish *bul *or *búilidhe, *a loaf, and bán, white. **

Boundhalaun**, a plant with thick hollow stem with joints, of which boys make rude syringes. From Irish *banndal *or bannlamh, a bandle which see), with **the dim. termination án. I never saw true boundhalauns outside Munster. **

Bourke**, the Rev. Father, 71, 161 **

Bownloch**, a sore on the sole of the foot always at the edge: from *bonn *the foot-sole [pron bown in the South], and loch a mere termination. Also called a Bine-lock.

Bowraun**, a sieve-shaped vessel for holding or measuring out corn, with the flat bottom made of dried sheepskin stretched tight; sometimes used as a rude tambourine, from which it gets the name *bowraun; *Irish *bodhur *[pron. bower here], deaf, from the *bothered *or indistinct sound. (South.) **

Bow** [to rhyme with *cow]; a banshee, a fetch *(both which see. MacCall: South Leinster). This word has come down to us from very old times, for it preserves the memory of *Bugh *[Boo], a *banshee *or fairy queen once very celebrated, the daughter of

[p.223]

Bove Derg king of the Dedannans or faery-race, of whom information will be obtained in the classical Irish story ‘The Fate of the Children of Lir,’ the first in my ‘Old Celtic Romances.’ She has given her name to many hills all through Ireland. (See my ‘Irish Names of Places,’ I. 182, 183. See Bawshill.) **

Box and dice**; used to denote the whole lot: I’ll send you the books and manuscripts, box and dice. **

Boxty**; same as the Limerick muddly, which see. **

Boy**. Every Irishman is a ‘boy’ till he is married, and indeed often long after. (Crofton Croker: ‘Ir. Fairy Legends,’) **

Brablins**: a crowd of children: a rabble. (Monaghan.) **

Bracket**; speckled: a ‘bracket cow.’ Ir. breac speckled. **

Braddach**; given to mischief; roguish. Ir. bradach, a thief: in the same sense as when a mother says to her child, ‘You young thief, stop that mischief.’ Often applied to cows inclined to break down and cross fences. (Meath and Monaghan.) **

Brander**; a gridiron. (North.) From Eng. brand. **

Brash**; a turn of sickness (North ) Water-brash (Munster), severe acidity of the stomach with a flow of watery saliva from the mouth. Brash (North), a short turn at churning or at anything; a stroke of the churndash: ‘Give the churn a few trashes.’ In Donegal you will hear ‘that’s a good brash of hail.’

Brave; often used as an intensive:- ‘This is a brave fine day’; *‘*that’s a brave big dog’: (Ulster) Also fine or admirable ‘a brave stack of hay’:

[p.224]

tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in* *fighting):- ”I have as brave a set of sons as you’d find in a day’s walk.’ ‘How is your sick boy doing?’ ‘Oh bravely, thank you.’ **

Braw**; fine, handsome Ir. *breagh, *same sound and meanings. (Ulster.) **

Break**. You *break *a grass field when you plough or dig it up for tillage. ‘I’m going to break kiln field.’ (‘Knocknagow.’) Used all over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray’s Elegy ‘Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke.’ **

Break**; to dismiss from employment: ‘Poor William O’Donnell was *broke *last week.’ This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:- ‘Cid nod m-brís in fer-so a bo-airechus?’ ‘What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) the man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position as *bo-aire *or chief)?’ My car-driver asked me one time:- ‘Can an inspector of National Schools be broke, sir?’ By which he meant could he be dismissed at any time without any cause. **

Breedoge** [d sounded like th in *bathe]; *a. figure dressed up to represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve of the saint’s festival), to collect small money contributions. With this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next day, 1st Feb. ‘Breedoge’ means ‘[ittle *Brighid *or *Brighit,’ Breed *(or rather *Breedh) *representing the sound of *Brighid, *with óg the old diminutive feminine termination.

[p.225] **

Brecham**, the straw collar put on a horse’s or an ass’s neck: sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.) **

Brehon Law**; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was called a ‘brehon.’ **

Brew**; a margin, a brink: ‘that lake is too shallow to fish from the brews’: from the Irish bru, same sound and meaning. See Broo. **

Brief**; prevalent: ‘fever is very brief.’ Used all over the southern half of Ireland. Perbaps a mistake for rife.**

Brillauns** or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in a peasant’s cottage. Dick O’Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married as soon as they can gather up the few *brill-yauns *of furniture. (South-east of Ireland.) **

Brine-oge**; ‘a young fellow full of fun and frolic.’ (Carleton: Ulster.) **

Bring**: our peculiar use of this (for ‘take’) appears in such phrases as:- ‘he brought the cows to the field’: ‘he brought me to the theatre.’ (Hayden and Hartog.) See Carry. **

Brock, brockish**; a badger. It is just the Irish broc. **

Brock, brocket, brockey**; applied tO a person heavily pock-marked. I suppose from broc, a badger. (Ulster.) **

Brogue**, a shoe: Irish bróg. Used also to designate the Irish accent in speaking English: for the old Irish thong-stitched brogue was considered so characteristically Irish that the word was applied to our accent; as a clown is called a *cauboge *(which see: Munstcr).

[p.226] **

Brohoge** or bruhoge; a small batch of potatoes roasted. See Brunoge. **

Broken**; bankrupt: quite a common expression is:- Poor Phil Burke is ‘broken horse and foot’; i.e. utterly bankrupt and ruined. **

Broo**, the edge of a potato ridge along which cabbages are planted. Irish *bru, a *margin, a brink. **

Brosna, brusna, bresna**; a bundle of sticks for firing: a faggot. This is the Irish brosna, universally used in Ireland at the present day: both in Irish and English; and used in the oldest Irish documents. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, written in Irish ten centuries ago, we are told that when Patrick was a boy, his foster-mother sent him one day for a *brossna *of withered branches to make a fire. **

Broth of a boy**; a good manly brave boy: essence of manhood, as broth is the essence of meat. **

Brough**; a ring or halo round the moon. It is the Irish *bretach, *a border. **

Broughan**; porridge or oatmeal stirabout. Irish *brochán. *(Ulster.) **

Bruggadauns** [*d *sounded like *th *in they]; the stalks of ferns found in meadows after mowing. (Kerry.) **

Brulliagh**; a row, a noisy scuffle. (Derry.) **

Brunoge**; a little batch of potatoes roasted in a fire made in the potato field at digging time: always dry, floury and palatable. (Roscommon.) Irish *bruithneóg. *See Brohoge. **

Brass** or briss; small broken bits mixed up with dust: very often applied to turf-dust. Irish brus, *bris, *same sounds and meaning. (South.)

[p.227] **

Brutteen, brutin, bruteens**; the Ulster words for caulcannon; which see. Irish brúightin.

Buckaun; the upright bar of a hinge on which the other part with the door hangs. Irish bocán.**

Buckley**, Father Darby, 68, 146. **

Bucknabarra**; any non-edible fungus. (Fermanagh). See Pookapyle. **

Buck teeth;** superfluous teeth which stand out from the ordinary row. (Knowles: Ulster.) **

Buddaree** [dd soundel like *th *in *they]; *a rich purse-proud vulgar farmer. (Munster.) Irish. **

Buff**; the skin; to strip to one’s buff is to strip naked. Two fellows going to fight with fists strip to their buff i.e. naked from the waist up. (Munster.) **

Buggaun** (Munster), buggeen (Leinster); an egg without a shell. Irish *boy, *soft, with the dim. termination. **

Bullaun**, a bull calf. Irish, as in next word. **

Bullavaun**, bullavogue; a strong, rough, bullying fellow. From *bulla *the Irish form of bull. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Bullaworrus**; a spectral bull ‘with fire blazing from his eyes, mouth, and nose,’ that guards buried treasure by night. (Limerick.) Irish. **

Bullia-bottha** (or boolia-botha); a fight with sticks. (Simmons: *Armagh.) *Irish *buaileadh, *striking; and bata, a stick. **

Bullagadaun** [d sounded like th in they]; a short stout pot-bellied fellow. (Munster.) From Irish *bolg *[pron. bullog], a belly, and the dim. **

Bullshin, bullsheen**; same as Bullaun.

[p.228] **

Bum**; to cart turf to market: *bummer, a *person who does so as a way of living, like Billy Heffernan in ‘Knocknagow.’ Bum-bailiff, a bog bailiff. (Grainger: Arm.) Used more in the northern half of Ireland than in the southern. **

Bun**; the tail of a rabbit. (Simmons: Arm.) Irish *bun, *the end. **

Bunnans**; roots or stems of bushes or trees. (Meath.) From Irish *bun *as in last word. **

Bunnaun**; a long stick or wattLe. (Joyce: Limerick.) **

Bunnioch**; the last sheaf bound up in a field of reaped corn. The binder of this (usually a girl) will die unmarried. (MacCall: Wexford.) **

Butt**; a sort of cart boarded at bottom and all round the sides, 15 or 18 inches deep, for potatoes, sand, &c. (Limerick.) In Cork any kind of horse-cart or donkey-cart is called a butt, which is a departure from the (English) etymology. In Limerick any kind of cart except a butt is called a *car; *the word *cart *is not used at all. **

Butthoon** has much the same meaning as potthalowng, which see. Irish *butún, *same sound and meaning. (Munster.) **

Butter up**; to flatter, to cajole by soft sugary words, generally with some selfish object in view:-* *‘I suspected from the way he was buttering me up that he came to borrow money.’ **

Byre**: the place where the cows are fed and milked; sometimes a house for cows and horses, or a farmyard. **

By the same token**: this needs no explanation; it is a survival from Tudor English. (Hayden and Hartog.).

[p.229] **

Cabin-hunting**; going about from house to house to gossip. (South.)

Cabman’s Answer, The, 208. **

Cadday**; [strong accent on -day] to stray idly about. As a noun an idle *stray *of a fellow. **

Cadge**; to hawk goods for sale. (Simmons: Armagh.) To go about idly from house to house, picking up *a bit and a sup, *wherever they are to be had. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Caffler**; a contemptible little fellow who gives saucy *cheeky *foolish talk. Probabiy a mispronunciation of caviller. (Munster.) **

Cagger**; a sort of pedlar who goes to markets and houses selling small goods and often taking others in exchange. (Kinahan: South and West.) **

Cahag**; the little cross-piece on the end of a spade-handle) or of any handle. (Mon.) **

Cailey**; a friendly evening visit* *in order to have a gossip. There are usually several persons at a cailey, and along with the gossiping talk there are songs or music. Irish *céilidh, *same sound and meaning. Used all over Ireland, but more in the North than elsewhere. **

Calleach na looha** [Colleagh: accented on 2nd syll. in South; on 1st in North] ‘hag of the ashes.’ Children - and sometimes *old *children think that a littLe hag resides in the ashpit beside the fire. Irish *cailleach, *an old woman: *luaith, *ashes. **

Calleach-rue** (‘red hag’); a little reddish brown fish about 4 inches long, plentiful in small streams. We boys thought them delicious when broiled on the turf-coals. We fished for them either with a loop-snare made of a single

[p.230]

horsehair on the end of a twig with which it was very hard to catch them; for, as the boys used to say, ‘they were cute little divels’ - or directly

• like the sportsmen of old - with a spear - the same spear being nothing but an auld fork.**

Caish**; a growing pig about 8 months old. (Munster.) **

Call**; claim, right: ‘put down that spade; you have no call to it.’

Bedad,’ says he, ‘this sight is queer,

My eyes it does badizen - O;

What *call *have you marauding here,

Or how daar you leave your prison - O?’

(Repeai Song: 1843.)

Need, occasion: they lived so near each ether that there was no call to send letters. ‘Why are you shouting that way?’ ‘I have a good call] to shout, and that blackguard running away with my apples.’ Father O’Flynn could teach on many subjects:- ‘Down from mythology into thayology, Troth! and conchology if he’d the call.’ (A. P. Graves.) Used everywhere in Ireland in these several senses. **

Call**; custom in business: Our new shopheeper is getting great call, i.e. his customers are numerous. South.) **

Cam** or caum; a metal vessel for making resin to make *sluts *or long torches; also used to melt metal for coining. (Simmons: Armagh.) Called a *grisset *in Munster. Usually of a curved shape: Irish *cam, *curved. **

Candle**. ‘Jack Brien is a good scholar, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Tom Murphy’: i.e. he

[p.231]

is very inferior to him. The person that holds a candle for a workman is a mere attendant and quite an inferior. **

Cannags**; the stray ears left after the corn has been reaped and gathered. (Morris: Mon.) Called *liscauns in *Munster. **

Caper**: oat-cake and butter. (Simmons: Armagh.) **

Caravat and Shanavest**; the names of two hostile factions in Kilkenny and all round about there, of the early part of last century. Like Three-year-old and Four-year-old. Irish *Caravat, a *cravat; and *Shanavest, *old vest: which names *were *adopted, but no one can tell why. **

Card-cutter**; a fortune-teller by card bricks. Card-callers were pretty common in Limerick in my early days: but it was regarded as disreputable to have any dealings with them. **

Cardia**; friendship, a friendly welcome, additional time granted for* *paying a debt. (All over Ireland.) Ir. cáirde, same meanings. **

Cardinal Points**, 168 **

Carleycue**; a very small coin of some kind. Used like keenoge and *cross, *(Very general.) **

Carn**; a heap of anything; a monumental pile of stones heaped up over a dead person. Irish carn, same meanings. **

Caroline** or ‘Caroline hat’; a tall hat. (‘Knocknagow’: all over Munster.) **

Caroogh**, an expert or professional card-player. (Munster.) Irish cearrbhach, same sound and meaning. **

Carra, Carrie**; a weir on a river. (Derry.) Irish *carra, *same meaning.

[p.232] **

Carrigaholt** in Clare, 145. **

Carry**; to lead or drive: ‘James, carry down those cows to the river’ (i.e. drive): ‘carry the horse to the forge’ (lead). ‘I will carry my family this year to Youghal for the salt water.’ (Kinahan: South, West, and North-west.) See Bran g. **

Case**: the Irish *cás, *and applied in the same way: ‘It is a poor case that I have to pay for jour extravagance.’ *Nách dubhach bocht un cás bheith ag tuitim le ghrádh: ‘isn’t it a poor case to be *failing through love.’ - Old Irish Song. Our dialectical Irish *case, *as above, is taken straight from the Irish *cás; *but this and the standard English case are both borrowed from Latin. **

Cassnara**; respect, anything done out of respect: ‘He put on his new coat for a *casnara. *(Morris: South Mon.) **

Castor oil** was our horror when we were children. No wonder; for this story went about of how it was made. A number of corpses were hanging from hooks round the walls of the factory, and drops were continually falling from their big toes into vessels standing underneath. This was castor oil. **

Catin clay**; clay mixed with rushes or straws used in building the mud walls of cottages. (Simmons: Arm.) **

Cat of a kind**: they’re ‘cat of a kind,’ both like each other and both objectionable. **

Cat’s lick**; used in and around Dublin to express exactly the same as the Munster *Scotch lick, *which see. A cat has a small tongue and does not dc much licking,

[p.233] **

Caubeen**; an old shabby cap or hat Irish cáibín: he wore a ‘shocking bad caubeen.’ **

Cauboge**; originally an old hat, like caubeen; but now applied - as the symbol of vulgarity - to anignorant fellow, a boor, a bumpkin: ‘What else could you expect from that cauboge?’ (South.) **

Caulcannon, Calecanpon, Colecannon, Kalecannon**; potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot-herbs. In Munster often made and eaten on Hallow Eve. The first syllable is the Irish *cál, *cabbage; *cannon *is also Irish, meaning speckled. **

Caur**, kindly, good-natured, affable. (Morris: South Mon.) **

Cawmeen**; a mote: ‘there’s a cawmeen in my eye.’ (Moran: Carlow.) Irish with the diminutive. **

Cawsha Pooka**; the big fungus often seen growing on old trees or elsewhere. From Irish cáise, cheese: the ‘Pooka’s cheese.’ See Pooka, and Pookapyle and Bucknabarra. **

Cead míle fáilte** [caidh meela faultha], a hundred thousand welcomes. Irish, and universal in Ireland as a salute. **

Ceólaun** [keolaun], a trifling contemptible little fellow. (Munster. **

Cess**; very often used in the combination *bad cess *(bad luck): - ‘Bad cess to me but there’s something comin’ over me.’ (Kickhm: ‘Knocknagow.’) Some think this is a contraction of *success; *others that it is to be taken as it stands - a *cess *or contribution; which receives some little support from its use in Louth to mean ‘a quantity of corn in for threshing.’

[p.234] **

Chalk Sunday**; the first Sunday after Shrove Tuesday (first Sunday in Lent), when those young men who should have been married, but were not, were marked with a heavy streak of chalk on the back of the *Sunday coat, *by boys who carried bits of chalk in their pockets for that purpose, and lay in wait for the bachelors. The marking was done while the congregation were assembling for Mass: and the young fellow ran for his life, always laughing, and often singing the concluding words of some suitable doggerel such as:- ‘And you are not married though Lent has come!’ This custom prevailed in Munster. I saw it in full play in Limerick: but I think it has died out. For the air to which the verses were sung, see my ‘Old Irish Music and Songs,’ p. 12. **

Champ** (Down); the same as* *caucannon,’ which see. Also potatoes mashed with butter and milk; same as ‘pandy,’ which see. **

Chanter**; to go about grumbling and fault-finding. (Ulster.) **

Chapel**: Church: Scallan, 143. **

Chaw** for *chew, *97. ‘Chawing the rag’; continually grumbling, jawing, and giving abuse. (Kinahan.) **

Cheek**; impudence; *brass: *cheeky; presumptuous. **

Chincough**, whooping-cough: from *kink-cough. *See Kink. **

Chittering**; constantly muttering complaints. (Knowles.) **

Chook chook** [the *oo *sounded rather short]; a call for hens. It is the Irish tiuc, come. **

Christian**; a human being as distinguished from one of the lower animals:- ‘That dog has nearly as much sense as a Christian.’

[p.235] **

Chuff**: full. - I’m chuffey after my dinner.’ (MacCall: Wexford.) **

Clabber, clobber, or clawber**; mud: thick milk. See Bonnyclabber. **

Clamp**; a small rick of turf, built up regularly. (All through Ireland.) **

Clamper**; a dispute, a wrangle. (Munster.) Irish *clampar, *same meaning. **

Clarsha**; a lazy woman. (Morris: South Monaghan.) **

Clart**; an untidy dirty woman, especially in preparing food. (Simmons: Armagh.) **

Clash**, to carry tales: Clashbag, a tale-bearer. (Simmons: Armagh.) **

Classy**; a drain running through a byre or stable-yard. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irish *clais, *a trench, with the diminutive y added. **

Clat**; a slovenly untidy person; dirt, clay: ‘wash the clat off your hands’: clatty; slovenly, untidy - (Ulster): called *clotty *in Kildare; - a slattern. **

Clatch**; a brood of chickens. (Ulster.) See Clutch. **

Cleean** [2-syll.]; a relation by marriage - such as a father-in-law. Two persons so related are *cleeans. *Irish *cliamhan, *same sound and meaning **

Cleever**; one who deals in poultry; because he carries them in a *cleeve *or large wicker basket, (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irish *cliabh *[cleeve], a basket. **

Cleevaun**; a cradle: also a crib or cage for catching birds. The diminutive of Irish *cliabh *or cleeve, a wicker basket. **

Clegg**; a horsefly. (Ulster and Carlow.) **

Clehalpeen**; a shillelah or cudgel with a knob at the end. (South.) From Irish *cleath, *a wattle, and *ailpin *dim. of alp, a knob. 

 [p.236] **

Clever** is applied to a man who is tall, straight, and well made. **

Clevvy**; three or four shelves one over another in a wall: a sort of small open cupboard like a dresser. (All over the South.) **

Clibbin, clibbeen**; a young colt. (Donegal.) Irish *clibín, *same sound and meaning. **

Clibbock**; a young horse. (Derry.) **

Clift**; a light-headed person, easily roused and rendered foolishly excited. (Ulster.) **

Clipe-clash**: a tell-tale. (Ulster.) See Clash. **

Clochaun, clochan**; a row of stepping-stones across a river. (General.) From Irish *cloch, *a stone, with the diminutive dn. **

Clock**; a black beetle. (South.) **

Clocking hen**; a hen hatching. (General.) From the sound or *clock *she utters. **

Clooracaun or cluracaun**, another name for a leprachaun, which see. **

Close**; applied to a day means simply warm :-’ This is a very close day.’ **

Clout**; a blow with the hand or with anything. Also a piece of cloth, a rag, commonly used in the diminutive form in Munster - cloutheen. *Cloutheens *is specially applied to little rags used with an infant. *Clout *is also applied to a clownish person:- ‘It would be well if somebody would teach that *clown *some manners.’ **

Clove**; to clove flax is to *scutch *it - to draw each handful repeatedly between the blades of a ‘cloving tongs,’ so as to break off and remove the brittle husk, leaving the fibre smooth and free.

[p.237]  **

Clutch**; a brood of chickens or of any fowls: same as clatch. I suppose this is English: Waterton (an English traveller) uses it in his ‘Wanderings’; but it is not in the Dictionaries of Chambers and Webster. **

Cluthoge**; Easter eggs. (P. Reilly; Kildare.) **

Cly-thoran**; a wall or ditch between two estates. (Roscommon.) Irish *cladh *[cly], a raised dyke or fence; *teóra, *gen. *teórann *[thoran], a boundary. **

Cobby-house**; a little house made by children for play. (Munster.) **

Cockles off the heart**, 194. **

Cog**; to copy surreptitiously; to crib something from the writings of another and pass it off as your own. One schoolboy will sometimes copy from another:- ‘You cogged that sum.’ **

Coghil**; a sort of long-shaped pointed net. (Armagh.) Irish *cochal, *a net. **

Coldoy**; a bad halfpenny: a spurious worthless article of jewellery. (Limerick.) **

Colleen**; a young girl. (All over Ireland.) Irish *cailin, *same sound and meaning. **

Colley**; the woolly dusty fluffy stuff that gathers under furniture and in remote corners of rooms. Light soot-smuts flying about. **

Colloge**; to talk and gossip in a familiar friendly way. An Irish form of the Latin or English word ‘colloquy.’ **

Collop**; a standard measure of grazing land, p.177. **

Collop**; the part of a flail that is held in the hand. (Munster.) See Boolthaun. Irish colpa.**

Come-all-ye**; a nickname applied to Irish Folk Songs and Music; an old country song; from the

[p.238]

beginning of many of the songs:- ‘Come all ye tender Christians,’ &c. This name, intended to be reproachful, originated among ourselves, after the usual habit of many ‘superior’ Irishmen to vilify their own country and countrymen and all their customs and peculiarities. Observe, this opening is almost equally common in English Folk-songs; yet the English do not make game of them by nicknames. Irish music, which is thus vilified by some of our brethren, is the most beautiful Folk Music in the world. **

Comether**; come hether or hither, 97.

Commaun, common**; the game of goaling or hurley. So called from the *commaun *or crooked-shaped stick with which it is played: Irish *cam *or *com’, *curved or crooked; with the diminutive - camán. Called hurling and *goaling *by English speakers in Ireland, and *shinney *in Scotland. **

Commons**; land held in common by the people of a village or small district: see p. 177. **

Comparisons**, 186. **

Conacre**; letting land in patches for a short period. A farmer divides a large field into small portions - ¼ acre, ½ acre, &c. - and lets them to his poorer neighbours usually for one season for a single crop, mostly potatoes, or in Ulster flax. He generally undertakes to manure the whole field, and charges high rents for the little lettings. I saw this in practice more than 60 years ago in Munster. Irish con,* common, and Eng. acre*

Condition**; in Munster, to ‘change your condition’ is to get married. **

Condon**, Mr. John, of Mitchelstown, 155.

[p.239] **

Conny, canny**; discreet, knowing, cute. **

Contrairy**, for *contrary, *but accented on second syll.; cross, perverse, cranky, crotchety, 102. **

Convenient**: see Handy. **

Cool**: hurlers and football players always put one of their best players to *mind cool *or *stand cool, *i.e. to stand at their own goal or gap, to intercept the ball if the opponents should attempt to drive it through. Universal in Munster. Irish *cúl *[cool], the back. The full word is *cool-baur-ya *where ‘baur-ya’is the goal or gap. The man standing cool is often called ‘the man in the gap’ (see p. 182). **

Cool**; a good-sized roll of butter. (Munster.) **

Cooleen or coulin**; a fair-haired girl. This is the name of a celebrated Irish air. From *cúl *the back [of the head], and fionn, white or fair: *- cúil-fhionn, *[pron. cooleen or coolin]. **

Coonagh**; friendly, familiar, *great *(which see): - These two are very *coonagh.’ *(MacCall: Wexford.) Irish *cuaine, *a family. **

Coonsoge**, a bees’ nest. (Cork.) Irish *cuansa *[coonsa], a hiding-place, with the diminutive óg. **

Cooramagh**; kindly, careful, thoughtful, provident:- ‘No wonder Mrs. Dunn would look well and happy with such a *cooramagh *husband.’ Irish *curamach, *same meaning. **

Coord** *[d *sounded like *th *in *bathe], *a friendly visit to a neighbour’s house. Irish *cuaird, *a visit. Coordeeagh, same meaning. (Munster.) **

Cope-curley**; to stand on the head and throw the heels over; to turn head over heels. (Ulster.) **

Core**: work given as a sort of loan to be paid back.

[p.240]

I send a man on *core, *for a day to my neighbour: when next I want a man he will send me one for a day in return. So with horses: two one-horse farmers who work their horses in pairs, borrowing alternately, are said to be in *core. *Very common in Munster. Irish *cobhair *or *cabhair *[core or co-ir, 2-syll.] help, support. **

Coreeagh**; a man who has a great desire to attend funerals - goes to every funeral that he can possibly reach. (Munster.) Same root as last. **

Corfuffle**; to toss, shake, confuse, mix up. (Derry.) **

Correesk**; a crane. (Kildare.) Irish *corr, *a bird of the crane kind, and *riasc *[reesk], a marsh. **

Cosher** [the o long as in *motioni; *banqueting, feasting. In very old times in Ireland, certain persons went about with news from place to place, and were entertained in the high class houses: this was called *coshering, *and was at one time forbidden by law. In modern times it means simply a friendly visit to a neighbour’s house to have a quiet talk. Irish *cóisir, *a banquet, feasting. **

Costnent**. When a farm labourer has a cottage and garden from his employer, and boards himself, he lives *costnent. *He is paid small wages (called *costnet *wages) as he has house and plot free. (Derry.) **

Cot**; a small boat: Irish *cot. *See ‘Irish Names of Places,’ 1. 226, for places deriving their names from cots. **

Cowlagh**; an old ruined house. (Kerry.) Irish *coblach *[cowlagh]. **

Coward’s blow**; a blow given to provoke a boy to fight or else be branded as a coward.

[p.241] **

Cow’s lick**. When the hair in front over the forehead turns at the roots upward and backward, that is a *cow’s lick, *as if a cow had licked it upwards. The idea of a cow licking the hair is very old in Irish literature. In the oldest of all our miscellaneous Irish mss. - The Book of the Dun Cow - Cuculainn’s hair is so thick and smooth that king Laery, who saw him, says:- ‘I should imagine it is a cow that licked it.’ **

Cox**, Mr. Simon, of Galbally, 156. **

Craags**; great fat hands; big handfuls. (Morris: South Mon.) **

Crab**: a cute precocious little child is often called an *old crab. *‘Crabjaw’ has the same meaning. **

Cracked**; crazy, half mad. **

Cracklins**; the browned crispy little flakes that remain after *rendering *or melting lard and pouring it off. (Simmons: Armagh.) **

Crahauns or Kirraghauns**; very small potatoes not used by the family: given to pigs. (Munster.) Irish creathán.**

Crans** (always in pl.); little tricks or dodges. (Limk.) **

Crapper**; a half glass of whiskey. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Craw-sick**; ill in the morning after a drunken bout. **

Crawtha**; sorry, mortified, pained. (Limerick.) Irish *cráidhte *[crawtha], same meaning. **

Crawthumper**; a person ostentatiously devotional. **

Creelacaun**: see Skillaun. **

Creel**; a strong square wicker frame, used by itself for holding turf, &c., or put on asses backs (in pairs). or put on carts for carrying turf or for taking calves, *bonnives, *&c., to market. Irish críol, (All through Ireland.)

[p.242] **

Creepy**; a small stool, a stool. (Chiefly in Ulster.) **

Crith**; hump on the back. Irish *cruit, *same sound and meaning. From this comes *critthera *and *critthten, *both meaning a hunchback. **

Cro**, or cru: a house for cows. (Kerry.) Irish *cro, *a pen, a fold, a shed for any kind of animals. **

Croaked**; I am afraid poor Nancy is croaked, i.e. doomed to death. The raven croaks over the house when one of the family is about to die. (MacCall: Wexford.) **

Croft**; a water bottle, usually for a bedroom at night. You never hear *carafe *in Ireland: it is always croft. **

Cromwell**, Curse of, 166. **

Crumel’ly**. (Limerick.) More correctly *curr anvilly. (Donegal.) An *herb found in grassy fields with a sweet root that children dig up and eat. Irish ‘honey-root.’ **

Cronaun, croonaun**; a low humming air or song, any continuous humming sound: ‘the old woman was cronauning in the corner.’ **

Cronebane, cronebaun**; a bad halfpenny, a worthless copper coin. From Cronebane in Co. Wicklow, where copper mines were worked. **

Croobeen or crubeen**; a pig’s foot. Pigs’ croobeens boiled are a grand and favourite viand among us - all through Ireland. Irish crúb [croob], a foot, with the diminutive. **

Croost**; to throw stones or clods from the hand ‘Those boys are always *croosting *stones at my hens.’ Irish crústa [croostha], a missile, a clod. **

Croudy**: see Porter-meal. **

Crowl or Croil**; a dwarf, a very small person: the smallest *bonnive *of the litter, An Irish word.

[p.243] **

Cruiskeen**; a little cruise for holding liquor. Used all over Ireland.

‘In a shady nook one moonlight night

A *leprechaun *I spied;

With scarlet cap and coat of green,

A *cruiskeen *by his side.’

The *Cruiskeen Laun *is the name of a well-known Irish air - the Scotch call it ‘John Anderson my Jo.’ Irish *cruiscín, *a pitcher: lán [laun], full i.e. in this case full of pottheen.

Crusheen**; a stick with a flat crosspiece fastened at bottom for washing potatoes in a basket. Irish *cros, *a cross, with the diminutive. Also called a *boghaleen, *from Irish *bachal, *a staff, with diminutive. (Joyce: Limerick.) **

Cuck**; a tuft: applied to the little tuft of feathers on the head of some birds, such as plovers, some hens and ducks, &c. Irish *coc: *same sound and meaning. (General.) **

Cuckles**; the spiky seed-pods of the thistle: thistle heads. (Limerick.) **

Cuckoo spit**; the violet: merely the translation of the Irish name, *sail-chuach, *spittle of cuckoos. Also the name of a small frothy spittle-like sub-stance often found on leaves of plants in summer, with a little greenish insect in the middle of it. (Limerick.) **

Cugger-mugger**; whispering, gossiping in a low voice: Jack and Bessie had a great *cugger-mugger. *Irish *cogar, *whisper, with a similar duplication meaning nothing, like tip-top, shilly-shally, gibble-gabble, clitter-clatter, &c. I think ‘hugger-

[p.249]

mugger’ is a form of this: for *hugger *can’t be derived from anything, whereas *cugger (cogur) *is a plain Irish word. **

Cull**; When the best of a lot of any kind - sheep, cattle, books, &c. - have been picked out, the bad ones that are left - the refuse - are the culls. (Kinahan: general.) **

Culla-greefeen**; when foot or hand is ‘asleep’ with the feeling of ‘pins and needles.’ The name is Irish and means ‘Griffin’s sleep’; but why so called I cannot tell. (Munster.) **

Cup-tossing**; reading fortunes from tea-leaves thrown out on the saucer from the tea-cup or teapot. (General.) **

Cur**; a twist: a *cur *of a rope. (Joyce: Limerick.) **

Curate**; a common little iron poker kept in use to spare the grand one: also a grocer’s assistant. (Hayden and Hartog.) **

Curcuddiagh**; cosy, comfortable. (Maxwell: ‘Wild Sports of the West’: Irish: Mayo.) **

Curifixes**; odd *curious *ornaments or *fixtures *of any kind. (General.) Peter Brierly, looking at the knocker:- ‘I never see such *curifixes *on a *doore *afore.’ (Edw. Walsh: very general.) **

Curragh**; a wicker boat covered formerly with hides but now with tarred canvass. (See my ‘Smaller Social Hist. of Anc. Ireland.’) **

Current**; in good health: he is not current; his health is not current. (Father Higgins: Cork.) **

Curwhibbles, currifibbles,currywhibbles**; any strange, odd, or unusual gestures; or any unusual twisting of words, such as prevarication; wild puzzles and puzzling talk:- ‘The horsemen are in regular currywhibles about something.’ (R. D. Joyce.)

[p.245] **

Cush**; a sort of small horse, from *Cushendall in *Antrim. **

Cushlamochree**; pulse of my heart. Irish cuisle,* *vein or pulse; mo, my; *croidhe *[cree], heart. **

Cushoge**; a stem of a plant; sometimes used the same as *traneen, *which see. (Moran: Carlow; and Morris: Monaghan.) **

Cut**; a county or barony cess tax; hence Cutman, the collector of it. (Kinahan: Armagh and Donegal) ‘The three black *cuts *will be levied.’ (Seumas MacManus: Donegal.)

  **

Daisy-picker**; a person who accompanies two lovers in their walk; why so called obvious. Brought to keep off gossip. **

Dalk**, a thorn. (De Vismes Kane: North and South.) Irish *dealg *[dallog], a thorn. **

Dallag** [*d *sounded like th in *that]; *any kind of covering to blindfold the eyes (Morris: South Monaghan): ‘blinding,’ from Irish dall, blind. **

Dallapookeen**; blindman’s buff. (Kerry.) From Irish *dalladh *[dalla] blinding; and *puicín *[pookeenj, a covering over the eyes. **

Daltheen** [the d sounded like *th *in *that], *an impudent conceited little fellow: a diminutive of dalta, a foster child. The diminutive *dalteen *was first applied to a horseboy, from which it has drifted to its present meaning. **

Dancing customs**, 170, 172. **

Dannagh**; mill-dust and mill-grains for feeding pigs. (Moran: Carlow: also Tip.) Irish *deanach, *same sound and meaning.

[p.246] **

Dander** [second *d sounded like th in hither], to *walk about leisurely: a leisurely walk. **

Dandy**; a small tumbler; commonly used for drinking punch. **

Darradail or daradeel** [the d’s sounded like th in that]* a sort of long black chafer or beetle. It raises its tail when disturbed, and has a strong small of apples. There is a religious legend that when our Lord was escaping from the Jews, barefoot, the stones were marked all along by traces of blood from the bleeding feet. The daradail followed the traces of blood; and the Jews following, at length overtook and apprehended our Lord. Hence the people regard the daradail with intense hatred, and whenever they come on it, kill it instantly. Irish darbh-daol.*

Dark**; blind: ‘a dark man.’ (Very general.) Used constantly even in official and legal documents, as in workhouse books, especially in Munster. (Healy.) **

Darrol**; the smallest of the brood of pigs, fowl, &c. (Mayo.) Irish *dearóil, *small, puny, wretched. **

Davis**, Thomas, vi. 83, &c. **

Dead beat or dead bet*; *tired out. **

Dear**; used as a sort of intensive adjective:- ‘Tom ran for the dear life’ (as fast as he could). (Crofton Croker.) ‘He got enough to remember all the dear days of his life.’ (‘Dub. Pen. Journ.’) **

Dell**; a lathe. Irish *deil, *same sound and meaning. (All over Munster.) **

Devil’s needle**; the dragon-fly. Translation of the Irish name *snathad-a’-diabhail *[snahad-a-dheel]. **

Deshort** [to rhyme *with port]; *a sudden interruption, a surprise: ‘I was taken at a *deshort.’ *(Derry.) **

Devil, The**, and his ‘territory,’ 56. **

Dickonce**; one of the disguised names of the devil used in *white *cursing: ‘Why then the dickonce take you for one gander.’ (Gerald Griffin.) **

Diddy**; a woman’s pap or breast: a baby sucks its mother’s diddy. Diminutive of Irish *did, *same. **

Dido**; a girl who makes herself ridiculous with fantastic finery. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Didoe**s (singular dido); tricks, antics: ‘quit your didoes. (Ulster.) **

Dildron or dildern**; a bowraun, which see. **

Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse**; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (as kitchen), and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by basket-women in Dublin. Irish duilisc.

Dip**. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You will sometimes read of ‘potatoes and point,’ namely, that each person, before taking a bite, *pointed *the potato at a salt herring or a bit of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and never occurred in real life. **

Disciple**; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), and another says to him - jibing and railing - ‘Away with ye, ye miserable *disciple. *Arrah, by the hole

[p.248]

of my coat, after you dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I’ll coax yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.’ (Edw. Walsh in ‘Pen. Journ.’) **

Disremember**: to forget. Good old English; now out off fashion in England, but common in Ireland. **

Ditch**. In Ireland a ditch is a raised fence or earthen wall or mound, and a dyke (or *sheuch *as they call it in Donegal and elsewhere in Ulster) is a deep cutting, commonly filled with water. In England both words mean exactly the reverse. Hence ‘hurlers on the ditch,’ or ‘the best hurlers are on the ditch’ (where speakers of pure English would use ‘fence’) said in derision of persons who are mere idle spectators sitting up on high watching the game - whatever it may be - and boasting how they would *do the devil an’ all *if they were only playing. Applied in a broad sense to those who criticise persons engaged in any strenuous affair - critics who think they could do better. **

Dollop**; to adulterate: ‘that coffee is dolloped.’ **

Donny**; weak, in poor health. Irish *donaidhe, *same sound and meaning. Hence *donnaun, *a poor weakly creature, same root with the diminutive. From still the same root is *donsy, *sick-looking. **

Donagh-dearnagh**, the Sunday before Lammas (lst August). (Ulster.) Irish *Domnach, *Sunday; and *deireannach, *last, i.e. last Sunday of the period before 1st August. **

Doodoge** [the two *d’s *sounded like th in thus]; a big bunch of snuff. I Limk.] Irish dúdóg.

Dooraght** [d sounded as in the last, word]; tender care and kindness shown to a person. Irish

[p.249] *

dúthracht, *same sound and meaning. In parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is purchased (Simmons and Knowles); called elsewhere a tilly, which see. This word, inits sense of kindness, is very old; for in the Brehon Law we read of land set aside by a father for his daughter through dooraght.

Doorshay-daurshay** [d in both sounded as *th *in thus], mere hearsay or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound of *dubhairt-sé, *‘said he.’ The second part is a mere doubling of the first, as we find in many English words, such as ‘fiddle-faddle,’ ‘tittle-tattle’ (which resembles our word). Often used by Munster lawyers in court, whether Irish-speaking or not, in depreciation of hearsay evidence in contradistinction to the evidence of looking-on. Ah, that’s all mere *doorshay-daurshay.’ *Common all over Munster. The information about the use of the term in law courts I got from Mr. Maurice Healy. A different form is sometimes heard:- *D’innis bean dom gur innis bean dí, *‘a woman told me that a woman told her.’ **

Dornoge** [d sounded as in doodoge above]; a small round lump of a stone, fit to be cast from the hand. Irish *dorn, *the shut hand, with the dim. óg. **

Double up**; to render a person helpless either in fight or in argument. The old tinker in the fair got a blow of an amazon’s fist which ‘sent him sprawling and *doubled *him up for the rest of the evening.’ (Robert Dwyer Joyce: ‘Madeline’s Vow.’) **

Down in the heels**; broken down in fortune (one mark of which is the state of the heels of shoes).

[p.249] **

Down blow**; a heavy or almost ruinous blow of any kind:- ‘The loss of that cow was a down blow to poor widow Cleary.’ **

Downface**; to persist boldly in an assertion (whether true or no): He downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never did. **

Down-the-banks**; a scolding, a reprimand, punishment of any kind. **

Dozed**: a piece of timber is dozed when there is a dry rot in the heart of it. (Myself for Limk.: Kane for North.) **

Drad**; A grin or contortion of the mouth. (Joyce.) **

Drag home**. (Simmons; Armagh: same as Hauling home, which see.) **

Drass**; a short time, a turn:- ‘You walk a drass now and let me ride’: ‘I always smoke a drass before I go to bed of a night.’ (‘Collegians,’ Limerick.) Irish dreas, same sound and meaning. **

Drench**: a form of the English *drink, *but used in a peculiar sense in Ireland. A *drench *is a philtre, a love-potion, a love-compelling drink over which certain charms were repeated during its preparation. Made by boiling certain herbs *(orchis) *in water or milk, and the person drinks it unsuspectingly. In my boyhood time a beautiful young girl belonging to a most respectable family ran off with an ill-favoured obscure beggarly diseased wretch. The occurrence was looked on with great astonishment and horror by the people - no wonder; and the universal belief was that the fellow’s old mother had given the poor girl a *drench. *To this hour I cannot make any guess at the cause of that astounding elopement: and it is

[p.251]

not surprising that the people were driven to the supernatural for an explanation. **

Dresser**; a set of shelves and drawers in a frame in a kitchen for holding plates, knives, &c. **

Drisheen** is now used in Cork as an English word, to denote a sort of pudding made of the narrow intestines of a sheep, filled with blood that has been cleared of the red colouring matter, and mixed with meal and some other ingredients. So far as I know, this viand and its name are peculiar to Cork, where *drisheen *is considered suitable for persons of weak or delicate digestion. (I should observe that a recent reviewer of one of my books states that drisheen is also made in Waterford.) Irish *dreas or driss, applied to anything slender, as *a bramble, one of the smaller intestines, &c. - with the diminutive. **

Drizzen**, a sort of moaning sound uttered by a cow. (Derry). **

Drogh**; the worst and smallest bonnive in a litter. (Armagh.) Irish *droch, *bad, evil. (See Eervar.) **

Droleen**; a wren: merely the Irish word dreoilín.**

Drop**; a strain of any kind ‘running in the blood.’ A man inclined to evil ways ‘has a bad drop’ in him (or ‘a black drop’): a miser ‘has a hard drop.’ The expression carries an idea of heredity. **

Drugget**; a cloth woven with a mixture of woollen and flaxen thread: so called from Drogheda where it was once extensively manufactured. Now much used as cheap carpeting. **

Druids and Druidism**, 178. **

Drumaun**; a wide back-band for a ploughing horse,

[p.252]

with hooks to keep the traces in place. (Joyce: Limerick.) From Irish *druim, *the back. **

Drummagh**; the back strap used in yoking two horses. (Joyce: Limerick.) Irish *druim, *the back, with the termination *-ach, *equivalent to English -ous and -y. **

Dry potatoes**; potatoes eaten without milk or any other drink. **

Dry lodging**; the use of a bed* *merely, without food. **

Drynaun-dun** or drynan-dun [two d’s sounded like th in *that]; *the blackthorn, the sloe-bush. Irish *droigheanán *[drynan or drynaun], and donn, brown-coloured. **

Ducks**; trousers of snow-white canvas, much used as summer wear by gentle and simple 50 or 60 years ago. **

Dudeen** both *d’s *sounded like th in those; a smoking-pipe with a very short stem. Irish dúidínn, dúd, a pipe, with the diminutive. **

Duggins**; rags: ‘that poor fellow is all in duggins.’ (Armagh.) **

Dull**; a loop or eye on a string. (Monaghan.) **

Dullaghan** [*d *sounded as *th *in *those]; *a large trout. (Kane: Monaghan.) An Irish word. **

Dullaghan**; ‘a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in churchyards, who can take off and put on his head at will. (From ‘Irish Names of Places,’ I. 198, *which *see for more about this spectre. See Croker’s ‘Fairy Legends.’) **

Dullamoo** [*d sounded like th in those]; a *wastrel, a scapegrace, a *ne’er-do-weel. *Irish *dul, *going; *amudha [amoo], astray, to loss:-dullamoo, *‘a person going to the bad,’ ‘going to the dogs.’

[p.253] **

Dundeen**; a lump of bread without butter. (Derry.) **

Dunisheen**; a small weakly child. (Moran: Carlow.). Irish *donaisín, *an unfortunate being; from *donas, *with diminutive. See Donny. **

Dunner**; to knock loudly at a door. (Ulster.) **

Dunt** (sometimes dunch)*, *to strike or butt like a cow or goat with the head. A certain lame old man (of Armagh) was nicknamed ‘Dunt the pad (path’). (Ulster.) **

Durneen**, one of the two handles of a scythe that project from the main handle. Irish *doirnín, *same sound and meaning: diminutive from *dorn, *the fist, the shut hand. **

Durnoge**; a strong rough leather glove, used on the left hand by faggot cutters. (MacCall: Wexford.) *Dornoge, *given above, is the same word but differently applied. **

Duty** owed by tenants to landlords, 181.

  **

Earnest**; ‘in earnest’ is often used in the sense of ‘really and truly’:- ‘You’re a man in earnest, Cus, to strike the first blow on a day [of battle] like this.’ (R. D. Joyce.) **

Eervar**; the last pig in the litter. This *bonnive *being usually very small and hard to keep alive is often given to one or the children for a pet; and it is reared in great comfort in a warm bed by the kitchen fire, and fed on milk. I once, when a child, had an eervar of my own which was the joy of my life. Irish *iarmhar *[eervar], meaning ‘something after all the rest’; the hindmost. (Munster.) See Drogh for Ulster. **

Elder**; a cow1s udder, All over Ireland,

[p.254] **

Elegant**. This word is used among us, not in its proper sense, but to designate anything good or excellent of its kind:- An elegant penknife, an elegant gun:- ‘That’s an elegant pig of yours, Jack?’ Our milkman once offered me a present for my garden - ‘An elegant load of dung.’

I haven’t the janius for work,

For ‘twas never the gift of the Bradys;

But I’d make a most elegant Turk,

For I’m fond of tobacco and ladies.

(Lever.)

‘How is she [the sick girl] coming on?’ ‘Elegant,’ was the reply. (‘Knocknagow.’) **

Elementary schools**, 159. **

Exaggeration** and redundancy, 120. **

Existence**, way of predicating, 23. **

Eye of a bridge**; the arch.

** 

Faireen** (south), fairin (north); a present either given in a fair or brought from it. Used in another sense - a lasting injury of any kind:- ‘Poor Joe got a faireen that day, when the stone struck him on the eye, which I’m afraid the eye will never recover.’ Used all over Ireland and in Scotland.

Ah Tam, ah Tam, thou’lt get thy fairin’,

In hell they’ll rout thee like a herrin’.

(Burns.) **

Fair-gurthra**; ‘hungry grass.’ There is a legend all through Ireland that small patches of grass grow here and there on mountains; and if a person in walking along happens to tread on one of them he is instantly overpowered with hunger so as to

[p.255]

be quite unable to walk, and if help or food is not at hand he will sink down and perish. That persons are attacked and rendered helpless by sudden hunger on mountains in this manner is certain. Mr. Kinahan gives me an instance where he had to carry his companion, a boy, on his back a good distance to the nearest house: and Maxwell in ‘Wild Sports of the West’ gives others. But he offers the natural explanation: that a person is liable to sink suddenly with hunger if he undertakes a hard mountain walk with a long interval after food. Irish *feur, *grass; *gorta, *hunger. **

Fairy breeze**. Sometimes on a summer evening you suddenly feel a very warm breeze: that is a band of fairies travelling from one fort to another; and people on such occasions usually utter a short prayer, not knowing whether the ‘good people’ are bent on doing good or evil. (G. H. Kinahan.) Like the Shee-geeha, which see. **

Fairy-thimble**, the same as ‘Lusmore,’ which see. **

Famished**; distressed for want of something:- ‘I am famished for a smoke - for a glass,’ &c. **

Farbreaga**; a scarecrow. Irish fear, a man: *breug *falsehood: a false or pretended man. **

Farl**; one quarter of a griddle cake. (Ulster.) **

Faúmera** [the *r *has the slender sound]; a big strolling beggarman or idle fellow. From the Irish *Fomor. *The *Fomors *or *Fomora *or Fomorians were one of the mythical colonies that came to Ireland (see any of my Histories of Ireland, Index): some accounts represent them as giants. In Clare the country people that go to the seaside in summer for the benefit of the ‘salt water’ are

[p.256]

called *Fawmeras. *In Tramore they are called *olishes *[o long]; because in the morning before breakfast they go down to the strand and take a good *swig *of the salt water - an essential part of the cure - and when one meets another he (or she) asks in Irish *‘ar ólish,’ *‘did you drink?’ In Kilkee the dogfish is called *Faumera, *for the dogfish is among the smaller fishes like what legend represents the Fomorians in Ireland. **

Faustus**, Dr., in Irish dialect, 60. **

Fear** is often used among us in the sense of danger. Once during a high wind the ship’s captain neatly distinguished it when a frightened lady asked him:- ‘Is there any fear, sir?’ ‘There’s plenty of fear, madam, but no danger.’ **

Feck or fack**; a spade. From the very old Irish word, *fec, *same sound and meaning. **

Fellestrum**, the flagger (marsh plant). Irish felestrom. (South.) **

Fetch**; what the English call a *double, *a preternatural apparition of a living person, seen usually by some relative or friend. If seen in the morning the person whose fetch it is will have a long and prosperous life: if in the evening the person will soon die. **

Finane** or Finaun; the white half-withered long grass found in marshy or wet land. Irish *finn *or *fionn, *white, with the diminutive. **

Finely** and poorly are used to designate the two opposite states of an invalid. ‘Well, Mrs. Lahy, how is she? ’ [Nora the poor sick little girl]. ‘Finely, your reverence,’ Honor replied (going on well). The old sinner Rody, having accidentally

[p.257]

shot himself, is asked how he is going on;- ‘Wisha, poorly, poorly’ (badly). (G. Griffin.) **

Finger** - to put a finger in one’s eye; to overreach and cheat him by cunning:- ‘He’d be a clever fellow that would put a finger in Tom’s eye.’ **

First shot**, in distilling pottheen; the weak stuff that comes off at the first distillation: also called singlings. **

Flahoolagh**, plentiful; ‘You have a flahoolagh hand, Mrs. Lyons’: ‘Ah, we got a flahoolagh dinner and no mistake.’ Irish *flaith *[flah], a chief, and *amhail *[ooal], like, with the adjectival termination ach: flahoolagh, *‘*chieftain-like.’ For the old Irish chiefs kept open houses, with full and plenty - *launa-vaula *- *for *all who came. (South.) **

Flipper**; an untidy man. (Limerick.) **

Flitters**; tatters, rags:- ‘His clothes were all in flitters.’**

Flog**; to beat, to exceed:- ‘That flogs Europe’ (‘Collegians’), i.e. it beats Europe: there’s nothing in Europe like it. **

Fluke**, something very small or nothing at all. ‘What did you get from him?’ ‘Oh I got flukes (or ‘flukes in a hand-basket’) - meaning nothing. Sometimes it seems to mean a small coin, like *cross *and *keenoge. *‘When I set out on that journey I hadn’t a fluke.’ (North and South.) **

Fockle**; a big torch made by lighting a sheaf of straw fixed on a long pole: fockles were usually lighted on St. John’s Eve. (Limerick.) It is merely the German word *fackel, *a torch, brought to Limerick by the Palatine colony. (See p.65.) **

Fog-meal**; a great meal or big feed: a harvest dinner.

[p.258] **

Fooster**; hurry, flurry, fluster, great fuss. Irish same sound and meaning. (Hayden and Hartog.)

‘Then Tommy jumped about elate,

Tremendous was his* foosteer* - O;*

*Says he, “I’ll send a message straight

To my darling Mr. Brewster - O!”’

(Repeal Song of 1843.)

** 

Forbye**; besides. (Ulster.) **

For good**; finally, for ever: ‘he left home for good.’ **

Fornent**, fornenst, forenenst; opposite: he and I sat fornenst each other in the carriage.

‘Yet here you strut in open day

Fornenst my house so freely - O).’

(Repeal Song of 1843.)

An old English word, now obsolete in England, but very common in Ireland. **

Foshla**; a marshy weedy rushy place; commonly applied to the ground left after a cut-away bog. (Roscommon.) **

Four bones**; ‘Your own four bones,’ 127.

Fox; (verb) to pretend, to feign, to sham: ‘he’s not sick at all, he’s only foxing.’ Also to cut short the ears of a dog. **

Frainey**; a small puny child:- ‘Here, eat this bit, you little frainey.’ **

Fraughans**; whortleberries. Irish *fraoch, *with the diminutive. See Hurt. **

Freet**; a sort of superstition or superstitious rite. (Ulster.) **

Fresh and Fresh**:- ‘I wish you to send me the butter every morning: I like to have it fresh and fresh.

[p.259]

This is English gone out of fashion: I remember seeing it in Pope’s preface to ‘The Dunciad.’ **

Frog’s jelly**; the transparent jelly-like substance found in pools and ditches formed by frogs round their young tadpoles, 121. **

Fum**; soft spongy turf. (Ulster.) Called *soosaun *in Munster.

** 

Gaatch** [aa long as in car]*, *an affected gesture or movement of limbs body or face; *gaatches; *assuming fantastic ridiculous attitudes. (South.) **

Gad**; a withe: ‘as tough as a gad.’ (Irish *gad, *60.) **

Gadderman**; a boy who puts on the airs of a man; a mannikin or *manneen, *which see. (Simmons: Armagh.) **

Gaffer**; an old English word, but with a peculiar application in Ireland, where it means a boy, a young chap. ‘Come here, gaffer, and help me.’ **

Gag**; a conceited foppish young fellow, who tries to figure as a swell. **

Gah’ela** or gaherla; a little girl. (Kane: Ulster.) Same as girsha.**

Gaileen**; a little bundle of rushes placed under the arms of a beginner learning to swim. (Joyce:

Limerick.) When you support the beginner’s head keeping it above water with your hands while he is learning the strokes: that we used to designate ‘giving a gaileen.’**

Galbally**, Co. Limerick, 156. **

Galoot**: a clownish fellow. **

Galore**; plenty, plentiful. Irish adverb go leor, 4*.***

Gankinna**; a fairy, a leprachaun. (Morris: South Mon.) Irish *gann, *small.

[p.260] **

Gannoge**; an undefined small quantity. (Antrim.) Irish *gann, *small, with diminutive óg. **

Garden**, in the South, is always applied to a field of growing potatoes. ‘In the land courts we never asked “How many acres of potatoes?”; but “How many acres of garden?”’ (Healy.) A usual inquiry is ‘How are your gardens going on?’ meaning ‘How are your potato crops doing?’ **

Garlacom**; a lingering disease in cows believed to be caused by eating a sort of herb. (P. Moran: Meath.) **

Garland Sunday**; the first Sunday in August (some-times called Garlick Sunday.) **

Garron, garraun**; an old worn-out horse. (Irish gearrán.)**

Gash**; a flourish of the pen in writing so as to form an ornamental curve, usually at the end. (Limerick.) **

Gatha**; an effeminate fellow who concerns himself in women’s business: a *Sheela. *(Joyce: Limerick.) **

Gatherie**; a splinter of bog-deal used as a torch. (Moran: Carlow.) Also a small cake (commonly smeared with treacle) sold in the street on market days. Irish *geataire *[gatthera], same meanings. **

Gaug**; a sore crack in the heel of a person who goes barefooted. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish *gág *[gaug], a cleft, a crack. **

Gaulsh**; to loll (MacCall: Wexford.) **

Gaunt **or gant; to yawn. (Ulster.) **

Gaurlagh**; a little child, a baby: an unfledged bird. Irish *gárlach, *same sound and meanings. **

Gawk**; a tall awkward fellow. (South.)

[p.261] **

Gawm, gawmoge**; a soft foolish fellow. (South.) Irish gám, same meaning. See Gommul. **

Gazebo**; a tall building; any tall object; a tall awkward person. **

Gazen**, gazened; applied to a wooden vessel of any kind when the joints open by heat or drought so that it leaks. (Ulster.) **

Gallagh-gunley**; the harvest moon. (Ulster.) Gallagh gives the sound of Irish gealach, the moon, meaning whitish, from geal, white. *

*Geck; to mock, to jeer, to laugh at. (Derry.) **

Geenagh, geenthagh**; hungry, greedy, covetous. (Derry.) Irish gionach or giontach, gluttonous. **

Geens**; wild cherries. (Derry.) **

Gentle**; applied to a place or thing having some connexion with the fairies - haunted by fairies. A thornbush where fairies meet is a ‘gentle bush’: the hazel and the foxglove (fairy-thimble) are gentle plants. **

Geócagh**; a big strolling idle fellow. (Munster.) Irish geocach, same sound and meaning. **

Geosadaun** or Yosedaun [d in both sounded like th in they]; the yellow rag-weed: called also boliaun [2-syll.] and booghalaun. **

Get**; a bastard child. (North and South.) **

Gibbadaun**; a frivolous person. (Roscommon.) From the Irish giob, a scrap, with the diminutive ending dán: a scrappy trifling-minded person.

Gibbol [g hard as in get]; a rag: your jacket is all hanging down in gibbols~.’ (Limerick.) Irish giobal, same sound and meaning. **

Giddhom**; restlessness. In Limerick it is applied to cows when they gallop through the fields with

[p.262]

tails cooked out, driven half mad by heat and flies: ‘The cows are galloping with giddhom.’ Irish *giodam, *same sound and meaning. **

Gill-gowan**, a corn-daisy. (Tyrone.) From Irish geal, white, and *gowan, *the Scotch name for a daisy. **

Girroge** [two g’s sounded as in *get, got]. *Girroges are the short little drills where the plough runs into a corner. (Kildare and Limerick.) Irish gearr, short, with the diminutive óg: *girroge, *any short little thing. **

Girsha**; a little girl. (North and South.) Irish *geirrseach *[girsagh], from gearr, short or small, with the feminine termination seach.

Gistra** [g sounded as in get]*, *a sturdy, active old man. (Ulster.) Irish *giostaire, *same sound and meaning. **

Gladiaathor** [aa long as in car]*; *a gladiator, a fighting quarrelsome fellow: used as a verb also:- ‘he went about the fair *gladiaatherin,’ *i.e. shouting and challenging people to fight him. **

Glaum, glam**; to grab or grasp with the whole hand; to maul or pull about with the hands. Irish *glám *[glaum], same meaning. **

Glebe**; in Ireland this word is almost confined to the land or farm attached to a Protestant rector’s residence: hence called *glebe-land. *See p. 148. **

Gleeag**; a small handful of straw used in plaiting straw mats: a sheaf of straw threshed. (Kildare and Monaghan.) **

Gleeks**: to give a fellow the gleeks is to press the forefingers into the butt of the ears so as to cause pain: a rough sort of play. (Limerick.) **

Glenroe**, Co. Limerick, 68, 146.

[p.263] **

Gliggeen**; a voluble silly talker. (Munster.) Irish *gluiqín *[gliggeen], a little bell, a little tinkler: from *glog, *same as *clog, *a bell. **

Gliggerum**; applied to a very bad old worn-out watch or clock. (Limerick.) **

Glit**; slimy mud; the green vegetable (ducksmeat) that grows on the surface of stagnant water. (Simmons: Armagh;) **

Gloit**; a blockhead of a young fellow. (Knowles.) **

Glory be to God!** Generally a pious exclamation of thankfulness, fear, &c.: but sometimes an ejaculation of astonishment, wonder, admiration, &c. Heard everywhere in Ireland. **

Glower**; to stare or glare at: ‘what are you glowerin’ at!’ (Ulster.) **

Glugger** [u sounded as in full]*; *empty noise; the noise made by shaking an addled egg. Also an addled egg. Applied very often in a secondary sense to a vain empty foolish boaster. (Munster.) **

Glunter**: a stupid person. (Knowles: Ulster.) **

Goaling**: same as Hurling, which see. **

Gob**; the mouth including lips: ‘Shut your gob.’ Irish *gob, *same meaning. Scotch, ‘greedy gab.’ (Burns.) **

Gobshell**; a big spittle direct from the mouth. (Limerick.) From Irish *gob, *the mouth, and seile [shella], a spittle. **

Gobs** or jackstones; five small round stones with which little girls play against each other, by throwing them up and catching them as they fall; ‘there are Nelly and Sally playing gobs.’ **

Gods** and goddesses of Pagan Ireland, 177. **

Godspeed**: see Back of God-speed.

[p.264] **

God’s pocket**. Mr. Kinahan writes to me:- ‘The first time 1 went to the Mullingar hotel I had a delicate child, and spoke to the landlady as to how he was to be put up [during the father’s absence by day on outdoor duty]. “Oh never fear sir,” replied the good old lady, “the poor child will be in God’s pocket here.”’ Mr. K. goes on to say:- I afterwards found that in all that part of Leinster they never said ‘we will make you comfortable,’ but always ‘you will be in God’s pocket,’ or ‘as snug as in God’s pocket.’ I heard it said of a widow and orphans whose people were kind to them, that they were in ‘God’s pocket.’ Whether Seumas MacManus ever came across this term I do not know, but he has something very like it in ‘A Lad of the O’Friels,’ viz., ‘I’ll make the little girl as happy as if she was in Saint Peter’s pocket.’

Goggalagh**, a dotard. (Munster.) Irish gogail, the cackling of a hen or goose; also doting; with the usual termination ach.

Going on**; making fun, joking, teasing, chaffing, bantering:- ‘Ah, now I see you are only going *on *with me.’ ‘Stop your *goings on.’ *(General.) **

Golder** [d sounded like th in further]; a loud sudden or angry shout. (Patterson: Ulster.) **

Goleen**; an armful. See Gwaul. **

Gombeen man**; a usurer who lends money to small farmers and others of like means, at ruinous interest. The word is now used all over Ireland. Irish *goimbín *[gombeen], usury. **

Gommul, gommeril, gommula**, all sometimes shortened to *gom; *a simple-minded fellow, a half

[p.265]

fool. Irish *gamal, gamaille, gamairle, gamarail, all *same meaning. *(Gamal *is also Irish for a camel.) Used all over Ireland. **

Good deed**; said of some transaction that is a well-deserved punishment for some wrong or unjust or very foolish course of action. Bill lends some money to Joe, who never returns it, and a friend says:- ”Tis a good deed Bill, why did you trust such a schemer?’ Barney is bringing home a heavy load, and is lamenting that he did not bring his ass: - ”Tis a good deed: where was I coming without Bobby?’ (the ass). (‘Knocknagow’) ‘I’m wet to the skin’: reply:- ”Tis a good deed: why did you go out without your overcoat?’ **

Good boy**: in Limerick and other parts of Munster, a young fellow who is good - strong and active - at all athletic exercises, but most especially if he is brave and tough in fighting, is ‘a good boy.’ The people are looking anxiously at a sailing boat labouring dangerously in a storm on the Shannon, and one of them remarks:- ”Tis a good boy that has the rudder in his hand.’ (Gerald Griffin.) **

Good people**; The fairies. The word is used merely as *soft sawder, *to butter them up, to curry favour with them - to show them great respect at least from the teeth out - lest they might do some injury to the speaker. **

Googeen** [two g’s as in *good and get]; *a simple soft-minded person. (Moran: Carlow.) Irish guag, same meaning, with the diminutive: guaigín.

Gopen, gowpen**; the full of the two hands used together. (Ulster.) Exactly the same meaning as *Lyre *in Munster, which see.

[p.266] **

Gor**; the coarse turf or peat which forms the surface of the bog. (Healy: for Ulster.) **

Gorb**; a ravenous eater, a glutton. (Ulster.) **

Gorsoon**: a young boy. It is hard to avoid deriving this from French *garcon, *All the more as it has no root in Irish. Another form often used is *gossoon, *which is derived from Irish - gas, a stem or stalk, a young boy. But the termination *oon *or *ún *is suspicious in both oases, for it is not a genuine Irish suffix at all. **

Gossip**; a sponsor m baptism. **

Goster**; gossipy talk. Irish gastaire, a prater, a chatterer. ‘Dermot go ‘long with your goster.’ (Moore - in his youth.) **

Gouloge**; a stick with a little fork of two prongs at the end, for turning up hay, or holding down furze while cutting. (South.) Used in the North often in the form of *gollog. *Irish *gabhal *[gowl], a fork, with the dim. óg. **

Gounau**; housewife [huzzif] thread, strong thread for sewing, pack thread. Irish gabhshnáth (Fr. Dinneen), same* ***sound and meaning: from *snáth, a thread: but how comes in gabh? *In one of the Munster towns I knew a man who kept a draper’s shop, and who was always called Gounau, in accordance with the very reprehensible habit of our people to give nicknames. **

Goureen-roe**: a snipe, a jacksnipe. (Munster.) Irish gabhairín-reó, the ‘little goat of the frost’ (reó, frost): because on calm frosty evenings you hear its quivering sound as it flies in the twilight, very like the sound emitted by a goat. **

Gra, grah**; love, fondness, liking. Irish grádh

[p.267]

[graw]. ‘I have great gra for poor Tom.’ I asked an Irishman who had returned from America and settled down again here and did well:- ‘Why did you come back from America?’ ‘Ah,’ he replied, ‘I have great *gra *for the old country.’ **

Graanbroo**; wheat boiled in new milk and sweetened: a great treat to children, and generally made from their own gleanings or *liscauns, *gathered in the fields. Sometimes called *brootheen. *(Munster.) The first from Irish *grán, *grain, and *brúgh, *to break or bruise, to reduce to pulp, or cook, by boiling. *Brootheen (also applied to mashed potatoes) is from brúgh, *with the diminutive. **

Graanoge, graan-yoge** [*aa *in both long like *a in car], *a hedgehog. Irish *gráineóg, *same sound. **

Graanshaghaun** [aa long as in car]*; *wheat (in grain) boiled. (Joyce: Limerick.) In my early days what we called *graanshaughan *was wheat in grains, not boiled, but roasted in an iron pot held over the fire, the wheat being kept stirred till done. **

Graffaun**; a small axe with edge across like an adze for grubbing or *graffing *land, i.e. rooting out furze and heath in preparation for tillage. Used all through the South. ‘This was the word used in Co. Cork law courts.’ (Healy.) Irish grafán, same sound and meaning. **

Graip or grape; a dung-fork with three or four prongs. Irish grápa.

Grammar and Pronunciation**, 74. **

Grammel**; to grope or fumble or gather with both hands. (Derry.) **

Graves**, Mr. A. P., 58, &c. **

Grawls**; children. Paddy Corbett, thinking he is

[p.268]

ruined, says of his wife:— ‘God comfort poor Jillian and the grawls I left her.’ (Edward Walsh.) ‘There’s Judy and myself and the poor little grawls.’ (Crofton Croker: p. 155.) **

Grawvar**; loving, affectionate:- ‘That’s a grawver poor boy.’ (Munster.) Irish *grádhmhar, *same sound and meaning: from *grádh, *love. **

Grazier**; a young rabbit. (South and ~West.) **

Great**; intimate, closely acquainted:- ‘Tom Long and Jack Fogarty are very great.’ (All over Ireland.) ‘Come gie’s your hand and sae we’re *greet.’ *(Burns.) **

Greedy-gut**; a glutton; a person who is selfish about stuffing himself, wishing to give nothing to anyone else. Gorrane Mac Sweeny, when his mistress is in want of provisions, lamenting that the eagles (over Glengarriff) were devouring the game that the lady wanted so badly, says:- ‘Is it not the greatest pity in life … that these greedy-guts should be after swallowing the game, and my sweet mistress and her little ones all the time starving.’ (Caesar Otway in ‘Pen. Journ.’) **

Greenagh**; a person that hangs round hoping to get food (Donegal and North-West): a ‘Watch-pot.’**

Greesagh**; red hot embers and ashes. ‘We roasted our potatoes and eggs in the greesagh.’ (All over Ireland.) Irish *gríosach, *same sound. **

Greet**; to cry. ‘Tommy was greetin’ after his mother.’ (Ulster.) **

Greth**; harness of a horse: a general name for all the articles required when yoking a horse to the cart. (Knowles: Ulster.) **

Griffin, Gerald**, author of ‘The Collegians,’ 5, &c.

[p.269] **

Grig** (greg in Sligo): a boy with sugarstick holds it out to another and says, ‘grig, grig,’ to triumph over him. Irish *giog, *same sound and meaning. **

Grinder**; a bright-coloured silk kerchief worn round the neck. (Edward Walsh: all over Munster.) **

Gripe**; a trench, generally beside a high ditch or fence. ‘I got down into the gripe, thinking to [hide myself].’ (Crofton Croker.) **

Griskin or greeskeen**; a small bit of meat cut off to be roasted - usually on the coals. Irish gríscín.**

Grisset**; a shallow iron vessel for melting things in, such as grease for dipping rushes, resin for dipping torches *(sluts *or *paudioges, *which see), melting lead for various purposes, white metals for coining, &c. If a man is growing rapidly rich:- ‘You’d think he had the grisset down.’ **

Groak **or groke; to look on silently - like a dog - at people while they are eating, hoping to be asked to eat a bit. (Derry.) **

Grogue**; three or four sods of turf standing on end, supporting each other like a little pyramid on the bog to dry. (Limerick.) Irish *gruag, *same meaning. **

Groodles**; the broken bits mixed with liquid left at the bottom of a bowl of soup, bread and milk, &c. **

Group **or grup; a little drain or channel in a cow-house to lead off the liquid manure. (Ulster.) **

Grue **or grew; to turn from with disgust:- ‘He grued at the physic.’ (Ulster). **

Grug**; sitting on one’s grug means sitting on the heels without touching the ground. (Munster.) Same as Scotch *hunkers *‘Sit down on your grug and thank God for a seat.’ **

Grumagh or groomagh**; gloomy, ill-humoured

[p.270]

‘I met Bill this morning looking very *grumagh.’ *(General.) From Irish *gruaim [grooim], *gloom, ill-humour, with the usual suffix -ach, equivalent to English -y as in gloomy.

Grumpy**; surly, cross, disagreeable. (General.) **

Gubbadhaun**; a bird that follows the cuckoo. (Joyce.) **

Gubbaun**; a strap tied round the mouth of a calf or foal, with a row of projecting nail points, to prevent it sucking the mother. From Irish *gob, *the mouth, with the diminutive. (South.) **

Gubbalagh**; a mouthful. (Munster.) Irish goblach,* *same sound and meaning. From *gob, *the mouth, with the termination lach. **

Gullion**; a sink-pool. (Ulster.) **

Gulpin**; a clownish uncouth fellow. (Ulster.) **

Gulravage, gulravish**; noisy boisterous play. (Northeast Ulster.) **

Gunk**; a ‘take in, a ‘sell’; as a verb, to ‘take in,’ to cheat. (Ulster.) **

Gushers**; stockings with the soles cut off. (Morris: Monaghan.) From the Irish. Same as triheens. **

Gurry**; a *bonnive, *a young pig. (Morris: Mon.) **

Gutter**; wet mud on a road *(gutters *in Ulster). **

Gwaul** [l sounded as in William]*; *the full of the two arms of anything: ‘a gwaul of straw.’ (Munster.) In Carlow and Wexford, they add the diminutive, and make it goleen. Irish gabhdáil. **

 

Hain; to hain a field is to let it go to meadow, keeping the cows out of it so as to let the grass grow: possibly from *hayin’. (Waterford: *Healy.) In Ulster *hain *means to save, to economise.

[p.271] **

Half a one**; half a glass of whiskey. One day a poor blind man walked into one of the Dublin branch banks, which happened to be next door to a public-house, and while the clerks were looking on, rather puzzled as to what lie wanted, he slapped two pennies down on the counter; and in no very gentle voice:- ‘Half a one!’ **

Half joke and whole earnest**; An expression often heard in Ireland which explains itself. ‘Tim told me - half joke and whole earnest - that he didn’t much like to lend me his horse.’ **

Hand**; to make a hand of a person is to make fun of him; to humbug him: Lowry Looby, thinking that Mr. Daly is making game of him, says:- ”Tis making a hand of me your honour is.’ (Gerald Griffin.) Other applications of *hand *are ‘You made a bad hand of that job,’ i.e. you did it badly. If a man makes a foolish marriage: ‘He made a bad hand of himself, poor fellow.’ **

Hand-and-foot**; the meaning of this very general expression is seen in the sentence ‘He gave him a hand-and-foot and tumbled him down.’ **

Hand’s turn**; a very trifling bit of work, an occasion:- ‘He won’t do a hand’s turn about the house’: ‘he scolds me at every hand’s turn,’ i.e. on every possible occasion. **

Handy**; near, convenient:- ‘The shop lies handy to me’; an adaptation of the Irish láimh le (meaning near). Láimh le Corcaig,* *lit. *at hand with Cork - *near Cork. This again is often expressed *convenient to Cork, *where *convenient *is intended to mean simply *near. *So it comes that we *in *Ireland regard *convenient *and *near *as exactly synonymous,

[p.272]

which they are not. In fact on almost every possible occasion, we - educated and uneducated - use *convenient *when *near *would be the proper word. An odd example occurs in the words of the old Irish folk-song:-

‘A sailor courted a farmer’s daughter,

Who lived *convaynient *to the Isle of Man.’

** 

Hannel**; a blow with the spear or spike of a pegging-*top (or ‘castle-top’) down on the wood of another top. *Boys often played a game of tops for a certain number of hannels. At the end of the game the victor took his defeated opponent’s top, sunk it firmly down into the grassy sod, and then with his own top in his hand struck the other top a number of hannels with the spear of his own to injure it as much as possible. ‘Your castle-tops came in for the most hannels.’ (‘Knocknagow.’) **

Hap**; to wrap a person round with any covering, to tuck in the bedclothes round a person. (Ulster.) **

Hard word** (used always with *the); *a hint, an inkling, a tip, a bit of secret information - ‘They were planning to betray and cheat me, but Ned gave me the hard word, and I was prepared for them, so that I defeated their schemes.’ **

Hare**; to make a hare of a person is to put him down in argument or discussion, or in a contest of wit or cunning; to put him in utter confusion. ‘While you were speaking to the little boy that made a hare of you.’ (Carleton in Ir. Pen. Journ.)

‘Don’t talk of your Provost and Fellows of Trinity,

Famous for ever at Greek and Latinity,

Faix and the divels and all at Divinity -

Father O’Flynn’d make hares of them all!’

(A. P. Graves.)

[p.273]

Harvest; always used in Ireland for autumn ‘One fine day in harvest.’ (Crofton Croker.) **

Hauling home**; bringing home the bride, soon after the wedding, to her husband’s house. Called also a ‘dragging-home.’ It is always made the occasion of festivity only next in importance to the wedding. For a further account, and for a march played at the Hauling home, see my ‘Old Irish Folk Music and Songs,’ p.180. **

Hausel**; the opening in the iron head of an are, adze, or hammer, for the handle. (Ulster.) **

Haverel**: a rude coarse boor, a rough ignorant fellow. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Havverick**; a rudely built house, or an old ruined house hastily and roughly restored:- ‘How can people live in that old havverick?’ (Limerick.) **

Hayden**, Miss Mary, M.A., 5, &c. **

Healy**, Mr. Maurice, 178, &c. **

Head or harp**; a memorial of the old Irish coinage, corresponding with English *head or tail. *The old Irish penny and halfpenny had the king’s head on one side and the Irish harp on the other. ‘Come now, head or harp,’ says the person about to throw up a halfpenny of any kind. **

Heard tell**; an expression used all throughout Ireland:- ‘I heard tell of a man who walked to Glendalough in a day.’ It is old English. **

Heart-scald**; a great vexation or mortification. (General.) Merely the translation of *scallach croidhe *[scollagh-cree], *scalding *of the heart. **

Hearty**; tipsy, exhilarated after a little ‘drop.’ **

Hedge schools**, 149.

[p.274] **

Higgins**, The Rev. Father, p.244, and elsewhere. **

Hinch**; the haunch, the thigh. To hinch a stone is to *jerk *(or *jurk as *they say in Munster), to hurl it from under instead of over the shoulder. (Ulster.) **

Hinten**; the last sod of the ridge ploughed. (Ulster.) **

Ho**; equal. Always used with a negative, and also in a bad *sense, *either seriously or in play. A child spills a jug of milk, and the mother says:- ‘Oh Jacky, there’s no *ho *to you for mischief’ (no equal to you). The old woman says to the mischievous gander:- ‘There’s no ho with you for one gander.’ (Gerald Griffin: ‘The Coiner.’) This *ho *is an Irish word: it represents the sound of the Irish prefix *cho *or chomh, equal, as much as, &c. ‘There’s no ho to Jack Lynch’ means there’s no **one for whom you can use *cho *(equal) in comparing him with Jack Lynch. **

Hobbler**; a small cock of fresh hay about 4 feet high. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Hobby**; a kind of Irish horse, which, three or four centuries ago, was known all over Europe ‘and held in great esteem for their easy amble: and from this kind of horse the Irish light-armed bodies of horse were called hobellers.’ (Ware. See my ‘Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland,’ p. 487.) Hence a child’s toy, a hobby-horse. Hence a favourite pursuit is called a ‘hobby.’ **

Hoil**; a mean wretched dwelling: an uncomfortable situation. (Morris: South Monaghan.) **

Hollow**; used as an adverb as follows:- ‘Jack Cantlon’s horse beat the others hollow in the race’: i.e. beat them utterly.

[p.275] **

Holy show**: ‘You’re a holy show in that coat,’ i.e it makes quite a show of you; makes you look ridiculous. (General.) **

Holy well**; a well venerated on account of its association with an Irish saint: in most cases retaining the name of the saint:- ‘Tober-Bride,’ St. Bride’s or Brigit’s well. In these wells the early saints baptised their converts. They are found all through Ireland, and people often pray beside them and make their *rounds. *(See’ Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland.’) **

Hool or hooley**; the same as a Black swop.

Hot-foot; at once, immediately:- ‘Off I went hot-foot.’ ‘As soon as James heard the news, he wrote a letter hot-foot to his father.’ **

Houghle**; to wobble in walking. (Armagh.) **

Hugger-mugger**: see Cugger-mugger. **

Huggers or hogars**, stockings without feet. (Ulster.) **

Hulk**; a rough surly fellow. (Munster.) A bad person. (Simmons: Armagh.) Irish *olc, *bad. **

Hungry-grass**: see Fair-gurtha. **

Hunker-slide**; to slide on ice sitting on the hunkers (or as they would say in Munster, sitting on one’s grug) instead of standing up straight: hence to act with duplicity: to shirk work:- ‘None of your hunker-sliding for me.’ (Ulster.) **

Hurling**; the common game of ball and hurley or *commaun. *The chief terms (besides those mentioned elsewhere) are:- *Puck, *the blow of the burley on the ball: The *goals *are the two gaps at opposite sides of the field through which the players try to drive the ball. When the ball is thrown high up between two players with their

[p.276]

commauns ready drawn to try which will strike it on its way down; that is *high-rothery. *When two adjacent parishes or districts contended (instead of two small parties at an ordinary match), that was *scoobeen *or ‘conquering goal’ (Irish *scuab, *a broom: *scoobeen, sweeping *the ball away). I have seen at least 500 on each side engaged in one of these *scoobeens; *but that was in the time of the eight millions - before 1847. Sometimes there were bad blood and dangerous quarrels at scoobeens. See Borick, Sippy, Commaun, and Cool. (For the ancient terms see my ‘Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland,’ p.518.) For examples of these great contests, see Very Rev. Dr. Sheehan’s ‘Glenanaar,’ pp.4, 281. **

Hurt**: a whortleberry: hurts are *fraughans, *which see. From *whort. *(Munster.) **

Husho or rather huzho**; a lullaby, a nurse-song, a cradle-song; especially the chorus, consisting of a sleepy *cronaun *or croon-like ‘shoheen-sho Loo-lo-lo,’ &c. Irish *suantraighe *[soontree]. ‘The moaning of a distant stream that kept up a continual *cronane *like a nurse *hushoing.’ *‘My mother was hushoing my little sister, striving to quieten he.’ (Both from Crofton Croker.) ‘The murmur of the ocean *huzhoed *me to sleep.’ (Irish Folk Song:- ‘M’Kenna’s Dream.’) **

Idioms**; influence of the Irish language on, 4;- derived from Irish, 23. **

If**; often used in the sense of *although, while, *or some such signification, which will be best under-stood from the following examples:-A Dublin

[p.277]

jarvey who got sixpence for a long drive, said in a rage:- ‘I’m in luck to-day; but *if I am, *‘tis blazing *bad *luck.’ ‘Bill ran into the house, and if he did, the other man seized him round the waist and threw him on his back.’ **

If that**. This is old English, but has quite disappeared from the standard language of the present day, though still not unfrequently heard in Ireland:- ‘If that you go I’ll go with you.’

‘If from Sally *that *I get free,

My dear I love you most tenderlie.’

(Irish Folk Song - ‘Handsome Sally.’)

‘And if that you wish to go further

Sure God He made Peter His own,

The keys of His treasures He gave him,

To govern the old Church of Rome.’

(Old Irish Folk Song.) **

Inagh*’*** or in-yah’** [both strongly accented on second syll.]; a satirical expression of dissent or disbelief, like the English forsooth, but much stronger. A fellow boasting says:- ‘I could run 10 miles in an hour’: and another replies, ’ You could inah’: meaning ‘Of course I don’t believe a word of it.’ A man coming back from the other world says to a woman:- ‘I seen your [dead] husband there too,* ***ma’am;’ to which she replies:- ‘My husband *inah.’ *(Gerald Griffin: ‘Collegians.’) Irish *an eadh, *same sound and meaning. **

Inch**; a long strip of level grassy land along a river. Very general. Irish *inis *[innish], of the same family as Lat. *insula: *but inis is older than *insula *which is a diminutive and consequently a derived form. ‘James, go out and drive the cows down to the inch.’ **

Insense*’***; to make a person understand:- ‘I can’t

[p.278]

insense him into his letters.’ ‘I insensed him into the way the job was to be done.’ [Accent on -sense*’.*] **

In tow with**; in close acquaintance with, courting. John is in tow with Jane Sullivan. **

Ire**, sometimes ira; children who go barefoot sometimes get *ire *in the feet; i.e. the skin chapped and very sore. Also an inflamed spot on the skin rendered sore by being rubbed with some coarse seam, &c. **

Irish language**; influence of, on our dialect, 1, 23. **

Jackeen**; a nickname for a conceited Dublin citizen of the lower class. **

Jack Lattin**, 172. **

Jap or jop**; to splash with mud. (Ulster.) **

Jaw**; impudent talk: *jawing; *scolding, abusing:-

‘He looked in my face and he gave me some jaw,

Saying “what brought you over from Erin-go-braw?”’

(Irish Folk Song.) **

Jingle**; one of Bianconi’s long cars. **

Johnny Magorey**; a hip or dog-haw; the fruit of the dog-rose. (Central and Eastern counties.) **

Join**; to begin at anything; ‘the child joined to cry’; ‘my leg joined to pain me,’ ‘the man joined to plough.’ ‘(North.) **

Jokawn**; an oaten stem cut off above the joint, with a tongue cut in it, which sounds a rude kind of music when blown by the mouth. (Limerick.) Irish *geocán, *same sound and meaning. **

Jowlter**, fish-jowlter; a person who hawks about fish through the country, to sell. (South.) **

Just**: often used as a final expletive - more in

[p.279]

Ulster than elsewhere:- ‘Will you send anyone?’ ‘Yes, Tommy just.’ ‘Where are you going now?’ ‘To the fair just.’ **

Keenagh or keenagh-lee**: mildew often seen on cheese, jam, &c. In a damp house everything gets covered with *keenagh-lee. *Irish *caonach, *moss *caonach-lee, *mildew: *lee *is Irish *liagh *[lee], grey. (North and North-West of Ireland.) **

Keeping**: a man is on his *keeping *when he is hiding away from the police, who are on his track for some offence. This is from the Irish *coiméad, *keeping; *air mo choiméad, *‘on my keeping.’ **

Keeroge**; a beetle or clock. Irish *ciar *[keer], dark, black, with the diminutive *óg: keeroge, *‘black little fellow.’ **

Kelters**, money, coins: ‘He has the kelthers,’ said of a rich man. *Yellow kelters, *gold money: ‘She has the kelthers’: means she has a large fortune. (Moran: Carlow.) **

Kemp or camp**; to compete: two or more persons kemp against each other in any work to determine which will finish first. (Ulster.) See Carleton’s story, ‘The Rival Kempers.’ **

Keolaun**; a contemptible little creature, boy or man. (South and West.) **

Keowt**; a low contemptible fellow. **

Kepper**; a slice of bread with butter, as distinguished from a *dundon, *which see. **

Kesh**; a rough bridge over a river or morass, made with poles, wickerwork, &c. - overlaid with bushes and *scraws *(green sods). Understood all through Ireland. A small one over a drain in a bog is

[p.280]

often called in Tipperary and Waterford a *kishoge, *which is merely the diminutive. **

Kib**; to put down or plant potatoes, each seed in a separate hole made with a spade. Irish ciob, same sound and meaning. **

Kickham**, Charles, author of ‘Knocknagow,’ 5, &c. **

Kiddhoge**, a wrap of any kind that a woman throws hastily over her shoulders. (Ulster.) Irish *cuideóg, *same sound and sense here. **

Kilfinane**, Co. Limerick, 147. **

Killeen**; a quantity:- ‘That girl has a good killeen of money. (Ulster.) Irish *cillín *[killeen]. **

Killeen**; an old churchyard disused except for the occasional burial of unbaptised infants. Irish cill, a church, with the diminutive in.

Kimmeen**; a sly deceitful trick; kimmeens or kymeens, small crooked ways:- ‘Sure you’re not equal to the *kimmeens *of such complete deceivers at all at all.’ (Sam Lover in Ir. Pen. Mag.) Irish *com, *crooked; diminutive *cuimín *[kimmeen]. **

Kimmel-a-vauleen**; uproarious fun. Irish *cimel-a’-mháilín, *literally ‘rub-the-bag.’ There is a fine Irish jig with this name. (South.) **

Kink**; a knot or short twist in a cord. **

Kink**; a fit of coughing or laughing: ‘they were in kinks of laughing.’ Hence *chincough, *for whooping-cough, i.e. kink-cough. I know a holy well that has the reputation of curing whooping-cough, and hence called the ‘Kink-well.’ **

Kinleen** or keenleen, or kine-leen; a single straw or corn stem. (South.) Irish *caoinlín, *same sound. **

Kinleen-roe**; an icicle: the same word as last with the addition of *reo *[roe], frost: ‘frost-stem.’

[p.281] **

Kinnatt*’***, [1st syll. very short; accent on 2nd syll. to rhyme with cat]; an impertinent conceited impudent little puppy. **

Kippen or kippeen**; any little bit of stick: often used as a sort of pet name for a formidable cudgel or shillelah for fighting. Irish *cip *[kip], a stake or stock, with the diminutive. **

Kish**; a large square basket made of wattles and wickerwork used for measuring turf or for holding turf on a cart. Sometimes (South) called a *kishaun. *Irish cis or ciseán, same sounds and meanings: also called kishagh.

Kishtha**; a treasure: very common in Connauglit, where it is often understood to be hidden treasure in a fort under the care of a leprachaun. Irish *ciste, *same sound and meaning. **

Kitchen**; any condiment or relish eaten with the plain food of a meal, such as butter, dripping, &c. A very common saying in Tyrone against any tiresome repetition is:- ‘Butter to butter is no kitchen.’ As a verb; to use sparingly, to economise - ‘Now kitchen that bit of bacon for you have no more.’ **

Kitthoge** or kitthagh; a left-handed person. Understood through all Ireland. Irish ciotóg, same sound and meaning.

Kitterdy; a simpleton, a fool. (Ulster).

Knauvshauling [the k sounded distinctly]; grumbling, scolding, muttering complaints. (Limerick) From Irish cnamh [knauv: k sounded], a bone, the jawbone. The underlying idea is the same as when we speak of a person giving *jaw. *See Jaw. **

‘Knocknagow’**: see Kickham. **

Kybosh**; some sort of difficulty or ‘fix’:- ‘He put the kybosh on him: he defeated him.’ (Moran: Carlow.)

[p.282] **

Kyraun, keeraun**; a small bit broken off from a sod of turf. Irish *caor, *or with the diminutive, *cnorán, *same sound and meaning.

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