verbal

en-noun

verbal (countable and uncountable, plural verbals)

From Old French verbal, from Late Latin verbālis (“belonging to a word”). Equivalent to verb + -al.

der

They were convicted on the evidence of an agent provocateur named Richard Seary, backed up by police verbals from three police officers who gave evidence of six verbals in which the three accused were supposed to have admitted their guilt.

1982, New South Wales. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates, page 2496:

(countable, UK, Ireland) A spoken confession given to police.

We'd give him a bit of verbal, out would come the bouncers, chucking their weight about, and it would all end in a right tear-up.

(uncountable, UK, Ireland, colloquial) Talk; speech, especially banter or scolding.


himself

head

himself (the third person singular, masculine, personal pronoun, the reflexive form of he, feminine herself, neuter itself, plural themselves, gender-neutral singular himself or themselves or themself)

en-pron

he (reflexive-of)
herself (feminine)
itself (neuter)
themselves (plural)
himself (gender-neutral singular)
themselves (gender-neutral singular)
themself (gender-neutral singular)
Himself (alternative honorific)
himselfe (alternative obsolete)
himselve (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English hymself, from Old English him selfum. Equivalent to him + -self.

give someone enough rope and they'll hang themself

he who digs a pit for others falls in himself

The following table shows a list of English personal pronoun

including archaic and dialectal forms. Dialectal and obsolete

archaic forms are in italics. 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronoun.

Yet it is that himselfe had been liberally gratified by his Unkle with militarie rewards, before ever he went to warres.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 7, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

With shame remembers, while himself was one / Of the same herd, himself the same had done.

Dennis: His glass is there and himself is in the toilet.

1998, Kirk Jones, Waking Ned, Tomboy films:

(Ireland, otherwise archaic) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; he himself.

Has himself come down to breakfast yet?

Have you seen himself yet this morning?

(Ireland) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; he (used of upper-class gentlemen, or sarcastically, of men who imagine themselves to be more important than others)


herself

head

herself (the third person singular, feminine, personal pronoun, the reflexive form of she, masculine himself, neuter itself, gender-neutral singular themself or themselves, plural themselves)

en-pron

she (reflexive-of)
himself (masculine)
itself (neuter)
themself (gender-neutral singular)
themselves (gender-neutral singular)
themselves (plural)
Herself (alternative honorific)

From Middle English. Equivalent to her + -self.

What's herself up to this time?

Have you seen herself yet this morning?

(Ireland) The subject or non-reflexive object of a predicate; she (used of upper-class ladies, or sarcastically, of women who imagine themselves to be more important than others)


ride

en-verb

ride (third-person singular simple present rides, present participle riding, simple past rode or (obsolete) rade or (obsolete) rid, past participle ridden or (now colloquial and nonstandard) rode)

rides (present singular third-person)
riding (participle present)
rode (past)
rade (obsolete past)
rid (obsolete past)
ridden (participle past)
rode (colloquial nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreydʰ-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH-.
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: North Frisian ride (“to ride”), Saterland Frisian riede (“to ride”), West Frisian ride (“to ride”), Low German rieden (“to ride”), Dutch rijden (“to ride”), German reiten (“to ride”), Danish ride (“to ride”), Swedish rida (“to ride”).
From Indo-European: Welsh rhwyddhau (“to hurry”).

set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil

(ambitransitive, Ireland, slang) To have sex with (someone).


ride

Absolutely, and I agree about Madonna. An absolute ride *still*. :-) M.

2007 July 14, Michael O'Neill, “Re: More mouthy ineffectual poseurs...[was Re: Live Earth - One Of The Most Important Events On This Particular Planet - don't let SCI distract you”, in soc.culture.irish (Usenet):

(Ireland) A person (or sometimes a thing or a place) that is visually attractive.


rise

From Middle English risen, from Old English rīsan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīsan, from Proto-Germanic *rīsaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to rise, arise”). According to Kroonen (2013), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to stir, rise”). See also raise.
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian rize, Saterland Frisian riese (“to arise”), Dutch rijzen (“to rise, ascend, lift”), German Low German riesen (“to rise; arise”), German dialectal reisen (“to fall”), Norwegian Nynorsk risa (“to rise”), Icelandic rísa (“to rise”). Related also to German reisen (“to travel, fare”), Dutch reizen (“to travel”), Danish rejse (“to travel”), Swedish resa (“to travel”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian rris (“I raise, grow”) and Russian рост (rost, “growth”).

cog

The governor just gave me a rise of two pound six.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, rest of Commonwealth, sometimes Canada) Ellipsis of pay rise (“an increase in wage or salary”).


box

en-noun

box (plural boxes or (nonstandard, computing, humorous) boxen)

boxes (plural)
boxen (humorous nonstandard plural)

Tok Pisin: bokis

→ Afrikaans: boks

→ Bengali: বাক্স (bakśo)

→ Bulgarian: бокс (boks)

→ Crimean Tatar: boks

→ Danish: boks

→ Dutch: box m

→ Faroese: boks

→ French: box m

→ German: Box f

→ Hindustani:

Hindi: बकस m (bakas), बक्सा m (baksā)

Urdu: بکس m (baks, bakas)

→ Icelandic: box n

→ Indonesian: boks

→ Irish: bosca m

→ Italian: box m

→ Japanese: ボックス (bokkusu)

→ Korean: 박스 (bakseu)

→ Maori: pāka

→ Marwari: बकस (baks, bakas)

→ Nepali: बाकस (bākas)

→ Norman: bosc m

→ Norwegian: boks m

→ Pashto: بکس (baks)

→ Persian: باکس (bâks)

→ Polish: boks m

→ Portuguese: box m

→ Russian: бокс m (boks)

→ Scottish Gaelic: bogsa m, bocsa

→ Spanish: box m

→ Swedish: box c

→ Welsh: bocs

Etymology tree
Ancient Greek πῠ́ξος (pŭ́xos)
Ancient Greek -ις (-is)
Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís)bor.
Late Latin buxisbor.
Proto-West Germanic *buhsā
Old English box
Middle English box
English box
From Middle English box (“container, box, cup”), from Old English box (“box, case”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā (“box”) from Late Latin buxis (“box”), Latin pyxis (“small box for medicines or toiletries”), of uncertain origin; compare Ancient Greek πύξος (púxos, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”) and Ancient Greek πυξίς (puxís, “box or tablet made of boxwood; box; cylinder”). Doublet of piseog, pyx, and pyxis.
Cognate with Middle Dutch bosse, busse (“jar; tin; round box”) (modern Dutch bos (“wood, forest”), bus (“container, box; bushing of a wheel”)), Old High German buhsa (Middle High German buhse, bühse, modern German Büchse (“box; can”)), Swedish bössa (“box”).
The humorous plural form boxen is from box + -en, by analogy with oxen.

кутия

compartment or receptacle for receiving items

ramme

rectangular border around an image, text, etc.

квадратче

small area on a document for a tick mark

tofu

empty box displayed by some computer systems in place of a character not supported by available fonts

Senses relating to a three-dimensional object or space.

(colloquial, chiefly UK, Ireland) Short for squeeze box (“accordion or concertina”)


tit

From Middle English tit, titte, tette, from Old English tit, titt, from Proto-West Germanic *titt, from Proto-Germanic *tittaz (“teat; nipple; breast”), of expressive origin.
Perhaps related to an original meaning “to suck”; compare Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-y-. Doublet of teat, which was borrowed from Old French.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tit, Dutch tiet, dialectal Dutch tet, German Zitze, Titte, Hunsrik Ditz, Yiddish ציצע (tsitse).

onomatopoeic

expressive

Look at that tit driving on the wrong side of the road!

I know a lot of tits, Guv'nor. But I don't know any quite as fucking stupid as these two.

2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch (motion picture), spoken by Errol (Andy Beckwith):

“What did you say to the cops?”
“I told them everything about the smuggling ring.”
“Why the fuck did you do that?”
“They were nice to me.”
“They’re always nice to people they want to get information from, you dumb tit.”

2002, Dick Plamondon, Have You Ever Been Screwed, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 234:

John Watson (to Sherlock Holmes): It's Lestrade. Says they're all coming over here right now. Queuing up to slap on the handcuffs, every single officer you ever made feel like a tit. Which is a lot of people.

2012 January 15, Stephen Thompson, "The Reichenbach Fall", episode 2-3 of Sherlock, 00:52:46-00:52:55

“I asked Nandor and Colin Robinson to come with me on the first day because I didn't want the class to look too empty. But now I cannot get those two tits to leave.”

2023 August 17, Jeremy Levick & Rajat Suresh, “Hybrid Creatures” (5:12 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 7, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

(UK, Ireland, derogatory, slang) An idiot; a fool.

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A police officer; a "tithead".


rumour

en-noun

rumour (countable and uncountable, plural rumours)

From Middle English rumour, from Old French rumour, rumor, from Latin rūmor (“common talk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *rewH- (“to shout, roar”).

der

Rumour had it (though not proved) that she descended from the house of the lords Talbot de Malahide

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

There were rumours, new rumours every morning, delightful and outrageous rumours, so that the lumps in the porridge were swallowed without comment and the fish-cakes were eaten without contumely.

1922, Michael Arlen, “1/1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

"Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.

1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:

I myself gave support to the summoning of the Estates General ... as merely mistaken . Similarly it might be held that Paradise originated in a rumour invented in hell to make society the more interesting . ' ' We need a saviour .

1969, Peter Vansittart, Pastimes of a Red Summer: A Novel, Owen, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 140:

Dame Rumour outstrides me yet again.

1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 18:

British, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland spelling of rumor.


nit

From Middle English nite, from Old English hnitu, from Proto-Germanic *hnits (compare Dutch neet, German Nisse, Norwegian nit), from Proto-Indo-European *-níd- (compare Scottish Gaelic sneadh, Lithuanian gli̇̀nda, Polish gnida, Albanian thëri, Ancient Greek κονίς (konís)).

(UK, Ireland, slang) A head louse regardless of its age.


long

en-adj

long (comparative longer or more long, superlative longest or most long)

longer (comparative)
more long (comparative)
longest (superlative)
most long (superlative)

low

antonym(s) of “having much distance from one point to another”

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”).
Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), North Frisian long, lung (“long”), West Frisian long (“long”), Saterland Frisian loang (“long”), Norwegian, Dutch and German lang (“long”), Low German and Swedish lång (“long”), Icelandic langur (“long”), Portuguese longo (“long”), Spanish luengo (“long”), French long, Italian lungo, Latin longus (“long”), Russian дли́нный (dlínnyj), до́лго (dólgo), Sanskrit दीर्घ (dīrgha, “long”).
The word exceptionally retains the Old English darkening of -a- before nasals. Though there are other such examples in Middle and Modern English (e.g. bond, song, throng, wrong), the o-form may have been reinforced by Old French long, from Latin longus, from the same Indo-European word. Doublet of lungo and lunge.

ау

he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon

the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long

The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

Bless ’em all, bless ’em all, the long, the short and the tall.

1940, Fred Godfrey, “Bless 'Em All”performed by George Formby:


rough

rough (comparative rougher, superlative roughest)

rougher (comparative)
roughest (superlative)
ruff (alternative pronunciation-spelling)

From Middle English rough, roughe, roȝe, row, rou, ru, ruȝ, ruh, from Old English rūg, rūh, from Proto-Germanic *rūhaz.
Cognate with Scots ruch, rouch (“rough”), Saterland Frisian ruuch, rouch (“rough”), West Frisian rûch (“rough”), Low German ruuch (“rough”), Dutch ruig (“rough”), German rau(h) (“rough”), Danish ru (“uneven on the surface, "rough", "rugged"”).

cog

(chiefly UK, Ireland, colloquial, slang) Somewhat ill; sick; in poor condition.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, colloquial, slang) Unwell due to alcohol; hungover.


pull

en-verb

pull (third-person singular simple present pulls, present participle pulling, simple past and past participle pulled)

pulls (present singular third-person)
pulling (participle present)
pulled (participle past)
pulled (past)

push

antonym(s) of “apply force to (something) so it comes towards one”

-ʊl (accents with foot–goose merger or full–fool merger)

Verb from Middle English pullen, from Old English pullian (“to pull, draw, tug, pluck off”), of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to West Frisian pûlje (“to shell, husk”), Middle Dutch pullen (“to drink”), Middle Dutch polen (“to peel, strip”), Low German pulen (“to pick, pluck, pull, tear, strip off husks”), Icelandic púla (“to work hard, beat”).
Noun from Middle English pul, pull, pulle, from the verb pullen (“to pull”).

cog

it's not the whistle that pulls the train

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

I pulled at the club last night.

He's pulled that bird over there.

Grab your coat love, you've pulled.

(ambitransitive, chiefly UK, Ireland, slang) To persuade (someone) to have sex with one.

lligar

slang: persuade (a person) to have sex with one

score

to succeed in finding a person with whom to have sex.


rotten

en-adj

rotten (comparative rottener or more rotten, superlative rottenest or most rotten)

rottener (comparative)
more rotten (comparative)
rottenest (superlative)
most rotten (superlative)

From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”). See rot. By surface analysis, rot + -en (past participle).

surf

something is rotten in the state of Denmark

(UK, Ireland, Australia, slang) Very drunk, intoxicated.


Europe

en-prop

Europe (countable and uncountable, plural Europes)

→ Hindi: यूरोप (yūrop)

→ Korean: 유럽 (Yureop)

→ Marathi: यूरोप (yūrop)

→ Nepali: यूरोप (yūrop)

→ Sanskrit: यूरोप (yūropa)

→ Telugu: యూరప్ (yūrap)

→ Urdu: یُورَپ (yūrap)

→ Yoruba: Yúróòpù

Inherited from Middle English Europe, borrowed from Latin Eurōpa, borrowed from Doric Greek Εὐρώπα (Eurṓpa). Doublet of Europa.

etymon

(UK, Ireland) Mainland Europe (continental Europe), especially the western portion, thus excluding the island nations or the larger Mediterranean islands.


barony

From Middle English baronie, baronye, from Old French baronie, equivalent to baron + -y.

In Ireland... an head constable for each barony or hundred, being 252.

a. 1687, W. Petty, The Political Anatomy of Ireland, page 326:

The Baronies appear to have been formed successively on the submission of the Irish chiefs... the territory of each constituting a barony.

1873, General Report on the Census of England, volume IV, page 181

The domain of a baron or baroness, usually as part of a larger kingdom or empire.

(historical, Ireland) Synonym of hundred, an English administrative division originally reckoned as comprising 100 hides and in various numbers composing counties.

hundred

carucate (1⁄100 barony & for other subdivisions)


v

England v Scotland

2023 March 3, Eleanor Flegg, “The comfort v style dilemma: Thought you couldn’t combine the two? Think again — our experts explain exactly how”, in Irish Independent, volume 132, number 53, Dublin, →ISSN, →OCLC, “Property” section, page 4

(UK, Ireland and Commonwealth except Canada) Abbreviation of versus.


stroke

The noun is derived from Middle English strok, stroke (“blow from a weapon, cut”), from Old English strāc, from Proto-West Germanic *straik, from Proto-Germanic *straikaz (“stroke”), from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to rub, stroke; to shear; to strike”).
Sense 3.6.2.2 (“the oblique, slash, or virgule (‘/’)”) is a contraction of oblique stroke, a variant of oblique which was originally used in telegraphy.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Cognates
* German Streich (“stroke”)
* Middle Low German strēk (“stroke, trick, prank”)
* Scots strak, strake, straik (“blow, stroke”)

isku

one of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished

ход

single movement or thrust of a part (such as a piston) of a machine that moves back and forth; length of this movement

Subject: Fire. Dear Sir-stroke-Madam: I am writing to inform you of a fire which has broken out at the premises of … No. That's too formal.

2006 February 3, Graham Linehan, “Calamity Jen”, in The IT Crowd, season 1, episode 2:

A single movement of a paintbrush, chisel, pen, pencil, or similar implement; a line or mark made by such an implement.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) The oblique, slash, or virgule ("/").


nut

→ Japanese: ナット (natto)

From Middle English nute, note, from Old English hnutu, from Proto-West Germanic *hnut, from Proto-Germanic *hnuts (“nut”), from a root *knu- possibly shared with Proto-Celtic *knūs and Latin nux (“nut”). Based on the form of the nouns and the restriction of the root to Germanic, Celtic and Italic, it has been argued to be of non-Indo-European (substrate) origin.
See also West Frisian nút, Dutch noot, German Nuss, Danish nød, Swedish nöt, Norwegian nøtt.

dió

walnut in particular and an element in the name of some other nuts

dióféle

literally: ’walnut-like’, the family of this fruit

walnuts, hazelnuts/peanuts, chestnuts, and related fruits

even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while

‘You are not going to be what they call a Nut, are you?’ she inquired with some anxiety, partly with the idea that a Nut would be an extravagance which her sister's small household would scarcely be justified in incurring ….

1914, "Saki", ‘The Dreamer’, Beasts and Superbeasts, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 323

(UK, Ireland, slang, dated) An extravagantly fashionable young man.


mare

stud and gelding refer to adult male horses

Danish language
Dutch language
German language
Icelandic language
Middle English language
North Frisian language
Old English language
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-West Germanic language
Scots language
Swedish language
West Frisian language

From Middle English mare, mere, from Old English mīere (“female horse, mare”), from Proto-West Germanic *marhijā, from Proto-Germanic *marhijō (“female horse”), from *marhaz (“horse”).
Cognates
See also Scots mere, meir, mear (“mare”), North Frisian mar (“mare, horse”), West Frisian merje (“mare”), Dutch merrie (“mare”), Danish mær (“mare”), Swedish märr (“mare”), Icelandic meri (“mare”), German Mähre (“decrepit old horse”)), Old English mearh.

inh-lite

The silly mare phoned your mother, talking about applying for a mortgage, and we don't want that, do we?

2007, Hester Browne, Little Lady, Big Apple:

(UK, Ireland, derogatory, slang) A foolish woman.


mare

Albanian language
Czech language
Danish language
Greek language
Old English language
Old Irish language
Old Norse language
Polish language
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-West Germanic language
Swedish language

From Old English mare (“nightmare, monster”), from Proto-West Germanic *marā, from Proto-Germanic *marǭ (“nightmare, incubus”), from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“feminine evil spirit”). Doublet of mara.
Cognates
Akin to Dutch (dial.) mare, German (dial.) Mahr, Old Norse mara ( > Danish mare, Swedish mara (“incubus, nightmare”); also Old Irish Morrígan (“phantom queen”), Albanian merë (“horror”), Polish zmora (“nightmare”), Czech mura (“nightmare, moth”), Greek Μόρα (Móra).

I'm having a complete mare today.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.


blower

From Middle English blowere, blower, from Old English blāwere; equivalent to blow + -er.

Get on the blower and call headquarters right away!

(slang, chiefly British, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, usually preceded by the) Telephone.

(slang, UK, Ireland, historical) A telephone service providing betting odds and commentary, relayed to customers in a bookmaker's shop via loudspeaker.


pet

(Ireland, Geordie) A term of endearment usually applied to women and children.


civilisation

en-noun

civilisation (countable and uncountable, plural civilisations)

Borrowed from French civilisation, equivalent to civilise + -ation or civil + -isation.

From Keighley onwards we had obviously returned to civilisation, for the surrounding country was now studded with the sodium street lights of suburbia and a thickening industrial haze was blotting out the moon.

1960 January, G. Freeman Allen, “"Condor"—British Railways' fastest freight train”, in Trains Illustrated, page 48:

UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Commonwealth spelling of civilization.


mayor

mayors (plural)
maiere (alternative obsolete)
maieur (alternative obsolete)
mar (alternative obsolete)
mayere (alternative obsolete)
meer (alternative obsolete)
mehir (alternative obsolete)
meir (alternative obsolete)
meire (alternative obsolete)
mer (alternative obsolete)
mere (alternative obsolete)
meyhir (alternative obsolete)
meyr (alternative obsolete)
maier (alternative obsolete)
mayer (alternative obsolete)
mayr (alternative obsolete)
meyer (alternative obsolete)
meyre (alternative obsolete)
maiour (alternative obsolete)
mair (alternative obsolete)
maire (alternative obsolete)
mare (alternative obsolete)
mayre (alternative obsolete)
maior (alternative obsolete)
major (alternative obsolete)
mawer (alternative obsolete)
majer (alternative obsolete)
mayour (alternative obsolete)

→ Cebuano: mayor

→ Swahili: meya

→ Tok Pisin: meya

Circa 1300; from Middle English maire, from Old French maire (“head of a city or town government”) (13th century), from Latin maior (“bigger, greater, superior”), comparative of magnus (“big, great”). Doublet of major. Displaced Old English burgealdor.

provost

of Scottish burghs & historical French bourgs

(Ireland, rare, obsolete) A member of a city council.


pub

→ Danish: pub

→ Dutch: pub

→ Estonian: pubi

→ Finnish: pub, pubi

→ French: pub

→ German: Pub

→ Greek: παμπ (pamp)

→ Gujarati: પબ (pab)

→ Icelandic: pöbb

→ Italian: pub

→ Japanese: パブ (pabu)

→ Korean: 퍼브 (peobeu)

→ Norwegian: pub

→ Polish: pub

→ Russian: паб (pab)

→ Mongolian: паб (pab)

→ Spanish: pub

→ Swedish: pub

→ Thai: ผับ (pàp)

Reg liked a chat about old times and we used to go and have a chinwag in the pub.

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A public house where beverages, primarily alcoholic, may be bought and consumed, also providing food and sometimes entertainment such as live music or television.


device

From Middle English devis, devise, devyce, devys, devyse, from Old French devis and devise, from Latin dīvīsus, past participle of dīvidō (“to divide”). Doublet of devise (noun).

Inflammable material is planted in my head / It's a suspect device that's left 2000 dead

1979, Stiff Little Fingers, Suspect Device:

THE ARMY BOMB Disposal Team rendered safe a viable device in Cavan this afternoon.

2014 September 3, Cliodhna Russell, “A viable device was found in Cavan today, it has now been made safe”, in The Journal:

The army bomb squad carried out two controlled explosions on the device. It was later found that the suspect device was a hoax and not a viable explosive.

2014 August 3, Louise Kelly, Conor Feehan, “Suspect device found at shopping centre revealed as hoax”, in Irish Independent:

improvised explosive device
improvised explosive device

(Ireland) An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb


note

en-noun

note (usually uncountable, plural notes)

notes (plural)
noit (alternative)
noyt (alternative)
not (alternative)

From Middle English note (“use, usefulness, profit”), from Old English notu (“use, enjoyment, advantage, profit, utility”), from Proto-West Germanic *notu, from Proto-Germanic *nutō (“enjoyment, utilisation”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with West Frisian not (“yield, produce, crop”), Dutch genot (“enjoyment, pleasure”), Dutch nut (“usefulness, utility, behoof”), German Nutzen (“benefit, usefulness, utility”), Icelandic not (“use”, noun). Related also to Old English notian (“to enjoy, make use of, employ”), Old English nēotan (“to use, enjoy”), Old High German niozan (“to use, enjoy”) (Modern German genießen (“to enjoy”)), Modern German benutzen (“to use”). Related to nait.

cog

And have thou that for thy note !

1838, William Marriott, “The Deluge”, in A Collection of English Miracle-Plays or Mysteries, Basel: Schweighauser & Co, page 11:

Tha'll keep me at this noit all day... Om always at this noit.

1897 May 27, Halifax Courier, quoted in 1903, Joseph Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, volume IV, London: Henry Frowde, page 302

Thou canst do thy note; that have I espied.

1962, Arthur C. Cawley, Everyman, and Medieval Miracle Plays, page 125:

(uncountable, UK dialectal, Northern England, Ireland, Scotland) That which is needed or necessary; business; duty; work.

The supply of horned cattle at this fair was great, but the business done was confined to fleshy barreners of feeding qualities and superior new-calved heifers, and those at early note, with appearance of being useful; [...]

For sale, a Kerry cow, five years old, at her note in May.

A cow is said to be in note when she is in milk.

1888, S. O. Addy Gloss, Words Sheffield, page 160:

A man who drank spring water when his one cow was near note.

1922, P. MacGill, Lanty Hanlon, page 11:

Be at her note, be near note, come forward to her note, of a cow or sow, be near the time for calving or farrowing.

1996, C. I. Macafee Conc., Ulster Dict. at Note:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Ireland, Scotland) The giving of milk by a cow or sow; the period following calving or farrowing during which a cow or sow is at her most useful (i.e. gives milk); the milk given by a cow or sow during such a period.


lash

From Middle English lashe, lasshe, lasche (“a stroke; the flexible end of a whip”), from Proto-Germanic *laskô (“flap of fabric, strap”).
Cognate with Dutch lasch, las (“a piece; seal; joint; notch; seam”), German Low German Laske, Lask (“a flap; dag; strap”), German Lasche (“a flap; joint; strap; tongue; scarf”), Swedish lask (“scarf”), Icelandic laski (“the bottom part of a glove”).

cog

I'll have a lash.

Much-loved characters living on after their author’s death is not so unusual these days. Every second bloke in possession of a keyboard seems to have had a lash at a James Bond thriller, including Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd, Anthony Horowitz, Christopher Wood and Sebastian Faulks.

2021 August 28, Grant Smithies, “The Dark Remains: Ian Rankin's 'terrifying' return”, in Stuff:

“I felt I’d go out and grab the bull by the horns and give it a good lash and I’m very pleased to come away with second in my very first Diamond League final.”

2022 September 9, Cathal Dennehy, “Ciara Mageean shines in Diamond League to claim second”, in Irish Examiner:

(Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, informal) An attempt; a go at something.


loch

From Middle English lough, borrowed from Scottish Gaelic loch. Doublet of lay, Looe, and lough.

The greater part of Leuchars Loch belonged to the Inneses of Leuchars, Cotts to the Inneses of Innes; and while thus poſſeſſed, many unſucceſsful attempts to drain both, by canals, to the river Loſſie, ſeem to have been made. […] [A] very ordinary fall of rain raiſes it [the river] far beyond its natural bounds; and the immediate conſequence of ſuch floods, was, the ſpeat-water flowing into thoſe lochs, by the canal, and covering the adjacent meadows.

1802 November 1, “Account of the Drainage of the Lochs at Leuchars and Cotts, in the County of Moray”, in The Farmer’s Magazine: A Periodical Work, Exclusively Devoted to Agriculture, and Rural Affairs, volume III, number XII, Edinburgh: Printed by D. Willison, for Archibald Constable, [...], →OCLC, pages 453–454:

But, enchanting as are the woodland banks of the quiet stream, there is to me a higher and yet more powerful charm in the solitary wildness or savage grandeur of the Highland loch.

1840, John Colquhoun, “Loch-fishing”, in The Moor and the Loch: […], Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 56:

This book may possibly fall into the hands of tourists in the Highlands; and if it should induce any one to visit the Isles of Loch Awe, a few words on my part may save him a good deal of trouble. The inns are so badly situated that no visitors but sportsmen and painters ever think of staying long at Loch Awe. The hotel at Dalmally is an old inconvenient house, three miles from the loch, and wants rebuilding. The inn at Cladich is a mile from the loch, and the footpath in wet weather is almost impassable.

1855, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, “Notes [on the poem The Isles of Loch Awe]”, in The Isles of Loch Awe and Other Poems of My Youth, London: W. E. Painter, […], →OCLC, page 91:

Mr. [James M.] Gale's scheme for doubling the [water] supply was carried through both Houses of Parliament, and was at once put into construction. It especially included the raising of the boundaries of the loch, and it brought into assistance and use other lochs in the Loch Katrine area; and Glasgow and its suburbs are now supplied with water as no other community in the kingdom is supplied.

1903 September 11, “The Late Mr. James M. Gale”, in W[illiam] H[enry] Maw, J[ames] Dredge [Jr.], editors, Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal, volume LXXVI, London: Offices for advertisements and publication—35 & 36, Bedford Street, Strand, W.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 351, column 2:

[…] Marmaduke Wetherell was hired by the Daily Mail newspaper to lead a search for the lair of the Loch Ness Monster. […] To everyone's surprise, within a few days of the start of his search, Wetherell came across a huge, four-toed footprint along the shoreline of the loch. This was just the sort of sensational story the newspaper was hoping for.

2010 January, Rick Emmer, “Into the Limelight”, in Loch Ness Monster: Fact or Fiction? (Creature Science Investigation), New York, N.Y.: Chelsea House Publishers, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 28:

It is well known, for instance, that the superiority of the herrings caught in the inland sea-lochs of Scotland is owing to the fish finding there a better feeding-ground than in the large and exposed open bays. Look, for instance, at Lochfyne: the land runs down to the water's edge, and the surface water or drainage carries with it rich food to fatten the loch, and put flesh on the herring; and what fish is finer, I would ask, than a Lochfyne herring?

1865, James G[lass] Bertram, “Fish Life and Growth”, in The Harvest of the Sea: A Contribution to the Natural and Economic History of the British Food Fishes, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 28:

Little Loch Broom is a NW trending sea loch situated approximately 10 km west of Ullapool[…]. The flanks of the loch are characterized by rugged headlands backed by mountains such as An Teallach to the south and Beinn Ghobhlach to the north.

2010, Martyn S. Stoker, Charles R. Wilson, John A. Howe, Tom Bradwell, David Long, “Paraglacial Slope Instability in Scottish Fjords: Examples from Little Loch Broom, NW Scotland”, in J[ohn] A. Howe, W. E. N. Austin, M. Forwick, M. Paetzel, editors, Fjord Systems and Archives (Geological Society Special Publication; no. 344), London: Published by The Geological Society, →ISBN, page 227, column 1:

(Ireland, Scotland) A bay or arm of the sea.


wee

en-adj

wee (comparative weer, superlative weest)

From Middle English wey, weygh, wegh, weȝe, wæȝe (“little bit”), from Old English wǣġ, wǣġe (“weight”), from Proto-West Germanic *wāgu, from Proto-Germanic *wēgō (“scales, weight”) and *wēgǭ (“weight”), related to Middle English weġan (“to move, weigh”) (15c).

You looked a little cold, so I lit a wee fire.

The beat of its wee heart held against her own, sent her intense maternity surging like the spring sap in a young tree.

1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 275:

I had not seen a wee boy do it like that before. He was weer than me and his swimming was just like splashing about.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 73:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, New Zealand, Ottawa Valley, Mid-Ulster) Small, little.


garden

Sranan Tongo: dyari

→ Nafaanra: yaadi

From Middle English gardyn, garden, from Anglo-Norman gardin, from Frankish *gardin-, oblique stem of *gardō (“enclosure, yard”), from Proto-Germanic *gardô (“enclosure, garden, house”), whence also inherited English yard. (compare Old French jart alongside jardin, Medieval Latin gardīnus). Doublet of jardin. Displaced Old English wyrttūn.
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian gard, Low German Goorn, Dutch gaard, gaarde, German Garten, Icelandic garður, French jardin, Spanish jardín, Italian giardino, Sicilian jardinu.

tuin

piece of land outside with flowers and plants

gumno

area behind a barn for fruits and vegetables

This house has a swimming pool, a tent, a swing set and a fountain in the garden.

We were drinking lemonade and playing croquet in the garden.

Our garden is overgrown with weeds.

(British, Ireland, Appalachia, New York City) The grounds at the front or back of a house.


bullet

en-noun

bullet (countable and uncountable, plural bullets)

From Middle English bullet (“an official tag or badge of registration or identification”), from Old French bullete, diminutive of boule (“ball”). Later influenced by Middle French boulette and French boulet.

inh

(Ireland, particularly in Northern Ireland) The heavy projectile thrown in a game of road bowling.


queer

en-adj

queer (comparative queerer, superlative queerest)

queerer (comparative)
queerest (superlative)
qwer (alternative)

→ Azerbaijani: kuir

→ Georgian: ქვიარი (kviari)

→ German: queer, Queer

→ Russian: квир (kvir)

→ Swedish: queer

→ Turkish: kuir

Attested since about 1510, at first in Scots. Usually taken to be from Middle Low German (Brunswick dialect) queer (“oblique, off-center”) or the related German quer (“diagonal”), from Old Saxon thwerh, from Proto-West Germanic *þwerh, from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz, from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to turn, twist, wind”); compare Latin torqueō, and see more at thwart. The OED argues against this due to the semantic differences and the date at which the word appears in Scots.
Began to be used to describe gay people in the late 1800s, see usage notes for more.

der

Fully Automated Luxury Queer Space Communism

An old long-faced, long-bodied servant, gave a queer look

1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:

“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”

1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, pages 23–24:

One thing has struck me as a bit queer. During my two terms of office the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and 'reformatory' portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep U.S. troops stationed in the Southern States, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of negroes–as much citizens under the Constitution as if their skins were white–the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest intimation that danger threatens.

1877, Ulysses S. Grant, The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878, page 252:

It looked queer to me to see boxes labeled "His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America." The packages so labeled contained Bass ale or Cognac brandy, which cost "His Excellency" less than we Yankees had to pay for it. Think of the President drinking imported liquors while his soldiers were living on pop-corn and water!

1885, David Dixon Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, page 274:

Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

“’Tis a queer book - here, leave me git on my spectacles - ” The old man fumbled among his rags, producing a pair of dirty and amazingly antique glasses (...)

1920, H. P. Lovecraft, The Picture in the House:

1927, J. B. S. Haldane, “Possible Worlds” in Possible Worlds and Other Papers, London: Chatto & Windus,
Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

A queer look came over John Arable's face. He seemed almost ready to cry himself.

1952, E. B. White, Charlotte's Web, page 3:

Though it may seem very queer,
we've got no jobs to give you here,
so we are sending you to Vietnam.

1965, “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation”, Tom Paxton (lyrics), Tom Paxton (music):

(dated outside UK, Ireland, Scotland) Weird, odd, or different; whimsical.


queer

en-adv

queer (not generally comparable, comparative more queer, superlative most queer)

more queer (comparative)
most queer (superlative)
qwer (alternative)

Twas a queer bachram in the pub that night!

Ah, but she was the queer old skeowsha anyhow, Anna Livia, trinkettoes!”

Page 6: Tony: Yeah, he's a queer smily fecker, ain't he?
Page 14: Tony: I'll tell yeh one thing Conway he's trainin' queer hard for it!

1988, Billy Roche, A Handful of Stars, act I, pages 6, 14:


put down

en-verb

put down (third-person singular simple present puts down, present participle putting down, simple past and past participle put down)

puts down (present singular third-person)
putting down (participle present)
put down (participle past)
put down (past)

BP are putting petrol and diesel down in what could be the start of a price war.

(UK, Ireland) To make prices, or taxes, lower.


NRA

National Roads Authority
w:National Roads Authority

(Ireland) Initialism of National Roads Authority.


dummy

dummies (plural)
dumbie (alternative rare)
dumby (alternative rare)

From dumb + -y. Pacifier sense from dummy teat where dummy is in the sense of a nonfunctional replica.

мор

bridge: the partner of the winning bidder, who shows his or her hand

The baby wants her dummy.

Then on the fifth day, at the first sleep of the day, remove the dummy and follow my settling guide for your baby′s age. You should throw all her dummies in the bin to ensure you are not tempted to use them again – even outside sleep times.

2006, Tizzie Hall, Save Our Sleep: A Parents′ Guide Towards Happy, Sleeping Babies from Birth to Two Years, MacMillan, published 2009, page 200:

No Fairy baby has ever been seen to suck its thumb or to use a dummy.

2008, Bern, Bern's Fairy Tales, page 15:

We′ve found that going cold turkey works best – you check that your baby isn't ill or teething, then throw all dummies away. When your baby cries for her dummy, you can look her in the eye and say, ‘It′s gone,’ and really mean it.

2011, Simone Cave, Caroline Fertleman, Baby to Toddler Month by Month, page 85:

(Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland) A pacifier; a plastic or rubber teat used to soothe or comfort a baby.


ta

Uncertain, but possibly young child's pronunciation of thanks.
Alternatively, derived from Danish tak, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz.

Ta for the cup of tea.

(colloquial, chiefly Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) Thanks.


legend

en-noun

legend (countable and uncountable, plural legends)

From Middle English legende, from Old French legende, from Medieval Latin legenda (“a legend, story, especially the lives of the saints”), from Latin legenda (“things which ought to be read”), from lego (“I read”).

legende

any person of extraordinary accomplishment

I've lost my pen! —Here mate, borrow mine. —You legend.

A person related to a legend or legends.

A person of extraordinary fame or accomplishments.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, slang) A cool, nice or helpful person, especially one who is male.


moth

Alternative form of mot (“woman; wife”), likely under influence from Irish maith (“goodness”).


mot

Probably from Dutch mot (“woman”). See also mort (“woman”) and moth (“girlfriend”).

Come wed, my dear, and let's agree, / Then of the booze-ken you'll be free; / No sneer from cully, mot, or froe / Dare then reproach my Bess for Joe; / For he's the kiddy rum and queer, / That all St. Giles's boys do fear.

1789, G. Parker, “The Sandman's Wedding”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris, published 1896:

And we shall caper a-heel-and-toeing, / A Newgate hornpipe some fine day; / With the mots, their ogles throwing, / Tol lol, &c. / And old Cotton humming his pray.

1829 July 10, Vidocq, Eugène François with Maginn, William, transl., “Noctes Ambrosiana [En roulant de vergne en vergne]”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, number 45, translation of En roulant de vergne en vergne, page 133:

After some altercation with the "mot" of the "ken" (mistress of the lodging-house) about the cleanliness of a knife or fork, my new acquaintance began to arrange "ground," &c., for the night's work.

1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 217:


half and half

en-noun

half and half (countable and uncountable, plural half and halfs)

half and halfs (plural)
half-and-half (alternative)

A mixture of two things, generally in about equal proportions.

(UK, Ireland) A combination of both rice and chips as an accompaniment to a curry, as opposed to one or the other.


mint

From Middle English mynt, münet (“money, coin”), from Old English mynet (“coin”), from late Proto-West Germanic *munit, from Latin monēta (“place for making coins, coined money”), from the temple of Juno Moneta (named for Monēta mother of the Muses), where coins were made. Doublet of money and manat. The verb is from the noun; Old English mynetian (“to mint”) is a parallel formation.

der

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) Attractive; beautiful; handsome.


nick

The noun is derived from Late Middle English nik (“notch, tally; nock of an arrow”). Its further etymology is unknown; a connection with nock (“notch in a bow to hold the bowstring; notch at the rear of an arrow that fits the bowstring; cleft in the buttocks”) has not been clearly established.
The verb appears to be derived from the noun, though the available evidence shows that some of the verb senses predate the noun senses. No connection with words in Germanic languages such as Danish nikke (“to nod”), Middle Dutch nicken (“to bend; to bow”) (modern Dutch knikken (“to nod”)), Middle Low German nicken (“to bend over; to sink”), Middle High German nicken (“to bend; to depress”) (modern German nicken (“to nod”)), Middle Low German knicken (“to bend; to snap”) (modern German knicken (“to bend; to break”), Old Frisian hnekka (“to nod”), and Swedish nicka (“to nod”), has been clearly established.

unknown

further etymology is unknown

cog

The car I bought was cheap and in good nick.

[F]urther south in Kent, there was St. Mildred, whose mother [Domne Eafe], in 670, founded the minster that still stands there in good nick, with nine nuns who are an ever-present help in trouble to all religions and none.

2014 July 20, Jane Gardam, “Give us a bishop in high heels [print version: ‘Give us a high-heeled bishop’, International New York Times, 22 July 2014, page 11]”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2015-11-07:

[…]considering they've abused their bodies with everything from M and G to crystal meth over the course of the last day or so, some longer, they look in pretty good nick.

2017, James Wharton, Something for the Weekend, Biteback Publishing, →ISBN:

More unexpectedly, older tech and hardware stocks seem in decent nick, Mr Ives notes.

2022 May 14, “Tech bubbles are bursting all over the place”, in The Economist, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Often in the expressions in bad nick and in good nick: condition, state.

He was arrested and taken down to Sun Hill nick [police station] to be charged.

He’s just been released from Shadwell nick [prison] after doing ten years for attempted murder.

I recall too that the chats in the back of the [police] van weren't too bad as they dispatched me to the nick.

2014, Russell Brand, “I am an Anarchist-a”, in Revolution, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 81:

Poor Billy, he got seven years and he died in the nick in Liverpool in January 1958. Tragedy, he was such a good man, the best. He had a big funeral back in Clerkenwell. Eva went to it. I was in the nick down south at the time.

2019 June 6, Frankie Fraser, James Morton, Mad Frank's Diary: The Confessions of Britain’s Most Notorious Villain, Random House, →ISBN:

“They say he's a friend of Stuart's who he met in the nick down south. No one in Brisbane knows him.” “Not that anyone would admit to it anyway.”

2021 March 23, William Stokes, The Riddle Exposed:: The Whiskey Firebombing's Link to the McCulkin Family Murders, Interactive Publications, →ISBN, page 80:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) A police station or prison.


nick

en-verb

nick (third-person singular simple present nicks, present participle nicking, simple past and past participle nicked)

nicks (present singular third-person)
nicking (participle present)
nicked (participle past)
nicked (past)

unknown

further etymology is unknown

Someone’s nicked my bike!

As I'm on the ground, my bat and one of the stumps are grabbed out of my hands. [...] At that point, I look up and see Adrian [Dale] – with two stumps in his hands! Hugh [Morris] has given him one and his brother Gary, who is a policeman, has seen the bloke who nicked it off me and wrestled it off him and given [it] to Adrian. He didn't get my bat back, though.

2013, Ian Botham, with Dean Wilson, “Steve James – Fine Dining”, in Beefy’s Cricket Tales: My Favourite Stories from On and Off the Field, London: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, pages 145–146:

(transitive, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) To steal.

The police nicked him climbing over the fence of the house he’d broken into.

Flick knives were pulled on us, and the group demanded we give them all our money, and passports and everything else we had. [...] They [the police] had nicked the knife gang, (who had stayed there, beating the shit out of Nick), and found our passports.

2012, T. Appleby, “Die in Dunkirk or Somewhere in France”, in Life in the Harsh Lane: The Nine Lives, Mishaps, and Adventures of a No-body, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 113:

[...] I was always getting nicked when I was a junkie, so I've had my fair share of skirmishes with the law.

(transitive, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, law enforcement, slang) To arrest.


Ltd.

limited liability company
limited liability company#English

(British, Canada, Ireland) Abbreviation of limited liability company.


class

From Middle French classe, from Latin classis (“a class or division of the people, assembly of people, the whole body of citizens called to arms, the army, the fleet, later a class or division in general”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, shout”). Doublet of clas and classis.

der

To talented authors Tim Ash and Brian Reich for introducing me to John Wiley & Sons—a truly class outfit.

(Ireland, Geordie, slang) great; fabulous


dag

Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags?

2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch, quoted in, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global, Routledge →ISBN, page 68

There it was again, that old Gaelic verb pronounced 'scriss,' that those involved in fighting talk apparently exuded on occasion. It could have been 'D'ya wanna buy a dag?' it was all the same.

2014, John P Brady, Back to the Gaff, Roadside Fiction, →ISBN, page 131:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(chiefly Ireland) Pronunciation spelling of dog.


fag

Probably from fag end (“remnant”), from Middle English fagge (“flap”).

He′d Phase Out Fag Industry
Los Angeles (UPI) - A UCLA professor has called for the phasing out of the cigarette industry by converting tobacco acres to other crops.

Oh, rent a flat above a shop / And cut your hair and get a job / And smoke some fags and play some pool / Pretend you never went to school

1995, Pulp, “Common People”, in Different Class:

All of them, like my mother, were heavy smokers, and after warming themselves by the fire, they would sit on the sofa and smoke, lobbing their wet fag ends into the fire.

2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf, section 15:

So I started off by asking the shearers if they minded if I took a belly off while they were having a fag. Then after a while they were asking me. They′d say, ‘Do yer wanta take over fer a bit while I have a fag?’ And then I got better and I′d finish the sheep and they′d say ‘Christ, I haven′t finished me bloody fag yet, yer may as well shear anotherie.’

2011, Bill Marsh, Great Australian Shearing Stories, unnumbered page:

Fag, s. the worst part or end of anything.

1788, William Perry, editor, The Royal standard English dictionary:

(UK, Ireland, obsolete, colloquial) The worst part or end of a thing.


fag

Akin to flag (“droop, tire”). Compare Dutch vaak (“sleepiness”).

We are sadly off in the country; not but what we have very good shops in Salisbury, but it is so far to go—eight miles is a long way; Mr. Allen says it is nine, measured nine; but I am sure it cannot be more than eight; and it is such a fag—I come back tired to death.

1853, Sarah Josepha Hale, Woman's Record: or Sketches of All Distinguished Women, from Creation to A.D. 1854, page 188:

(UK, Ireland, colloquial, now rare) A chore: an arduous and tiresome task.

I had the character at ſchool of being the very beſt fag that ever came into it.

1791, Richard Cumberland, The Observer, volume 4, page 67:

“He was my fag at Eton,” Warrington said. “I ought to have licked him a little more.”

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

A gang of fags was mobbing about by the notice-boards. They fell silent as he approached. He patted one of them on the head. ‘Pretty children,’ he sighed, digging into his waistcoat pocket and pulling out a handful of change. ‘Tonight you shall eat.’ Scattering the coins at their feet, he moved on.

(UK, Ireland, education, historical, colloquial) A younger student acting as a servant for senior students.


fag

en-verb

fag (third-person singular simple present fags, present participle fagging, simple past and past participle fagged)

fags (present singular third-person)
fagging (participle present)
fagged (participle past)
fagged (past)

(intransitive, UK, Ireland, education, historical, colloquial) (of a younger student) To act as a servant for senior students in many British boarding schools.

It is everywhere observed that a liberated slave is apt to make a merciless master, and that boys who have been cruelly fagged at school are cruel faggers.

1887, Francis Bacon, Richard Whately, Essays, page 63:

(transitive, UK, Ireland, education, historical, colloquial) To have (a younger student) act as a servant in this way.

This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 1, in Jane Eyre, HTML edition:

I walked about the streets where the best shops for ladies were, I haunted the Bazaar like an unquiet spirit, I fagged through the Park again and again, long after I was quite knocked up.

1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland, now rare) To work hard, especially on menial chores.


em

etymid

speech filler, in the em-erm-um-uh class

She was abused by, em... David, I think. That was his name, he's a real em... what's the word, narcissist. You should really stay away from him.

(Scotland, Ireland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty


wan

Eye dialect spelling of one. Sense 2 (“girl or woman”) possibly as a result of the phrase your wan as a counterpart to your man.

Pronunciation spelling of one, representing Ireland English.

Then I’d tell myself there were plenty of oul wans and oul fellas in work who never got it and that I’d be lucky like them and escape. Only I didn’t. I don’t want to die.

1993, Elaine Crowley, The Ways Of Women, London: Orion, →ISBN:

Growing up in Dún Laoghaire in the 1980s, I remember all the hard men were sinewy, scrawny lads, hence the local description ‘more meat on a seagull’. The reason was simple: they were undernourished. [...] The young wans, despite a couple of babies, were more or less the same, pinched, flat-chested and drawn.

2005, David McWilliams, The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, →ISBN; republished as The Pope’s Children: The Irish Economic Triumph and the Rise of Ireland’s New Elite, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, →ISBN, page 4:

He comes streaming out from under the stage, this time a feckin show-stopper, almost literally, because there’s eighty different acrobats above him, [...] for this mad New Year’s show that has no story at all, other than this wan in silky robes who goes out with this fella in silky robes, and they’re from different enemy tribes of lads and wans in silky robes, and when they find out, they have this huge, aerial, acrobatic donnybrook that ends when everyone wraps their silk around each other up in the air, and then lets it all fall down to the ground, where the audience are, to show them how we're all part of one big silky family, and not to be fighting in the future.

2015, Kevin Maher, “A Yuletide Bender”, in Last Night on Earth, London: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:


half

New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

From Middle English half, halfe from Old English healf (“half”); as a noun, 'half', 'side', 'part', from Proto-West Germanic *halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz.
Cognates
Cognate with Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Old Dutch half, West Frisian heal, Dutch half, German halb, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian halv, Icelandic hálfur and Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍃 (halbs). Compare halve, behalf.

'arf (alternative)
ha'f (alternative)
halfe (alternative)

The time is 9:30; it is half nine.

(UK, Ireland) Half past; a half-hour (30 minutes) after the last hour.


twee

en-adj

twee (comparative more twee or tweer, superlative most twee or tweest)

more twee (comparative)
tweer (comparative)
most twee (superlative)
tweest (superlative)

From a childish pronunciation of sweet. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use in 1905 in Punch.

Those Beatrix Potter animals are a little twee for my taste.

Despite the fact that the designs were all a bit twee […] they stood out a mile in the market place at that time.

1999, Janet Foster, Docklands: Urban Change and Conflict in a Community in Transition, London, Philadelphia, Pa.: UCL Press, →ISBN, page 82:

Forget the clichéd image of Brigadoon and shortbread tins, the dreadfully twee tartan tat and Celtic kitsch that, sadly, still exists in the 21st century, and is too often passed off as a genuine Highland experience.

2001, Alan Murphy, Scotland Highlands & Islands Handbook: The Travel Guide, Bath, Somerset: Footprint Handbooks, →ISBN, page 11:

As always with Disney, there are moments when it all seems a bit twee, others when it is excessively PC.

2002, Peter Ellison, Essential Non-fiction, Dublin: Folens Publishers, →ISBN, page 40:

I just wouldn’t have felt comfortable saying, "I am a duckbilled platypus, and this is how I find my shrimps." I think it would have been twee.

2005 September 8, Stephen S. Hall, quoting Richard Dawkins, “Darwin's Rottweiler: Sir Richard Dawkins: Evolution's fiercest champion, far too fierce”, in Discover, archived from the original on 2016-01-01:

[Neil] Tennant's accent obviously has a lot to do with that, but the fact he's rapping is further masked by his twee, effeminate delivery.

2015 June 2, Kenneth Partridge, “With ‘West End Girls,’ Pet Shop Boys set a high standard for U.K. hip-hop”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2015-09-06:

(UK, Ireland, derogatory) Overly quaint, dainty, cute or nice.


well

en-adv

well (comparative better, superlative best)

better (comparative)
best (superlative)
wall (alternative)
weel (alternative)
weil (alternative)
welp (alternative)

From Middle English wel, wal, wol, wele, from Old English wel (“well, abundantly, very, very easily, very much, fully, quite, nearly”), from Proto-Germanic *wela, *wala (“well”, literally “as wished, as desired”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“wish, desire”).
Cognate with Scots wele, weil (“well”), North Frisian wel, weil, wal (“well”), West Frisian wol (“well”), Dutch wel (“well”), Low German wol (“well”), German wohl (“well”), Norwegian and Danish vel (“well”), Swedish väl (“well”), Icelandic vel, val (“well”). Related to will.

der

wool (interjection or unstressed, some accents)

That guy rocks! I think he's called Matthew Lillard or sommat but he is well cool in Scream.

1999, Drummond Pearson, “What Ash are doing right now...”, in alt.music.ash (Usenet):

Hey Dude / FIFA 2003 is well wicked, I've got FIFA 2002 on PS2, David Beckham on Xbox and Football Manager on Xbox too, out of all pf^([sic]) them FIFA 2003 is easliy^([sic]) the best.

2002, jibaili, “FIFA 2003 How is it?”, in microsoft.public.xbox (Usenet):

Hey, you should've seen it, it was well good.

(degree, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Very (as a general-purpose intensifier).


well

wall (alternative)
weel (alternative)
weil (alternative)
welp (alternative)

Well lads. How's things?

(Ireland) Used as a greeting, short for "Are you well?"


zebra crossing

From the similarity of the stripes to those of a zebra.

'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.

1979 October 12, Douglas Adams, chapter 6, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, London: Pan Books, →ISBN, page 50:

Do not ride across a pelican, puffin or zebra crossing. Dismount and wheel your cycle across.

2003, The Highway Code for Northern Ireland, The Stationery Office, →ISBN, page 16:

They also believed that if they were killed on a zebra crossing, the Government would pay for their funerals. They had the definite impression that that was what zebra crossings were meant for. Free funerals.

2008 December 16, Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, Random House, →ISBN, →OL, Ch. 1:

The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London — made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover — has been given Grade II listed status.

2010 December 22, “Beatles' Abbey Road zebra crossing given listed status”, in BBC News:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A pedestrian crossing featuring broad white stripes painted parallel to the street.


inch

From Scots inch, from Scottish Gaelic innis.

The blackening wave is edged with white; / To inch and rock the sea-mews fly.

1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

(Scotland, Ireland) A small island; an islet.

An ivy-clad farmhouse surrounded by trees, it stood on the sunny side of a sloping hill at the foot of which the Darigle river curved its way through gold-furzed inches to disappear under a stone bridge into the woods beyond.

1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 6:

As these calves grew older they did not need to return to the farmyard for feeding as they were able to eat sufficient grass for themselves. They were then kept in the fields, known as the inches, along by the river[,] where they grew strong[,] and during the winter cold when grass was scarce[,] hay was carried down to them.

1988, Alice Taylor, To School Through the Fields: An Irish Country Childhood, Brandon Ltd, →ISBN, page 22:

(Scotland, Ireland) A meadow, pasture, field, or haugh.


French letter

From French + letter. Compare earlier French pox, French-sick (“syphilis”), or later French safe, French tickler (“condom”), or French kiss. Attested from the 19th century.

‘So you’re fifteen – and you know the function of a “French letter”? You are familiar with its use?’
‘I know what it’s for, sir, yes.’

1984, Leslie Thomas, In my Wildest Dreams, page 289:

“I suppose it’s too much to hope that you have a question about gonorrhea. Those questions are so much easier to answer.”[…]
“I was going to ask about what you said earlier. That you’d... that you’d... not used a French letter in eighteen months.”

2012, Courtney Milan, A Kiss for Midwinter, page 80:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated, euphemistic) A condom.


champion

Etymology tree
Proto-Italic *kampos
Latin campusbor.
Proto-West Germanic *kamp
Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
Proto-Germanic *-janą
Proto-West Germanic *-jan
Proto-West Germanic *kampijan
Proto-Germanic *-jô
Proto-West Germanic *-jō
Frankish *kampijōbor.
Medieval Latin campiō
Old French champiunbor.
Middle English champioun
English champion
From Middle English champioun, from Old French champion, from Medieval Latin campio (“combatant in a duel, champion”), from Frankish *kampijō (“fighter”), from Proto-West Germanic *kampijō (“combat soldier”), a derivative of Proto-West Germanic *kampijan (“to battle, to campaign”), itself a derivative of Proto-West Germanic *kamp (“battlefield, battle”), ultimately a borrowing in West-Germanic from Latin campus (“a field, a plain, a place of action”). By surface analysis champ + -ion.

der

"That rollercoaster was champion," laughed Vinny.

(predicative, Ireland, British, dialect) Excellent; brilliant; superb; deserving of high praise.


ordinary

ordinaries (plural)
ordinarie (alternative obsolete)

/ˈɔɹdɪnɛ(ə)ɹi/

From Anglo-Norman ordenarie, ordenaire et al., Middle French ordinaire, and their source, Medieval Latin ordinarius, noun use of Latin ōrdinārius (“regular, orderly”), from ōrdō (“order”).

I ſee no more in you than in the ordinary / Of nature's ſalework.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

(now Scotland, Ireland) The usual course of things; normal condition or health; a standard way of behaviour or action.


rock

en-noun

rock (countable and uncountable, plural rocks)

From Middle English rocke, rokke (“rock formation”), from Old English *rocc (“rock”), as in Old English stānrocc (“high stone rock, peak, obelisk”), and also later from Anglo-Norman roque, (compare Modern French roc, roche, rocher), from Medieval Latin rocca (attested 767), of uncertain origin, sometimes said to be of Celtic (in particular, perhaps Gaulish) origin (compare Breton roc'h). Related also to Middle Low German rocke (“rock ledge”). One suggestion is that it derives from Vulgar Latin *rupica, from rupes (compare rupico).

rockcress

Brassicaceae: Arabis, Arabidopsis, Boechera spp.

Some fool has thrown a rock through my window.

(chiefly UK, Ireland) A boulder or large stone; or (US, Canada) a smaller stone; a pebble.


college

colleges (plural)
colledg (alternative obsolete)
colledge (alternative obsolete)

⇒ Bengali: কলেজ (kolej)

→ Finnish: college

⇒ Hindustani:

desc

Hindi: कालिज (kālij), कॉलेज (kŏlej), कालेज (kālej)

Urdu: کالِج (kālij)

→ Russian: ко́лледж (kólledž), колле́дж (kollédž)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: ко̀леџ

Latin script: kòledž

→ Slovene: koledž

→ Ukrainian: ко́ле́дж (kólédž)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Italic *kom
Old Latin com
Latin cum
Latin con-
Latin lēx
Latin -ō
Latin lēgō
Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂
Proto-Italic *-ā
Latin -a
Latin collēga
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Old Latin -ios
Latin -ius
Latin -ium
Latin collēgiumbor.
Old French college
Middle French collegebor.
Middle English college
English college
From Middle English college, from Middle French college, from Old French college, from Latin collēgium. Doublet of collegium.

大專 /大专

postsecondary institution that does not award bachelor's degrees

مَعْهَد

non-specialized, semi-autonomous division of a university

(education) An academic institution.
(Ireland, Philippines) A university.

Eton College

(UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa) A high school or secondary school.

An academic institution.
A high school or secondary school.

私立高中

in the formal names of private schools: secondary school


public school

public schools (plural)
public-school (alternative)

From public (originally, "communal" and contrasted with personal tutors; later, "state-run" and contrasted with private schools) + school.

All such School-masters as have charge of Children and do instruct them either in Publick Schools, or Private Houses.

1580 June 18, Letters of the Privy Council in John Strype's History of Edmund Grindal (1710), ii.xi.254

No person shall keepe any schoole... except it be in some publike or free Grammer Schoole, or in some such noblemans... or gentlemans... house as are not recusants.

1604, Acts of Parliament 1 under James I, c.4, §8

This worthy Man having observed the imperfect Institution of our public Schools, and the many Vices which Boys were there liable to learn, had resolved to educate his Nephew... in his own House.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter V, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III, page 184:

Our Public Schools... (by which phrase we never mean real public schools like the Board schools at all, but merely schools for the upper and middle classes) are in their existing stage primarily great gymnasiums.

1893 February 4, Westminster Gazette, section 2:

Who is there who has not jeered at the House of Lords, the military caste, the Royal Family, the public schools, the huntin′ and shootin′ people, the old ladies in Cheltenham boarding houses, the horrors of ‘county’ society and the social hierarchy generally?

1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, section 146:

It turned out she was posh, or posh-ish, having been to a public school somewhere in Hampshire.

2005, Nick Laird, Utterly Monkey, section 223:

(UK, Ireland, India) Certain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the personal lands of its students or (from the 19th century) the feepaying secondary schools which developed from or were modelled upon them; a British boarding school

Public School

(in the context of Britain) private grammar school; boarding school

private school

fee-charging private school, offering housing

The Court voted for the erecting a Publick Schooll or Colledge in Cambridge.

1636, Harvard College Records, published 1925, I.171:

The Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order all public Schooles.

1683, Pennsylvania Frame of Government, §10:

By Act of Parliament no school is to be kept within two miles of a publick school.

1702, Henry Paton, Minnigaff Parish Records: the Session Book of Minnigaff, 1694-1750, published 1939:

A subscription... by a great part of the settlers and others to build a Public School at the Green Hills.

1804 August 12, Sydney Gazette, section 1:

Hardly anywhere in France... can the private boys' schools, whether they be lay or congreganist, hold their own in the competition with the public schools.

1861, Matthew Arnold, The Popular Education of France, with Notices of that of Holland and Switzerland, x.105:

Every school under the management of the school board of a parish shall be deemed a parish school, and every school under the management of the school board of a burgh shall be deemed a burgh school, and all such schools are hereby declared to be public schools within the meaning of this Act.

1872, Acts of Parliament 35 & 36 under Victoria (Scotland), c.62, §25

Public Schools... are distinguished from those which until recently were entitled Grammar Schools.

As to the two races involved in this question of public schools the difference is this: the negroes do not wish mixed schools; the white people will not have them.

If our public schools fail to furnish an education fully as good as can be obtained in private schools, intelligent, conscientious, and well-to-do parents will withdraw their children.

Public Schools. Course of Instruction... Class III. To include at least reading, writing, arithmetic, outlines of history and geography, and lessons on natural objects.

1904, Cape of Good Hope C.S. List, section 267:

The term ‘public school’ has a different connotation in New Zealand. It implies the Borough or County school; the school provided by the State.

1932, Nelle Scanlan, Pencarrow, section 256:

(Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Philippines, formerly Scottish) A publicly funded and administered school; (UK, Ireland) such schools in the context of other countries


side

en-noun

side (countable and uncountable, plural sides)

From Middle English side, from Old English sīde (“side, flank”), from Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ (“side, flank, edge, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēy- (“to send, throw, drop, sow, deposit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Siede (“side”), West Frisian side (“side”), Dutch zijde, zij (“side”), German Low German Sied (“side”), German Seite (“side”), Danish and Norwegian side (“side”), Swedish sida (“side”).
The LGBTQ slang sense was coined by sex therapist and author Joe Kort in 2010 and popularized in 2013. The sense was coined by analogy with top and bottom and based on the metaphor of a box which has a top, bottom, and sides.

coinage

know which side one's bread is buttered on

laugh out of the other side of one's mouth

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest

the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

the grass is always greener on the other side of the road

Newly promoted, they were top of the First Division and unbeaten when they took on a Manchester United side that had been revitalized by a new manager,[…].

1988, Ken Jones with Pat Welton Crown, Soccer skills & tactics, page 9:

It was no less than Valencia deserved after dominating possession in the final 20 minutes although Chelsea defended resolutely and restricted the Spanish side to shooting from long range.

2011 September 28, Jon Smith, “Valencia 1-1 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:

Initially, the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish unions refused to send national sides, preferring instead to send touring sides like the Barbarians, the Penguins, the Co-Optimists, the Wolfhounds, Crawshays Welsh, and the Public School Wanderers.

2011, Nick Cain, Greg Growden, Rugby Union For Dummies, 3rd edition, UK, page 220:

I just want to see what's on the other side — James said there was a good film on tonight.

(British, Australia, Ireland, dated) A television channel, usually as opposed to the one currently being watched (from when there were only two channels).


jib

Forgetting that the jibs, whom they insulted, were afterwards to grow into the influential men […]

1840, The University Magazine: A Literary and Philosophic Review, page 133:

[I]n a healthy environment, young Mahoney might have taken the risk, both with University and, in part, with entering the Aula for the jibs dance.

2014, Peter Guy, As Mirrors Are Lonely, page 115:

(Ireland, slang, archaic) A first-year student at the University of Dublin.


jambon

→ Irish: siamban

Borrowed from French jambon (“ham”). Doublet of gammon and jamon.

(Ireland, British) A square puff pastry containing ham and cheese.

paniers feuilletés au jambon et au fromage


libertarian

libertarians (plural)
Libertarian (alternative)

/ˌlɪb.əˈtɛə.ɹɪ.ən/

Foundation for Economic Education
Joseph Déjacque
Leonard Read
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
William Belsham
lois scélérates

The noun is derived from liber(ty) + -arian (suffix denoting an advocate of or believer in something). The adjective is derived from the noun.
sense development
The word was first attested in English in 1789 in William Belsham’s Essays: see the quotation. This was contrasted with necessitarian, in the context of free will, and was not used in the more frequently encountered modern sense.
Compare French libertaire (“person with extreme left-wing beliefs, anarchist”), from liberté (“freedom”) + -aire (suffix forming nouns). Libertaire is derived from Latin libertas. The French word was first attested in a May 1857 letter by the French anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque (1821–1865) to the anarchist philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), reading: “Anarchiste juste-milieu, libéral et non LIBERTAIRE [A centrist anarchist, liberal and not LIBERTARIAN] […]”. It was popularized as a euphemism for anarchiste in the 1890s, following the French lois scélérates (literally “villainous laws”) under which anarchist publications were banned.
Sense 3.2 (“believer in right-libertarianism”) developed in the United States in the 1940s and was popularized in the 1950s. In the 1940s, Leonard Read (1898–1983), the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, a free-market think tank, began calling himself “libertarian” in contrast with a “classical liberal”. In 1955, Dean Russell also promoted the use of the word, writing: “Let those of us who love liberty trade-mark and reserve for our own use the good and honorable word ‘libertarian’.”

cog

[Gustav] Landauer's reorientation of anarchist theory and practice in the direction of idealist and völkisch thought was often incomprehensible to the more traditional libertarians, and in the period of the second Sozialist Landauer no longer felt entirely comfortable with the simple "anarchist" label. For Landauer anarchism and socialism had always been different expressions of the same view; now he regarded anarchism as "merely the negative side of what is positively called socialism."

1973, Eugene Lunn, “The Romantic as Socialist”, in Prophet of Community: The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.; London: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 200:

While anarchism and socialist libertarians have a rich history of revolutionary thinkers ranging from Emma Goldman to George Orwell, the best-known socialist libertarian thinker of today is probably Noam Chomsky.

2012, Jennifer D. Carlson, “Libertarianism”, in Wilbur R. Miller, editor, The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, →ISBN, page 1008, column 1:

(politics) One who advocates libertarianism (“a political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others that same liberty”); also, a member of a political party supporting libertarianism.

(chiefly Ireland, UK) An antiauthoritarian believer in left-libertarianism, a political doctrine that stresses both individual freedom and social equality, and advocates shared ownership of natural resources.


bang

From Middle English *bangen, from Old English *bangian or borrowed from Old Norse banga (“to pound, hammer”); both from Proto-Germanic *bangōną (“to beat, pound”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰen- (“to beat, hit, injure”). Cognate with Scots bang, bung (“to strike, bang, hurl, thrash, offend”), Icelandic banga (“to pound, hammer”), Old Swedish bånga ("to hammer"; whence modern Swedish banka (“to knock, pound, bang”)), Danish banke (“to beat”), bengel (“club”), Low German bangen, bangeln (“to strike, beat”), West Frisian bingel, bongel, Dutch bengel (“bell; rascal”), German Bengel (“club”), bungen (“to throb, pulsate”).
In the sense of a fringe of hair, from bang off.
In the sense of abrupt left turn, from Boston left and associated risk of a crash.

gl

"to hammer"; whence modern Swedish <i class="Latn mention" lang="sv">banka</i> (“to knock, pound, bang”)

Audio (US)

There was a bang of onions off his breath.

(Ireland, colloquial, slang) strong smell (of)


mate

From Middle English mate, a borrowing from Middle Low German mate (“messmate”) (replacing Middle English mette (“table companion, mate, partner”), from Old English ġemetta (“sharer of food, table-guest”)), derived from Proto-Germanic *gamatjô, itself from *ga- (“together”) (related to German and Dutch ge-) + *matjô (from *matiz (“food”)), related to Old English mete (“food”)). From the same Middle Low German source stems German Low German Maat (“journeyman, companion”), German Maat (“naval non-commissioned officer”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Moat (“friend, buddy, comrade, mate”), Dutch maat (“mate, partner, colleague, friend”). More at Old English ġe-, English co-, English meat. Doublet of maat.

cog

I'm going to the pub with a few mates.

He's my best mate.

(colloquial, British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) A friend, usually of the same sex.

Excuse me, mate, have you got the time?

(colloquial, British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) Friendly term of address to a stranger, usually male, of similar age.


juggernaut

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɔt/

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ɚ.nɑt/

/ˈd͡ʒʌɡ.ə.nɔːt/

17th century, from Hindustani جگنّاتھ / जगन्नाथ (jagannāth) or Odia ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ (jagannātha), from Sanskrit जगन्नाथ (jagannātha, “Lord of the Universe”) (Jagannatha), a title for the Hindu deity Vishnu's avatar Krishna. English form influenced by suffix -naut (“sailor”). Doublet of Jagannath.
From British colonial era in India, witnessing the Rath Yatra (chariot parade) at Puri, Orissa. The festival features a huge annual procession, with a wagon of the idol of Jagannath. Pulled with ropes by hundreds of devotees, the wagon develops considerable momentum and becomes unstoppable.

der

I know I swing me Volvo all around you market square. I know you think that lorry drivers, we just don't care. But the streets are so narrow, built so many years ago. They were built for horses' carts, not juggernauts you know.

2019, “I love my juggernaut”, in The Pothole Song Album, performed by Richie Kavanagh:

(British, Ireland, sometimes derogatory) A large, cumbersome truck or lorry, especially an artic.


cross

→ Japanese: クロス (kurosu)

From Middle English cross, cros, from Old English cros (“rood, cross”), from Old Norse kross, from Old Irish cros, from Latin crux (crucī). In this sense displaced native Middle English rood, from Old English rōd; see rood. Compare Welsh croes, Irish crois.
The sense of "two intersecting lines drawn or cut on a surface; two lines intersecting at right angles" without regard to religious signification develops from the late 14th century.
Cognates
*Icelandic kross (“cross”)
*Faroese krossur (“cross”)
*Norwegian Nynorsk kross, kors (“cross”)
*Danish kors (“cross”)
*Swedish kors (“cross”)
*North Frisian kross, korss (“cross”)
*Saterland Frisian Krjuus, Kjus (“cross”)
*West Frisian krús (“cross”)
*Dutch kruis (“cross”)
*German Low German Krüüz (“cross”)
*German Kreuz (“cross”)

the church-lands lying within the same, which were called the Cross

1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued:


skin

en-noun

skin (countable and uncountable, plural skins)

skins (plural)
skinne (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English skyn, skinn, from Old English scinn, from Old Norse skinn (“animal hide”), from Proto-Germanic *skinþą, from Proto-Indo-European *sken- (“to split off”), nasal variant of *skeh₁i-d- (“to cut”). Partially displaced native Old English hȳd (“skin, hide”), from which derives hide.
Cognate with Dutch schinde (“bark”), dialectal German Schinde (“fruit peel”); also Breton skant (“scales”), Old Irish cenn (“covering, shell”), Irish scáin (“to tear, burst”), Latin scindō (“to split, divide”), Sanskrit छिनत्ति (chinátti, “to split”).

hinasuna

outer protective layer of the body of a person or animal

don't sell the skin till you have caught the bear

He was a decent old skin.

PAUDI:”I fucking love the pair of ye! You’re good lads. You’re loyal skins”

2019, Joe Murragh, Colin Barrett, 54:50 from the start, in Calm With Horses (film), spoken by Paudi (Ned Dennehy):

(slang, Ireland, British) A person; chap.


screed

From Middle English screde [and other forms], a variant of shrede (“fragment, scrap; strip of cloth; strip cut off from a larger piece; band or thread woven into fabric; element, streak”) (whence shred (noun)), from Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“a piece cut off; paring, shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a cut, crack”), from *skraudaną (“to cut up, shred”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). The English word is cognate with Old Frisian skrēd. Doublet of escrow, scroll, and shred.

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-screed.wav

ферман

piece of writing or speech, especially if long

"Weel done!" cried Mrs. Smith. "I trow ye gae her a screed o' your mind!"

1813, William David Evans, “Letter I”, in Letters on the Legal Disabilities of Roman Catholics and Dissenters; and on the Dangers Apprehended from Their Removal, London: […] J. Ridgeway, […], →OCLC, page 13:

The housewife hastens in the gleaming sun, / With watering-pan to sprinkle when it needs / The bleaching cloth which her own fingers spun, / Stretch'd on the orchard sward in whitening screeds; [...]

1824, “A Summer Morning”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume XI, number XLVII, London: […] Henry Colburn […], →OCLC, page 472:

No sooner had we clapped eyes on the Leading Article, than, as usual, we recognized an old acquaintance. It is made up of alternate scraps and screeds from old numbers of the Review—the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Scotsman newspaper!

1826, Mordecai Mullion [pseudonym; John Wilson], Some Illustrations of Mr [John Ramsay] M‘Culloch’s Principles of Political Economy, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 39:

(chiefly Ireland, Newfoundland, Scotland, dated) A piece or narrow strip cut or torn off from a larger whole; a shred.


how are you

/hæɔ ˈaː jʉː/

/hæɔ ˈaː jə/

1967 July 20: Questions. Oral Answers. — Free Travel for Old Age Pensioners. Dáil Éireann debates
Mr. Dunne: "A small point", says the Minister for Justice.
Mr. Ryan: Justice, how are you! He would not recognise it in this world or the next.

'Christmas how are you!' exclaimed Jim O'Hanlon ruefully. 'We will remember this one for quite a while anyway.' He was grateful that at least no one was injured in the incident.

2013 December 31, “'Christmas how are you! We'll remember this one for a while'"”, in Gorey Guardian:

(idiomatic, Ireland) (Following a noun phrase; stress on are) An expression of derision, that the preceding referent is unworthy of the name. In form of an exclamation, and thus often followed by an exclamation mark.


lad

From Middle English ladde (“foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy”), from late Old English *ladda (attested in Old English personal byname Ladda), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse ladd (“hose, woolen stocking; sock”), which may have undergone semantic shift to mean a term of abuse (e.g. foolish youth, youngster of lower social status, etc.); thence by connotative amelioration coming to mean any young fellow. Compare Norwegian ladd (“rough sock, woolen or felt slipper”) and the -ladd in compounds Askeladd/Askeladden (a nickname in fairy tales, "Ash Lad") and tusseladd (“nincompoop”). See also Swedish ladder (“old shoes”), lodde (“Frisian shoe”), lädder (“socks”), all said to be related to Old Norse loðinn (“hairy, shaggy, woolly”), loddi (“shaggy dog”).

cog

— The lad stood to attention anyhow, he said with a sigh. She's a gamey mare and no mistake.

Mrs Glynn: Oh but there's this great bit in it. You see, there was this girl, but then you find out it's not a girl but a man!
Mrs Sheridan: And he got his lad out.

1995 May 5, Graham Linehan, Arthur Matthews, “The Passion of St Tibulus”, in Father Ted:

And he loaded the chariot with clods and boulders and cobbles that he fired at anyone who came to stare at him and jeer him, stark naked as he was, with his long lad and his acorns dangling down through the floor of the chariot.

2007, anonymous author, translated by Ciaran Carson, The Táin, →ISBN, page 175:

Just thinking about how she would look without her clothes made his lad twitch with anticipation.

2010, Loucinda McGary, The Wild Irish Sea: A Windswept Tale of Love and Magic, →ISBN, page 11:


swede

From the earlier term Swedish turnip, because the Swedes introduced the plant to the English in the 1700s.

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) The turnip.


banjax

en-verb

banjax (third-person singular simple present banjaxes, present participle banjaxing, simple past and past participle banjaxed)

banjaxes (present singular third-person)
banjaxing (participle present)
banjaxed (participle past)
banjaxed (past)
banjack (alternative)
bandjax (alternative)

Unknown, perhaps originally Dublin slang. According to Green’s Dictionary of Slang, may be a euphemism for bollocks.

I hoofed his backside till he went down all of a heap. That banjaxed his little game. You should have heard his hullabulloo.

1922, Darrell Figgis, The House of Success, The Gael Co-operative Publishing Society, Ltd., page 146:

Indeed, it seemed that the army was hopelessly banjaxed.

1928, Eimar O'Duffy, The Spacious Adventures of the Man in the Street, Macmillan, page 370:

Emma had suggested that you hide, said your presence might banjax her position.

1970, Edna O'Brien, A Pagan Place, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2001, page 91:

Fraser was looking at the flat, wet countryside and thinking about the French policeman who had banjaxed him with the truncheon.

2006, Craig Ferguson, Between the Bridge and the River, Chronicle Books, page 252:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:banjax.

(UK, originally Ireland, slang) To ruin or destroy.


banjax

banjaxes (plural)
banjack (alternative)
bandjax (alternative)

I'm tellin' you the scholar, Bentham, made a banjax o' th' Will.

1922, Seán O'Casey, Juno and the Paycock:

(chiefly Ireland, informal) A mess or undesirable situation made as a result of incompetence.


banjaxed

en-adj

banjaxed (comparative more banjaxed, superlative most banjaxed)

more banjaxed (comparative)
most banjaxed (superlative)

Here is his black heart sitting there as large as life in the middle of the pulp of his banjaxed corpse.

1939, Flann O'Brien [pseudonym; Brian O'Nolan], At Swim-Two-Birds:

Then it got banjaxed, at a supper party to which he brought me.

1972, Edna O'Brien, Night, published 2001:

Lindsay again waxes approving over Ballard’s hymn to the banjaxed landscape of the Heathrow environs, with its choked arterial roads, light industrial units and warehousing entrepots.

2011, Will Self, “The frowniest spot on Earth”, in London Review of Books, XXXIII.9:

Part of the strategy is to dramatically increase the number of electric cars but people in rural areas are proving hesitant because of cost and lack of charging points. “If you were in the countryside you’d be banjaxed. You can’t plug it into a ditch, you can’t plug it into a cow,” said Derek Desmond, 50, a handyman from Tipperary.

2022 July 29, Rory Carroll, quoting Derek Desmond, “Fare deal: Ireland joins Europe-wide efforts to coax people out of cars”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(British and Ireland, slang) Broken, ruined, shattered; confounded.

I'm completely banjaxed!

(British and Ireland, slang) Tired, sleepy, cream crackered.


cheque

→ Albanian: çek

→ Amharic: ቼክ (ček)

→ Arabic: شِيك (šēk, šīk)

→ Gulf Arabic: چيك (cek)

→ Armenian: չեկ (čʻek)

→ Asturian: cheque

→ Azerbaijani: çek

→ Belarusian: чэк (ček)

→ Bengali: চেক (cek)

→ Breton: chekenn

→ Bulgarian: чек (ček)

→ Burmese: ချက် (hkyak)

→ Catalan: xec

→ Czech: šek

→ Danish: check

→ Dutch: cheque

→ Estonian: tšekk

→ Finnish: sekki, šekki, shekki

→ French: chèque

→ Galician: cheque

→ Georgian: ჩეკი (čeḳi)

→ German: Scheck

→ Hebrew: צֵ׳ק (chéq), שֵׁיְק (shéq)

→ Hindi: चेक (cek), चैक (caik)

→ Hungarian: csekk

→ Icelandic: tékki

→ Irish: seic

→ Japanese: チェック

→ Kazakh: чек (çek)

→ Kyrgyz: чек (cek)

→ Lao: ເຊັກ (sek)

→ Latvian: čeks

→ Lithuanian: čekis

→ Macedonian: чек (ček)

→ Malay: cek

Indonesian: cek

→ Marathi: चेक (cek)

→ Mongolian: чек (ček)

→ Norman: chèque

→ Northern Kurdish: çek

→ Norwegian: sjekk

→ Occitan: chèc

→ Odia: ଚେକ୍ (cek)

→ Persian: چک (ček)

→ Polish: czek

→ Portuguese: cheque

→ Punjabi: ਚੈੱਕ (caikka)

→ Romanian: cec

→ Russian: чек (ček)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: чек

Latin script: ček

→ Slovak: šek

→ Slovene: ček

→ Spanish: cheque

→ Swahili: cheki

→ Swedish: check

→ Tajik: чек (ček)

→ Telugu: చెక్కు (cekku)

→ Thai: เช็ค (chék)

→ Turkish: çek

→ Turkmen: çek

→ Ukrainian: чек (ček)

→ Urdu: چیک (cek)

→ Uzbek: chek

→ Vietnamese: séc

→ Welsh: siec

A variant of check, probably influenced exchequer. First attested in the 1790s.

I was not carrying cash, so I wrote a cheque for the amount.

They do not, however, all deal with the same banker, and when A gives a cheque to B, B usually pays it not into the same but into some other bank.

1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, published 1920, page 62:

1999, Sam Seunarine, Office Procedures for the Caribbean, 2nd edition, reprinted 2001, page 126,
Sometimes abbreviations are used (which would be explained on the statement) and only the last three figures of the cheque number may be given. ‘Sundries’ are cash or cheques paid into the account.

You can avoid dealing with paper cheques — written or printed — by paying your bills online.

2007, Eric Tyson, Tony Martin, Personal Finance for Canadians for Dummies:

2009, R. Rajesh, T. Sivagnanasithi, Banking Theory Law & Practice, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, page 206,
The daily cheque clearings began around 1770 when bank clerks met at the Five Bells (a tavern in Lombard Street in the City of London) to exchange all their cheques in one place and settle the balances in cash.

(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland) A written order directing a bank to pay money to a person or entity.

tjek

a note promising to pay money to a named person or entity


sick

sick (comparative sicker, superlative sickest)

sicker (comparative)
sickest (superlative)

→ Dutch: sick

→? Navajo: sxih

From Middle English sik, sike, seek, seke, seok, from Old English sēoc (“sick, ill”), from Proto-West Germanic *seuk, from Proto-Germanic *seukaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sewg- (“to be troubled or grieved”).
See also West Frisian siik, Dutch ziek, German siech, Norwegian Bokmål syk, Norwegian Nynorsk sjuk, Danish syg; also Middle Irish socht (“silence, depression”), Old Armenian հիւծանիմ (hiwcanim, “I am weakening”).
The "very good, excellent" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "in poor health". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and wicked.

cog

She was sick all day with the flu.

We have to care for the sick.

Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra.

a1420, The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056, “Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone”, in Robert von Fleischhacker, editor, Lanfranc’s “Science of cirurgie.”, London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, translation of original by Lanfranc of Milan, published 1894, →ISBN, page 63:

‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared.[…]’

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(less common in the UK and Ireland) In poor health; ill.

бо́лен

ill, used as a substantive: sick people, collectively


land

en-noun

land (countable and uncountable, plural lands)

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Germanic *landą
Proto-West Germanic *land
Old English land
Middle English lond
English land
From Middle English lond, land, from Old English land, from Proto-West Germanic *land, from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”), from Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“land, heath”).
Cognate with Scots laund (“land”), West Frisian lân (“land”), Dutch land (“land, country”), German Land (“land, country, state”), Norwegian and Swedish land (“land, country, shore, territory”), Icelandic land (“land”). Non-Germanic cognates include Old Irish lann (“heath”), Welsh llan (“enclosure”), Breton lann (“heath”), Old Church Slavonic лѧдо (lędo), from Proto-Slavic *lędo (“heath, wasteland”), French lande (“heath”) and Albanian lëndinë (“heath, grassland”).

cog

He got an awful land when the police arrived.

(Ireland, colloquial) A shock or fright.


fair

en-adv

fair (comparative more fair or fairer, superlative most fair or fairest)

more fair (comparative)
fairer (comparative)
most fair (superlative)
fairest (superlative)

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”).
Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

cog

"I'm fair moidered to know what to do wid him," she confessed to the rosy-cheeked Bridget one day.

1913, James Johnston Abraham, The Night Nurse:

"I just want to get me blasted boots off and soak me poor feet, they're fair killing me, what with chilblains and corns, me toes are fair screaming."

2011 June 1, Dorothy Mitchell, Hollybeck, Chipmunkapublishing ltd, →ISBN, page 7:

"We were at Egyptian Hall last night and the poor lady was overwhelmed with messages - they fair exhausted her."

2011 September 5, Mary Hooper, Velvet, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 67:

(Ireland) Almost; to a great extent but not literally.