minge

From Angloromani mintš, from Romani minʒ (“female genitals”), probably from Old Armenian մէջ (mēǰ, “middle, midst; inside, interior; the middle part of the body; loins, reins; waist; belly, abdomen; back”). Doublet of medius.
Alternate etymology: from the Latin mingere (“to urinate”), synecdochically used to describe the organ through an associated function (possibly ironically or euphemistically).

der

Last week, she ended up on a binge / She got off her tits and showed the bouncers her minge

2005, “Your Missus Is A Nutter”, performed by Goldie Lookin Chain:

Big Bird / Sesame / Big minge energy

2024, “Mugshot Freestyle”, performed by Pete & Bas:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, vulgar, slang) The pubic hair and vulva.


lurgy

lurgies (plural)
lurgi (alternative)
lurgey (alternative)
lurgee (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-lurgy.wav

Eric Sykes
Michael Quinion
Spike Milligan
The Goon Show

A nonsense word popularized by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes, scriptwriters for a 9 November 1954 programme of The Goon Show, “Lurgi Strikes Britain”, about the outbreak of a highly dangerous, highly infectious and—as it turns out—highly fictitious disease known as “the Dreaded Lurgi”.
Folk etymologies include:
* a corruption and contraction of allergy. This is not supported by the use of the hard /ɡ/ in lurgi (rhyming with Fergie), as allergy has a soft 'g' /dʒ/.
* based on the Northern English dialectal phrase fever-lurgy (“lazy or idle”).

the dreaded lurgy

He was helped, of course, by his presentational skills, still present here despite a sore throat and what seemed to be a spot of the perennial conference lurgy.

2011 October 5, Jonathan Freedland, “David Cameron's speech fails to match the gravity of the times”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A fictitious, highly infectious disease; sometimes as a reference to flu-like symptoms.

Blocked nose, watering eyes, a sore throat – the signs of a cold are all too familiar. Here are seven ways to dodge the lurgy, or shrug it off sooner[.]

2019 January 6, Nicola Davis, “Seven ways to dodge a cold – or recover faster”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) Any uncategorised disease with symptoms similar to a cold or flu that renders one unable to work.


transit

en-noun

transit (countable and uncountable, plural transits)

From French, from Latin transire (“to go across, pass in, pass through”), from trans (“over”) + ire (“to go”).

der

Beufort road, Birkenhead, about 17.15 June 19 2013, white transit overtakes and swerves left into junction almost taking my front wheel.

(UK, Ireland) A Ford Transit van, see Transit.


first class

(Ireland) The third year of primary school, following after the junior and senior infant levels.


get out

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get out.wav

Just get out.

(UK, Ireland, slang) Expressing disapproval or disgust, especially after a bad joke.


kilt

From Middle English kilt, equivalent to kill + -t.

that unspotted Lamb,
That for the Sins of all the World was kilt

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

But tweren’t so awful long before Marse Hampton got kilt in de big battle, and Marse Thad, too. Dey was both kilt in de charge, right dere on de breastworks, with de guns in dey hands, dem two young masters of mine, right dere in dat Gettysburg battle […] And I was eighteen in dat October after dat big fight what Marse Thad and Marse Hampton got kilt in.

1970 (reprinted 1999) Norman R. Yetman (ed.), Voices from Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives, Courier Corporation, p. 160

She could fight, too, when I got snuffy. […] Once I come home from elk camp so drunk I couldn't hardly sit my horse, and Sylvie near to kilt me, she fought me so hard.

2014, Howard Frank Mosher, North Country: A Personal Journey Through the Borderland:

(obsolete or colloquial, especially Ireland or African-American Vernacular) Nonstandard form of killed: simple past and past participle of kill.


turning

From Middle English turnyng, turnynge, from Old English tyrning, turnung, equivalent to turn + -ing.

Take the second turning on the left.

Except for turnings with a deflated rear tire as an outerside tire, difference in the performance is small between fixed control and manual control.

1974, Shoichi Sano, “Steering and Handling Characteristics of a Vehicle when Fail-safe Tire is Deflated”, in Fifth International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles, page 909:

(UK, Ireland) A turn or deviation from a straight course.


Gaeltacht

en-noun

Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí or Gaeltachts)

Gaeltachtaí (plural)
Gaeltachts (plural)

(Ireland) An officially recognised area where the Irish language is the predominant language in daily use.


heads

(Ireland, sometimes) The side that does not bear an image of the Irish harp.

Until the session of 1782 bills could only (under Poynings’ Law) begin in the Irish privy council. However, informal legislative initiatives, known as ‘heads of bills’, began regularly in the houses of parliament.

2000s "How Irish statutes were made" Queens University Belfast

The Heads of the Bill are being published to enable consultation with relevant sectors on the proposed changes prior to the detailed drafting of the Bill.

2012 Department of Justice and Equality "Government Publishes Proposed Amendments to Anti Money-Laundering Law" Dublin, 6 June 2012

(Ireland, law) The draft scheme of a bill before it is formally introduced to a parliament.


watershed

Compound of water + shed. Calque of German Wasserscheide.

(hydrology, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

вададзе́л

boundary between adjacent catchment basins


trinket

PIE word
 *tréyes
From trink (“(UK, dialectal, especially Scotland) channel, watercourse; trench”) + -et (diminutive suffix); compare Scots trink. Trink is possibly derived from Occitan trencque, trenque (Picardy), from Old French trenche, tranche (“trench”) (modern French tranche), from trenchier (“to cut”); further etymology uncertain, possibly:
* from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to maim or mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); or
* from Vulgar Latin *trinicāre (“to cut into three parts”), from Latin tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + duplicāre (“to double by dividing, split in two, tear”);
possibly also influenced by Gaulish *trincare (“to cut off (the head)”).

der

It must have been about the same moment that a smack drew through the fine mist in the Firth [of Forth], and, sailing up the trinket, landed Provost Trail on the east pier-head.

1901 September, [David Storrar Meldrum], “The Conquest of Charlotte. Part I.—My Legacy of Family History. Chapter VII.—The Mackerel Election (continued).”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXX, number MXXXI, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 362, column 1:

(Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland) A narrow or small watercourse.


fagot

Most likely from Italian fagotto, from Latin fascis.

(UK, Ireland, obsolete) A person hired to take the place of another at the muster of a company .


grá

He admits that, as a project, “it's a bit niche, but I think anybody who's been here develops a massive grá for Achill. […]”

2023 August 5, Lauren Murphy, quoting Graham Sweeney, “Sounds of Achill”, in Irish Independent Magazine, page 11:


pillar box

We were over the border here, into Northern Ireland, and the post office had a very English atmosphere. It was pleasant, too, much as we enjoyed the hospitality of the Republic, to be buying stamps with the Queen's head on them, and to be posting our cards in a red pillar-box, instead of a green one.

1955 June, Rev. A. W. V. Mace, “An Irish Journey—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 393:

(UK, Ireland) A free-standing item of street furniture in the form of a short, red pillar (green in the Irish Republic) with a slot for posting letters.


baluba

→ Italian: baluba

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: baluba

Named after a tribe in Katanga, involved in a fatal attack on Irish United Nations peacekeepers in 1961.


chuffed

en-adj

chuffed (comparative more chuffed, superlative most chuffed)

more chuffed (comparative)
most chuffed (superlative)

From dialectal (northern England, not Scotland) chuff, originally meaning “puffed with fat”. First attested in 1957.

Then when Karen got him on her morning show he was chuffed as a haemophiliac with a foolproof razor

1992, Vincent O'Sullivan, Palms and Minarets: Selected Stories:

Got to the video shop in a state / But chuffed it wouldn't be late

2004, “It Was Supposed to Be So Easy”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don’t Come For Free, performed by The Streets:

“I'm chuffed,” she said, putting the kettle on. He gave her that wonderful smile. “Why, exactly?” “Why do you suppose we drink so much strong tea?” “Habit. It's a drug within the bounds of the law.” “Very true!” “Why are you so chuffed, Edda?”

2014, Colleen McCullough, Bittersweet: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 131:

As he arrived on the red carpet Michael said: 'It is my first nomination and I could not be more chuffed.' Well, he could be more chuffed. And that was if he was to win the Olivier honour.

2015, Willie Robertson, Michael Ball - The Biography, John Blake Publishing, →ISBN:

I sold a rug to someone on marketplace and they just sent me this picture with the message “little man is chuffed”

2023 April 5, Travis Greenwood, quoting lucindalvngstn, Cuteness, archived from the original on 2024-08-23:

(UK, Ireland, informal) Very pleased or satisfied; delighted.


chuffed

From chuff, "a coarse or stupid fellow".

(UK, Ireland, dialect) Displeased; gruff.


nobble

en-verb

nobble (third-person singular simple present nobbles, present participle nobbling, simple past and past participle nobbled)

nobbles (present singular third-person)
nobbling (participle present)
nobbled (participle past)
nobbled (past)

Near-synonyms: hobble, hamper, hinder, impede, embarrass, disable

After 12 successive league wins[…]Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.

2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Their core belief, unsupported by evidence or logic, is that homes are unaffordable because investors drive up prices.[…]Australians for Affordable Housing appears to think that nobbling investors will strike a telling blow for first-time buyers: remove negative gearing and increase capital gains tax, and homes will be affordable.

2011 October 22, Terry Ryder, “Affordable-housing lobby out to nobble investments”, in The Australian:

Google has come out fighting after Twitter claimed that changes to its search engine nobble results to favour Google+, damaging the internet.

2012 January 11, Gavin Clarke, “Google attacks Twitter's search bias claim”, in The Register:

His main fear is that the fledgling technology could have its wings clipped by traditional manufacturers, who will doubtless view it as a threat to their livelihoods, and do all in their powers to nobble it.

2012 September 9, “3D printing: Difference Engine: The PC all over again”, in The Economist:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) To injure or obstruct intentionally.

The jury was nobbled to delay unanimous verdict.

Unlike "noble" vigilantes, the police and court facilities which exist are said to be inefficient and corrupt, and juries are said to be easily "nobbled" or intimidated.

2000, Italo Pardo, Morals of Legitimacy: Between Agency and System, page 122:

For example jury trials were reformed to allow majority verdicts, so that criminals could less easily nobble them.

2002, Kevin Jefferys, Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown, page 107:

Here, though, Picot's overbearing power, and the fact that the bishop was an absentee, meant that the sheriff could use threats to "nobble" the judges.

2012, Mark Hagger, William: King and Conqueror, page 75:

(UK, Ireland, slang) To gain influence over by corrupt means or intimidation.

podmáznout

to gain influence by corrupt means or intimidation


doss

doss (third-person singular simple present dosses, present participle dossing, simple past and past participle dossed)

dosses (present singular third-person)
dossing (participle present)
dossed (participle past)
dossed (past)

Perhaps from Latin dorsum (“the back”), i.e. what one lies on when sleeping; perhaps from English dialect doss (“a hassock”).

I am going to doss tomorrow when the match is on.

(intransitive, British and Ireland) To avoid work, shirk, etc.


doss

en-noun

doss (countable and uncountable, plural dosses)

I am going to have a doss tomorrow.

(slang, British and Ireland) The avoidance of work.

Circumnavigating the world in a canoe is no doss.

(slang, British and Ireland) An easy piece of work.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland) A place to sleep in; a bed.

(slang, dated, British and Ireland, by extension) Sleep.


barrister

From bar (a collective term for lawyers or the legal profession) and the suffix -ster.

Postmen, binmen, dock workers, even barristers are now on strike. Where will all this end?

2022 September 7, Philip Haigh, “Comment: More strikes and poor morale”, in RAIL, number 965, page 3:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) A lawyer with the right to speak and argue as an advocate in higher lawcourts.

адвока́т

lawyer with the right to speak as an advocate in higher lawcourts


Belisha beacon

Named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport who introduced them in 1934.

A police constable concealed in a doorway in City Road, Finsbury, saw a youth of seventeen, who had two others with him, climb a Belisha beacon and break the globe with his fist. It was the hundredth beacon globe to be broken in Finsbury since November.

1935 January 10, “Cyclists air their grievances on road safety”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland) A tall black and white pole topped by a flashing orange globe, placed on either side of the road at zebra crossings; mostly now replaced by more sophisticated arrangements.


boffin

Origin unknown; a number of possible etymologies have been suggested, but no conclusive evidence exists.
One strong theory conjectures a connection from the "Mr. Boffins" of English novels, such as in Dickens' Our Mutual Friend.

unknown

Origin unknown

koumák

(informal) person with specialized knowledge or skills

In fact, a fighting friend of mine said that he could hardly walk in any direction in this war without tumbling over a scientist who had got in the way. In the Royal Air Force, where the concentration of scientists is perhaps greatest, they have a pet name for them. They call them “Boffins.” Why, I do not know. I said to a young friend of mine in the Air Force, “Why do you call scientists ‘Boffins’?” He said, “I don’t know. What else would you call them?”

[1942 February 3, Henry T[homas] Tizard, “Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. Luncheon.”, in Journal of the Institute of Petroleum, volume 28, number 219, London: The Institute of Petroleum, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2018-09-30, page 58:

With a rare and beautiful ease one can now ring up a boffin, as I did the other day, and say: "As a price for not opposing our Parliamentary Powers for a new marshalling yard, the Council at X demands that the bridge over X Lane shall have 16 ft. 6 in. headroom. This means steepening our gradient from 1 in 70 to 1 in 65 for half a mile on a 20-chain curve. What difference will this make to the loads of Type "2", "3" and "4" diesels please?". Back comes the answer.

1960 April, G. F. Fiennes, “Unpunctuality - the cause and the cure”, in Trains Illustrated, page 244:

An essential difference between a boffin and a back room boy, as [Robert] Watson-Watts points out, is that the boffin does not stay in the back room but emerges to poke his nose into other peoples[’] business. It is quite wrong to use the word ‘boffin’ simply to describe a scientist or a technician; a boffin is essentially a middleman, a bridge between two worlds, […]

1991, R[obert] Hanbury Brown, “Radar and the Battle at Night”, in Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics, New York, N.Y., Abingdon, Oxon.: Taylor & Francis Group, →ISBN, page 57:

He devoted six years to building the probe and, breaking with boffin tradition, transformed himself into an extroverted fundraiser to sell it to a public and government largely indifferent to space exploration. […] In fact, he's still busily rallying support for Beagle 2’s successor. Will he succeed? Can a lone boffin maintain a nation’s appreciation for exploration? [Colin] Pillinger could single-handedly determine whether the boffin remains a modest backroom boy or claims a lasting spot in the limelight.

2004 September, Nicole Dyer, “Rebirth of the Boffin”, in Mark Jannot, editor, Popular Science, volume 265, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 160, columns 2–3:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal) An engineer or scientist, especially one engaged in technological or military research.

— Well, last year I used to have a friend Charley [Charley was in the top sets for English, mathematics and French] but this year he doesn't speak to me any more and every time I see him he's hanging around with boffins like. When I go round to his house, now and again, he's always got his 'O' level and 'A' level books open and he's always concentrating on his work. Hanging around with boffins. / — What are boffins? / — People who work. Stay in all the time. Never go out, go down the town or nothin. And always get good letters home and pats on the back by teachers.

1995, John Abraham, “Organizational Differentiation and Polarization: Setting, Social Class and Pupil Values”, in Divide and School: Gender and Class Dynamics in Comprehensive Education, London, Bristol, Pa.: The Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 55:

The opportunities for producers in the interactive multimedia environment are boundless. The boffins writing software programs for interactive multimedia will not be the producers of corporate communications. They need today's producers to bring their communication skills to the interactive domain, […]

1995, Bob Turnbull, “Corporate Video”, in Tom Jeffrey, editor, Film Business: A Handbook for Film Producers, 2nd edition, North Ryde, N.S.W.: AFTRS Publications, published 1998, →ISBN, page 35:

(Australia, New Zealand, British, Ireland, informal, by extension) A person with specialized knowledge or skills, especially one who is socially awkward.

(loosely) an intellectual; a smart person.


brass monkeys

From the phrase cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey - supposedly a reference to the brass container for cannon balls on a British man-of-war (but this seems to have been discredited).

Blimey, it's brass monkeys out there today.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, informal) Very cold.


bubble and squeak

en-noun

bubble and squeak (countable and uncountable, plural bubble and squeaks)

(food): Named from the sounds during cooking.

“But if she had rank and title?”
“Rank and title! Bubble and squeak! No, not half so good as bubble and squeak. English beef and good cabbage. But foreign rank and title!—foreign cabbage and beef!—foreign bubble and foreign squeak!”

1853, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VIII, in “My Novel”; Or Varieties in English Life […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book eighth, page 348:

“Better have it—better have it first. No hurry. What've you got in the pot that smells so good?”
“Bubble and squeak, sir.”
“Bubble and squeak! Ah!” And with those words the agent withdrew to where, in a farm wagon drawn up by the side of the road, three men were solemnly pulling at their pipes.

1915, John Galsworthy, chapter XVIII, in The Freelands:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Cabbage and mashed potatoes etc. fried together.


car park

/ˈkɑɹ ˌpɑːɹk/

It is important also that we improve car park security.

1998, House of Lords, Parliamentary Debates, page ccxxxv:

The dog lumbered his way across the car park to a point where he had to cross Emmons′s path.

2006, Richard Mechan, The State Is Not Immune, page 9:

Beyond the car park a rough old track ran uphill.

2010, John Marsden, The Ellie Chronicles: Incurable, unnumbered page:

Follow the road to the car park and boat ramp at Buffalo Creek.

2011, Richard Thomas, Sarah Thomas, David Andrew, Alan McBride, The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia, page 119:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Hong Kong) An outdoor area or a building where cars may be parked.

(Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular section, usually marked by painted lines, designated for the parking of a single car.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, figuratively, humorous) A road with serious traffic congestion preventing the movement of vehicles.


chancer

Actually, that's exactly what O'Dowd is doing in Get Shorty, presenting a taciturn thug with chewed up charm, a chancer pitching a movie in Hollywood.

2018 June 6, Peter Crawley, “Get Shorty: Chris O’Dowd as a chewed-up, charming chancer”, in Irish Times, retrieved 2022-08-29:

From then on, Emin became fixed in many minds as the drunken chancer who boasted about her promiscuity and called it art.

2024 May 29, Simon Hattenstone, “The radical, ravishing rebirth of Tracey Emin: ‘I didn’t want to die as some mediocre YBA’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A scheming opportunist.


dodgy

en-adj

dodgy (comparative dodgier, superlative dodgiest)

dodgier (comparative)
dodgiest (superlative)

From dodge (verb) + -y. First used in mid-19th century England.

Asked why, a spokesman gave a dodgy answer about legal ramifications.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Evasive and shifty.

Never listen to dodgy advice.

The dodgy old machine kept breaking down.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Unsound and unreliable.


dustbin

dustbins (plural)
dust bin (alternative)
dust-bin (alternative)

From dust + bin, as used for disposing of dust (originally ash from domestic fires) and other rubbish.

Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A bin for holding rubbish until it can be collected; a garbage can.


engaged tone

(UK, Ireland, telephony) An audible signal to the calling party that indicates failure to complete the requested connection; a busy signal


ex-directory

(UK, Ireland) Of a telephone number or its owner: not in the directory; unlisted.


fairy cake

(UK, Ireland) A small cake baked in a small paper cup; a cupcake.


fizzy drink

en:any non-alcoholic drink that is carbonated

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A non-alcoholic, carbonated beverage such as fizzy lemonade or cola.


high street

high streets (plural)
highstreet (alternative)
High Street (alternative)

From Middle English high strete, highestrete, haye-strete, hye strete, heiȝe strete, from Old English hēahstrǣt (“high road”), equivalent to high + street.

(UK, Ireland, parts of New England) The main street of any town.

Woolworths has had a presence on the UK High Street for almost a century.

2008 December 27, “Woolworths store closures begin”, in BBC:

(UK, Ireland) Mainstream shops, banks, etc. that can be found on such a street, in contrast to more specialist shops and services.

(UK, Ireland) Physical, bricks and mortar shops, in contrast to Internet shops.


up the duff

Unknown; the OED states that the phrase was originally Australian. Possibly related to in the pudding club (duff is a type of pudding) and thus related to dough.

Lynda up the duff—what odds do you put on that, eh, Mr Clever Dick, eh? That's shut his gob. That's put a crease in his brand-new suit.

1987, David Leland, Wish You Were Here, spoken by Lynda Mansell (Emily Lloyd):

At 19, he was married (‘only because she was up the duff’ he explains gallantly).

1994, The Daily Telegraph, quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, page 88, 2nd edition, 2005:

“Well, when he found out that my gran was up the duff, he went back to his native Norway (or it might have been Sweden)[…].”

1998, Tracey Ullman, Tracey Takes On..., page 98:

It just means that some daft wee hairy that gets knocked up the duff has tae get oan the bus tae Carlisle tae get cleaned oot.

1998, Irvine Welsh, Filth, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 191:

The great coalface of fuckwits; the fly-by-nighters, who do their five years in Bondi, befriend a Roosters player, get a good coke dealer, meet some tight westie bitch who′s moved here while she works a job in PR, they fall in love, she gets up the duff and then they have to buy a house in Condell Park and they′re gone[…].

2008, Sam de Brito, The Lost Boys, page 14:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial, slang) Pregnant.


invigilator

/ɪnˈvɪd͡ʒɪleɪtəɹ/

From invigilate + -or, from Latin invigilatus, past participle of invigilo.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A person who supervises students during an examination; a proctor

(chiefly UK, Ireland or archaic) A person who supervises a gallery at a museum.


loudhailer

As Ukrainian forces struggled to hold the flattened city, it was claimed that civilians in captured territory were being deceived into leaving shelters to be bussed out to Russian camps by soldiers wielding loudhailers.

2022 March 24, Daniel Boffey, “Ukraine sinks Russian ship as Moscow accused of forcible deportations from Mariupol”, in The Guardian:


naff off

en-verb

naff off (third-person singular simple present naffs off, present participle naffing off, simple past and past participle naffed off)

naffs off (present singular third-person)
naffing off (participle present)
naffed off (participle past)
naffed off (past)

Princess Anne caused controversy when she told photographers to “naff off” in 1982.

2013 April 1 [1982], Melissa Mohr, quoting Anne, Princess Royal, Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 153:

Oi, you cheeky slag / Naff off

2003, “Mind Out”, in Asylum Speakers, performed by Foreign Beggars ft. Skrein:

(slang, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A mild version of fuck off


nark

Uncertain. Perhaps from Angloromani nok (“nose”), from Romani nakh, from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀡𑀓𑁆𑀓 (ṇakka), ultimately a doublet of nose.

So I went and laid down on the grass. While laying there I piped a reeler whom I knew. He had a nark (a policeman's spy) with him. So I went and looked about for my two pals, and told them to look out for F. and his nark.

1879 October, J[ohn] W[illiam] Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves’ Language”, in Macmillan’s Magazine, volume XL, number 240, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 505, column 1:

the bystander. […] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir. / the note taker [with quick interest] Whats a copper's nark? / the bystander [inapt at definition] It's a—well, it's a copper's nark, as you might say. What else would you call it? A sort of informer.

1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, pages 109–110:

When we got to the Chief of Police's office a crowd of the most dreadful-looking scoundrels, obviously police narks, informers, and spies of every kind, were hanging about outside the door.

1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XII, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:


orientate

orientate (third-person singular simple present orientates, present participle orientating, simple past and past participle orientated)

orientates (present singular third-person)
orientating (participle present)
orientated (participle past)
orientated (past)

From orient + -ate or a back-formation from orientation. Compare French orienter and Italian orientare.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, intransitive) To face a given direction.

He[…]stood for a moment, orientating himself exactly in the light of his knowledge.

He came out of the station and took some time to orientate himself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, reflexive) To determine one's position relative to the surroundings; to orient (oneself).

Try to orientate your students towards the science subjects.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, transitive) To position (something), to align relative to a given position.


parkie

(UK, Ireland, slang) A parking or traffic warden.


pelican crossing

en-noun

pelican crossing (plural pelican crossings)

Short for pedestrian light-controlled crossing.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A pedestrian crossing with traffic-lights operated by pedestrians


plonker

“You kept the hat! You bloody plonker!” “Fuck me.” “And now look at you, bouncing off the cars like a bouncing idiot.” “Fucking hell!” “Is he gonna be alright?”

2020 May 20, Jemaine Clement, “The Return” (: from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 2, episode 7, spoken by Nadja (Natasia Demetriou):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, derogatory) A fool.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A penis.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, dated) A man who sanctions sexual relationships between his girlfriend and his male friends.


prat

Unknown. Perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1 (see above).

Those protestors will have achieved nothing good. They are stupid prats.

2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 10, column 3:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) A fool, contemptible person.


pushchair

/ˈpʊʃ.t͡ʃɛə(ɹ)/

He reversed the pushchair out of the shop and continued towards his errands.

The Key Train Requirements document, released in July by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), includes a new clause covering people travelling with pushchairs. It highlights the need for space in carriages for unfolded pushchairs or prams, separate from areas for wheelchairs and cycles. It also recommends extending seat reservations to include pram spaces.

2023 August 9, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Family-friendly travel: new standard covers pushchairs”, in RAIL, number 989, page 26:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A small carriage in which a baby or child sits and is pushed around.


wet the shamrock

en-verb

wet the shamrock (third-person singular simple present wets the shamrock, present participle wetting the shamrock, simple past and past participle wet the shamrock or wetted the shamrock)

wets the shamrock (present singular third-person)
wetting the shamrock (participle present)
wet the shamrock (participle past)
wet the shamrock (past)
wetted the shamrock (participle past)
wetted the shamrock (past)

/ˌwɛt ðə ˈʃæmɹɒk/

/ˌwɛt ðə ˈʃæmˌɹɑk/

From wet (“to celebrate by drinking alcohol”) + the + shamrock (“trefoil leaf of any small clover, especially Trifolium repens, or a clover-like plant, commonly used as a symbol of Ireland”), from the custom, also known as drowning the shamrock, of removing a shamrock worn on one’s clothing on Saint Patrick’s Day and placing it at the bottom of a glass which is then filled with an alcoholic beverage and consumed; according to some authorities the shamrock is then retrieved from the empty glass and thrown over the left shoulder.

The Meadovv Trefoyls are called in Iriſh Shamrocks, […] The VVord Seamar Leaune and Seamar-orge, being in ſignification the ſame, […] This Plant is vvorn by the People in their Hats upon the 17. Day of March yearly, (vvhich is called St. Patrick’s Day.) […] Hovvever that be, vvhen they vvet their Seamar-oge, they often commit Exceſs in Liquor, vvhich is not a right keeping of a Day to the Lord; Error generally leading to Debauchery.

[1727, Caleb Threlkeld, “TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE ALBUM, White Flowered Meadow Trefoyl.”, in Synopsis stirpium Hibernicarum alphabetic[a]e dispositarum. Sive commentatio de plantis indigenis præsertim Dublinensibus instituta. Being a Short Treatise of Native Plants, especially Such as Grow Spontaneously in the Vicinity of Dublin; […], Dublin: […] S. Powell, for the author; and are to be sold by T. Sanders, […], →OCLC, signature [K8], verso:

In the days of our forefathers it was always customary to wet the shamrock, and indeed this good old custom has by no means become obsolete. And to carry it into effect, the saint's [Saint Patrick's] health is drunk in the morning from a brimming bowl called "Paddy's pot," which has a very inspiring influence, and is considered to be an excellent preliminary for the joys of the day; […]

1869 March 13, R. C., “Notes. St. Patrick’s Day: The Shamrock and Shillelah”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume III (4th Series), number 63, London: […] George Andrew Spottiswoode, […] [for] William Greig Smith, […], →OCLC, page 235, column 1:

He [Caleb Threlkeld] refers to the custom of wetting the shamrock.

1878 March 16, “The Library. St Patrick’s Day.”, in The Bazaar, the Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household, volume XVIII, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 173, column 3:

We remembered friends at home in our potations, wet the shamrock, and sang the "Wearing of the Green."

1885, James McQuade, “St. Kitt’s”, in The Cruise of the Montauk to Bermuda, the West Indies and Florida, New York, N.Y.: Thomas R. Knox & Co. successors to James Miller […], →OCLC, page 120:

St. Patrick's Day passed off very quietly indeed, partly owing to the uncertainty of the weather. A number of the militia men wetted the shamrock so much that they forgot the legitimate use of their weapons, and employed them in knocking people on the head. A few threw their rifles away.

1888 May, “News and Notes. The Month.”, in The Australian Journal: A Family Newspaper of Literature, Science, and the Arts, volume XXIII, number 276, Melbourne, Vic.: A. H. Massina & Co., […], →OCLC, page 519, column 1:

Given long-standing drinking customs among the Irish at home and abroad, temperance was a difficult prospect. Traditions such as drinking to the health of Ireland and the patron saint, as well as the renowned ‘wetting the shamrock’ held considerable sway on St Patrick's Day.

2002, Mike Cronin, Daryl Adair, “Famine and Exodus”, in The Wearing of the Green: A History of St Patrick’s Day, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2006, →ISBN, page 40:

[T]he crowd drifted away towards the hotel in search of something to wet the shamrock and warm themselves up. Unlike America, there was no green beer and no one I knew would dream of adding anything to their pint unless it was to tip in a shot of whiskey.

2010, Claire Hopper, “Wetting the Shamrock”, in A Fine Irish Season, [Morrisville, N.C.]: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 65:

(idiomatic, intransitive, Ireland, informal) To go for an alcoholic drink, especially as part of a victory celebration or on Saint Patrick's Day.

County Kildare Archaeological Society
Routledge
Sage Publishing

mennä ryyppäämään

to go for an alcoholic drink, especially as part of a victory celebration or on Saint Patrick’s Day

wet the baby's head

to celebrate the birth of a baby by drinking alcohol


skew-whiff

en-adj

skew-whiff (comparative more skew-whiff, superlative most skew-whiff)

more skew-whiff (comparative)
most skew-whiff (superlative)
skew-wift (alternative)
skew wift (alternative)
skew wiff (alternative)
skew-wiff (alternative)
scew-whiff (alternative)
skew whift (alternative)
skew-whift (alternative)
skew whiff (alternative)
skewiff (alternative)
ski whiff (alternative)
squewiff (alternative)
skewquieff (alternative)
skeow-wheef (alternative)
skeow wheef (alternative)

From skew + weft.
The expression 'skew weft' dates at least from the 18th century as a term used by handloom weavers, typically in northern England. It was used originally to describe fabric which was out of alignment, and the term survives today in the manufacture of glass fiber cloth.
The word weft does not derive from 'whiff' as in a puff of air (as suggested elsewhere). The modern spelling comes from a corruption of 'skew-wift' whose sound developed colloquially in spoken English from the original. Bow weft also exists.

I hung up that picture, but it looks skew-whiff to me.

“[…]I′ve just been looking up at them and it seems to me that Cassiopeia′s Chair is a bit more skew-whiff than usual. Either it′s been moved or we′re heading the wrong way.”

1971, Blackwood′s Magazine, volume 309, page 497:

I nudged him to remember what was surely the best day of his life—when he had walked serenely through the milling throng, moist-eyed, and sheepish grin more skew-whiff than ever, in the starling-shrieking, jabbering cockpit of that tumbledown stadium at Delhi on Christmas Eve in 1981.

1984, Punch, Volume 286, Part 1, page 87:

His genially skew-whiff posture for the camera may be intended to deflect easy attempts to get an angle on him.

1997, Australian Literary Studies, volume 18, University of Tasmania, page 199:

Johnson replied, with a shake of his massive head so vigorous that his ill-fitting wig became even more skew-whiff:[…].

1999, Alan Wall, The Lightning Cage, page 4:

He wasn′t wearing shoes or a jacket and tie, and his front stud was undone, so that the white collar stood up skew-whiff.

2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

In a gorgeous old stone-fronted house at a skew-whiff angle to the road, this main-street, mainstream eatery serves big breakfasts, pizzas, burgers, lasagne, focaccias, bruschetta and salads.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin, Lonely Planet, page 112:

The Cat is a large, comfortable space with a great atmosphere and skew-whiff 1950s decor (a Melbourne trademark).

2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 530:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) Askew; lopsided, not straight.


squiffy

squiffy (comparative squiffier, superlative squiffiest)

squiffier (comparative)
squiffiest (superlative)

Unknown; possibly coined in the 19th century.

In the Palace bar. I'd been there an hour or so with two or three other chaps. I was a bit squiffy.

1992, J. B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls, Heinemann, →ISBN, page 51:

His champagne glass was constantly refilled by the man who might or might not have been a butler, so that by the time they actually sat down to play, Ramsay was decidedly squiffy.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) slightly drunk or intoxicated; tipsy

To this day I cannot and will not wear a tie properly. On the one or two occasions I have worn them since I left school, I've worn them squiffy, on purpose.

2004, Jude Rawlins, Cul De Sac: Lyrics, Prose & Poems 1987-2004, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 11:

The graphics make your eyes go squiffy.

2005, Catherine Soanes, Angus Stevenson, editors, The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition), Oxford University Press:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Crooked, askew; awry


roundabout

From round + about [from early 20th c.].

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

(chiefly UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia and sometimes US) A road junction at which traffic streams circularly around a central island.


sarky

sarky (comparative sarkier, superlative sarkiest)

sarkier (comparative)
sarkiest (superlative)

Full of Coxon's trademark sarky lyricism, this 14-track concept album celebrates and laments the bittersweet nature of love, avoiding being dull or mawkish by being so gorgeous and satisfyingly coherent.

2006 February 19, Nosheen Iqbal, “Graham Coxon, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds”, in The Observer:

It would seem that during his Bournemouth team’s recent 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United, referee Jon Moss gave the hosts some “soft fouls” and made “little sarky comments” that “didn’t help”.

2020 February 12, Scott Murray, “Dan Gosling, Jon Moss and breath-freshening hard candy”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) Sarcastic.


sellotape

en-noun

sellotape (countable and uncountable, plural sellotapes)

From genericized trademark Sellotape, from cello(phane) + tape. The spelling with S- was to avoid an existing trademark on the word Cellophane itself.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Adhesive tape.


sellotape

en-verb

sellotape (third-person singular simple present sellotapes, present participle sellotaping, simple past and past participle sellotaped)

sellotapes (present singular third-person)
sellotaping (participle present)
sellotaped (participle past)
sellotaped (past)

The door was slightly ajar, with a newspaper cartoon sellotaped to it:

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 258:

(transitive, British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To seal with adhesive tape.


slaphead

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A bald person; somebody with a shaved or hairless head.


tannoy

A genericised trademark of Tannoy Ltd, a manufacturer of public address systems. "Tannoy" is a syllabic abbreviation of tantalum alloy, which was the material used in a type of electrolytic rectifier developed by the company.

Although the supermarket tannoy was bravely broadcasting Rigoletto, its meat counter was thick with wurst and its wine shelves loaded with Liebfraumilch.

1987, Christina Hardyment, “Harlekins and Gondolas”, in Heidi’s Alp: One Family’s Search for Storybook Europe, Book Club edition, New York, N.Y.: The Atlantic Monthly Press, →OCLC, page 163:

Terry Putnam, from Weymouth, adds: "Riding home from Bristol a few days ago, as we approached Weymouth the guard announced over the tannoy 'The next station is Weymouth - please remember to take all your luggage and children with you...'"

2020 August 12, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, page 70:

public address system
public address system

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, colloquial) A public address system.


tannoy

tannoy (third-person singular simple present tannoys, present participle tannoying, simple past and past participle tannoyed)

tannoys (present singular third-person)
tannoying (participle present)
tannoyed (participle past)
tannoyed (past)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, ambitransitive) To transmit, or communicate with, by means of a public address system.


skip

From Middle English skep, skeppe, from Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa, skjappa (“basket, bushel, measure”), perhaps from Middle Low German scheppe (“a unit of weight”), perhaps related to Middle Low German schēpel (“buschel, measurement for grain”), German Scheffel (“bushel”). These could all ultimately be related to *skap (“shape”).

cog

(Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A large container for waste, designed to be lifted onto the back of a truck to remove it along with its contents, or to be picked up by hydraulic arms so that its contents can be dumped into the truck.


Easter

en-noun

Easter (countable and uncountable, plural Easters)

→ Chickasaw: Iista'

The noun is derived from Middle English Ester, from Old English ēastre, seemingly from Ēastre, a proposed Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn whose festival is thought to have been celebrated around the vernal equinox. Further from Proto-West Germanic *Austrā, from Proto-Germanic *Austrǭ, derived from either Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”) or, more semantically plausible, from *austrą, *auzrą, a metathesized form of *wazrą (“spring (season)”), *-ǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥ (“spring”).
The English word is cognate with German Low German Oostern (“Easter”), Old High German ōstarūn (modern German Ostern) and is possibly a doublet of east. Despite a modern folk etymology, not related to Ishtar.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

(UK, Ireland, law, education) Ellipsis of Easter term.


tarmac

en-noun

tarmac (countable and uncountable, plural tarmacs)

Clipping of tarmacadam, which is from tar + macadam (“crushed stones”). Originally a trademark owned by its inventor, Edgar Hooley.

How meek and shrunken did that haughty Tarmac become as it slunk by the wide circle of asphalt of the yellow sort, that was loosely strewn before the great iron gates of Lady Hall as a forerunner of the consideration that awaited the guests of Rupert, Earl of Kare, […].

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

(loosely, UK, Ireland, Canada) Any bituminous road surfacing material.

(UK, Ireland, Canada) The driveable surface of a road.


quieten

en-verb

quieten (third-person singular simple present quietens, present participle quietening, simple past and past participle quietened)

quietens (present singular third-person)
quietening (participle present)
quietened (participle past)
quietened (past)

quieten the class

Take deep, deep breaths and quieten your mind while you contemplate what has been revealed within my latest journallings to you.

2013, Dianne Pegler, The Sacred Order of the Magi, page 149:

(transitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To make quiet.

quieten down please, the speaker is going to start.

(intransitive, Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) To become quiet.


removal

en-noun

removal (countable and uncountable, plural removals)

/ɹɪˈmʉː.vəl/

(Ireland) An evening funeral ritual in which the coffin holding the deceased is brought, usually from a funeral home, to the church where the funeral mass will be celebrated the following day. Prayers are said before and after the journey, after which mourners are typically received at the home of the deceased.


destroyed

(Ireland, informal) (particularly of a child) soiled, muddied, especially as a result of a fall or spill.


wog

The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast."
The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of folk etymologies exist, with the most common claiming that the word is an acronym for one of either westernized, worthy, wily, or wonderful preceding “Oriental gentlemen”. Another erroneous claim is that it was used in the mid 1800s, with WOGS (meaning Working On Government Service) stencilled on the shirts of Indian workers in Egypt.
The Scientologist sense is from the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who apparently accepted the folk etymology from “worthy Oriental gentleman” but employed the term to mean “common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid”.

perker

an offensive term for a dark-skinned person

'One of the little Indian girls whose name is Polly has just come in to ask, " Miss D., what is a wog? One white boy called me a polliwog, and I thought a wog must be something bad."'

1889, The American Missionary Volume 43 p. 81:

"The King Edward's Horse called the Indian Cavalry 'The Wogs'—which is the diminutive of 'Golliwogs',—a description that was very apt of these dark apparitions in khaki and tin-hats."

1921, Lionel James, chapter 18, in The History of King Edward's Horse, page 188:

(UK, Ireland, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) Any person who looks in-between "white" and "black": originally specifically an Indian, but later also broadened to anybody of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean descent.


piss-up

. . . passed: all bullshitted up for the pictures or a piss-up in the town.

1950, Jocelyn Greene, The Goose Cathedral, The Bodley Head, page 14:

Last night a bunch of them turned out to a pub near Edgeware [sic] Road tube (where a few of them had helped treat the injured on the 7th), and we had a good old-fashioned piss-up courtesy of Europhobia's generous readers.

2005, Tim Worstall, 2005: Dispatches from the Blogosphere, The Friday Project, p 228

Therefore with the blessing of Lizzie (herself too upset to attend) Rupert had arranged a sort of pre-wake piss-up in the function room of his London club with a malt whisky tasting, several real ales on tap and a takeaway curry delivered.

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, slang) A party where people consume alcohol.

couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery


minger

See minging (from Scots mingin) and -er.

Mike's new bird's a right minger! I wouldn't touch her with yours, mate!

Two suits [destroyed] in one day! Look at it, thanks to you, I couldn't even get on the cover of Minger Monthly!

2009, Doug Naylor, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, spoken by The Cat (Danny John-Jules):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, offensive) An unattractive or ugly person.


pisser

From Middle English pissere; equivalent to piss + -er (agent noun). The sense referring to a urinal formed from piss + -er (patient suffix).

(UK, Ireland, slang, mildly vulgar) A disappointing or frustrating situation or event.


daft

en-adj

daft (comparative dafter, superlative daftest)

dafter (comparative)
daftest (superlative)

From Middle English dafte, defte (“gentle; having good manners; humble, modest; awkward; dull; boorish”), from Old English dæfte (“accommodating; gentle, meek, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *daftī (“fitting, suitable”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₂ebʰ- (“fitting; to fit together”). Related to Old English dafnian, dafenian (“to be fitting, appropriate, or becoming”), Russian до́брый (dóbryj, “good”).
Compare silly which originally meant “blessed; good, innocent; pitiful; weak”, but now means “laughable or amusing through foolishness or a foolish appearance; mentally simple, foolish”.
Unrelated to, though perhaps influenced by, daff (“fool (n.); to be foolish (v.)”) (past form daffed).

неразумен

foolish, silly — see also foolish, silly

a daft idea

Thou art the daftest fuill that ever I saw. / Trows thou, man, be the law to get remeid / Of men of kirk? Na, nocht till thou be deid.

1602, David Lyndesay [i.e., David Lyndsay], Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (in Scots), Edinburgh: Printed be Robert Charteris, →OCLC; republished as Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, in Commendation of Vertew and Vitvperation of Vyce (Early English Text Society, Original Series; no. 37), [London]: [Published for the Early English Text Society, by N[icholas] Trübner & Co.], [1869], →OCLC, page 451, lines 2008–2010:

You are the daftest fool that ever I saw. / Trust you, man, by the law to get a remedy / From men of the church? No, not till you are dead.

So that if a boor complains of a broken-head, or a beer-seller of a broken can, or a daft wench does but squeak loud enough to be heard above her breath, a soldier of honour shall be dragged, not before his own court-martial, who can best judge of and punish his demerits, but before a base mechanical burgo-master, who shall menace him with the rasp-house, the cord, and what not, as if he were one of their own mean, amphibious, twenty-breeched boors.

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume III (A Legend of Montrose), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 188–189:

In case you haven't heard of them [the Taipings], I must tell you that they were another of those incredible phenomena that made China the topsy-turvey mess it was, like some fantastic land from Gulliver, where everything was upside down and out of kilter. Talk about moonbeams from cucumbers; the Taipings were even dafter than that.

1985, George MacDonald Fraser, chapter 1, in Flashman and the Dragon: From the Flashman Papers, 1860, London: Collins Harvill, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Plume, 1987, →ISBN:

You haven't exactly been playing the master tactician through all this, but that seems the daftest course you could possibly have taken.

1990, Iain Pears, The Raphael Affair, London: Gollancz, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Harper, 2014, →ISBN, page 22:

(chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Foolish, silly, stupid.

"Ow, he is just a wood harum-scarum creature, that wad never take to his studies;—daft, sir, clean daft." / […] / "[W]owff—a wee bit by the East-Nook or sae; it's a common case—the ae half of the warld thinks t'other daft. I have met with folks in my day, that thought I was daft mysell;[…]" / "I cannot make out a word of his cursed brogue," said the Cumbrian justice; "can you, neighbour—eh? What can he mean by deft?" / "He means mad", said the party appealed to, thrown off his guard by impatience of this protracted discussion.

1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Darsie Latimer’s Journal, in Continuation. Sheet 2.”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 143–144:

The boy gathered himself up, shook his shaggy head, and, said, in a piteous tone: 'Davie's daft!' 'Davie's daft!' He then kicked the poor idiot till his cries attracted the attention of the guests, some of whom immediately came to the spot: […]

1843 April, “The Vale of Glencoe: A Tale of Scotland”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXI, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, […], →OCLC, page 339:

‘It’s a lee [lie],’ says the man; ‘she’s either drunk or daft.’ / ‘Me drunk, you ill-tongued vagabond!’ says my Auntie Kirsty, who couldna bear such a reproach on her good name, ‘I’m a’ but blackfasting this day from either meat or drink; you had better no meddle wi’ my character.’

1876, S[arah] R. Whitehead, “On the Wrong Coach”, in Daft Davie and Other Sketches of Scottish Life and Character, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 220:

(chiefly British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Crazy, insane, mad.

побъркан

crazy, insane — see also crazy, insane, mad


tea towel

tea towels (plural)
tea-towel (alternative)
teatowel (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tea towel.wav

From tea + towel. Attested from the middle 19th century. Compare earlier tea-cloth from the late 18th century.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A cloth, made from cotton or linen, for drying dishes and glassware.


scrubber

What did you think, it was happy ever after with a Woodlands Road scrubber in a seaside resort?

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 267:

(UK, Ireland, slang) A prostitute or a slovenly woman.

(UK, Ireland, slang) A dirty or unhygienic person.


zip

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A zip fastener.


giro

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

Via German, from Italian giro (“circulation”), from Latin gyrus (“circle”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to curve, to bend”).

His Sheperd's Bush giro was in doubt now, because he had declined the exciting career opportunity to work in the Burger King in Notting Hill Gate.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “The First Shag in Ages”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 146:

(UK, Ireland, informal) An unemployment benefit cheque.


shandy

en-noun

shandy (countable and uncountable, plural shandies)

(uncountable, UK, Ireland) A drink made by mixing beer and lemonade.


red lemonade

red lemonade (usually uncountable, plural red lemonades)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-red lemonade.wav

(UK, Ireland) Lemonade coloured with natural food colouring, giving it a red appearance and a slightly sweeter taste.


faff

From a dialect word meaning "blow in gusts".

Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff.

God it must be a faff having to get nigh-on naked every time your bladder runneth over, and imagine how much worse it must be if you only have a 20-second break to run off stage to the loo.

2007 November 27, Hadley Freeman, “Miaow!”, in The Guardian:

Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff. A page boy must carry the tray upstairs, but he's banned from actually serving it. So he leaves it on the floor by the bedroom door, whereupon a housemaid picks it up and knocks on said portal.

2011, Patrick Kingsley, “Life with the Queen Mum revealed”, in The Guardian:

The fuss and faff meant Christmas had long since been drained of any joy and excitement.

The show is a carefully curated manifesto of “social success without faff”.

2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) An overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.


faff

en-verb

faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)

faffs (present singular third-person)
faffing (participle present)
faffed (participle past)
faffed (past)

Stop Faffing And Just Do It

2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind, page 131:

(British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To waste time on an unproductive activity.


twunt

Sorry for being kind of a twunt about other matters, but it's because of posts like this that I don't want to write you off or lose you as a friend.

2003 August 13, David Watson, “the UN in anime”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

Let the pub-dodging twunt embarrass himself with his primitive, witless and repetitive insults.

2003 October 29, Farlie A, “Peter 'Heather' Thomas!”, in comp.sys.sinclair (Usenet):

Is that the twunt who looks like Bill Bailey's younger brother?

2003 November 29, Thanatos, “Annoying ads”, in uk.media.tv.misc (Usenet):

I note that in a recent New Scientist some twunt was advocating the use of C02 pressure washers and acidic/caustic cleaning foams instead of the usual disinfectant approach.

2005 February 25, David Marshall, “Re: Election Campaign”, in alt.dur.general (Usenet):

It is completely normal to harbour desires to batter these smug twunts about the head with a hot MacBook Air.

2011 July 8, Grace Dent, The Guardian, 8 Jul 2011:

“You're so perfect at everything, deal with it yourself. I'm outta here.” [glass shattering] “Okay. That sounded expensive. Terry, Terry, don't be a twunt. What did you break?”

2023 August 14, May Darmon, “The Re-Visibility Bouillabaisse” (9:01 from the start), in Solar Opposites, season 4, episode 10, spoken by Korvo (Dan Stevens):

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang, vulgar) A fool; an extremely objectionable person.


toodeloo

→ Dutch: toedeloe

Unknown. Possibly from French à tout à l'heure (“see you later”, literally “until shortly”) or from toot.

der

toodle-oo (alternative)
toodaloo (alternative)

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, dated) goodbye, farewell, see you soon


dekko

Borrowed from Hindustani देखो / دیکھو (dekho), imperative of देखना / دیکھنا (dekhnā, “to see, to look”).

But now there was a listlessness about her, not the listlessness of the cat Augustus but more that of the female in the picture in the Louvre, of whom Jeeves, on the occasion when he lugged me there to take a dekko at her, said that here was the head upon which all the ends of the world are come.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Phipps went on: “One of our chaps, out on a reccy over the Bulgarian front, thought he saw something in the snow. Something fishy. He dropped down to have a dekko and nearly had kittens. What d'you think? Jerry's got a mass of stuff there—tanks, guns, lorries, every sort of heavy armament. All camouflaged. White.”

2011 [1965], Olivia Manning, Friends And Heroes (The Balkan Trilogy), Random House, →ISBN:


massive

en-adj

massive (comparative more massive, superlative most massive)

more massive (comparative)
most massive (superlative)

insubstantial

antonym(s) of “of or pertaining to a large mass”

inconsequential

antonym(s) of “of great significance or import”

From Middle English massif, from Middle French massif, equivalent to mass + -ive. The Irish sense is possibly derived from Irish mas (“fine, handsome”).

gravitationally interacting massive particle

massive astronomical compact halo object

massive astrophysical compact halo object

robust association of massive baryonic objects

super weakly interacting massive particle

Your dress is massive, love. Where did you get it?

(colloquial, informal, Ireland) Outstanding, beautiful.


Sam

(Ireland, informal) The Sam Maguire Cup awarded to the All-Ireland GAA football winning team.


knickers

en-noun

knickers pl (plural only, attributive knicker)

The debate here is not over whether raising £26,000 (and counting) for our troops is a wonderful thing – it unarguably is – but over whether, whenever times are tough and money must be found, our default reaction as women should be to take off our knickers to help out?

2010 April 24, Sali Hughes, “Calendar girls galore”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Women's underpants.


knickers

(UK, Ireland, colloquial) A mild exclamation of annoyance.


tig

Dialectal variant of tick, from Middle English ticken, tiken. More at tick.

One evening when playing tig she had put her hands over his eyes: long and white and thin and cold and soft.

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 36:

(Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) The children's game of tag.


bum bag

There is no queue at Burger King in Gibraltar. To lure customers, they give you a free plastic bum bag with every Whopper Meal.

1995, Vitali Vitaliev, Little is the Light: Nostalgic Travels in the Mini-States of Europe, page 226:

Don′t confuse money belts with bum bags. A bum bag is a larger and an altogether more ostentatious item; it′s worn over your clothes and can usually hold a small camera as well as sunscreen and sunglasses. As a security item the bum bag is useless and may as well be inscribed with flashing lights announcing “Valuable items inside, help yourself”.

2003, Lesley Reader, Lucy Ridout, First-Time Asia, page 230:

Berichon: I proceeded to pull the pistol out of the bum bag. I flicked the safety switch off the pistol and I fired upon the police officer.

2007, Poul Anderson, Shocking Australian True Crime Stories, unnumbered page:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A small pouch attached to a belt that is worn on the outside of clothing around the waist and used for holding small personal items.


gerrymander

en-verb

gerrymander (third-person singular simple present gerrymanders, present participle gerrymandering, simple past and past participle gerrymandered)

gerrymanders (present singular third-person)
gerrymandering (participle present)
gerrymandered (participle past)
gerrymandered (past)
Gerrymander (alternative obsolete)

/ˈdʒɛɹiˌmændə/

/ˈd͡ʒɛɹiˌmændɚ/

Elkanah Tisdale
Nathan Hale (journalist)
gerrymandering

Blend of Gerry + salamander (named after Elbridge Gerry), from the similarity in shape to a salamander of an electoral district created when Gerry was the governor of Massachusetts. Coined by editors of the Boston Gazette 26 March 1812, in text likely written by Nathan Hale and Benjamin and John Russell, and accompanying a cartoon by Elkanah Tisdale.

coin

Westminster City Council has been accused by the District Auditor of using public money to gerrymander marginal wards for the 1990 Borough elections. The strategy of attempting to 'gentrify' eight key wards, selling off council homes and hostels for the homeless to move out potential Labour voters and attract in more Conservative voters, was in conflict with the council's statutory duty to homeless people

2000, Hugo de Burgh, Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 207:

Fermanagh Council even went so far as to create the new village of Donagh in an attempt to move Catholics out of Newtownbutler, four miles away, so unionists could gerrymander a majority.

2022 December 1, Trevor Birney, Quinn, Merrion Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, derogatory, by extension, chiefly UK and Ireland) To deliberately bring in voters of one's own party or displace voters of another party from a voting district in such a way as to give an unfair advantage to one party in an election.


crusty

From Middle English, equivalent to crust + -y.

The Spirals are part of the crossover between the rave scene and the ‘crusty’ subculture—crusties being squat-dwelling anarcho-hippy-punk types named after their matted dreadlocks and post-apocalyptic garb.

1998, Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash, Soft Skull Press, published 2012, →ISBN, page 135:

Many of them, dressed in raggedy black combat gear, with haircuts that matched and mismatched punk, Rasta and Native American styles - a look which would later be codified as 'crustie' - began to join the travellers on the road. This influx from the cities changed the travelling scene, and after the Battle of the Beanfield, sections of the downcast and disillusioned travelling community began to seek oblivion through Special Brew superlager or even heroin as the dream of rural liberation turned sour.

2010, Matthew Collin, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, page 202:

The predictable complaints began as soon as Extinction Rebellion launched its fortnight of protest in London, part of an international campaign of civil disobedience in as many as 60 cities worldwide. Politicians have moaned that the police are being too passive, and Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, labelled the protesters – who include a former Metropolitan police detective – “uncooperative crusties”.

2019 October 10, “The Guardian view on the Extinction Rebellion protests: of course they’re an inconvenience”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly UK and Ireland, informal) A member of an urban subculture with roots in punk and grebo, characterized by antiestablishment attitudes and an unkempt appearance.


two cents

That car won't last a week, it's not worth two cents.

(US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, idiomatic, colloquial) A nearly worthless amount, alluding to placing a copper penny on each of the eyelids of a pauper's or slave's body before burial.

не сто́ить вы́еденного яйца́ impf (ne stóitʹ výjedennovo jajcá, literally “to be not worth an eaten egg”)

не сто́ить ло́маного гроша́ impf (ne stóitʹ lómanovo grošá, literally “to be not worth a broken half-copeck coin”)


Pancake Day

(chiefly British and Ireland) Shrove Tuesday, when pancakes are traditionally made; in some traditions the day for pancake races for charity.


bollock

From Middle English ballok, from Old English bealluc (“testicle”, literally “little ball”). By surface analysis, ball + -ock.

inh

You've got a bollock hanging out of your shorts.

(British, Ireland, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A testicle.


punt

en-verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

punts (present singular third-person)
punting (participle present)
punted (participle past)
punted (past)

Borrowed from French pointe or Spanish punto (“point”). Doublet of point, pointe, ponto, puncto, punctum, and punto.

doublet

She heard […] of his punting at gaming tables.

1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC:

Whether you want to gamble on a horse race, bet on which player will score first in a game of football, have a punt on a particular tennis player winning a grand slam event, you are buying a chance, a chance which is measured in terms of probability, ‘the odds’.

2004, John Buglear, “Is it worth the risk? – introducing probability”, in Quantitative methods for business: the A-Z of QM, →ISBN, page 339:

Eriksson's men still worth a punt

2006 June 23, Dan Roebuck, “Eriksson's men still worth a punt”, in The Guardian:

Australians have a reputation for being keen to bet on two flies climbing up a wall and today young ones often take a casual classroom punt

2009 November 3, Sarah Collerton, “Cup punt not child's play”, in ABC News:

(Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK) To stake against the bank, to back a horse, to gamble or take a chance more generally


greengrocer

/ˈɡɹinˌɡɹəʊs.ə(ɹ)/

(chiefly British, Commonwealth, Ireland) A person who sells fresh vegetables and fruit, normally from a relatively small shop.


sod off

en-verb

sod off (third-person singular simple present sods off, present participle sodding off, simple past and past participle sodded off)

sods off (present singular third-person)
sodding off (participle present)
sodded off (participle past)
sodded off (past)

Why don't you just sod off and leave me alone?

He was here a minute ago but now he's sodded off.

(UK, Ireland, idiomatic, vulgar, colloquial, dismissal) Go away.


flag day

(British, Ireland) A day on which a registered charity raises money, usually by selling small lapel flags.


certificate

→ Punjabi: ਸਰਟੀਫਿਕੇਟ (sarṭīphikeṭ)

→ Welsh: stifficet

General Certificate of Secondary Education

The film is certificate 15.

(British, Ireland) A motion picture age rating.


crèche

Unadapted borrowing from French crèche (“manger”), from Frankish *krippija, *kribbija, from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ. Doublet of crib.

ubor

They drop their two-year-old off at the crèche in the morning before they go to work.

If you leave the kids in the creche for one morning on your week's holiday, and they are OK with that, then it's fine.

2012, Roni Jay, The 10 Most Important Things You Can Do For Your Children:


physiotherapist

From physio- + therapist or physiotherapy + -ist.

(British, Commonwealth, Ireland) A therapist who treats physical injury or dysfunction, usually with exercise.


windscreen

Oh no! A vandal has just smashed our windscreen! Susan, can you go and call the insurance company?

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A transparent screen made of glass, located at the front of a vehicle in order to protect its occupants from the wind and weather.


bell-end

bell-ends (plural)
bellend (alternative)
bell end (alternative)

(UK, Ireland, slang, vulgar) The glans penis.

I don't care who he is: he's acting like a bell-end.

is that onion badgies, you meant. or perhaps you are referring to that infamous collection of bellends, known as w.b.a. (win bugger all). it seems they are doing quite well, although they are playing against part-timers. quit

1992 September 28, A. Dowson, “Re: West Bromwich Albion”, in rec.sport.soccer (Usenet), retrieved 2017-08-03, message-ID <92272.160610ADOWSON@ESTEC.BITNET>:

(UK, Ireland, slang, offensive, vulgar) A stupid or contemptible person.


winkle-picker

winkle-pickers (plural)
winklepicker (alternative)
winkle picker (alternative)

[The girl] informed me that […] I had no right to wander at will upon the winkle-beds! Her brother, said she, was the watcher over this particular part of the Whitstable fishing-ground, beyond which he was the champion winkle-picker of the neighbourhood!

1908, W. Percival Westell, chapter 6, in The Story of the Sea and the Seashore, London: Robert Culley, page 199:

The most inveterate beachcomber and by far the speediest winkle picker in the village was ‘Euan, the son of Euan, the son of Euan’, the Gaelic pronunciation of whose name approximated to a long drawn-out yawn.

1961, Lillian Beckwith, “Beachcombing”, in The Sea for Breakfast, London: Arrow Books, published 1968, page 75:

the first piece of writing he had ever done [was] a starkly rhymed description of his boyhood as a winkle-picker on the Welsh coast

1967, Richard Condon, chapter 1, in The Ecstasy Business, New York: Dial, page 7:

Annie-John, the winkle picker, in men’s boots and a man’s overcoat went by with an empty bucket.

2011, Dermot Healy, chapter 46, in Long Time, No See,, London: Faber and Faber, page 424:

(UK, Ireland) A person who harvests periwinkles (a kind of sea snail) to be eaten.


yobbo

yobbos (plural)
yobboes (plural)
yabbo (alternative)

Yeah, but you heard what Blake said. We wouldn't stand a chance against Pike's mob. They're a right bunch of yobbos.

1966 September 24, Brian Hayles, “The Smugglers, episode 3” (14:11 from the start), in Doctor Who, season 4, episode 3, spoken by Ben Jackson (Michael Craze), via BBC:

He stared at them with eyes dull with fatigue, and let out a long sigh. “Trouble, trouble” he replied wearily. “Skinheads and yobboes fighting the coloureds".

1986, Emily Roberts, A Shiver of Fear, page 5:

We're not catering to the yobbos. We'd rather have a smaller crowd of nice people that are really into the game than a whole mass of uncouth people

1992, Brian Pronger, The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex, page 191:

A wanker fights inequality / And for people’s rights / A wanker fights class prejudice / A yobbo just fights

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, slang) A yob.


wobbly

(colloquial, chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A wobbler; a fit of rage; a tantrum.


sesh

Empty lager bottles […] signified that Hans and Fritz also knew the joys of a desert sesh.

1944, George Netherwood, Desert Squadron, Cairo: R. Schindler, page 119:

Impulse buys one Saturday afternoon, after a lunchtime sesh in the Ox[…]

1999, Ian Rankin, Black and Blue, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 39:

(UK, Ireland, informal) A period of sustained social drinking or recreational drug taking.


bowling

→ Danish: bowling

→ Dutch: bowling

→ French: bowling

→ German: Bowling

→ Indonesian: boling

→ Italian: bowling

→ Latin: bowling

→ Malay: boling

→ Norwegian: bowling

→ Portuguese: bólingue

→ Swedish: bowling

→ Tagalog: boling

→ Vietnamese: bowling


ware

en-noun

ware (usually uncountable, plural wares)

From Middle English ware, from Old English waru, from Proto-West Germanic *waru, from Proto-Germanic *warō (“attention”) as in beware, in the sense of “an object of care, a valuable”, from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to watch, keep guard”), whence also ward. Cognate with Dutch waar (“goods offered for sale or use”) and Swedish vara, with the same meaning.


verger

-ɜː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)

"We have often seen each other," said Little Dorrit, recognising the sexton, or the beadle, or the verger, or whatever he was, "when I have been at church here."

1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Litle Dorrit’s Party”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 128:

As soon as we were all in the night the verger rolled shut the doors and blotted out the chandeliers.

1942, Emily Carr, “The Blessing”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Christianity) A lay person who takes care of the interior of a church and acts as an attendant during services, where he or she carries the verge (or virge). In the United States, the office is generally combined with that of sexton.

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, Christianity) An usher; also, in major ecclesiastical landmarks, a tour guide.

When she came to her place she opened the book, and perused it, and saw the pictures, but frowned and blushed; and then shut it, (of which several took notice,) and calling the verger, bade him bring her the old book, wherein she was formerly wont to read.

1725, John Strype, Annals of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion, and Other Various Occurrences in the Church of England, during Queen Elizabeth’s Happy Reign, Oxford: Clarendon, published 1824, Vol. I, Part I, Chapter 23, p. 408:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) An attendant upon a dignitary, such as a bishop or dean, a justice, etc.


nutcase

nutcases (plural)
nut-case (alternative)

From nut + case. Compare headcase, mental case etc.

(UK, Ireland, often humorous) An eccentric or odd person.


package holiday

en-noun

package holiday (plural package holidays)

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A holiday that consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator.


haggard

He tuk a slew [swerve] round the haggard http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/am1924/pt_s.htm

(dialect, Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland) A stackyard, an enclosure on a farm for stacking grain, hay, etc.


amn't

If anyone thinks that I amn’t divine,
He gets no free drinks when I’m making the wine

1904, Oliver St. John Gogarty, The Song of the Cheerful (but slightly Sarcastic) Jesus:

Amn’t I with you? Amn’t I your girl?

1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, →OL, ch. 15:

2004 An Coimisinéir Teanga, Frequently Asked Questions
I phoned a government office but nobody there had any Irish so I couldn't do my business with them in Irish. Amn't I entitled under the Act to conduct business with any Government office in Irish?

Now, I’m very conscious of what I am or amn’t referencing from those eras, and I’m so comfortable with that – being a reinvention of a retro kind of thing.

2017 November 18, Al Porter, quoted in Patrick Freyne, "Al Porter: ‘After wild sex with a priest, I realised the priesthood was not for me’", The Irish Times


doddle

Uncertain. Possibly from dialectal English doddle (“to toddle; sway; nod drowsily”).

Centurion: Have you ever seen anyone crucified? / Matthias: Crucifixion's a doddle.

Retailing in Europe's biggest economy, with 82m mostly well-off people, may sound a doddle. It is not.

2002 September 14, “KarstadtQuelle: Below par”, in The Economist:

He was a QC from Edinburgh, wearing the black jacket and pinstripe trousers of his trade, as if straight from court, and probably persuaded to come in the belief that if you could interest the Budhill and Springboig party in the repressive Gaullist policies in Algeria then becoming Solicitor-General was a dawdle.

2009, Archie Macpherson, “Thumping the Tub”, in A Game of Two Halves: The Autobiography, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN, page 63:

(UK, Ireland, informal) A job, task, or other activity that is easy to complete or simple.


jock

Unknown. Suggested to be a hypocoristic for John (compare Jack).

(British, Ireland, slang, derogatory) A Scotsman.


punnet

Uncertain. First appears in the 1820s. Perhaps a diminutive of pun, a dialect variant of pound, the weight + -et. The suggestion that it is an eponym of Reginald Crundall Punnett (1875–1967), geneticist and grower of strawberries, is not chronologically possible. The suggestion it was an ancestor of his lacks evidence.

Thus, according to the same Year-Book, a sea-kale punnet measures 8 in. in diameter at the top and 7½ in. at the bottom, being 2 in. deep, while a radish punnet is 8 in. in diameter and 1 in. deep, if to hold six “hands,” or 9 in. by 1 in. for twelve “hands.” A mushroom punnet is 7 in. by 1 in., while a salading punnet is 5 in. by 2 in.

1904, Arthur George Liddon Rogers, The Business Side of Agriculture, 2010, Forgotten Books, page 85

Another type of splint basket, called a punnet, was used in the strawberry trade of New York City between 1815 and 1850.[…]Punnets and pottles found little favor except in the vicinity of Boston and New York and were soon discarded for more convenient and less expensive packages.

1917, Stevenson Whitcomb Fletcher, The Strawberry in North America: History, Origin, Botany, and Breeding, pages 77–78:

Most of the fruit for market is picked and sold in punnets, but for jam making buckets are used, similar to the raspberry bucket.

1933, South Australian Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Journal of Agriculture, South Australia, Volume 36, page 1292

Early this season, Ross Lill got together with a plastics firm to produce a flat tray to replace the commonly used punnet.

1982, New Zealand Department of Agriculture, New Zealand journal of agriculture, page 13

However we recommend, particularly in cooler climates, sowing tomato seeds into a seed tray or punnet and allowing the seedlings to grow before they are transplanted into the garden.

2005, Don Burke, The Complete Burke's Backyard: The Ultimate Book of Fact Sheets, page 408:

‘But rather than spend £5 on a small punnet of exotic berries, a family would be better off buying regular and larger quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables from their local market.[…]’

2007 May 13, Amelia Hill, “Forget superfoods, you can′t beat an apple a day”, in The Guardian:

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) A small basket or receptacle for collecting and selling fruit, particularly strawberries.


smirt

en-verb

smirt (third-person singular simple present smirts, present participle smirting, simple past and past participle smirted)

smirts (present singular third-person)
smirting (participle present)
smirted (participle past)
smirted (past)

Blend of smoke + flirt. Apparently coined in Ireland following the ban on smoking in pubs.

Smirting - a cross between smoking and flirting - is already a huge hit in Dublin where the ban has been in place for two years

2006 March 25, “BURNING PASSION IN CIGGIE SHELTERS”, in The Scottish Daily Record:

I have dated three guys that I smirted with, and one of them is now my current boyfriend.

2007 July 2, Clover Stroud, “Smoke signals: new dating paths?”, in Daily Mail:

Smirting is believed to have started in Temple Bar, Dublin, in 2004

2008 July 1, “Unintended consequences of the smoking ban”, in BBC NEWS:

As a result, despite the ban, the smoking rate in Ireland has been stuck at around 28% and the expected decline in cigarette consumption never materialized. A new social practice quickly emerged called “smirting”, where young Dubliners smoke and flirt with members of the opposite sex

2012, GN Connolly, “How Society Treats Smoking”, in Israel Journal of Health Policy Research:

(intransitive, UK, Ireland) To chat up or flirt with (someone) while smoking outside a pub.


prang

en-noun

prang (countable and uncountable, plural prangs)

Originally World War II Royal Air Force slang; probably imitative.

onomatopoeic

imitative

The typical prang cost a few hundred dollars in panelbeating charges.

1984, Ian Manning, Beyond walking distance: The Gains from Speed in Australian Urban Travel, page 105:

If people drove like that in Australia there would be constant prangs.

1999, Lydia Laube, Bound for Vietnam, page 209:

The drive host, Mark Day, recalls the sinking feeling as he covered an accident on the Tullamarine expressway and wondered what commuters in Sydney would think about hearing all the details of the prang.

2009, Bridget Griffen-Foley, Changing Stations: The Story of Australian Commercial Radio, page 90:

(chiefly UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, informal) An accident involving a motor vehicle, typically minor and without casualties.


wigging

en-noun

wigging (countable and uncountable, plural wiggings)

His Colonel talked to him severely when the cold weather ended. That made him more wretched than ever; and it was only an ordinary ‘Colonel's wigging’!

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Thrown Away”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 18:

(countable, British, Ireland, colloquial, dated) A telling-off or reprimand.


fire brigade

/ˈfaɪə(ɹ)bɹɪˌɡeɪd/

(firefighting, UK, Ireland) An organization, often part of a local government, whose purpose is preventing and putting out fires.

skuadër zjarrfikëse

organization for preventing and putting out fires

foyerwer

borrowed from German, Malmedy region, old


fuck off

en-verb

fuck off (third-person singular simple present fucks off, present participle fucking off, simple past and past participle fucked off)

fucks off (present singular third-person)
fucking off (participle present)
fucked off (participle past)
fucked off (past)

It really fucks me off when you do that.

(transitive, idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth)

srát

to annoy, irritate — see also annoy, irritate

I'm bored. Shall we just fuck this off and go home?

[…] we force ourselves to have jobs and maintain apartments and push ourselves into positions of high adulthood, when really we could all just fuck it off and live in a camper van and play beach volleyball all day, but we don't, because we're pussies.

2016 August 11, Joel Golby, “A Definitive Ranking of Every Olympic Sport and Whether It Is Cool or Not”, in Vice:


polis

en-noun

polis (countable and uncountable, plural polises)

Borrowed from Scots polis. Doublet of police.

Even in his Ma's womb, you would have had to define Spud less as a foetus, more as a set of dormant drug and personality problems. He'd probably draw the polis onto them through knocking a saltcellar out of the Little Chef.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 328:

(uncountable, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie) The police.

(countable, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie) A police officer.


sunshine

sunshine (usually uncountable, plural sunshines)

sunshines (plural)
sun-shine (alternative archaic)

In the Coverdale Bible in 1535, in Genesis and Exodus about 1250 as Middle English sunnesine; synchronically sun + shine. Compare isolated Old English sunsċīn (“mirror”).

Alright sunshine, safe to cross now.

(UK, Ireland) Friendly form of address often reserved for juniors.

OK, sunshine, listen up and listen good. There's five vandalised telephone boxes out there and I know you're responsible.

(UK, Ireland) Ironic form of address used to an inferior or troublemaker.


borstal

Inherited from Middle English *borstile, *borghstile, from Old English beorh (“a hill”) + stigel (“a stile”).
The institutions are named after Borstal Prison in Borstal, Rochester, Kent, England.

You have juvenile courts. Do you have borstal institutions for juveniles?

2004, August 3, Speaker of the Kenyan National Assembly, Kenya National Assembly Official Record, Hansard, page 3126

Seven years ago, I was sent to borstal. Slithering around in the societal sludge, I was forced to admit I'd made a huge mistake – committing robbery.

2011 November 7, Paris Lees, “My Transsexual Summer: a new view of gender”, in The Guardian:

(British, Ireland) Any institution which provides education to young offenders.


suburb

From Old French suburbe, subburbe, from Latin suburbium (from sub- + urbs (“city”)). Displaced native Old English underburg (literally “sub-” or “under-city”).

ncog

(Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK) Any subdivision of a conurbation, not necessarily on the periphery.

حَيّ

Australian, British English, Irish English, New Zealand English: any subdivision of a conurbation


swimming costume

en-noun

swimming costume (plural swimming costumes)

(UK, Ireland) the garments that one wears when bathing in the sea or a swimming pool, especially the one-piece garment worn by women and girls.


gazebo

→ Italian: gazebo

→ Portuguese: gazebo

→ Spanish: gazebo

Possibly from gaze + Latin conjugation ending -ēbō (as in vidēbō); or possibly from Arabic قَصَبَة (qaṣaba) (whence also casbah), refashioned after gaze.

'I'll thank ye tell me what they mean by that old gazabo on the top of the market-place,' said she, in a burst of ridicule fit to have brought the old tower down.

1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which Amelia Invades the Low Countries”, in Vanity Fair, London: Bradbury and Evans, page 242:

There was no garden attached to this tenement, nor was there even a good yard. People looked at it in passing by and called it a gazebo, a rattle-trap, a castle rack-rent.

1879, Sarah Atkinson, Mary Aikenhead: Her Life, Her Work, and Her Friends., 1st edition, Dublin: M. H. Gill, page 191:

Sometimes a few middle-aged women came to see her, elderly spinsters whom she regarded as little girls. "Poor Cathy, she’s a great guy. She’s always making a show of herself"—and she might disconcertingly rap out at them, "What’s that gazebo you have on your head? What in reason prevailed on you to choose that color?"

1917 April 21, Sylvia Lynd, “Journeys End”, in The Nation, volume 21, number 3, London, page 64:

The critics, those lurking socialists in the Central Bank and the ESRI, those dangerous subversives, have dared not to believe and to criticise the figures on which the Minister rests the entire shaky gazebo of the direction of the economy for next year.

1979 February 7, Michael O'Leary, “Financial Statement, Budget, 1979”, in Dáil Éireann debate, Oireachtas:

When they were living in a house farther out from the city, and still very hard-up, the mother pledged a sideboard to tide them over the father's illness. When the money was not available to redeem it, she consoled herself by saying: "It was only a bloody gazebo anyhow".

1996 June 28, Ann Redmond, “Joys and sorrows of city life”, in The Irish Times:

I am not arguing against the previous amendment but it is clear that the gentleman who objected to the spike could not show that his interests would be economically damaged by this lunatic proposal to put this gazebo in O'Connell St.

2000 May 11, Alan Dukes, “Planning and Development Bill, 1999 [Seanad]: Committee Stage (Resumed)”, in Select Committee on Environment and Local Government, Oireachtas:

(Ireland, derogatory) a gaudy, incongruous, or flimsy structure or object


cock-up

The first word of every section or chapter is generally put in small capitals, after a small neat cock-up letter.

1824, John Johnson, Typographia, volume 2, page 33:

(obsolete, UK, Ireland, printers' slang) A superior letter; a lower-case letter placed above the baseline and made smaller than ordinary script; traditionally used in abbreviations.


cock up

en-verb

cock up (third-person singular simple present cocks up, present participle cocking up, simple past and past participle cocked up)

cocks up (present singular third-person)
cocking up (participle present)
cocked up (participle past)
cocked up (past)

The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the Dictionary of Forces’ Slang (1948). The OED suggests that it derives ultimately from the noun cock, but gives no further detail. The nature of the earliest citation suggests that this expression entered the wider language from military slang, making etymologies from typesetting or archery (see below) seem unlikely. The term is sometimes attributed to the days of manual typesetting, when a letter that had become wedged slightly higher than the other letters on the line was said to be “cocked up”. Another claim relates to medieval archery. One of the three feathers on an arrow is a cock’s feather. If the arrow was incorrectly placed on the bow for drawing and release, the arrow would go off course because of the cock’s feather being up and therefore the arrow positioned wrongly on the bow. This was then known as a “cock up”.

It was cocking her up with gimcrack notions about ladies till she'd be ashamed to look at her own hands after she had done a day's work with them.

1876 May – 1877 July, Anthony Trollope, “‘Wonderful Bird!’”, in The American Senator […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 282:

I'd take the stick to his back and beat him while I could stand over him—as I done many a time before. The mother, you know, she cocks him up with this and that. . . .

1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 146:

(ambitransitive, chiefly UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, slang, mildly vulgar) To ruin (something) unintentionally; to fuck up, mess up, or screw up.


arse over tit

I missed the step and went arse over tit.

(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic, vulgar) Tumbling; falling; upside-down, unstable or unbalanced.


at sixes and sevens

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-at sixes and sevens.wav

Unknown, though it may have originated from the game of hazard and the Old French cinc (“five”) and sis (“six”), the riskiest numbers to shoot for, which were misheard and folk-etymologized into English as "six" and "seven".

Yet if his majesty our sovereign lord
Should of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say "I'll be your guest to-morrow night."
How should we stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work! Let no man idle stand. …
For 'tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king,
And after all our travail and our cost,
So he be pleas'd, to think no labour lost.
But at the coming of the King of Heaven
All's set at six and seven:
We wallow in our sin,
Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
We entertain him always like a stranger,
And as at first still lodge him in the manger.

17th century, Thomas Ford, "Yet if His Majesty Our Sovereign Lord" (Christ Church MS. 736–8), first published by A. H. Bullen, Lyrics from the Song Books of the Elizabethan Age (1888)

Oh, what a racket! And everything on deck apparently at sixes and sevens. Mail-bags and passengers mixed up in every direction.

1912, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 23, in Poison Island:

A few days after the battle started, we abandoned Pa-chung County. The enemy troops were elated and boasted of their victory. In fact, the loss of Pa-chung County was a great setback for us. The local people, seeing our departure, could not help wavering. Even those engaged in the work of the Soviet government were not altogether clear about the strategy of our army. They were at sixes and sevens, and some went to such lengths as to make preparations for the eventuality that the Red Army might back out of northern Szechwan.

1972, Chang Kuo-tʻao, The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party 1928-1938, volume II, University Press of Kansas, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 342:

(idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) In a state of confusion.


deputy

deputies (plural)
deputee (alternative archaic)

From French député, from Late Latin deputatus (“appointed”).

պատգամավոր

member of parliament — see also legislator, Member of Parliament

Eamon Ryan is a deputy in the Dáil.

At today's meeting, Deputy Ryan will speak on local issues.

(government) The name for a member of parliament in some countries.

(Ireland, often capitalized) A member of Dáil Éireann, or the title of a member of Dáil Éireann.


stuffed

en-adj

stuffed (comparative more stuffed, superlative most stuffed)

more stuffed (comparative)
most stuffed (superlative)

'Well, you talked me into it,' said Cornelius. 'I feel really stuffed. I can tell you that for sure. So I could do with a bloody good sleep.'

2011, Nick Oud, The Hatchling and The Human, Xlibris, page 74:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal) Very tired.

If the suspension was stuffed already from hitting the concrete base of the fence—and it was—then it was really stuffed by the time we'd gone a kilometre along the railway.

1998, John Marsden, The Night is for Hunting, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2001, unnumbered page:

But if you don't play ball in life, if you don′t go for it with a sincere 'Go, girrrrl' rugby-tackle attitude, you're really stuffed.

2002, Clare de Vries, Of Cats and Kings, page 174:

Although the 14-inch Standard that Yamato targets is stuffed, and maybe the one after that, a prolonged bombardment by a Colorado-class is not gonna do good things to anything - doesn't really matter who you are.

2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 36:17 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 2022-07-04:

(UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) Broken, not functional; in trouble, in a situation from which one is unlikely to recover.


rainbow coalition

en-noun

rainbow coalition (plural rainbow coalitions)

Named after the colours associated with various parties: red for Labour, blue for the Conservatives, etc.

(British, Ireland, politics) A government consisting of a coalition of three or more parties, particularly parties with divergent ideologies.


agony aunt

You should write in to the agony aunt; she'll sort it out for you.

Pandora has just left my bedroom. I am just about devastated with frustration. I can't go on like this. I have written to Aunt Clara, the Agony Aunt.

1984, Sue Townsend, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Methuen, →ISBN, page 20:

The big difference between agony aunts then and today is that now we have the internet to answer those tricky problems about how to eat an avocado pear (a lot of letters in the 70s were avocado-related)[…]

2021 June 20, Philippa Perry, “Ask Philippa: meet the Observer’s brilliant new agony aunt”, in The Observer:

(informal, British, Ireland) A writer of an advice column in a newspaper or other periodical.

I'm sick of everyone coming to me with their problems—I never wanted to be an agony aunt!

(informal, British, Ireland) Someone commonly consulted for advice about personal problems.

垃圾桶

someone consulted for advice about personal problems


cop on

That eejit has no cop on.

While she is right that some cyclists do cycle in a dangerous manner, pedestrians need to have some "cop on" as well.

2008, Joseph Dolan, "Hazards caused by pedestrians" (letter to the editor), Irish Independent, 22 November 2008

Fixtures' secretary Jimmy Henry refuted the comments. "I wouldn't have got this job if I hadn't some cop on," he said.

2011 May 11, “Broadside at Croke Park”, in The Meath Chronicle:

Molloy’s solicitor said that there was a^([sic]) element of naivety here in that his client, who is “quite brilliant” in his studies in physics, has “no cop on” and took a “scientist’s approach” to growing cannabis.

2012 March 29, Martina Nee, “Student with no ‘cop on’ fined for using his scientific brilliance for cannabis growing”, in Galway Advertiser:

(Ireland, informal, idiomatic) Common sense.