English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 36

Dullamoo [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _those_]; a wastrel, a scapegrace, a _ne'er-do-weel_. Irish _dul_, going; _amudha_ [amoo], astray, to loss:--_dullamoo_, 'a person going to the bad,' 'going to the dogs.'

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Dundeen; a lump of bread without b.u.t.ter. (Derry.)

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

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

Dunt (sometimes _dunch_), to strike or b.u.t.t like a cow or goat with the head. A certain lame old man (of Armagh) was nicknamed 'Dunt the pad (path'). (Ulster.)

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

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

Duty owed by tenants to landlords, 181.

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

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

Elder; a cow's udder. All over Ireland. {254}

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

I haven't the _janius_ for work, For 'twas never the gift of the Bradys; But I'd make a most _elegant_ Turk, For I'm fond of tobacco and ladies.

(LEVER.)

'How is she [the sick girl] coming on?'

'Elegant,' was the reply. ('Knocknagow.')

Elementary schools, 159.

Exaggeration and redundancy, 120.

Existence, way of predicating, 23.

Eye of a bridge; the arch.

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

Ah Tam, ah Tam, thou'lt get thy fairin', In h.e.l.l they'll roast thee like a herrin'.

(BURNS.)

Fair-gurthra; 'hungry gra.s.s.' There is a legend all through Ireland that small patches of gra.s.s grow here and there on mountains; and if a person in walking along happens to tread on one of them he is instantly overpowered with hunger so as to {255} be quite unable to walk, and if help or food is not at hand he will sink down and perish. That persons are attacked and rendered helpless by sudden hunger on mountains in this manner is certain. Mr. Kinahan gives me an instance where he had to carry his companion, a boy, on his back a good distance to the nearest house: and Maxwell in 'Wild Sports of the West' gives others.

But he offers the natural explanation: that a person is liable to sink suddenly with hunger if he undertakes a hard mountain walk with a long interval after food. Irish _feur_, gra.s.s; _gorta_, hunger.

Fairy breeze. Sometimes on a summer evening you suddenly feel a very warm breeze: that is a band of fairies travelling from one fort to another; and people on such occasions usually utter a short prayer, not knowing whether the 'good people' are bent on doing good or evil. (G.

H. Kinahan.) Like the Shee-geeha, which see.

Fairy-thimble, the same as 'Lusmore,' which see.

Famished; distressed for want of something:--'I am famished for a smoke--for a gla.s.s,' &c.

Farbreaga; a scarecrow. Irish _fear_, a man: _breug_ falsehood: a false or pretended man.

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

Faumera [the _r_ has the slender sound]; a big strolling beggarman or idle fellow. From the Irish _Fomor_. The _Fomors_ or _Fomora_ or Fomorians were one of the mythical colonies that came to Ireland (see any of my Histories of Ireland, Index): some accounts represent them as giants. In Clare the country people that go to the seaside in summer for the benefit of the 'salt water' are {256} called _Faumeras_. In Tramore they are called _olishes_ [o long]; because in the morning before breakfast they go down to the strand and take a good _swig_ of the salt water--an essential part of the cure--and when one meets another he (or she) asks in Irish '_ar olish_,' 'did you drink?' In Kilkee the dogfish is called _Faumera_, for the dogfish is among the smaller fishes like what legend represents the Fomorians in Ireland.

Faustus, Dr., in Irish dialect, 60.

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

f.e.c.k or fack; a spade. From the very old Irish word, _fec_, same sound and meaning.

Fellestrum, the flagger (marsh plant). Irish _felestrom_. (South.)

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

Finane or Finaun; the white half-withered long gra.s.s found in marshy or wet land. Irish _finn_ or _fionn_, white, with the diminutive.

Finely and poorly are used to designate the two opposite states of an invalid. 'Well, Mrs. Lahy, how is she?' [Nora the poor sick little girl]. 'Finely, your reverence,' Honor replied (going on well). The old sinner Rody, having accidentally {257} shot himself, is asked how he is going on:--'Wisha, poorly, poorly' (badly). (G. Griffin.)

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

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

Flahoolagh, plentiful; 'You have a flahoolagh hand, Mrs. Lyons': 'Ah, we got a flahoolagh dinner and no mistake.' Irish _flaith_ [flah], a chief, and _amhail_ [ooal], like, with the adjectival termination _ach_: _flahoolagh_, 'chieftain-like.' For the old Irish chiefs kept open houses, with full and plenty--_launa-vaula_--for all who came.

(South.)

Flipper; an untidy man. (Limerick.)

Flitters; tatters, rags:--'His clothes were all in _flitters_.'

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

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

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

Fog-meal; a great meal or big feed: a harvest dinner. {258}