Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor (57 page)

ladder:
Of stockings. Runner.

Lambeg drum:
Ulster. Massive bass drum carried on shoulder straps by Orangemen, and beaten with two sticks (sometimes until the drummer’s wrists bleed).

let on:
Acknowledge or pretend.

let the hare sit:
Leave the matter alone.

liltie/y:
Irish whirling dervish.

lime tree:
Deciduous tree known as linden or basswood in North America.

linnet:
A small passerine bird of the finch family. Much prized for its song of fast trills and twitters and popular as a caged pet.

Lord/Lady Muck from Clabber Hill:
Someone with a grossly inflated opinion of their own importance with a tendency to putting on airs and graces.

lorry:
Truck.

lose the bap:
Ulster. Bap (literally a small round loaf) means “head.” To lose it is to become violently angry.

lost his marleys:
Ulster. Literally “lost his marbles.” Gone mad.

lough:
Pronounced “lockh” as if clearing one’s throat. A sea inlet or large inland lake.

lug (thick as a bull’s):
Dublin. Ear. (Very “thick,” stupid.)

lummox:
Big, stupid creature.

marmalise:
Dublin. Cause great physical damage and pain.

measurements:
All measurements in ’30s Ireland were imperial. Of those mentioned here, one stone
=
fourteen pounds, 20 fluid ounces
=
one pint, one ounce
=
437.5 grains. It can be seen that 1/150th of a grain was a very tiny dose and required extreme accuracy in measuring.

midder:
Colloquial medical term for midwifery, the art and science of dealing with pregnancy and childbirth, now superseded medically by the term “obstetrics.”

mind:
Remember.

more power to your wheel:
Words of encouragement akin to “The very best of luck.”

mot/mott:
Dublin. Girlfriend. Wife. Girl. Made famous in an eighteenth-century street song composed by blind Zozimus, “The Twangman’s [toffee maker’s] Mott.”

mufti:
From the Arabic. Originally an Islamic scholar, adopted by the British Army to mean civilian dress.

muírnin
:
Irish. Darling.

nappies:
Diapers.

National Trust:
British charitable organisation that preserves sites of historical interest or of outstanding natural beauty.

never know the minute:
Totally unpredictable.

niff:
Offensive smell.

niggle/niggly:
To irritate/irritating.

night’s a pup:
The party’s just getting started.

no goat’s toe:
Ulster. Have a very high (usually misplaced) opinion of oneself.

no side taken:
Ulster. No offence taken.

not a patch on:
Nowhere nearly as good as.

not backward in coming forward:
Definitely not shy or afraid to offer an opinion.

nursing home:
Small private hospital or seniors’ home.

och:
Emotive multipurpose exclamation that can express anything from frustration, “Och, blether,” to admiration, “Och, isn’t the babby a wee dote?”

off-licence:
Liquor store.

old goat:
Usually a term of affection for an older man.

operating theatre:
Operating room, OR.

OTC:
Officers Training Corps, for reserve soldiers who were university undergraduates. Equivalent to the American ROTC.

oul hand:
Ulster. Old friend.

oul ones/wans:
Old ones, usually grandparents or a spouse. “Says my oul wan to your oul wan” is a line from the traditional song “The Waxies’ Dargle.”

oxter:
Ulster. Armpit.

Pac-a-mac:
Foldable cheap plastic raincoat usually carried in a small bag.

Paddy hat:
Soft narrow-brimmed tweed hat.

palaver:
Discussion.

paralytic:
Drunk. Paul Dickson in
Dickson’s Word Treasury
(John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1982) cites 2,660 euphemisms for “drunk.” Many have come from the Emerald Isle.

pavement:
Sidewalk.

Peeler:
Policeman. Named for the founder of the first organised police force in Great Britain, Sir Robert Peel, 1788–1846. These officers were known as “Bobbies” in England and “Peelers” in Ireland.

people’s bank:
Dublin. Pawnbroker.

petrified:
Terrified, or drunk.

piece:
Ulster. Slice of bread or sandwich, usually qualified by its condiment. See
jam piece.

pinkeen:
From the Irish
pincín,
technically a stickleback, but applied to any small fish usually of the carp family. In Newfoundland the term “sparny tickles” is used.

pint of plain:
Dublin. Guinness. This expression was made famous in a poem, “The Working Man’s Friend” by Flann O’Brien (Brian O’Nolan).

plaice:
Edible flatfish.
Pleuronectes platessa
of the
flounder
family.

plough the same furrow twice:
Repeat a task needlessly.

poitín
:
Pronounced “potcheen.” Moonshine. Illegally distilled spirits, usually from barley. Could be as strong as 180 proof (about 100 percent alcohol by volume).

porter:
A dark beer. It was brewed by Guinness until 1974 when it was replaced by its stronger relation, stout, which rather than being brewed from dark malts uses roasted malted barley called “patent malt.”

potato crisp:
Potato chip. In Ireland, French fries are chips. The first flavoured crisp (cheese and onion) was developed by the Irish company Tayto in 1954.

power or powerful:
Very strong or a lot.

punter:
Bettor.

put one in the stable:
Take the money in a pub for a drink to be taken later.

put out:
Annoyed.

quare:
Queer. Used to mean very, strange, or exceptional.

queer his pitch:
Ulster. Make trouble for someone.

quid:
Ulster. One pound, or a measure of chewing tobacco.

Raidió Éireann:
Irish State radio network.

rain:
Rain is a fact of life in Ireland. It’s why the country is the Emerald Isle. As the Inuit people of the Arctic have many words for snow, in Ulster the spectrum runs from
sound day
, fair weather, to
a grand soft day
, mizzling, also described as
that’s the rain that wets you
, to downpours of varying severity to include
coming down in sheets/stair-rods/torrents
, or
pelting, bucketing, plooting
(corruption of French
il pleut
), and the universal
raining cats and dogs
. If you visit, take an umbrella.

rashers:
Bacon slices from the back of the pig. They have a streaky tail and a lean eye.

red-biddy:
Cheap red wine.

ricked:
Hurt.

right:
Very.

rightly:
Perfectly well.

ruggy-up:
Dublin. Fight.

Saint John Ambulance Brigade:
A charitable organisation dedicated to teaching and providing first aid. In Ireland it is not closely associated with the Venerable Order of Saint John.

Saint Vincent de Paul:
An international Catholic organisation dedicated to fighting poverty and operational in Ireland since the mid-1800s. Their work in the tenements cannot be lauded sufficiently.

sarky:
Sarcastic.

scrip’:
Shortened form of “script.” Prescription.

scuttered:
Drunk.

scutting:
Dublin. Stealing a ride on a vehicle.

see you?:
Emphatic way of drawing attention to the person being addressed, usually before something derogatory is said.

shite/shit:
“Shite” is the noun (“He’s a right shite”) “shit” the verb (“I near shit a brick”).

shooting stick:
A walking stick which at its lower end had a conical spiked centre and a circular flange to prevent it sinking into the ground. The handles were two large wings which were folded up when it was used as a walking stick and folded out to become a seat when the user wanted to rest.

shout (my, his):
Turn to pay for a round of drinks.

shufti:
Word from Arabic meaning look-see. Brought back by UK servicemen during World War II.

sister (nursing):
In Ulster hospitals, nuns at one time filled important nursing roles. They no longer do so except in some Catholic institutions. Their honorific, “Sister,” has been retained to signify a senior nursing rank. Ward sister, charge nurse. Sister tutor, senior nursing teacher. (Now also obsolete because nursing is a university course.) In North America the old rank was charge nurse or head nurse, now nursing team leader unless it has been changed again since I retired.

skin (good):
Dublin. Decent person.

skate:
Flatfish of the family
Rajidae.

skivvie:
Housemaid of the lowest rank.

slagging:
Hurling of verbal abuse which can either be good-natured friendly banter or verbal chastisement.

Sláinte
:
Irish. Pronounced “Slawntuh.” Cheers. Here’s mud in your eye. Prosit.

snaffle:
A kind of bridle bit, or to steal.

sound (man):
Terrific (trustworthy, reliable, admirable man).

sticking out (a mile):
Ulster. Wonderful (the acme of perfection).

sticking plaster:
Medicated adhesive tape.

stocious:
Drunk.

stone:
See
measurements.

stoon:
Shooting pain.

stop the lights:
Dublin. Expression of utter amazement.

surgery:
Where a G.P. saw ambulatory patients. Equivalent to North American “office.” Specialists worked in “rooms.”

sweets/sweeties:
Candies.

take yourself off (by the hand):
Ulster. Run on, often kindly meant. (Don’t be so stupid, or go away, always unkindly meant).

targe:
Ulster. Very bad-tempered person.

taste (wee):
Ulster. Amount, and not necessarily of food (small amount). “That axle needs a wee taste of oil.”

ta-ta-ta-ra:
Dublin. Party.

tea:
An infusion made by pouring boiling water over
Camellia sinensis,
or the main evening meal. “I had a great steak for my tea.”

teetotally:
Nothing to do with abstenance from alcohol. A Belfast emphatic version of “totally.”

terrace:
Row housing, but not just for the working class. Some of the most expensive accomodations in Dublin are terraces in Merrion Square, akin to the terraces in New York’s Park Avenue.

the day:
Ulster. Today.

there now:
Ulster. At this moment.

thole:
Put up with. A reader, Miss D. Williams, wrote to me to say it was etymologically from the Old English
tholian,
to suffer. She remarked that her first encounter with the word was in a fourteenth-century prayer.

thon/thonder:
That/there.

thruppence:
Three pennies. Worth about five cents.

til:
To.

’til:
Until.

toilet:
Washroom.

townland:
Mediaeval administrative district encompassing a village and the surrounding farms.

traipsing:
Struggling to make a journey.

true on you:
Dublin. You are absolutely right.

uncle:
Dublin. Pawnbroker.