English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 39

Gossip; a sponsor in baptism.

Goster; gossipy talk. Irish _gastair[)e]_, a prater, a chatterer.

'Dermot go 'long with your goster.' (Moore--in his youth.)

Gouloge; a stick with a little fork of two p.r.o.ngs at the end, for turning up hay, or holding down furze while cutting. (South.) Used in the North often in the form of _gollog_. Irish _gabhal_ [gowl], a fork, with the dim. _og_.

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

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

Gra, grah; love, fondness, liking. Irish _gradh_ {267} [graw]. 'I have great gra for poor Tom.' I asked an Irishman who had returned from America and settled down again here and did well:--'Why did you come back from America?' 'Ah,' he replied, 'I have great _gra_ for the old country.'

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

Graanoge, graan-yoge [_aa_ in both long like _a_ in _car_], a hedgehog.

Irish _graineog_, same sound.

Graans.h.a.ghaun [_aa_ long as in _car_]; wheat (in grain) boiled. (Joyce: Limerick.) In my early days what we called _graans.h.a.ghaun_ was wheat in grains, not boiled, but roasted in an iron pot held over the fire, the wheat being kept stirred till done.

Graffaun; a small axe with edge across like an adze for grubbing or _graffing_ land, i.e. rooting out furze and heath in preparation for tillage. Used all through the South. 'This was the word used in Co.

Cork law courts.' (Healy.) Irish _grafan_, same sound and meaning.

Graip or grape; a dung-fork with three or four p.r.o.ngs. Irish _grapa_.

Grammar and p.r.o.nunciation, 74.

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

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

Grawls; children. Paddy Corbett, thinking he is {268} ruined, says of his wife:--'G.o.d comfort poor Jillian and the grawls I left her.'

(Edward Walsh.) 'There's Judy and myself and the poor little grawls.'

(Crofton Croker: p. 155.)

Grawvar; loving, affectionate:--'That's a grawver poor boy.' (Munster.) Irish _gradhmhar_, same sound and meaning: from _gradh_, love.

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

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

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

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

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

Greet; to cry. 'Tommy was greetin' after his mother.' (Ulster.)

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

Griffin, Gerald, author of 'The Collegians,' 5, &c. {269}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Grue or grew; to turn from with disgust:--'He grued at the physic.'

(Ulster).

Grug; sitting on one's grug means sitting on the heels without touching the ground. (Munster.) Same as Scotch _hunkers_. 'Sit down on your grug and thank G.o.d for a seat.'

Grumagh or groomagh; gloomy, {270} ill-humoured:--'I met Bill this morning looking very _grumagh_.' (General.) From Irish _gruaim_ [_grooim_], gloom, ill-humour, with the usual suffix _-ach_, equivalent to English _-y_ as in _gloomy_.

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

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

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

Gubbalagh; a mouthful. (Munster.) Irish _goblach_, same sound and meaning. From _gob_, the mouth, with the termination _lach_.

Gullion; a sink-pool. (Ulster.)

Gulpin; a clownish uncouth fellow. (Ulster.)

Gulravage, gulravish; noisy boisterous play. (North-east Ulster.)

Gunk; a 'take in,' a 'sell'; as a verb, to 'take in,' to cheat.

(Ulster.)

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

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