English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 54

Trice; to make an agreement or bargain. (Simmons: Armagh.)

Triheens; a pair of stockings with only the legs: the two feet cut off.

It is the Irish _troigh_ [thro], a foot, with the diminutive--_troighthin_ [triheen]. In Roscommon this word is applied to the handle of a loy or spade which has been broken and patched together again. (Connaught and Munster.) {344}

Trindle; the wheel of a wheelbarrow. (Morris for South Monaghan.)

Trinket; a small artificial channel for water: often across and under a road. (Simmons and Patterson: East Ulster.) See Linthern.

Turf; peat for fuel: used in this sense all over Ireland. We hardly ever use the word in the sense of 'Where heaves the _turf_ in many a mouldering heap.'

Turk; an ill-natured surly boorish fellow.

Twig; to understand, to discern, to catch the point:--'When I hinted at what I wanted, he twigged me at once.' Irish _tuig_ [twig], to understand.

Ubbabo; an exclamation of wonder or surprise;--'Ubbabo,' said the old woman, 'we'll soon see to that.' (Crofton Croker.)

Ullagone; an exclamation of sorrow; a name applied to any lamentation:--'So I sat down ... and began to sing the Ullagone.'

(Crofton Croker.) 'Mike was ullagoning all day after you left.'

(Irish.)

Ullilu; an interjection of sorrow equivalent to the English _alas_ or _alack and well-a-day_. (Irish.)

Unbe-knownst; unknown, secret. (De Vismes Kane for Monaghan: but used very generally.)

Under has its peculiar uses:--'She left the fish out under the cats, and the jam out under the children.' (Hayden and Hartog: for Dublin and its neighbourhood: but used also in the South.)

Under-board; 'the state of a corpse between death and interment.'

(Simmons: Armagh.) 'From the board laid on the breast of the corpse, with a plate of snuff and a Bible or Prayerbook laid on it.' (S. Scott, Derry.) {345}

Variety of Phrases, A, 185.

Venom, generally p.r.o.nounced _vinnom_; energy:--'He does his work with great venom.' An attempted translation from an Irish word that bears more than one meaning, and the wrong meaning is brought into English:--viz. _neim_ or _neimh_, literally _poison_, _venom_, but figuratively _fierceness_, _energy_. John O'Dugan writes in Irish (500 years ago):--_Ris gach ndruing do niad a neim_: 'against every tribe they [the Clann Ferrall] exert their _neim_' (literally their _poison_, but meaning their energy or bravery). So also the three sons of Fiacha are endowed _coisin neim_ 'with fierceness,' lit. with _poison_ or _venom_. (Silva Gadelica.) In an old Irish tale a lady looks with intense earnestness on a man she admires: in the Irish it is said 'She put _nimh a sul_ on him, literally the '_venom_ of her eyes,' meaning the keenest glance of her eyes.

Hence over a large part of Ireland, especially the South, you will hear: 'Ah, d.i.c.k is a splendid man to hire: he works with such _venom_.'

A countryman (Co. Wicklow), speaking of the new National Teacher:--'Indeed sir he's well enough, but for all that he hasn't the _vinnom_ of poor Mr. O'Brien:' i.e. he does not teach with such energy.

Very fond; when there is a long spell of rain, frost, &c., people say:--'It is very fond of the rain,' &c.

Voteen; a person who is a _devotee_ in religion: nearly always applied in derision to one who is excessively and ostentatiously devotional.

(General.)

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Wad; a wisp of straw or hay pressed tightly together. A broken pane in a window is often stuffed with a wad of straw. 'Careless and gay, like a wad in a window': old saying. (General.)

Walsh, Edward, 5, &c.

w.a.n.gle; the handful of straw a thatcher grasps in his left hand from time to time while thatching, twisted up tight at one end. By extension of meaning applied to a tall lanky weak young fellow. (Moran: middle eastern counties.)

w.a.n.grace; oatmeal gruel for sick persons. (Simmons: Armagh.)

Want; often used in Ulster in the following way:--'I asked d.i.c.k to come back to us, for we couldn't want him,' i.e. couldn't do without him.

Wap; a bundle of straw; as a verb, to make up straw into a bundle.

(Derry and Monaghan.)

Warrant; used all over Ireland in the following way--nearly always with _good_, _better_, or _best_, but sometimes with _bad_:--'You're a good warrant (a good hand) to play for us [at hurling] whenever we ax you.'

('Knocknagow.') 'She was a good warrant to give a poor fellow a meal when he wanted it': 'Father Patt gave me a tumbler of _rale_ stiff punch, and the divel a better warrant to make the same was within the province of Connaught.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')

Watch-pot; a person who sneaks into houses about meal times hoping to get a bit or to be asked to join.

Way. 'A dairyman's _way_, a labourer's _way_, means the privileges or perquisites which the dairyman or labourer gets, in addition to the main contract. A {347} _way_ might be grazing for a sheep, a patch of land for potatoes, &c.' (Healy: for Waterford.)

Wearables; articles of clothing. In Tipperary they call the old-fas.h.i.+oned wig 'Dwyer's wearable.'

Weather-blade, in Armagh, the same as 'Goureen-roe' in the South, which see.

Wee (North), weeny (South); little.

Well became. 'When Tom Cullen heard himself insulted by the master, well became him he up and defied him and told him he'd stay no longer in his house.' 'Well became' here expresses approval of Tom's action as being the correct and becoming thing to do. I said to little Patrick 'I don't like to give you any more sweets you're so near your dinner'; and well became him he up and said:--'Oh I get plenty of sweets at home before my dinner.' 'Well became Tom he paid the whole bill.'

Wersh, warsh, worsh; insipid, tasteless, needing salt or sugar.

(Simmons and Patterson: Ulster.)

Wet and dry; 'Tom gets a s.h.i.+lling a day, wet and dry'; i.e. constant work and constant pay in all weathers. (General.)

Whack: food, sustenance:--'He gets 2s. 6d. a day and his _whack_.'

Wha.s.sah or fa.s.sah; to feed cows in some unusual place, such as along a lane or road: to herd them in unfenced ground. The food so given is also called _wha.s.sah_. (Moran: for South Mon.) Irish _fasach_, a wilderness, any wild place.

Whatever; at any rate, anyway, anyhow: usually put in this sense at the end of a sentence:--'Although she can't speak on other days of {348} the week, she can speak on Friday, whatever.' ('Collegians.') 'Although you wouldn't take anything else, you'll drink this gla.s.s of milk, whatever.' (Munster.)

Curious, I find this very idiom in an English book recently published: 'Lord Tweedmouth. Notes and Recollections,' viz.:--'We could not cross the river [in Scotland], but he would go [across] _whatever_.' The writer evidently borrowed this from the English dialect of the Highlands, where they use _whatever_ exactly as we do. (William Black: 'A Princess of Thule.') In all these cases, whether Irish or Scotch, _whatever_ is a translation from the Gaelic _ar mhodh ar bith_ or some such phrase.

Wheeling. When a fellow went about flouris.h.i.+ng a cudgel and shouting out defiance to people to fight him--shouting for his faction, side, or district, he was said to be 'wheeling':--'Here's for Oola!' 'here's _three years_!' 'here's Lillis!' (Munster.) Sometimes called _hurrooing_. See 'Three-years-old.'

Wheen; a small number, a small quant.i.ty:--'I was working for a wheen o'

days': 'I'll eat a wheen of these gooseberries.' (Ulster.)

Whenever is generally used in Ulster for _when_:--'I was in town this morning and whenever I came home I found the calf dead in the stable.'

Which. When a person does not quite catch what another says, there is generally a query:--'eh?' 'what?' or 'what's that you say?' Our people often express this query by the single word 'which?' I knew a highly educated and highly {349} placed Dublin official who always so used the word. (General.)

Whipster; a bold forward romping impudent girl. (Ulster.) In Limerick it also conveys the idea of a girl inclined to _whip_ or steal things.