Lost Words
Words that have slipped out of daily use - kept here in case anyone wants them back.
Amn't
/ˈæmənt/ · verb (contraction)
Am not. The Hiberno-English contraction of 'am not' that fills the gap left by standard English's missing first-person-singular negative contraction. 'Amn't I right?' = 'am I not right?' Distinct from the awkward standard English 'aren't I?' which uses the wrong person.
Read definition →Aul
/ɔːl/ · adj.
Old - but used in a particular Ulster Scots way that often softens or marks affection rather than literal age. 'An aul fella' = an old guy, or just a guy. 'An aul woman' = an old woman, or sometimes just an annoying one. Tone carries the actual age.
Read definition →Aye
/aɪ/ · interj., adv.
Yes. The standard Ulster Scots and Northern Irish word for yes. 'Aye, you're right.' 'Aye, sure.' As an emphatic full-clause response or as the first word of a longer sentence.
Read definition →Childer
/ˈtʃɪldər/ · n., plural
Children. The plural form that standard English replaced with 'children'. Heard in older Ulster Scots and Northern English speech, now mostly preserved by older speakers and in dialect writing.
Read definition →Craitur
/ˈkreɪtər/ · n.
A term of affectionate concern. Almost always in the construction 'the poor craitur' or 'the wee craitur' - applied to an animal, a child, an elderly person, or anyone the speaker is sorry for. Less a description than a small bestowal of sympathy.
Read definition →Delph
/dɛlf/ · n.
Crockery. Dishware. The plates, cups, and saucers in a kitchen press. The standard Hiberno-English word for what English elsewhere splits into 'china', 'crockery', 'dishes', or 'pottery'. Treated as uncountable: 'a load of delph', 'the good delph'.
Read definition →Devil
/ˈdɛvəl/ · noun (in fixed phrases)
The standard word for Satan, but in Hiberno-English it carries a particular workhorse role as the centrepiece of mild and not-so-mild curses. 'The devil a one' = none. 'The devil knows' = nobody knows. 'Devil take it' = damn it. The constructions outnumber the literal references.
Read definition →Galluses
/ˈɡɑləsɪz/ · n., plural
A pair of braces - the straps that hold a man's trousers up from the shoulders. Always plural, always for a single pair, and now mostly unheard outside older speakers.
Read definition →Grinds
/ɡraɪndz/ · n., plural
Private tuition. After-school or evening lessons paid for to bring a student's marks up, prepare for state exams, or fill gaps the school curriculum has left. Always plural in this sense: 'I'm going to grinds tonight' = I have a tutoring session.
Read definition →Hames
/heɪmz/ · n.
A mess, a botched job. Almost always in the idiom 'to make a hames of' something - to do it wrongly or to ruin it. 'He made a complete hames of the parking.'
Read definition →Jacks
/dʒæks/ · n., plural
The toilet, especially a public one. Always plural - 'the jacks' or 'the jacks is broken'. The everyday Hiberno-English word for the loo, used freely in conversation where 'toilet' would feel formal.
Read definition →Messages
/ˈmɛsɪdʒɪz/ · n., plural
Groceries; shopping. Always plural. 'Going for the messages' or 'doing the messages' is going to the shop for the weekly food. Used freely across Ireland and Scotland; almost unintelligible elsewhere in the form.
Read definition →Mind
/maɪnd/ · v.
To remember or recall. Used transitively ('I can't mind his name') and intransitively ('do you mind the time we...'). A Scots and Ulster Scots survival that does not match standard English 'mind' (to look after, to be careful).
Read definition →Mitch
/mɪtʃ/ · v.
To play truant from school. 'To mitch off' or 'to go on the mitch' - both mean the same thing. The mitcher is the one doing it; the act is the mitch. A Hiberno-English survival of a Middle English word that has dropped out of most other Englishes.
Read definition →Mulligrubs
/ˈmʌlɪɡrʌbz/ · n., plural
A fit of sulks, low spirits, or bad temper. Always with 'the' ('she has the mulligrubs'). In older usage also a vague stomach complaint or colic. In South Armagh, used for a general sense of distaste or being put-off, close to the modern English 'the ick'.
Read definition →Press
/prɛs/ · n.
A cupboard - especially a built-in one in a kitchen or hallway. The standard Hiberno-English word for what English elsewhere calls a cupboard, closet, or wardrobe. 'The hot press' is the airing cupboard; 'the linen press' is for sheets and towels.
Read definition →Stour
/staʊər/ · n.
Dust. Especially the dry, fine, lifted-by-wind kind found on country roads, in old houses, and after a bag of cement has been opened. 'A cloud of stour' is what an unmade road throws up behind a car.
Read definition →Throughother
/ˈθruːˌʌðər/ · adj.
Disorganised. Confused. Mixed up. A throughother house is one where nothing is in its place; a throughother day has too much going on at once. Applied to people, places, and situations. Compound form: literally 'through-other', everything mixed through everything else.
Read definition →Whisht
/ʍɪʃt/ · interj., v., n.
Be quiet. As an interjection ('whisht!'), a verb (to silence, or to remain silent), and a noun ('hold your whisht'). Older than 'shush' and quieter in tone. Often used softly to children or to settle a room before someone speaks.
Read definition →Ye
/jiː/ · pron.
You - especially the plural 'you', though heard in Ulster and rural Hiberno-English for the singular too. The older English second-person pronoun that standard English collapsed into 'you'. Heard in church readings, song lyrics, dialect writing, and ordinary speech in parts of Ireland and Ulster.
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