Bockety
Unsteady on its legs, wobbly, about to fall over. A bockety chair has one leg shorter than the others; a bockety table rocks when you set down a glass. Applied to objects and (less often) to people in old age.
Etymology
From Irish 'bacaidí', itself from 'bacach' meaning lame. In Irish the adjective applies to a person with a limp; Hiberno-English took the same logic and ran it at furniture and carts, where it now lives. The vowel and consonant pattern is Irish-shaped, but the word is a fully English-language Hiberno-English form in everyday use.
In a sentence
"Don't sit on that one, it's gone bockety - the back leg's about to give."
Historical notes
Bockety is one of the small group of Hiberno-English adjectives that have no satisfying English equivalent. 'Wobbly' is too mild; 'rickety' has a connotation of age; 'broken' is too final. A bockety chair is fixable and is in active use - it just leans. The word's particular usefulness explains why it survives in Hiberno-English households where many other Irish-derived items have faded.
Alternate spellings
bockedy
Sources
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry bacach (the underlying Irish word). · dictionary
- Dolan, Terence Patrick. A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill Books. · dictionary