Culchie
A person from rural Ireland, used by Dublin and other urban speakers. Range from affectionate (a friend home for the weekend) to pointed (a tourist board's worst nightmare). Used by Dubliners more than by anyone else, and used about rural people more than to them.
Etymology
Origin contested. Three theories compete: (i) from Kiltimagh, a town in Co. Mayo often used as the urban shorthand for somewhere very rural; (ii) from Irish 'coillte' (woods), with the suffix-modified slang form; (iii) the most popular folk etymology, that it is 'agricultural' clipped to 'culch' plus the Irish-flavoured diminutive '-ie'.
In a sentence
"He's a complete culchie - cattle in his Twitter bio and everything."
Historical notes
Culchie is Dublin's word for everyone outside the M50. Its range covers everything from gentle banter (the GAA player from Roscommon) to pointed insult (someone deemed unsophisticated). The rural reciprocal is 'jackeen' - the Dublin slang for a Dubliner, used by culchies. The two words sit in mutual definition: each pole of Irish urban-rural difference has named the other, and neither name is wholly polite.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry culchie n. · dictionary
- Dolan, Terence Patrick. A Dictionary of Hiberno-English, 2nd ed. (2004), page 70. · dictionary