Gas
Funny, amusing, entertaining. Applied to a person, a story, or a situation: 'she's gas', 'it was a gas night out'. The Hiberno-English use works as both adjective and noun, often interchangeably within the same sentence.
Etymology
The noun 'gas' was coined in the 17th century by the chemist Van Helmont from Greek 'khaos'. By the 19th century English-speakers were using 'gas' colloquially of laughing-gas (nitrous oxide), and from there of any high-spirited fun. The leap from the chemical to the social sense travelled into Hiberno-English and settled there as both noun ('it was a gas') and adjective ('she's gas'), where it has stayed productive while standard English has largely moved on.
In a sentence
Tell us that story again - she's gas when she gets going. - a request for repetition
It was a gas night out, we didn't get home till four. - a Sunday morning recap
Historical notes
The noun use - 'what a gas' meaning 'what fun' - is shared with older British English. The adjectival use is the part that flags Hiberno-English to an outsider: an Englishman would say 'he's funny', not 'he's gas'. The construction handles both people and inanimate things with equal ease. Father Ted spread the usage internationally in the 1990s, but it was sitting comfortably in Irish kitchens and pubs long before that.
Sources
- Oxford English Dictionary, entry gas n. (informal sense: amusing person or thing, originally Hiberno-English). · dictionary
- Hickey, Raymond. Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge University Press, 2007. · academic
- Dolan, Terence Patrick. A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill Books. · dictionary