Plámás
Smooth talk. Flattery. The kind of charming, oily speech designed to get something from the listener - a favour, a sale, a vote. The plámás is the patter; a plámásaí is the person doing it; you do not necessarily trust either.
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman 'blanc-manger', the smooth white dish (now blancmange). Irish picked up the word for its texture-as-metaphor: smooth, easily-swallowed, possibly without much substance. The same semantic journey produced English 'flummery', which also drifted from a smooth dish to smooth speech. The Irish word means 'act of flattering; flattery; soft talk, cajolery'.
In a sentence
"That's all plámás - he's after the lend of the lawnmower again."
Historical notes
Plámás carries a fixed dose of suspicion in Hiberno-English. The word rarely describes innocent charm; it almost always implies the speaker is buttering the listener up for a reason. Cousin to the English 'soft soap' but with sharper edges, and cousin again to 'slieveen' in tone - the plámásaí and the slieveen are related social types, both willing to talk you out of a sensible position with style.
Alternate spellings
plamas
Sources
- Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill), entry plámás. · dictionary