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Quare
Hiberno-English All-Ireland
Strange, unusual, or peculiar - but also, paradoxically, used as an intensifier meaning "very" or "extremely." A quintessentially Irish word that exists in the delightful space between description and emphasis, where the strange becomes the remarkable.
EXAMPLE USAGE
"It's a quare day out there - fierce wet and quare cold altogether."
ETYMOLOGY
From Middle English "queer," maintaining an older pronunciation still common in Ulster Scots and Hiberno-English dialects.
HISTORICAL NOTES
While "queer" evolved in modern English, "quare" preserved its original pronunciation and dual meaning in Irish dialects, becoming a linguistic fossil that speaks to the conservative nature of Irish English.
ALTERNATE SPELLINGS
queer (archaic)
RELATED WORDS
fiercepowerfuldesperate