Hurray. A rallying cry, especially in sporting and political contexts. Almost always after a proper noun: 'Up the Dubs, Mayo abú!' = 'Up Dublin, Mayo for the win!'. A condensed cheer rooted in Irish-language battle-cries.
An interjection expressing mild annoyance, resignation, dismissal, or affectionate scepticism. 'Ach, away with you.' 'Ach, sure I don't mind.' The throat-clearing 'ch' marks the speaker's Northern register; the meaning is in the tone.
Property, ownership - usually with a jocular or contemptuous edge. 'Whas acht's thon?' = whose property is that? (= what's-his-name's that?). The construction often serves to identify someone obliquely or to disclaim ownership.
Behaving foolishly. Messing about, usually with a hint of deliberate annoyance to the person watching. 'Stop acting the maggot' is the standard Hiberno-English instruction to a child or pretend-child who is fooling around. Less serious than 'misbehaving'; more pointed than 'horsing around'.
A fool, but a particular kind of fool: not stupid so much as foolishly behaved. The word carries no clinical weight; it is the everyday Irish term for someone who has just done something silly. Often used affectionately.
Am not. The Hiberno-English contraction of 'am not' that fills the gap left by standard English's missing first-person-singular negative contraction. 'Amn't I right?' = 'am I not right?' Distinct from the awkward standard English 'aren't I?' which uses the wrong person.
An interjection of mild disagreement, dismissal, or resigned acceptance. 'Arra, what would you know about it?' 'Arra, sure it doesn't matter.' Tone carries the meaning - the same word can mock, soothe, or shrug.
Old - but used in a particular Ulster Scots way that often softens or marks affection rather than literal age. 'An aul fella' = an old guy, or just a guy. 'An aul woman' = an old woman, or sometimes just an annoying one. Tone carries the actual age.
Yes. The standard Ulster Scots and Northern Irish word for yes. 'Aye, you're right.' 'Aye, sure.' As an emphatic full-clause response or as the first word of a longer sentence.
The mouth, or by extension the face. 'Houl yer bake' (= hold your bake) is the standard Ulster instruction to be quiet. 'Shut your bake' is firmer; 'put it in yer bake' is what's said when a parent has run out of patience offering food to a fussy child.
Broken, ruined, or beyond repair. Used of objects, plans, vehicles, and exhausted humans alike. The damage is generally final or close to it; a banjaxed thing is rarely worth fixing.
A woman or girl, often an attractive one. Used as a noun ('she's a beour') and increasingly in the wider Irish slang vocabulary. Carried into settled speech from Irish Traveller Cant (Shelta) and now heard across Cork, Limerick, and South Armagh.
A cigarette. Belfast and wider Ulster informal slang, shortened from the brand name 'Woodbine'. Also heard as 'feg' (the more common alternative). 'Bum a bine off you?' = can I have a cigarette?
A girl or young woman, in Tyrone informal speech. 'A wee blade' = a young girl. The word is specifically County Tyrone and rarely heard elsewhere in Ulster, let alone outside Northern Ireland.
A blister or small bubble. As a noun: 'a bleb on the back of his heel' = a blister. As a verb: to bubble up. The kind of thing you get from a new pair of boots or from holding a kettle too long against the skin.
To retch or vomit. Or, in milder use, to express disgust: 'that's gives me the boak' = that makes me feel sick (figuratively or literally). Used as verb or noun ('the boak').
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.
Wet, peaty land - the soft, marshy ground that covers significant areas of rural Ireland and Scotland. Also (informal) a toilet, with the connotation of basic and rural. The two senses do not confuse each other in context.
A person from the countryside, especially the deep rural one. Used by urban speakers, often pejoratively, sometimes affectionately. A close synonym for 'culchie' but with a stronger image: a culchie is rural, a bogger lives where the bog is.
Disgusting. Filthy. Awful. Used for things, places, and situations that the speaker finds unpleasant: a boggin' kitchen, a boggin' fish supper, a boggin' day at work. Adjective only, almost always with the apostrophe-truncated final 'g'.
Naughty, mischievous, badly behaved, especially of a child. Distinct from the standard English sense of brave or daring. An Irish parent calling a child bold is reprimanding, not praising. Used affectionately or seriously depending on tone.
A narrow rural lane, usually unpaved, often with a ridge of grass down the middle and hedgerows on both sides. Wide enough for a tractor and not much else. The road that gives directions like 'you'll know it when you see it.'
Hello, how are you? The standard Northern Irish informal greeting, contracted from 'what about ye?'. Not a question that expects an answer beyond a returned 'bout ye?' or 'grand, yourself?'. The greeting is the whole exchange.
A rough or unruly man, often drunk, usually a bit of a layabout. Pejorative but stops short of outright insult: a bowsie is a known type rather than a hated individual. Most often heard in working-class Dublin speech.
An overactive, overconfident person. The kind who throws themselves around at full enthusiasm and only thinks about consequences afterwards. Often pejorative but never seriously so - a bucklepper is exhausting rather than dangerous.
Free, extra, or got for nothing. Used as an adjective ('a buckshee pint') and a noun ('he was in for the buckshee'). Not Irish in origin, but absorbed into Irish use through British Army service before and after partition, and now common in everyday Irish slang.
The unemployment office, or by extension unemployment benefit itself. 'On the buroo' = unemployed and signing on. 'Down at the buroo' = at the employment office. Spelled buroo, bru, or brew; pronounced the same.
An old woman - usually with some affection but occasionally with edge. The word names age and a certain weathered character. Now archaic; heard most often in older Ulster speech, in dialect writing, and in fixed phrases.
Quarrelsome, irritable, crabbed in temper. The word for an old man who picks fights, a dog that snaps, a relative who can't be left alone in a room with strangers. Stronger than 'cranky', warmer than 'foul-tempered'.
Awful. Terrible. Used of an outcome, situation, or performance that has gone disastrously: 'the gig was cat melodeon' = the gig was awful. The image is of a cat playing a melodeon - a cacophonous noise made by a creature with no business at the instrument.
Cold. The Ulster Scots pronunciation of 'cold', written 'caul' to mark the dropped final 'd' and the vowel. 'It's caul out there' = it's cold outside. Used freely as an adjective; the noun 'a caul' (= a chill, a cold) is rarer.
A traditional Irish music-and-dance gathering. In its older sense, an informal evening visit by neighbours - 'going on a céilí' meant calling round for a chat. The dance-evening sense is the modern dominant use; the visiting sense survives in older rural speech.
Children. The plural form that standard English replaced with 'children'. Heard in older Ulster Scots and Northern English speech, now mostly preserved by older speakers and in dialect writing.
A child, especially in Dublin inner-city speech. Equivalent in everyday use to 'kid' or 'wean' but specifically Dublin in origin and register. Often affectionate; rarely formal.
Covered in something sticky and unpleasant - mud, food, paint, soup. A claggerd jumper has been wearing the contents of dinner; a claggerd dog has been in the bog. Always suggests the substance is hard to clean off.
A person - usually with a disparaging edge. 'A wudnae trust thon client' = I wouldn't trust that fellow. The word is used as a generic substitute for 'fellow', 'person', or 'character', with the speaker's tone marking the negative judgement.
To joke, to mess with someone playfully. As a verb: 'I'm only codding you' = I'm only joking. As a noun: a fool, or someone making a fool of themselves: 'he's making a right cod of himself.' Nothing to do with the fish.
A girl or young woman, especially an unmarried one. The anglicised form of Irish 'cailín'. Now a slightly old-fashioned word, found most often in song, in older fiction, and in the names of pubs and racehorses.
Shrewdness, common sense, street-wisdom. As a noun: 'he has no cop on'. As a verb: 'will you cop on and stop wasting your money'. The noun is closer to good judgement; the verb is closer to 'wise up'.
To tip over. To fall over. To overturn. A bucket cowps; a chair cowps; a person who trips and falls has cowped. Transitive and intransitive: 'he cowped the bucket' (he tipped it over), 'she cowped on the ice' (she fell).
A term of affectionate concern. Almost always in the construction 'the poor craitur' or 'the wee craitur' - applied to an animal, a child, an elderly person, or anyone the speaker is sorry for. Less a description than a small bestowal of sympathy.
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.
A cunning opportunist - someone who plays the system, exploits loopholes, and gets away with it without quite doing anything wrong. Almost always pejorative, occasionally spoken with rueful admiration. A fixture of Irish political and business commentary.
A slow, aimless, pleasurable walk - and the verb for taking one. Carries no destination and no haste; the dander is the point. Distinct from a hike, which has a goal, or a march, which has a pace.
Okay. Fine. No problem. The standard Belfast and Ulster phrase for casual agreement or confirmation. Also (of a person) sound, decent, reliable: 'he's dead on' = he's a decent fellow.
Crockery. Dishware. The plates, cups, and saucers in a kitchen press. The standard Hiberno-English word for what English elsewhere splits into 'china', 'crockery', 'dishes', or 'pottery'. Treated as uncountable: 'a load of delph', 'the good delph'.
The standard word for Satan, but in Hiberno-English it carries a particular workhorse role as the centrepiece of mild and not-so-mild curses. 'The devil a one' = none. 'The devil knows' = nobody knows. 'Devil take it' = damn it. The constructions outnumber the literal references.
Damp wet weather - mist, persistent drizzle, or rain that soaks slowly rather than pours. As a verb: to drench, to saturate. The adjective 'drawky' describes the kind of weather that does the soaking: damp, misty, sticky, the air itself wet.
A foolish or daft person - but never quite an insult. An eejit is doing something silly, not lacking intelligence. The word is almost always affectionate, often self-applied ('I was an eejit for not bringing a coat'), and is the standard Hiberno-English alternative to 'idiot'.
Welcome. Used both as a noun ('a fáilte was waiting for us') and as a greeting on its own. Almost universally encountered in the construction 'céad míle fáilte' - a hundred thousand welcomes - the standard Irish welcome-greeting now found on signs, pubs, and tourist boards.
Well done. Good on you. Fair play to you means I acknowledge what you've done and approve of it. Distinct from the standard English 'fair play' meaning equitable treatment - the Hiberno-English sense is admiration, not impartiality.
A mild Hiberno-English substitute for the stronger English expletive. As an interjection ('feck!'), as a verb ('feck off'), as an emphatic ('a fecking nuisance'). Distinct from the English word in two respects: it has no sexual connotation in Irish use, and it is far more acceptable in mixed and family company.
A man or boy. The masculine counterpart of beour. Used as a noun ('grand feen, that one') and across registers from neutral description to mild praise. Heard in Munster, South Armagh, and increasingly in general Irish slang.
A man, a guy, a bloke. The everyday Hiberno-English word for a male of any age. 'Your fella' = your boyfriend or husband; 'the fella over there' = the man in question. Distinct from 'guy' (American) and 'bloke' (British), with its own Norse-derived background.
In front of. Opposite. Facing. 'Fernenst the church' means right in front of the church, or directly opposite it. The preposition that English does without - 'in front of', 'opposite to', or 'over against' do the same work in three words rather than one.
Very, extremely - the bleached intensifier sense. 'Fierce cold today', 'he's fierce stubborn'. Sits in the wider Hiberno-English intensifier set with quare, powerful, wild, and desperate. The standard English meaning of savage still works; the intensifier is the Irish contribution.
Generous, open-handed - sometimes too much so. The word covers both unstinting hospitality and reckless extravagance: a flaithiúlach host is admirable, a flaithiúlach spender is a different matter. The judgement lives in the context.
To bustle about ineptly. To fidget at a task. To make a great show of doing something without making much progress. 'He's been foostering with the boiler for an hour and it's no warmer.' As a noun: a state of fussy bustle.
To fidget, fuss, mess about. To waste time at a task while looking busy. As a noun: a person who footers, or the action itself. A close relative of 'fooster' but with a more idle and aimless register: footering is what you do instead of getting on with things.
A townland in the south of County Armagh, in the Ring of Gullion, near Forkhill. The 'Otra' marks it as the lower of a paired set; its higher neighbour is Foughill Etra.
Bitterly cold. Chilled to the bone. The Ulster Scots adjective for a person who has been outside in raw weather and cannot get warm again. 'I'm foundered' means I am freezing, not (as standard English assumes) bewildered or shipwrecked.
An officially designated Irish-speaking area, where the Irish language is the everyday language of the community. Distinct from the Galltacht (the English-speaking rest of the country). Found mainly in Donegal, Mayo, Galway, and parts of Kerry, Cork, Waterford, and Meath.
A pair of braces - the straps that hold a man's trousers up from the shoulders. Always plural, always for a single pair, and now mostly unheard outside older speakers.
A jumper or pullover, especially a heavy knitted one. The word the standard English 'sweater' or 'jumper' replaces in Hiberno-English speech. Plural ganseys.
The Irish police. Singular 'a Garda'; plural 'the Gardaí'. The full title is 'Garda Síochána' - 'Guardians of the Peace'. Distinct from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which covers the six counties.
A boy, especially a young one in service - the errand-runner, the lad sent for the messages, the boy at the back of a shop. Affectionate in older usage; now lightly archaic but still in regular speech across the country.
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.
To stare openly, usually with too little subtlety - at a tourist, a celebrity, a fight in the chip shop. As a noun, an awkward person; one who gawks. Both senses were originally one word.
A laugh. A joke. A piece of fun, with the implication that the speakers had a good time. 'It was a geg' = it was funny and enjoyable. As a verb (to geg, geggin'): to joke around.
To scold, complain, grumble, or reprimand. Followed by 'to' (a person) or 'about' (a topic). 'Giving out to him' is telling him off; 'giving out about the weather' is complaining about it. A regular feature of Hiberno-English, not slang.
A narrow valley, often steep-sided and wooded, sometimes following a stream or river. The standard word for the small valleys of Ulster, north Donegal, and Scotland. Found in many place-names: Glenarm, Glendalough, Glencolumbkille.
The mouth, usually with the implication of mouth-as-noise-source. 'Shut your gob' = be quiet. 'Have a gob on him' = have a mouth on him, talk too much. Distinct from 'bake' (more Ulster) but functionally similar.
A loud-mouthed fool. Distinct from 'eejit' (affectionate) and 'amadán' (rueful): a gobshite is foolish in the noisy, opinionated way, the kind whose foolishness inflicts itself on others. The mouth, not the mind, is what the word names.
A small-scale lender at exploitative rates; by extension, any mean, corrupt, or underhanded operator - often a politician. As an adjective, 'gombeen' describes the practice or the politics: 'gombeen man', 'gombeen politics'.
Love, affection, deep regard. Borrowed straight from Irish 'grá' and used in English when the speaker wants the warmth of an Irish word for the feeling - 'she has a gra for the place' is fond and unmistakably Irish.
Fine. Satisfactory. All right. The Hiberno-English sense is a semantic narrowing of the standard English 'grand' (= magnificent); in Ireland it usually means something nearer to 'fine, thanks, no need to make a fuss.'
Private tuition. After-school or evening lessons paid for to bring a student's marks up, prepare for state exams, or fill gaps the school curriculum has left. Always plural in this sense: 'I'm going to grinds tonight' = I have a tutoring session.
Food. Informal. 'Time for some grub' = time to eat. Class- and age-portable across Ireland, with no fixed register. The word is shared with British informal English, but stays especially current in Hiberno-English.
A tough or unruly young man, particularly a Dublin one. Once a term of approval (a bosom friend, a fine fellow) in the 1930s and 40s; now mostly pejorative - a ruffian, a hooligan, a small-time tough. Range of register has narrowed over a century.
Plimsolls. Running shoes. Light rubber-soled shoes worn for PE in school or for casual wear. Always plural; the singular 'guttie' is rare. Now extending to mean trainers / sneakers in younger Ulster speech.
A rascal, a good-for-nothing, a layabout. Pejorative but not deeply so - a hallion is annoying rather than wicked. Often used affectionately about a relative who can't be relied on, or pointedly about a stranger behaving badly.
A mess, a botched job. Almost always in the idiom 'to make a hames of' something - to do it wrongly or to ruin it. 'He made a complete hames of the parking.'
A comic description of a very thin person - so thin from the front that a second eye would be unnecessary, since you could see the whole face with one. Used affectionately or with mild concern, never cruelly. Common variants substitute 'skinny' or 'thin' for 'narrow'.
A scolding, sharp-tongued woman. Almost always pejorative. The female counterpart of 'hallion', applied to a woman who is known for cutting words rather than peaceful neighbouring. Heard mostly in older Ulster speech.
To search through. To rummage. To dig around looking for something - in a drawer, a pocket, a handbag, a heap of papers. 'Hoaking through the cupboard' is a thorough domestic search.
A noisy party, a lively gathering, or an evening of traditional music and drink. Bigger than a get-together, friendlier than a do, more domestic than a rave. The kind of night where someone has the fiddle out by midnight.
Hold. The Ulster Scots pronunciation, written 'houl' to mark the dropped 'd' and the distinctive vowel. Used in imperatives ('houl on a minute', 'houl yer bake') and in narrative ('she houl'd the rope tight').
Spoken as confirmation, meant as refusal. 'I will, yeah' is the most-used sarcastic disagreement in Hiberno-English: a flat-toned, deliberate ironic agreement that means 'no, absolutely not'. Delivery carries the whole message - said with warmth it might mean yes, said dryly it never does.
A Dubliner - used by speakers from outside Dublin, almost always pejoratively. The country reciprocal of 'culchie': where Dublin sees the rest of the country as culchies, the rest of the country sees Dublin as jackeens.
The toilet, especially a public one. Always plural - 'the jacks' or 'the jacks is broken'. The everyday Hiberno-English word for the loo, used freely in conversation where 'toilet' would feel formal.
Physically exhausted, worn out by effort. In Hiberno-English the bodily sense dominates: 'I'm jaded after the walk' means tired in the legs, not weary of life. Distinct from the standard English sense of bored or world-weary, which Irish speakers reach for with 'fed up' or 'scunnered' instead.
To splatter or splash. A passing car japs mud up the back of your trousers; a poured drink japs onto the counter. Almost always for liquid or semi-liquid splash, never for a deliberate throwing.
To dodge, duck, or move quickly out of the way. To slip behind something to avoid being seen. 'Jouk in there' = duck into that doorway. As a quick action: 'he jouked round the corner.' Standard English 'dodge' is the nearest equivalent.
The traditional Irish ritual lament for the dead - a prolonged wailing, sung or chanted, at wakes and at the graveside. As a verb: 'she keened for her husband all the way home from the church'. As a noun: 'the keening went on through the night'.
Two senses, both alive. As a noun: a scruffy, run-down, or dirty place ('the flat's a kip'). Also a sleep, or a place to sleep ('I'm going for a kip'). As a verb: to sleep, especially temporarily or in someone else's house.
A narrow lane or unpaved track, typically running between fields or from a farm out to the road. The Ulster Scots word for a country path that doesn't quite warrant the name of road. Heard particularly in rural Antrim, Down, and Tyrone.
An unspecified amount, used to mean 'a few' or 'some'. Almost always in the construction 'a lock'a [thing]' - 'a lock'a sheep', 'a lock'a years ago', 'a lock'a money'. Functionally close to 'wheen' but with a slightly larger implied quantity.
A lake or long sea inlet, the Irish equivalent of Scottish 'loch'. Used both as a common noun and as the standard place-name element for inland and coastal waters across the island.
A fool. A lazy or idle person who has done something silly. Stronger than 'eejit' and gentler than 'gobshite' - a lúdramán is a known idle character, not a person who has made an honest mistake. Almost always used affectionately or in mock-exasperation.
An ear. Plain everyday Ulster Scots usage. Heard in fixed phrases - 'a clip round the lug', 'keep an ear to the lug-hole' - and as a working noun. Standard 'ear' coexists; lug carries more bodily directness.
Nonsense. Foolish talk. Carry-on that the speaker does not believe and does not intend to engage with. 'Don't give me that malarky' = stop talking rubbish. Often spelled 'malarkey'; both forms current.
A cooperative work party - especially one gathered to help a neighbour with a task too big for one family: cutting turf, bringing in hay, repairing a roof. The system of mutual unpaid rural labour that ran Irish farming life into the mid-twentieth century. Now also a metaphor for any community effort.
Groceries; shopping. Always plural. 'Going for the messages' or 'doing the messages' is going to the shop for the weekly food. Used freely across Ireland and Scotland; almost unintelligible elsewhere in the form.
To remember or recall. Used transitively ('I can't mind his name') and intransitively ('do you mind the time we...'). A Scots and Ulster Scots survival that does not match standard English 'mind' (to look after, to be careful).
Take care; look after yourself. The standard Hiberno-English farewell, replacing goodbye in most spoken contexts. Built on the older sense of 'mind' as 'to attend to' - a meaning Hiberno-English kept while the wider language narrowed it.
Soft drinks. Fizzy drinks. The standard Hiberno-English word for what Britain calls 'fizzy drinks' or 'pop' and America calls 'soda'. Always plural in this sense: 'a few minerals for the kids', 'the minerals are in the fridge'.
To play truant from school. 'To mitch off' or 'to go on the mitch' - both mean the same thing. The mitcher is the one doing it; the act is the mitch. A Hiberno-English survival of a Middle English word that has dropped out of most other Englishes.
Girlfriend. Almost always 'the mot' or 'me mot'. A working Dublin word for a woman one is going out with, neutral in register and used freely by speakers of both sexes about each other and about others.
A fit of sulks, low spirits, or bad temper. Always with 'the' ('she has the mulligrubs'). In older usage also a vague stomach complaint or colic. In South Armagh, used for a general sense of distaste or being put-off, close to the modern English 'the ick'.
Great, lovely, very attractive. Belfast informal slang of approval, applied to anything good - a meal, a piece of music, a person, a result. Stronger than 'nice', shorter than 'cracking'.
An interjection of mild emphasis or affectionate sympathy. 'Musha, it's a long road.' 'Musha, isn't it the truth.' Closer to 'indeed' or 'oh' than to a dismissive 'arra'. Often heard at the start of a sentence delivering a small confidence.
A piece of country advice: don't undervalue an old friend just because they're familiar, aged, or have been around forever. Used as a soft rebuke or as gentle counsel, depending on the speaker. The shorter form 'never despise an old friend' is a known Irish traditional tune title.
Deferred indefinitely; shelved without being formally cancelled. To put something on the long finger is to acknowledge it needs doing while removing it from the immediate workload. The phrase is the standard Hiberno-English way to describe a polite postponement.
The armpit, plain and simple - and, by easy extension, the act of carrying something tucked under the arm or supporting a person under it: 'she was oxtering him home.'
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.
An ice-cream cone - the conical wafer plus the scoop or scoops of ice cream on top. Also (older) a bag or sack, in the sense preserved in the English idiom 'a pig in a poke'. In Ulster the ice-cream sense is the dominant one in modern speech.
Illicit homemade Irish whiskey, distilled from potatoes, grain, or whey, usually in remote rural locations and almost always at illegal strength. Now also produced legally as a branded spirit. The historical product was small-scale, untaxed, and famously variable in quality.
A cupboard - especially a built-in one in a kitchen or hallway. The standard Hiberno-English word for what English elsewhere calls a cupboard, closet, or wardrobe. 'The hot press' is the airing cupboard; 'the linen press' is for sheets and towels.
A pretence. An act. The kind of performance that the speaker can see through. 'Thon foofin an greetin wuz al a put-on' = the fussing and crying was all an act. The construction is hyphenated as a single noun: 'a put-on'.
Strange, unusual, or peculiar - and, by a delicious twist, an intensifier meaning very or extremely. A word that holds two opposing senses at once and trusts the listener to know which is meant.
A lot. An unspecified large quantity, almost always in the construction 'a rake of [thing]'. 'A rake of pints', 'a rake of cars', 'a rake of trouble'. The implied quantity is more than several and less than a multitude; precision is the speaker's affair, not the listener's.
Mad, wild, or out of hand. Carries either approval ('the wedding was rulya') or alarm ('your man's gone rulya') depending on context. A strongly local South Armagh and Crossmaglen intensifier, increasingly recognised in wider Ulster slang.
Trainers. Sneakers. Sports shoes worn outside actual sport. The standard southern Irish word for what Britain calls trainers, America calls sneakers, and Ulster calls gutties. Always plural; never 'a runner' in this sense.
Tan-coloured. Of skin: olive or warm-toned rather than pale. In Hiberno-English the word describes a complexion neutrally - someone is sallow rather than pale or fair. The standard English connotation of sickly or yellowish does not carry in Irish use.
Acutely embarrassed; mortified - on one's own behalf or, distinctively, on someone else's. Where standard English uses 'scarlet with shame' as a stage direction, Hiberno-English drops the prepositional phrase and lets the colour do the whole job.
A scratch, a scrape, or a thin line dragged across a surface. As a verb: to scratch or claw. 'The cat gave him a scrawb on the cheek' = the cat scratched him; 'mind you don't scrawb the table' = mind you don't scratch it.
To disgust, annoy, or sicken - and the feeling itself. As a verb: 'he scunners me'. As a noun: 'I've taken a scunner to him'. The Ulster pronunciation /ˈskʌndər/ adds a 'd'; the standard Scots is without.
A high compliment for a capable, formidable, or impressive woman - someone who, the construction suggests, contains more than the ordinary measure of one person. Used in admiration, occasionally with a hint of awe. The masculine equivalent, 'some man for one man', exists but is less common.
A narrow open drain or ditch, especially a wet one running between fields. Both noun and verb. Comes laden with rural specificity: the rough working trench at the edge of a meadow, dug by hand or by plough.
An Irishman who imitates English ways, looks down on his own country, and seeks inclusion in English society - real or imagined. Pejorative throughout its history. The word marks a specific type of social-climbing that the speaker disapproves of.
The local newsagent and small grocer combined. 'Going to the shops' means stepping out to the nearest one, often without further specification. Treated as a collective even when one shop is meant: 'I'm just running to the shops' may mean a single small premises.
A street drain or gutter, especially the open one beside the kerb. Distinct from the standard 'shore' meaning sea-edge. 'The shore was blocked' = the gutter was clogged. Heard mostly in Ulster and parts of Scotland.
To splatter, splash, or shoot something forcefully. A drink can skite over the rim of a glass; mud skites up off a passing car. Also: to move at speed - 'he skited round the corner'. The noun 'skitter' means diarrhoea, with the same Norse-origin imagery.
A noisy, slack-mouthed talker - someone whose chatter is loud, mostly empty, and hard to switch off. Also a verb: to drool, to dribble, or to talk nonsense at length. The bodily and verbal senses share the same logic.
The standard Irish toast: 'health!' or 'cheers!' Said when glasses meet. Also the everyday Irish noun for health itself - so 'do sláinte' is 'your health', and 'sláinte poiblí' is public health.
A great amount. A large indeterminate quantity, usually of people or things. 'A slew of cousins', 'a slew of emails', 'a slew of complaints'. The implied quantity is more than 'a few' and more than 'a wheen' - a slew is conspicuously many.
A pre-sliced loaf of pan bread - the standard everyday white loaf in Irish bread aisles. 'Pan' here is the rectangular tin shape of the bread, not the cooking vessel. Almost always heard as the full phrase 'a sliced pan'.
A sly, untrustworthy person who operates by smoothness rather than force - all warm handshakes and quiet betrayals. The slieveen is not a thug; he's the one who would tell on you with a smile.
A small amount, a tiny piece. 'Just a smidgen of butter on the bread' is a measured amount, smaller than 'a bit' and larger than 'a trace'. The diminutive is the point: smidgens are by definition modest.
Tiny fragments, splinters, broken bits. Almost always in the construction 'blown to smithereens', 'smashed to smithereens', or 'gone to smithereens'. The plural is non-negotiable; one smithereen is rare and feels wrong.
To snap off, to lop off, to break off a small piece. 'Snig a bit off the bread for me' = break off a piece. Often used for branches, bread, twigs, or anything that needs a quick clean break.
A grey, drizzly, mild day. Not actively raining but not dry either. The default weather of much of the Irish year, named with a hint of resignation and a hint of affection. Often said in greeting: 'a soft day, thank God.'
Decent, reliable, good. Used as an adjective for a person of generally trustworthy character ('he's a sound fella') and, more distinctively, as a single-word reply meaning thanks, no bother, or that's grand. Distinct from the standard English senses (a sound argument, a sound sleep).
Dust. Especially the dry, fine, lifted-by-wind kind found on country roads, in old houses, and after a bag of cement has been opened. 'A cloud of stour' is what an unmade road throws up behind a car.
Now making real progress; finally hitting one's stride. Almost always preceded by 'now we're': the phrase marks the moment when the thing being attempted starts running cleanly, as a tractor does when its engine is properly fuelled.
Tea. The Ulster Scots pronunciation of the same word, preserved in writing as 'tae' to mark the distinctive vowel. Also (by extension) the evening meal: 'come round for your tae' = come for dinner.
A sharp-tongued woman, often older. Heard in Ulster and Scots speech for a woman with a reputation for cutting remarks. Pejorative but with a slight admiring edge: a targe gets what she wants, even if everyone wishes she'd ask more nicely.
The dread that descends after a night's drinking: shame, anxiety, half-recalled embarrassments, and the certainty that everyone present saw or heard whatever you cannot quite remember saying. Always with the definite article - you have 'the fear', not just 'fear'. Most common in younger Irish slang since the early 2000s.
Today. The Ulster Scots construction that places the definite article before 'day' (and equivalently before 'night' and 'morrow') to mean today, tonight, tomorrow. 'I'll see you the day' = I'll see you today.
A multi-purpose closing or hand-over phrase. Said when passing something across a counter, finishing a small task, or politely concluding a piece of news. Less an answer than a soft full stop on the conversation.
That, over there. A third demonstrative beyond 'this' and 'that', marking something further away or more pointedly identified. 'Thon man' is more specific than 'that man'; 'thon house' is the house we are both looking at, distant from us both.
Over there - especially something distant but still visible. 'Thonder's the church' = there's the church (some way off but pointable to). The adverb pair to the demonstrative 'thon': if thon is 'that one', thonder is 'over there'.
Disorganised. Confused. Mixed up. A throughother house is one where nothing is in its place; a throughother day has too much going on at once. Applied to people, places, and situations. Compound form: literally 'through-other', everything mixed through everything else.
To. As a preposition in Ulster Scots, used where standard English uses 'to': 'I'm going til the shop', 'gie it til me', 'come til my house'. The Norse-origin alternative to 'to', still in current Ulster Scots speech.
With. Also: because of, on account of. 'A couldnae get wae the snaw' = I couldn't get there because of the snow. The preposition does double duty in Ulster Scots speech, marking both accompaniment ('with') and cause ('because of').
An unpleasant or obnoxious woman. Strictly pejorative. Distinct entirely from the vehicle sense: in Hiberno-English the noun 'wagon' applied to a person carries no other meaning. Almost always preceded by 'the' or 'an aul' (= an old) - 'the wagon', 'an aul wagon'.
A child, particularly a young one. Always used as a noun ('the wean is asleep'); plural 'weans' or 'weans'. Distinct from English 'child' and softer than 'kid'. The standard everyday word in Ulster Scots for any pre-adolescent.
Small, little - but also the universal Northern softener. 'A wee cup of tea' isn't necessarily a smaller cup of tea; it's a polite cup of tea. The word can shrink a noun, mark intimacy, soften a request, or do all three at once.
To make the tea. To pour boiling water over the tea leaves in the pot. The Hiberno-English standard phrase for the act of brewing tea, distinct from the standard English 'put the kettle on' (which is the earlier preparatory step).
Excellent. Brilliant. The standard Belfast superlative for something that has gone very well: a wheeker night, a wheeker goal, a wheeker idea. The Northern Irish equivalent of 'cracking' or 'brilliant', with a particular Belfast flavour.
A few, several - or, depending on the speaker, quite a lot. Almost always in the construction 'a wheen of [thing]'. 'A wheen of pints' is more than two and probably fewer than ten; the exact number is the listener's problem.
Be quiet. As an interjection ('whisht!'), a verb (to silence, or to remain silent), and a noun ('hold your whisht'). Older than 'shush' and quieter in tone. Often used softly to children or to settle a room before someone speaks.
Awful. Terrible. Used as a strong informal negative judgement: a wojus meal, a wojus day, a wojus film. Also used as an interjection: 'Oh, wojus!' = oh no, oh dear. Distinctly Irish in tone.
You - especially the plural 'you', though heard in Ulster and rural Hiberno-English for the singular too. The older English second-person pronoun that standard English collapsed into 'you'. Heard in church readings, song lyrics, dialect writing, and ordinary speech in parts of Ireland and Ulster.
A Munster interjection meaning roughly 'oh well', 'sure now', 'I don't know'. Used to introduce a comment whose substance the speaker is not quite committing to: 'Yerra, who knows.' 'Yerra, it might happen yet.'
Any object whose name escapes the speaker - a contraption, a gadget, a doohickey. Also used of a person: an awful yoke is an awful one. Versatile and rural in feel.
A vague third-person reference to a man: the one being discussed, the one over there, the one we both know. The possessive 'your' is purely grammatical, not literal - 'your man' is not anybody's. The female equivalent is 'your one'.
A way of referring to a specific female person without naming her, usually previously identified or visible to both speakers. The female counterpart of 'your man'. Often shortened to 'yer wan' in casual speech.
You, plural. The Hiberno-English fix for the gap left when standard English collapsed singular 'thou' and plural 'ye' into a single 'you'. 'Are yous coming for a drink?' = are you-plural coming. Also written 'youse' or 'youze'.