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“Hey bully, bring whiskey!”, Or About English words with Irish roots

Today is March 17, St. Patrick's Day - one of the most colorful holidays in the whole world. Millions of people wear green clothes and hats, enjoy drinking a Guiness mug or a Jameson glass, glorifying Irish culture.

To express our respect for this wonderful holiday, we picked up a series of words in English, the roots of which can be found in the Irish language. Go!




A bit of history: who is Saint Patrick at all?


Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. This is a very real historical figure. Patrick was elevated to the rank of saints for the Christianization of Ireland and his great contribution to the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons.

Strange, of course, but the patron saint of Ireland is not Irish himself. Even some natives are very surprised at this. He was born in Britain in the V century, in one of the raids of the Irish fell into slavery and was brought to Ireland. After 6 years, he fled from slavery and took refuge in a Christian monastery, where he studied theology for 12 years. Actually, it was Patrick who spread the influence of Christianity to Ireland, for which he is honored.



By the 7th century, Patrick’s personality was overgrown with a huge number of legends, which eventually turned into Irish folklore.

The parade for Patrick's Day is a traditional procession. The first parades in honor of the holiday began to be held back in the 9th century. The Irish praised Patrick, who brought them Christianity.

Now everyone has safely forgotten about the initial religious meaning of the holiday. So today is St. Patrick's Day - a tribute to Irish culture.

Enough about the story, let's take a look at the words with Irish roots.

Upload new words to your ED Words dictionary and learn them with pleasure. By the way, we give a whole month of premium subscription to the ED Words app for all Khabrovsk citizens as a gift. Enter the irishwords promotional code on this page or directly in the ED Words app .



Clock - Clock

The word “clock” entered the English language thanks to Irish missionaries who actively traveled to Britain.

“Clock” comes from the Celtic word “clocca”, which meant “bell”. Actually, this is exactly what the medieval clock looked like - a tower with a dial and a bell, which a person rang every hour.



By the way, the Celts actively used another word “clagan” to indicate the clock, which also means “bell”. And if the story turned a little differently, it is quite possible that we would call the “clagan” a device for measuring time.



Hooligan - Bully

Hooligans appeared in Britain in the 1970s, but the word for the designation itself was born in Ireland.

Actually, the word Hooligan itself was formed from the fairly common Irish surname Houlihan or O'Houlihan. And in English, it became popular and acquired the meaning of “bandit” or “rowdy” with the filing of the London writer Clarence Ruka.

In his novel Hooligan Nights, the main character was a thief and con man named Hooligan, who lived in a slum in London. The book became so popular that the word “Hooligan” turned from a surname into a household name, which meant a scandalous person and busoter.

But let's dig a little deeper. The surname O'Houlihan comes from the Goidel word “uaill”, which has a whole pool of meanings, among which are “pride”, “frivolous” and “scream”.

By the way, there is an interesting observation. In the Proto-Slavic language was the word “hula”, which in general also meant “scolding” and “screaming”. And although etymologically these words simply cannot be connected, the coincidence is really interesting.



Slogan - slogan, slogan

A slogan is a short phrase that a political party, company or group of people united by one aspiration considers to be its motto.

We will not touch on marketing, where the slogan is the second most important semantic message after the name of the project.

And let's touch on the etymology of the word. The Slogan dates back to the Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, which signified the battle cries of the Scottish and Irish clans during military campaigns and robberies.

If you look deeper, then “sluagh” denoted the restless spirits of the dead. After all, it was believed that the ancestors of the clan go into battle with his living representatives.

By the way, the English word “slaughter” (slaughter, massacre, murder, victim) also comes from the Irish “sluagh”. It turns out to be curious, because it turns out that “slogan” has common roots with “slaughter”.



Trousers - pants, trousers

There is a curious opinion that it was the Celts who invented the first pants. We don’t know whether it is true or not, but they definitely came up with the English name for the pants.

TriĂșs - this is what Celtic woolen pants were called. In the conditions of rather vile Irish winters it is no wonder that they were popular.



Initially, pants and their variations were also sometimes called the Latin word “braccae”, but “triĂșs” over time completely replaced the Latin definition, transforming into “trousers”.



Boycott - Boycott

Given the complex Irish history, it is not surprising that the word “boycott” appeared in Ireland.

At the end of the 19th century, the political organization Conradh na TalĂșn (Land League) fought for the rights of Irish farmers, including fair rents and the right to purchase land ownership.

The British landowner Charles Boycott did not agree to the demands of the League, because of which the Irish farmers refused to cultivate his land by a joint decision. The action reached such a level and spread so much that even the neighbors stopped talking to him, and the shops stopped selling him goods.

The British government had to send in the British to harvest, which made the harvest ten times more expensive than it should be. The action was successful because next year Boycott left Ireland forever.

And although the word is not truly Irish, it acquired its main meaning there. Later it was fixed in dozens of European languages, including Russian.



Banshee - Banshee

The Banshee is a mythological character and representative of Irish folklore, which has also become popular outside of Ireland.

In its original meaning, “banshee” is a fairy who takes care of the ancient birth. This is a kind of harbinger of death, because banshee appears only in the homes of those people who are destined to die in the coming days.



The word "banshee" comes from the Irish "bean sĂ­dhe", which means "woman from the side." Sid is an other world in which, according to the Irish and Scots, a completely different people lived. In modern culture and creativity, they are called elves.

, , . «seidhe» () «sídhe». . «seidhe» «», «sídhe» «».

, dh'oine () Gwynbleidd ( ) — :)

Interestingly, there are no analogues of banshee in the mythologies of other countries, and the prototype of the banshee dates back to ancient Celtic mythology, which existed long before Christianity.

However, in culture, the image of the banshee is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the gaming industry. One way or another, it is mentioned earlier in computer games such as World of Warcraft, Disciples II, Fable, Mass Effect, Heroes of Might and Magic V, League of Legend and many others.



Whiskey - Whiskey

Yes, the Irish not only know how to drive whiskey well, but they also took part in the creation of the word “whiskey” itself.

In general, serious debates flare up between the Scots and the Irish who invented whiskey as a drink. The name comes from "uisce beatha", which means "living water." It was also in Scottish Gaelic, but it sounded like "uisge beatha." Of the two pronunciation variants, it was Irish that took root.

By the way, there are 2 spellings of a word. "Whiskey" and "whiskey". And although they mean the same drink, their meanings are different.

Whiskey is a whiskey from Ireland or the USA.
Whiskey is a whiskey from Scotland or Canada.

And don't even try to figure out where the logic is here.

In fact, there are much more Irish words in English - about fifty only among the main vocabulary. There are about a thousand of them. But they are rarely used, so it is not necessary to study them. Get inspired by Irish culture and enjoy learning English!

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