English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 29

Boghaleen; the same as Crusheen, which see.

Bohaun; a cabin or hut. Irish _both_ [boh], a hut, with the diminutive _an_.

Bold; applied to girls and boys in the sense of 'forward,' 'impudent.'

Boliaun, also called _booghalaun bwee_ and _ge[=o]sadaun_; the common yellow ragwort: all these are Irish words.

Bolting-hole; the second or backward entrance made by rats, mice, rabbits, &c., from their burrows, so that if attacked at the ordinary entrance, they can escape by this, which is always left unused except in case of attack. (Kinahan.)

Bones. If a person magnifies the importance of any matter and talks as if it were some great affair, the other will reply:--'Oh, you're _making great bones_ about it.'

Bonnive, a sucking-pig. Irish _banbh_, same sound and meaning. Often used with the diminutive--bonniveen, bonneen. 'Oh look at the _baby pigs_,' says an Irish lady one day in the hearing of others and myself, ashamed to use the Irish word. After that she always bore the nickname 'Baby pig':--'Oh, there's the Baby pig.'

Bonnyclabber; thick milk. Irish _bainne_ [bonny] milk; and _clabar_, anything thick or half liquid. 'In use all over America.' (Russell.)

Boochalawn bwee; ragweed: same as boliaun, which see.

{220} Boolanthroor; three men threshing together, instead of the usual two: striking always in time. Irish _buail-an-triur_, 'the striking of three.'

Booley as a noun; a temporary settlement in the gra.s.sy uplands where the people of the adjacent lowland village lived during the summer with their cattle, and milked them and made b.u.t.ter, returning in autumn--cattle and all--to their lowland farms to take up the crops.

Used as a verb also: _to booley_. See my 'Smaller Soc. Hist. of Anc.

Ireland,' p. 431; or 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 239.

Boolthaun, boulhaun, booltheen, boolshin: the striking part of a flail: from Irish _buail_ [bool], to strike, with the diminutive.

Boon in Ulster, same as _Mihul_ elsewhere; which see.

Boreen or bohereen, a narrow road. Irish _bothar_ [boher], a road, with the diminutive.

Borick; a small wooden ball used by boys in hurling or goaling, when the proper leather-covered ball is not to hand. Called in Ulster a _nag_ and also a _golley_. (Knowles.)

Borreen-brack, 'speckled cake,' speckled with currants and raisins, from Irish _bairghin_ [borreen], a cake, and _breac_ [brack], speckled: specially baked for Hallow-eve. Sometimes corruptly called _barm-brack_ or _barn-brack_.

Bosthoon: a flexible rod or whip made of a number of green rushes laid together and bound up with single rushes wound round and round. Made by boys in play--as I often made them. Hence '_bosthoon_' is applied contemptuously to a soft {221} worthless spiritless fellow, in much the same sense as _poltroon_.

Bother; merely the Irish word _bodhar_, deaf, used both as a noun and a verb in English (in the sense of deafening, annoying, troubling, perplexing, teasing): a person deaf or partially deaf is said to be _bothered_:--'Who should come in but _bothered_ Nancy Fay. Now be it known that _bothered_ signifies deaf; and Nancy was a little old cranky _bothered_ woman.' (Ir. Pen. Mag.) You 'turn the _bothered_ ear' to a person when you do not wish to hear what he says or grant his request.

In these applications _bother_ is universal in Ireland among all cla.s.ses--educated as well as uneducated: accordingly, as Murray notes, it was first brought into use by Irishmen, such as Sheridan, Swift, and Sterne; just as Irishmen of to-day are bringing into currency _galore_, _smithereens_, and many other Irish words. In its primary sense of deaf or to deafen, _bother_ is used in the oldest Irish doc.u.ments: thus in the Book of Leinster we have:--_Ro bodrais sind oc imradud do maic_, 'You have made us deaf (you have _bothered_ us) talking about your son'

(Kuno Meyer): and a similar expression is in use at the present day in the very common phrase 'don't _bother_ me' (don't deafen me, don't annoy me), which is an exact translation of the equally common Irish phrase _na bi am' bhodradh_. Those who derive _bother_ from the English _pother_ make a guess, and not a good one. See Bowraun.

Bottheen, a short thick stick or cudgel: the Irish _bata_ with the diminutive:--_baitin_.

Bottom; a clue or ball of thread. One of the tricks {222} of girls on Hallow-eve to find out the destined husband is to go out to the limekiln at night with a ball of yarn; throw in the ball still holding the thread; re-wind the thread, till it is suddenly stopped; call out 'who _howlds_ my bottom of yarn?' when she expects to hear the name of the young man she is to marry.

Bouchal or boochal, a boy: the Irish _buachaill_, same meaning.

Bouilly-bawn, white home-made bread of wheaten flour; often called _bully-bread_. (MacCall: Wexford.) From Irish _bul_ or _builidhe_, a loaf, and _ban_, white.

Boundhalaun, a plant with thick hollow stem with joints, of which boys make rude syringes. From Irish _banndal_ or _bannlamh_, a _bandle_ (which see), with the dim. termination _an_, I never saw true boundhalauns outside Munster.

Bourke, the Rev. Father, 71, 161.

Bownloch, a sore on the sole of the foot always at the edge: from _bonn_ the foot-sole [p.r.o.n. bown in the South], and _loch_ a mere termination. Also called a _Bine-lock_.

Bowraun, a sieve-shaped vessel for holding or measuring out corn, with the flat bottom made of dried sheepskin stretched tight; sometimes used as a rude tambourine, from which it gets the name _bowraun_; Irish _bodhur_ [p.r.o.n. bower here], deaf, from the _bothered_ or indistinct sound. (South.)

Bow [to rhyme with _cow_]; a _banshee_, a _fetch_ (both which see.

MacCall: South Leinster). This word has come down to us from very old times, for it preserves the memory of _Bugh_ [Boo], a _banshee_ or fairy queen once very celebrated, the daughter of {223} Bove Derg king of the Dedannans or faery-race, of whom information will be obtained in the cla.s.sical Irish story, 'The Fate of the Children of Lir,' the first in my 'Old Celtic Romances.' She has given her name to many hills all through Ireland. (See my 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 182, 183. See Bawshill.)

Box and dice; used to denote the whole lot: I'll send you all the books and ma.n.u.scripts, box and dice.

Boxty; same as the Limerick _muddly_, which see.

Boy. Every Irishman is a 'boy' till he is married, and indeed often long after. (Crofton Croker: 'Ir. Fairy Legends.')

Brablins: a crowd of children: a rabble. (Monaghan.)

Bracket; speckled: a 'bracket cow.' Ir. _breac_, speckled.

Braddach; given to mischief; roguish. Ir. _bradach_, a thief: in the same sense as when a mother says to her child, 'You young thief, stop that mischief.' Often applied to cows inclined to break down and cross fences. (Meath and Monaghan.)

Brander; a gridiron. (North.) From Eng. _brand_.

Brash; a turn of sickness (North.) Water-brash (Munster), severe acidity of the stomach with a flow of watery saliva from the mouth.

Brash (North), a short turn at churning, or at anything; a stroke of the churndash: 'Give the churn a few brashes.' In Donegal you will hear 'that's a good brash of hail.'

Brave; often used as an intensive:--'This is a brave fine day'; 'that's a brave big dog': (Ulster.) Also fine or admirable 'a brave stack of hay': {224} tall, strong, hearty (not necessarily brave in fighting):--'I have as brave a set of sons as you'd find in a day's walk.' 'How is your sick boy doing?' 'Oh bravely, thank you.'

Braw; fine, handsome: Ir. _breagh_, same sound and meanings. (Ulster.)

Break. You _break_ a gra.s.s field when you plough or dig it up for tillage. 'I'm going to break the kiln field.' ('Knocknagow.') Used all over Ireland: almost in the same sense as in Gray's Elegy:--'Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe _has broke_.'

Break; to dismiss from employment: 'Poor William O'Donnell was _broke_ last week.' This usage is derived from the Irish language; and a very old usage it is; for we read in the Brehon Laws:--'_Cid nod m-bris in fer-so a bo-airechus?_' 'What is it that breaks (dismisses, degrades) this man from his bo-aireship (i.e. from his position as _bo-aire_ or chief)?' My car-driver asked me one time:--'Can an inspector of National Schools be broke, sir?' By which he meant could he be dismissed at any time without any cause.

Breedoge [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _bathe_]; a figure dressed up to represent St. Brigit, which was carried about from house to house by a procession of boys and girls in the afternoon of the 31st Jan. (the eve of the saint's festival), to collect small money contributions. With this money they got up a little rustic evening party with a dance next day, 1st Feb. 'Breedoge' means 'little _Brighid_ or _Brighit_,' _Breed_ (or rather _Breedh_) representing the sound of Brighid, with _og_ the old diminutive feminine termination.

{225} Brecham, the straw collar put on a horse's or an a.s.s's neck: sometimes means the old-fashioned straw saddle or pillion. (Ulster.)

Brehon Law; the old native law of Ireland. A judge or a lawyer was called a 'brehon.'

Brew; a margin, a brink: 'that lake is too shallow to fish from the brews': from the Irish _bru_, same sound and meaning. See Broo.

Brief; prevalent: 'fever is very brief.' Used all over the southern half of Ireland. Perhaps a mistake for _rife_.

Brillauns or brill-yauns, applied to the poor articles of furniture in a peasant's cottage. d.i.c.k O'Brien and Mary Clancy are getting married as soon as they can gather up the few _brill-yauns_ of furniture.

(South-east of Ireland.)

Brine-oge; 'a young fellow full of fun and frolic.' (Carleton: Ulster.)

Bring: our peculiar use of this (for 'take') appears in such phrases as:--'he brought the cows to the field': 'he brought me to the theatre.' (Hayden and Hartog.) See Carry.