English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 32

Clabber, clobber, or clawber; mud: thick milk. See Bonnyclabber.

Clamp; a small rick of turf, built up regularly. (All through Ireland.)

Clamper; a dispute, a wrangle. (Munster.) Irish _clampar_, same meaning.

Clarsha; a lazy woman. (Morris: South Monaghan.)

Clart; an untidy dirty woman, especially in preparing food. (Simmons: Armagh.)

Clash, to carry tales: Clashbag, a tale-bearer. (Simmons: Armagh.)

Cla.s.sy; a drain running through a byre or stable-yard. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irish _clais_, a trench, with the diminutive _y_ added.

Clat; a slovenly untidy person; dirt, clay: 'wash the _clat_ off your hands': clatty; slovenly, untidy--(Ulster): called _clotty_ in Kildare;--a slattern.

Clatch; a brood of chickens. (Ulster.) See Clutch.

Cleean [2-syll.]; a relation by marriage--such as a father-in-law. Two persons so related are _cleeans_. Irish _cliamhan_, same sound and meaning.

Cleever; one who deals in poultry; because he carries them in a _cleeve_ or large wicker basket. (Morris: South Monaghan.) Irish _cliabh_ [cleeve], a basket.

Cleevaun; a cradle: also a crib or cage for catching birds. The diminutive of Irish _cliabh_ or cleeve, a wicker basket.

Clegg; a horsefly. (Ulster and Carlow.)

Clehalpeen; a shillelah or cudgel with a k.n.o.b at the end. (South.) From Irish _cleath_, a wattle, and _ailpin_ dim. of _alp_, a k.n.o.b. {236}

Clever is applied to a man who is tall, straight, and well made.

Clevvy; three or four shelves one over another in a wall: a sort of small open cupboard like a dresser. (All over the South.)

Clibbin, clibbeen; a young colt. (Donegal.) Irish _clibin_, same sound and meaning.

Clibbock; a young horse. (Derry.)

Clift; a light-headed person, easily roused and rendered foolishly excited. (Ulster.)

Clipe-clash: a tell-tale. (Ulster.) See Clash.

Clochaun, clochan; a row of stepping-stones across a river. (General.) From Irish _cloch_, a stone, with the diminutive _an_.

Clock; a black beetle. (South.)

Clocking hen; a hen hatching. (General.) From the sound or _clock_ she utters.

Clooracaun or cluracaun, another name for a leprachaun, which see.

Close; applied to a day means simply warm:--'This is a very close day.'

Clout; a blow with the hand or with anything. Also a piece of cloth, a rag, commonly used in the diminutive form in Munster--_cloutheen_.

_Cloutheens_ is specially applied to little rags used with an infant.

_Clout_ is also applied to a clownish person:--'It would be well if somebody would teach that _clout_ some manners.'

Clove; to clove flax is to _scutch_ it--to draw each handful repeatedly between the blades of a 'cloving tongs,' so as to break off and remove the brittle husk, leaving the fibre smooth and free. (Munster.)

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Clutch; a brood of chickens or of any fowls: same as clatch. I suppose this is English: Waterton (an English traveller) uses it in his 'Wanderings'; but it is not in the Dictionaries of Chambers and Webster.

Cluthoge; Easter eggs. (P. Reilly; Kildare.)

Cly-thoran; a wall or ditch between two estates. (Roscommon.) Irish _cladh_ [cly], a raised d.y.k.e or fence; _teora_, gen. _teorann_ [thoran], a boundary.

Cobby-house; a little house made by children for play. (Munster.)

c.o.c.kles off the heart, 194.

Cog; to copy surrept.i.tiously; to crib something from the writings of another and pa.s.s it off as your own. One schoolboy will sometimes copy from another:--'You cogged that sum.'

Coghil; a sort of long-shaped pointed net. (Armagh.) Irish _cochal_, a net.

Coldoy; a bad halfpenny: a spurious worthless article of jewellery.

(Limerick.)

Colleen; a young girl. (All over Ireland.) Irish _cailin_, same sound and meaning.

Colley; the woolly dusty fluffy stuff that gathers under furniture and in remote corners of rooms. Light soot-s.m.u.ts flying about.

Colloge; to talk and gossip in a familiar friendly way. An Irish form of the Latin or English word 'colloquy.'

Collop; a standard measure of grazing land, p. 177.

Collop; the part of a flail that is held in the hand. (Munster.) See Boolthaun. Irish _colpa_.

Come-all-ye; a nickname applied to Irish Folk Songs and Music; an old country song; from the {238} beginning of many of the songs:--'Come all ye tender Christians,' &c. This name, intended to be reproachful, originated among ourselves, after the usual habit of many 'superior'

Irishmen to vilify their own country and countrymen and all their customs and peculiarities. Observe, this opening is almost equally common in English Folk-songs; yet the English do not make game of them by nicknames. Irish music, which is thus vilified by some of our brethren, is the most beautiful Folk Music in the world.

Comether; _come hether_ or _hither_, 97.

Commaun, common; the game of goaling or hurley. So called from the _commaun_ or crooked-shaped stick with which it is played: Irish _cam_ or _com_, curved or crooked; with the diminutive--_caman_. Called _hurling_ and _goaling_ by English speakers in Ireland, and _shinney_ in Scotland.

Commons; land held in common by the people of a village or small district: see p. 177.

Comparisons, 136.

Conacre; letting land in patches for a short period. A farmer divides a large field into small portions-- acre, acre, &c.--and lets them to his poorer neighbours usually for one season for a single crop, mostly potatoes, or in Ulster flax. He generally undertakes to manure the whole field, and charges high rents for the little lettings. I saw this in practice more than 60 years ago in Munster. Irish _con_, common, and Eng. _acre_.

Condition; in Munster, to 'change your condition' is to get married.