English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 35

(Moran: Carlow.)

Didoes (singular _dido_); tricks, antics: 'quit your didoes.' (Ulster.)

Dildron or dildern; a bowraun, which see.

Dillesk, dulsk, dulse or dilse; a sort of sea plant growing on rocks, formerly much used (when dried) as an article of food (as _kitchen_), and still eaten in single leaves as a sort of relish. Still sold by basket-women in Dublin. Irish _duilesc_.

Dip. When the family dinner consisted of dry potatoes, i.e. potatoes without milk or any other drink, dip was often used, that is to say, gravy or broth, or water flavoured in any way in plates, into which the potato was dipped at each bit. I once saw a man using dip of plain water with mustard in it, and eating his dinner with great relish. You will sometimes read of 'potatoes and point,' namely, that each person, before taking a bite, _pointed_ the potato at a salt herring or a bit of bacon hanging in front of the chimney: but this is mere fun, and never occurred in real life.

Disciple; a miserable looking creature of a man. Shane Glas was a long lean scraggy wretched looking fellow (but really strong and active), and another says to him--jibing and railing--'Away with ye, ye miserable _disciple_. Arrah, by the hole {248} of my coat, after you dance your last jig upon nothing, with your hemp cravat on, I'll coax yer miserable carcase from the hangman to frighten the crows with.'

(Edw. Walsh in 'Pen. Journ.')

Disremember; to forget. Good old English; now out of fashion in England, but common in Ireland.

Ditch. In Ireland a ditch is a raised fence or earthen wall or mound, and a d.y.k.e (or _sheuch_ as they call it in Donegal and elsewhere in Ulster) is a deep cutting, commonly filled with water. In England both words mean exactly the reverse. Hence 'hurlers on the ditch,' or 'the best hurlers are on the ditch' (where speakers of pure English would use 'fence') said in derision of persons who are mere idle spectators sitting up on high watching the game--whatever it may be--and boasting how they would _do the devil an' all_ if they were only playing.

Applied in a broad sense to those who criticise persons engaged in any strenuous affair--critics who think they could do better.

Dollop; to adulterate: 'that coffee is dolloped.'

Donny; weak, in poor health. Irish _donaidhe_, same sound and meaning.

Hence _donnaun_, a poor weakly creature, same root with the diminutive.

From still the same root is _donsy_, sick-looking.

Donagh-dearnagh, the Sunday before Lammas (1st August). (Ulster.) Irish _Domnach_, Sunday; and _deireannach_, last, i.e. last Sunday of the period before 1st August.

Doodoge [the two _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _thus_]; a big pinch of snuff. [Limk.] Irish _dudog_.

Dooraght [_d_ sounded as in the last word]; tender care and kindness shown to a person. Irish {249} _duthracht_, same sound and meaning. In parts of Ulster it means a small portion given over and above what is purchased (Simmons and Knowles); called elsewhere a _tilly_, which see.

This word, in its sense of kindness, is very old; for in the Brehon Law we read of land set aside by a father for his daughter through _dooraght_.

Doorshay-daurshay [_d_ in both sounded as _th_ in _thus_], mere hearsay or gossip. The first part is Irish, representing the sound of _dubhairt-se_, 'said he.' The second part is a mere doubling of the first, as we find in many English words, such as 'fiddle-faddle,'

't.i.ttle-tattle' (which resembles our word). Often used by Munster lawyers in court, whether Irish-speaking or not, in depreciation of hearsay evidence in contradistinction to the evidence of looking-on.

'Ah, that's all mere _doorshay-daurshay_.' Common all over Munster. The information about the use of the term in law courts I got from Mr.

Maurice Healy. A different form is sometimes heard:--_D'innis bean dom gur innis bean di_, 'a woman told me that a woman told her.'

Dornoge [_d_ sounded as in doodoge above]; a small round lump of a stone, fit to be cast from the hand. Irish _dorn_, the shut hand, with the dim. _og_.

Double up; to render a person helpless either in fight or in argument.

The old tinker in the fair got a blow of an amazon's fist which 'sent him sprawling and _doubled_ him up for the rest of the evening.'

(Robert Dwyer Joyce: 'Madeline's Vow.')

Down in the heels; broken down in fortune (one mark of which is the state of the heels of shoes). {250}

Down blow; a heavy or almost ruinous blow of any kind:--'The loss of that cow was a down blow to poor widow Cleary.'

Downface; to persist boldly in an a.s.sertion (whether true or no): He downfaced me that he returned the money I lent him, though he never did.

Down-the-banks; a scolding, a reprimand, punishment of any kind.

Dozed: a piece of timber is dozed when there is a dry rot in the heart of it. (Myself for Limk.: Kane for North.)

Drad; a grin or contortion of the mouth. (Joyce.)

Drag home. (Simmons; Armagh: same as Hauling home, which see.)

Dra.s.s; a short time, a turn:--'You walk a dra.s.s now and let me ride': 'I always smoke a dra.s.s before I go to bed of a night.' ('Collegians,'

Limerick.) Irish _dreas_, same sound and meaning.

Drench: a form of the English _drink_, but used in a peculiar sense in Ireland. A _drench_ is a philtre, a love-potion, a love-compelling drink over which certain charms were repeated during its preparation.

Made by boiling certain herbs (_orchis_) in water or milk, and the person drinks it unsuspectingly. In my boyhood time a beautiful young girl belonging to a most respectable family ran off with an ill-favoured obscure beggarly diseased wretch. The occurrence was looked on with great astonishment and horror by the people--no wonder; and the universal belief was that the fellow's old mother had given the poor girl a _drench_. To this hour I cannot make any guess at the cause of that astounding elopement: and it is {251} not surprising that the people were driven to the supernatural for an explanation.

Dresser; a set of shelves and drawers in a frame in a kitchen for holding plates, knives, &c.

Drisheen is now used in Cork as an English word, to denote a sort of pudding made of the narrow intestines of a sheep, filled with blood that has been cleared of the red colouring matter, and mixed with meal and some other ingredients. So far as I know, this viand and its name are peculiar to Cork, where _drisheen_ is considered suitable for persons of weak or delicate digestion. (I should observe that a recent reviewer of one of my books states that drisheen is also made in Waterford.) Irish _dreas_ or driss, applied to anything slender, as a bramble, one of the smaller intestines, &c.--with the diminutive.

Drizzen, a sort of moaning sound uttered by a cow. (Derry).

Drogh; the worst and smallest bonnive in a litter. (Armagh.) Irish _droch_, bad, evil. (See Eervar.)

Droleen; a wren: merely the Irish word _dreoilin_.

Drop; a strain of any kind 'running in the blood.' A man inclined to evil ways 'has a bad drop' in him (or 'a black drop'): a miser 'has a hard drop.' The expression carries an idea of heredity.

Drugget; a cloth woven with a mixture of woollen and flaxen thread: so called from Drogheda where it was once extensively manufactured. Now much used as cheap carpeting.

Druids and Druidism, 178.

Drumaun; a wide back-band for a ploughing horse, {252} with hooks to keep the traces in place. (Joyce: Limerick.) From Irish _druim_, the back.

Drummagh; the back strap used in yoking two horses. (Joyce: Limerick.) Irish _druim_, the back, with the termination _-ach_, equivalent to English _-ous_ and _-y_.

Dry potatoes; potatoes eaten without milk or any other drink.

Dry lodging; the use of a bed merely, without food.

Drynaun-dun or drynan-dun [two _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _that_]; the blackthorn, the sloe-bush. Irish _droigheanan_ [drynan or drynaun], and _donn_, brown-coloured.

Ducks; trousers of snow-white canvas, much used as summer wear by gentle and simple fifty or sixty years ago.

Dudeen [both _d_'s sounded like _th_ in _those_]; a smoking-pipe with a very short stem. Irish _duidin_, _dud_, a pipe, with the diminutive.

Duggins; rags: 'that poor fellow is all in duggins.' (Armagh.)

Dull; a loop or eye on a string. (Monaghan.)

Dullaghan [_d_ sounded as _th_ in _those_]; a large trout. (Kane: Monaghan.) An Irish word.

Dullaghan; 'a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in churchyards, who can take off and put on his head at will.' (From 'Irish Names of Places,' I. 193, which see for more about this spectre.

See Croker's 'Fairy Legends.')