English As We Speak It in Ireland Part 50

Singlings; the weak pottheen whiskey that comes off at the first distillation: agreeable to drink but terribly sickening. Also called 'First shot.'

Sippy; a ball of rolled _sugans_ (i.e. hay or straw ropes), used instead of a real ball in hurling or football. (Limerick.) Irish _suipigh_, same sound and meaning. A diminutive of _sop_, a wisp.

Skeeagh [2-syll.]; a shallow osier basket, usually for potatoes.

(South.)

Skeedeen; a trifle, anything small of its kind; a small potato. (Derry and Donegal.) Irish _scidin_, same sound and meaning. {324}

Skellig, Skellig List--On the Great Skellig rock in the Atlantic, off the coast of Kerry, are the ruins of a monastery, to which people at one time went on pilgrimage--and a difficult pilgrimage it was. The tradition is still kept up in some places, though in an odd form; in connection with the custom that marriages are not solemnised in Lent, i.e. after Shrove Tuesday. It is well within my memory that--in the south of Ireland--young persons who should have been married before Ash-Wednesday, but were not, were supposed to set out on pilgrimage to Skellig on Shrove Tuesday night: but it was all a make-believe. Yet I remember witnessing occasionally some play in mock imitation of the pilgrimage. It was usual for a local bard to compose what was called a 'Skellig List'--a jocose rhyming catalogue of the unmarried men and women of the neighbourhood who went on the sorrowful journey--which was circulated on Shrove Tuesday and for some time after. Some of these were witty and amusing: but occasionally they were scurrilous and offensive doggerel. They were generally too long for singing; but I remember one--a good one too--which--when I was very young--I heard sung to a spirited air. It is represented here by a single verse, the only one I remember. (See also 'Chalk Sunday,' p. 234, above.)

As young Rory and Moreen were talking, How Shrove Tuesday was just drawing near; For the tenth time he asked her to marry; But says she:--'Time enough till next year.

{325} Then ochone I'm going to Skellig: O Moreen, what will I do?

'Tis the woeful road to travel; And how lonesome I'll be without you!'[8]

Here is a verse from another:--

Poor Andy Callaghan with doleful nose Came up and told his tale of many woes:-- Some lucky thief from him his sweetheart stole, Which left a weight of grief upon his soul: With flowing tears he sat upon the gra.s.s, And roared sonorous like a braying a.s.s.

Skelly; to aim askew and miss the mark; to squint. (Patterson: all over Ulster.)

Skelp; a blow, to give a blow or blows; a piece cut off:--'Tom gave Pat a skelp': 'I cut off a skelp of the board with a hatchet.' To run fast:--'There's Joe skelping off to school.'

Skib; a flat basket:--'We found the people collected round a skibb of potatoes.' ('Wild Sports of the West.')

Skidder, skiddher; broken thick milk, stale and sour. (Munster.)

Skillaun. The piece cut out of a potato to be used as seed, containing one germinating _eye_, from which the young stalk grows. Several skillauns will be cut from one potato; and the irregular part left is a _skilloge_ (Cork and Kerry), or a _creelacaun_ (Limerick). Irish _sciollan_, same sound and meaning.

Skit; to laugh and giggle in a silly way:--'I'll be {326} bail they didn't skit and laugh.' (Crofton Croker.) 'Skit and laugh,' very common in South.

Skite; a silly frivolous light-headed person. Hence Blatherumskite (South), or (in Ulster), bletherumskite.

Skree; a large number of small things, as a skree of potatoes, a skree of chickens, &c. (Morris: South Monaghan.)

Skull-cure for a bad toothache. Go to the nearest churchyard alone by night, to the corner where human bones are usually heaped up, from which take and bring away a skull. Fill the skull with water, and take a drink from it: that will cure your toothache.

Sky farmer; a term much used in the South with several shades of meaning: but the idea underlying all is a farmer without land, or with only very little--having broken down since the time when he had a big farm--who often keeps a cow or two grazing along the roadsides. Many of these struggling men acted as intermediaries between the big corn merchants and the large farmers in the sale of corn, and got thereby a percentage from the buyers. A 'sky farmer' has his farm _in the sky_.

Slaan [_aa_ long as the _a_ in _car_]; a sort of very sharp spade, used in cutting turf or peat. Universal in the South.

Slack-jaw; impudent talk, continuous impertinences:--'I'll have none of your slack-jaw.'

Slang; a narrow strip of land along a stream, not suited to cultivation, but grazed. (Moran: Carlow.)

Sleeveen; a smooth-tongued, sweet-mannered, sly, {327} guileful fellow.

Universal all over the South and Middle. Irish _slighbhin_, same sound and meaning; from _sligh_, a way: _binn_, sweet, melodious: 'a _sweet-mannered_ fellow.'

Slewder, sluder [_d_ sounded like _th_ in _smooth_]; a wheedling coaxing fellow: as a verb, to wheedle. Irish _sligheadoir_ [sleedore], same meaning.

Sliggin; a thin flat little stone. (Limerick.) Irish. Primary meaning _a sh.e.l.l_.

Sling-trot; when a person or an animal is going along [not walking but]

trotting or running along at a leisurely pace. (South.)

Slinge [slinj]; to walk along slowly and lazily. In some places, playing truant from school. (South.)

Slip; a young girl. A young pig, older than a _bonnive_, running about almost independent of its mother. (General.)

Slipe; a rude sort of cart or sledge without wheels used for dragging stones from a field. (Ulster.)

Slitther; a kind of thick soft leather: also a ball covered with that leather, for hurling. (Limerick.)

Sliver; a piece of anything broken or cut off, especially cut off longitudinally. An old English word, obsolete in England, but still quite common in Munster.

Slob; a soft fat quiet simple-minded girl or boy:--'Your little Nellie is a quiet poor slob': used as a term of endearment.

Sloke, sloak, sluke, sloukaun; a sea plant of the family of _laver_ found growing on rocks round the coast, which is esteemed a table delicacy--dark-coloured, almost black; often pickled and eaten with pepper, vinegar, &c. Seen in all the Dublin {328} fish shops. The name, which is now known all over the Three Kingdoms, is anglicised from Irish _sleabhac_, _sleabhacan_ [slouk, sloukaun].

Slug; a drink: as a verb, to drink:--'Here take a little slug from this and 'twill do you good.' Irish _slog_ to swallow by drinking.

(General.) Whence _slugga_ and _sluggera_, a cavity in a river-bed into which the water is _slugged_ or swallowed.

Slugabed; a sluggard. (General in Limerick.) Old English, obsolete in England:--'Fie, you slug-a-bed.' ('Romeo and Juliet.')

Slush; to work and toil like a slave: a woman who toils hard.

(General.)

s.l.u.t; a torch made by dipping a long wick in resin. (Armagh.) Called a _paudheoge_ in Munster.

Smaadher [_aa_ like _a_ in _car_]; to break in pieces. Jim Foley was on a _pooka's_ back on the top of an old castle, and he was afraid he'd 'tumble down and be _smathered_ to a thousand pieces.' (Ir. Mag.)

Smalkera; a rude home-made wooden spoon.

Small-clothes; kneebreeches. (Limerick.) So called to avoid the plain term _breeches_, as we now often say _inexpressibles_.

Small farmer; has a small farm with small stock of cattle: a struggling man as distinguished from a 'strong' farmer.

Smeg, smeggeen, smiggin; a tuft of hair on the chin. (General.) Merely the Irish _smeig_, _smeigin_; same sounds and meaning.

Smithereens; broken fragments after a smash, 4.

Smullock [to rhyme with _bullock_]; a fillip of the finger. (Limerick.) Irish _smallog_, same meaning. {329}

Smur, smoor, fine thick mist. (North.) Irish _smur_, mist.

Smush [to rhyme with _bush_]: anything reduced to fine small fragments, like straw or hay, dry peat-mould in dust, &c.

Smush, used contemptuously for the mouth, a hairy mouth:--'I don't like your ugly _smush_.'

Snachta-shaidhaun: dry powdery snow blown about by the wind. Irish _sneachta_, snow, and _seidean_, a breeze. (South.)