shoneen
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Irish seónín, from Seón ‘John’ + -ín diminutive suffix.
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈʃəʊniːn/
[edit] Noun
shoneen (plural shoneens)
- (Anglo-Irish, derogatory) One who prefers English attitudes, customs or lifestyle to Irish ones.
- 1889: Good Father John O'Hart / In penal days rode out / To a shoneen who had free lands / And his own snipe and trout. — WB Yeats, ‘The Ballad of Father O'Hart’
- 1922: So then the citizens begin talking about the Irish language and the corporation meeting and all to that and the shoneens that can’t speak their own language — James Joyce, Ulysses
