Irish
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English Irish (12th c.), from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)), further origin heavily debated but probably from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *pi-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”), akin to Ancient Greek πίειρα (píeira, “fertile land”), Sanskrit पीवरी (pīvarī, “fat”).
Pronunciation[edit]
audio (US) (file) - enPR: ī'rĭsh, IPA(key): /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/
- enPR: īə'rĭsh, IPA(key): /ˈaɪəɹɪʃ/
- (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /ˈaɪɹəʃ/
- Hyphenation: Ir‧ish
Proper noun[edit]
Irish
- (uncountable) The Gaelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic.
- Irish is the first official and national language of Ireland.
- (as plural) The Irish people.
- 2015 March 1, “Infrastructure”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 4, HBO:
- America used to love dams... Yes, and we built those dams with ingenuity and brawn and, of course, piles and piles of dead Irish.
- A surname.
Usage notes[edit]
- Use Irishman, Irishwoman, Irish person, etc for one singular person.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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Noun[edit]
Irish (countable and uncountable, plural Irish or Irishes)
- (uncountable, obsolete) A board game of the tables family.
- (uncountable, US) Temper; anger, passion.
- 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Nebraska, published 1987, page 65:
- But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, and so I quit trying.
- 1947, Hy Heath, John Lange, Clancy Lowered the Boom:
- Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom.
- 1997, Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Lace, page 296:
- The Priest is as fierce a fighter as I am when he gets his Irish up.
- (countable, uncountable) Whiskey, or whisky, elaborated in Ireland.
- 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men In A Boat:
- Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a smile, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.
Translations[edit]
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective[edit]
Irish (comparative more Irish, superlative most Irish)
- Pertaining to or originating from Ireland or the Irish people.
- 1992 April 26, "Hot Off the Press" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:
- A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.
- A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
- Sheep are typical in the Irish landscape.
- 1992 April 26, "Hot Off the Press" Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:
- Pertaining to the Irish language.
- (derogatory) nonsensical, daft or complex.
- 1995, Irving Lewis Allen, The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech:
- The slur continued with Irish confetti, a popular term for paving stones or Belgian bricks that were laid in New York streets beginning about 1832.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also[edit]
- Erse
- Gaelic
- Wiktionary’s coverage of Irish terms
- Appendix:Irish Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Irish
Further reading[edit]
- Irish–English Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary — the Rosetta Edition.
- ISO 639-1 code ga, ISO 639-3 code gle
- Ethnologue entry for Irish, ga
Anagrams[edit]
Cebuano[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From English Irish, from Middle English Irisce, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Éire (“Ireland”)), from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *pi-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”).
Proper noun[edit]
Irish
- the Goidelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic
Noun[edit]
Irish
- an Irishman or Irishwoman
Adjective[edit]
Irish
Etymology 2[edit]
From English Irish. Also a corruption of Iris.
Proper noun[edit]
Irish
- a female given name from English
Middle English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
Irish (uncountable)
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “Īrish, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Old Irish
- English terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms with audio links
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 3-syllable words
- English lemmas
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English surnames
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English indeclinable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with obsolete senses
- American English
- English adjectives
- English derogatory terms
- en:Demonyms
- en:Ethnonyms
- en:Ireland
- en:Languages
- en:Nationalities
- en:United Kingdom
- Cebuano terms derived from English
- Cebuano terms derived from Middle English
- Cebuano terms derived from Old English
- Cebuano terms derived from Old Norse
- Cebuano terms derived from Old Irish
- Cebuano terms derived from Proto-Celtic
- Cebuano terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Cebuano lemmas
- Cebuano proper nouns
- Cebuano nouns
- Cebuano adjectives
- Cebuano given names
- Cebuano female given names
- Cebuano female given names from English
- ceb:Demonyms
- ceb:Ireland
- ceb:Languages
- ceb:Nationalities
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old Norse
- Middle English terms derived from Old Irish
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English uncountable nouns