gobshite

English

Etymology

From gob (“mouth”) +‎ shite (“excrement”).

Pronunciation

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒbˌʃaɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

gobshite (plural gobshites)

1. (Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) One who engages in nonsensical chatter or unwanted conversation.

   What’s that gobshite talking about now?

   • 1596, Thomas Nashe, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, page 14:

     That whereas for anie time this foure and twentie yeare they haue plaid the fantasticall gub-shites and goose-giblets in Print, […]

2. (Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) A person of very poor judgment and unpleasant character.
   • 2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books, published 2020, page 191:

     LaTisha […] left school a head-banging argumentative gobshite with no qualifications who wouldnʼt take no orders from no one.

   • 2022 July 26, William Meny, Paul Simms, “The Night Market” (23:43 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[1], season 4, episode 4, spoken by Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou):

     “Water Lily of the Nile. That is what they call it. It’s a medicinal flower. It’s a narcotic that the Egyptians used to bury with their dead in order to help ease the sufferings of the afterlife. And according to the Compendium Narcoticum, it is the only drug that helps with the pain of being a wraith. Very hard to come by. And it is said that those little gobshites will do anything for it.”

   • 2025 August 15th, Jonathan Fink, “Alaska Summit Dilemma: Z-Patriots, Putin, and Trump’s Tactical Dance”, in Silicon Curtain‎^[2], Silicon Bites, Edition № 223, via YouTube, 17:09–17:16:

     Well, we have to start with Aleksandr Dugin, ideologue and genocide-inciting gobshite.

3. (Ireland, UK, slang, offensive, vulgar) Nonsense; speech or writing that is untrue, meaningless, or otherwise unwelcome.
   • 2013 July 12, Wow [username], “How Einstein’s most famous equation affects you”, in Science blogs‎^[3], archived from the original on 29 November 2023, comments:

     “You do work on the brick when you raise it. The Earth doesn’t do work on the brick as it falls.”
     With all due respect, that’s a load of gobshite, John.

   • 2015 July 6, Macart [username], “The belated truth”, in Wings over Scotland‎^[4], archived from the original on 24 December 2023, comments:

     Aw they were always talking gobshite as far as I was concerned, but for most bods, if it was in black and white it was true.

Usage notes

• The collective noun shower of gobshites (“group of idiots”) is quite common in Ireland.

Translations

one who engages in nonsensical chatter

• Finnish: paskanjauhaja
• French: ^{(please verify)} fouille-merde (fr) m
• German: Schwätzer (de) m, Großmaul (de) n, Klugscheißer (de) m
• Italian: coglione (it) m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: drittslenger m

• Swedish: skitsnackare c pl

person of very poor judgment

• French: mange-merde (fr) m
• Italian: coglione (it) m, mezzasega (it) f