spalpeen
English
Etymology
A late 18th-century term, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Irish spailpín.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 329: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /spalˈpiːn/
Noun
spalpeen (plural spalpeens)
- (Ireland) A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person.
- (Ireland, sometimes endearing) A good-for-nothing person.
Quotations
- 1979, Thomas Flanagan, The Year of the French (New York: The New York Review of Books):
- "And they stood you before the magistrates like a spalpeen or a tinker."
- "Sure the French wouldn't bring with them barrels of coppers for the spalpeens of Connaught. It is murder and bloodshed they would bring."
- 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea (Vintage 2003), page 25:
- The men were mainly evicted farmers from Connaught and West Cork, beggared spalpeens from Carlow and Waterford; a cooper, some farriers, a horse-knacker from Kerry; a couple of Galway fishermen who had managed to sell their nets.
See also
References
- merriam-webster.com.
- [1].
- encarta MSN.
- Spalpeen. The New Oxford American Dictionary. Second ed.