Irish in the UK - what are the things that it took you ages to realise people don't say here.

[ConflictedCheetah]

Inspired by the thread about Pancake Tuesday.

That thread has cracked me up because SO many posters are insisting no one EVER calls pancake Tuesday - it's Pancake Day - and sayu it's weird and wanky to call it that. And then all the Irish people on the thread are like ' wait, we've always called it that and never noticed that no one else did.

So what else you got?

For me, and I'm here 20 years, I only found out about a year ago that no one here calls a birth certificate a 'birth cert'. My English husband thought it was proper weird that I kept saying that. I had never picked up that it wasn't a thing! I think Irish people are so used to talking about the Leaving Cert or Junior Cert etc. that the Cert but feels natural. DH says no.

What other ways have I been unknowingly embarrassing myself for 20 years?

Yeah never once heard "top of the morning to you" in my life. Said by leprechauns only, surely.

Another one I just remembered, The head on him and the price of turnips, often shortened to The head on him. (Meaning he was ugly) My Kildare friend used to say cute hawk, which I think was a variation on cute hoor.

Yes the word ghoul is used as an insult - also ghoul-bag can be used as well.😃
It can also be said as a mock insult where someone has a bit of luck in something (you are happy for their luck really).
With the heavy Irish accent Ghoul would pronounced as Gowl rather then Gool.
Like deaf-inn-nightly instead of definitely.

Not sure it has anything to do with 'women's troubles' (the all encompassing expression said in a hushed tone and used by my nan and mothers generation for any type of, er! well, women's troubles' 😆) - more the spirit form of Ghoul perhaps?

Seriously though, 'The Growler?'..... Legend! 😂

Is it only my family who say face cloth amongst English people? Occasionally also tea cloth. Nobody has yet told me face cloth is odd. Useful thread.

We have Mar-yah never heard it pronounced More-ree-ya. It’s from the Irish Mar dhea and means yeah right.

I love the word Plamauser used to describe someone blowing smoke up your hole (insincerely complimenting you) from the Irish Plámás meaning empty flattery.

It's a long thread and I'm only at page 5 so forgive me if I'm repeating.
I'm Northern Irish and my friends get baffled when I ask 'for a chip' at the takeaway, here it's a portion of chips but there it's one chip!

Going for a dander, is a walk

A melter, or headmelt, is a very annoying person.

A Hallion is an ignorant or aggressive person.

The 'wee man in the big picture' is an insignificant person who thinks he's the bees knees.

'All picture no sound' is what my husband says when I'm not speaking to him.

Everything starts and ends with the word 'sure'

Yep, my Dad would often say ‘He was shook lookin’ if he’d seen someone he knew that didn’t look very well.

My Dad used to say shitehawk

In Scotland you hear both whore to rhyme with door and also with a long o - hoo-er like in your example. It might be to do with the Great Vowel Shift which didn't fully reach Scotland, hence why you still hear troosers and hoose for trousers and house and that sort of thing. Not sure though as whore is a different vowel sound.

Targer was another one. She is a right targer, an overly assertive, aggressive woman.

I'm Belfast and a lot of folk pronounce it Hoor.
One might say, if one felt a tad overdressed at an event:-

I'm sittin here like a Hoor at a Hockeymatch

Haha, @Awaywiththeferries123 Mum uses plamauser, I’ve never seen it written down though and shitehawk. I thought she’d made that one up 🤣

We had confusion in school over copy books and toppers.
(Exercise book and pencil sharpener.)

Why isn’t there an English equivalent of Rip.ie ?

@FredaFandango yes that's true if someone was a bit tartlily dressed they looked like hoo-er r or I learnt later in life a whore

Someone might have said earlier on in this thread but every sentence ends with "so I am" I'm going the shops, so I am"

Definitely lol

I start or finish with sure

Sure I'll make the dinner

And everything is wee

Go for a wee walk

Would you like a wee cup of tea.

This brings me back growing up with Irish parents, now sadly gone. Anyone’s mom say “ go and wash your teeth” as opposed to brush?

Not specifically Irish. Also a standard phrase - although perhaps rather out of fashion - in British English.

Not sure which one you're saying is Irish. Rubber is the most common English term, although eraser is also frequently used. I think rubber might baffle an American.

DM to my teen Dd "You're full of jizz today". Dd's face - utter horror and confusion.

Really?! I have never heard 'clever' used that way elsewhere. Fascinating.

ColleenDonaghy · Today 09:12

I say delpht (Delft?) for all crockery, as does my mum. I think my friends do too?

Ah. Mind you, they moved to Belgium before she was school age and then to South Shields when she was 15, in 1938.

I'm familiar with the word ghoul but this is much more analogous to the word cunt which is why the explanation about the actual Irish word gabhal meaning vagina made a lot of sense!

Just checked Twitter and an account called You Park Like A Gowl suggests this has definitely been adopted whether as cod-etymology or authentic, it's established now...

I know a couple of people who look for whitening for their tea (instead of saying milk).
They live close to a Gaeltact area and I think the term must be used there. Banú an tae seems to be the Irish phrase it's translated from.

I love the word Plamauser used to describe someone blowing smoke up your hole (insincerely complimenting you) from the Irish Plámás meaning empty flattery.

I like that - a new one for me.

'Fit as a racing snake' seems an unlikely Irish expression, given the famous lack of snakes. It's a British military expression but I don't know the origin - I always assumed Australia or similar snakey place.

I dont think I've heard it from anyone born after about 1925, but it used to be widespread.