Hello,

I don't have a Gaelic translation request, but I thought this forum might have the most active users of language on it, and you may be able to help.

I'm writing a story about a woman of Irish heritage who lives in the US, her granny who is Irish, used loads of irish words and old slang when she spoke to her.
One of the words is used widely in dublin, and I wanted to find out why they call prostitutes 'brassers'.

There's an English/Cockney rhyming slang term 'brass', short for brass nail and rhymes with tail - but I don't think the Irish slang has any connection to it. As far as I know, brasser is a north Cork word originally.

Can someone please correct me if I am wrong, and shed some light on the etymology of the word brasser?

Many thanks, Helen

Well, I'm not an expert at word etymologies or anything like that, but I'm pretty sure that I understand the origin of the word "brasser". I think it means somebody who is bold and unashamed.

Have you ever heard the expression "As bold as brass"?
You would use it in a sentence like: "She walked in the door as bold as brass and asked her boss for a raise."

Now that I think about it, I'm sure that it's related to the word brazen, which of course, means "made of brass" or "like brass", but also means "without shame".

* Disclaimer: I'm just giving you my best guess of what I think is the origin of the word "brasser". This is only off the top of my head (I haven't done any research on it), but still, the meaning seems very obvious and I'm pretty sure that I'm right about this one. Hopefully, somebody who actually knows about this sort of thing will come along and put in their two cents.

There have been a number of books written about the "cant" used in the underworld and working classes in Britain (the oldest one I've seen was a dictionary of slang written in the 1800's), and they usually indicate that British slang came from many sources, a good bit from Ireland and also from sources such as Yiddish, as the Irish and later the Jews became an integral part of the working class (and also the underworld) in many parts of England, Scotland, and Wales. An example may be the word "cant" itself, possibly from the Irish caint, but a more certain one is the Irish go leor becoming "galore", first in English slang and now accepted speech. So, it's not impossible for the word "brasser" to have originated in Hibernian English, although the OED indicates that "brassy" goes back at least as far as Shakespeare.

Interestingly, the OED does not even contain the word "brasser", so that might indicate a non-English origin (although it may still be based ultimately on the English "brazen" or "brassy", and just have taken its own separate course in Hibernian English).

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I've always understood 'brasser' (when it refers to a prostitute) to come from the brass coin one would have paid the poor girl with. It implies cheapness, like the 'penny whores' of Victorian London.

Domhnall

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Ultach mé agus Gaeilg Uladh a labhraim go measardha maith!

As in the old Dublin saying "she'd do it for a brass penny"?

Looking around (the net, is what I mean, not a Dublin street) I see that in the Jackeen Files the definition for a brasser is (and I quote) - a woman of ill repute, who charges but a brass coin for her services. A doxie - a lady of the night who plies her trade on the docks. Fla/flah (v) to have sexual intercourse with someone (from fleadh), sneachta is cocaine, and Stillorgan is known as Mickey Márbh
www.jackeen.com/jackeen_files/slang/slang.htm