English words that come from Irish

Seaghan · **Joined:** Tue 06 Sep 2011 12:09 pm **Posts:** 118

beagle wrote:

Gaimbín ( dim. of gamba) or gombeen in English is not the same as a gom. The gom is a fool, but a gaimbín is an usurer, a money lender, glic. He's the type you'd say "would take the eye out of your head, and tell you that you look better without it" Gaimbín is also a lump of tobacco.

You are of course correct. Why, did someone say that Gam and gaimbín are the same thing, because I certainly didn't !
However, although the word 'gaimbín' means a moneylender etc. it has sometimes come to mean a sap/mug, especially among some English speakers in Ireland

beagle · **Joined:** Mon 05 Sep 2011 1:45 am **Posts:** 267

Because they have confused the two.

NiallBeag · **Joined:** Wed 19 Dec 2012 3:58 pm **Posts:** 488

Seaghan wrote:

One doesn't even have to go so far back as that to hear of the language being spoken of as Irish, on both sides of the sea. The Highlanders were referred to as 'Irish scum' when being evicted, as late as the late 19th cent. There are written records of that. Why were they called Irish scum by the lowland police and British army, called in during the evictions ? Because they were Irish/Gaelic speakers, and had always been considered as no different from the Irish in Ireland itself. Several centuries ago, the English themselves made little or no distinction between the two groups.

Not necessarily. It seems as though the term Erse/Irish was reintroduced/repopularised in a conscious effort to demonise the language, as it had been referred to for a long time as "the Scottish tongue". The whole idea of linguistic unity was crucial to renaissance corporate state building, and most countries did similar stuff, calling a language foreign, primitive and/or pagan.

NiallBeag · **Joined:** Wed 19 Dec 2012 3:58 pm **Posts:** 488

Lughaidh wrote:

It may come from "bríste" with an added -s by analogy with the English words (that are plural) that mean "trousers": trousers, pants etc... (for an English mind, trousers are a pair of things). Because Irish bríste and Scottish briogais are singular

I'm thinking of the Scots "breeks", though. "Breeks" and "briogais" are almost definitely related, and it seems more likely that it went from Scots to Gaelic. A lot of islanders will slenderise the -s if they're embedding an English plural form in their Gaelic. Old writing also suggests that the -s ending would have been a full syllable (or at the very least preceded by a svarabhakti vowel).

If it was "bríste" in Irish that was the source, I can imagine the S migrating to the second syllable in an Anglo-Saxon language, but it would be odd in Gaelic, wouldn't it?

So "breek-ess" is a very likely form in Early/Middle Scots, while "briogais" is a very unusual form for Scottish Gaelic...

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