The big book of Irish slang
Writing by aj@lecraic on Tuesday, 3 of June , 2008 at 10:45 am
“A book written by de focal payple for de focal payple is finally heeyur”. So goes the intro on the slang.ie website which invited the public to log on and submit slang words from their locality. The result of this is the book, ‘For Focal Sake’, which has just been published and features entries from all of the 32 counties on the island.
Top county for slang in Ireland? That would be Cork and who could have expected anything less from the lovely city on the Lee. Looking through the list of slang terms attributed to Cork leaves me scratching my head, as I would consider quite a few to be slang used all over Ireland rather than just Cork exclusively. But that’s being a little pedantic as the book isn’t meant to be an etymological tome but something to dip in and out of and add new slang to your own arsenal.
My own personal favourite from the Cork list is “Throwin’ a Ghand”, which is defined as :
Freaking out like Ghandi (walking along quiet like and peaceful, and then all of a sudden lets out a massive scream/roar. I didn’t know that was something Ghandi did, but it made me laugh anyway.
I took a gander at the Wicklow entries and was happy to see ‘Quern’ was in there. Definition: really, extremely, very. Example of use : “That’s a quern round satsuma”. I would add one that I sometimes use “He/she is quern thick”.
Don’t know if the word “trog” is in there - but it is slang used to describe a person (usually female) that’s very ugly. Comes from the word troglodyte, meaning a member of a supposed prehistoric race that lived in caves or holes; a caveman; anything that lives underground.
For Focal Sake - The 32 County Guide to Irish Slang is avalable direct from the publisher or in Eason and other booksellers around the country. List of where you can get it is on the link above as well.
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Category: bookie wookie
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Comment by Thriftcriminal
Made Tuesday, 3 of June , 2008 at 3:19 pm
My favourite Cork slang is “flange bar”, used to describe the crossbar on a girls bike, derrived from the slang “flange” that I wont go into right now (but can be looked up). There is something rather Cronenberg about that.
Comment by aj@lecraic
Made Tuesday, 3 of June , 2008 at 8:58 pm
I looked it up but I guessed beforehand 
Comment by Hugh Jarce
Made Wednesday, 4 of June , 2008 at 10:37 pm
Jay das a great blog me boyo!
I haves d’owl book meself and it contains a selection of the slang from slang.ie, looks like a huge amount of work went into it and the slang attributed to each county is pretty accurate.
I love the profiles in it on each county, especially the funny town names… OK we all know about nobber and muff but who new there was a Canawee in cork and a legwee in Cavan or a Ringrash in Derry for that matter!
Hugh
Pingback by le craic » For focal sake
Made Tuesday, 17 of June , 2008 at 11:14 pm
[...] Focal Sake - A 32 County Guide to Irish Slang. Hugh Jarce from slang.ie left a comment on the original post so I chanced my arm and sent him an email to see if there were a few promotional copies for the [...]
