It’s St. Patty’s Day – are you wearing your green? With a name like Liz Kelly, you may not be surprised that we’d consider an Irish-themed blog post in honor of the occasion. In fact, I have even more reasons to celebrate than you might think – my husband has dual U.S. and Irish citizenship, and my mother’s birthday happens to be today, so needless to say, St. Patrick’s Day holds a little extra significance for me.
To help you celebrate, here’s a special edition of Favorite Words originating from the Irish language. You get bonus points if you can work one of these words into your conversation over a pint of Guinness at the pub tonight:
- banshee – female fairy (from the Irish bainsídhe)
- colleen - we know it as a proper name, but in Ireland it’s also a common term for a girl
- galore – a lot (from go leor meaning “til plenty”)
- keen – to lament, wail mournfully (from caoinim, meaning “I wail”)
- poteen – hooch, bootleg alcoholic drink (from póitín, ’small póit’ – póit is the feeling of being high from a drug like alcohol or tobacco, or even from eating too much candy)
- sleeveen – an untrustworthy or cunning person (from the Irish slíbhín)
- smithereens – small fragments, atoms. (May or may not be derived from the modern Irish smidrín)
- whiskey – from uisce beatha, meaning “water of life”
A small disclaimer – we sourced this from that oh-so-reliable source, Wikipedia, so feel free to correct us if we’ve made any mistakes. Happy St. Patrick’s Day – and happy birthday, Mom!
2 Comments
Did Wikipedia really call Saint Patrick’s Day “St. Patty’s Day” – naughty, bad Wikipedia. Patty is most commonly a girls name. The saint’s mother calls him Patrick, the rest of us say “cheers” with our Guinness to good ol’ Paddy.
Actually, you can blame me for “St. Patty,” not Wikipedia. I’ve embarassed my Irish name! And now that you mention it, I did know that “Paddy” is usually the spelling for a boy’s name. Oh, well.