# Gaelic in English **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992 "2005-11-14T15:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/1 "2005-11-14T15:16:26Z")
Northwest of Atlanta, I was at a French-chateau themed winery that had an Irish-themed pub (not wanting to be all Holden Caufieldish, I kept my opinions about the phoniness of it all to myself). On the pub’s walls were advertising signs and streets signs from, I guess, Dublin. All totally incomprehensible to me as well as to the waitstaff. I probably use more Aboriginal words (boomerang) and Tagolog (yo-yo) than Gaelic words that I know of. Do we use any Gaelic words in everyday speech? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/2 "2005-11-14T15:48:32Z")
English words originating from Irish Gaelic: Back, bard, blarney, bog, bother, brat, brogan, brogue, carrageen, clabber, colcannon, colleen, cosher, donnybrook, drumlin, dudeen, dulse, esker, gallowglass, galore, hubbub, kern, leprechaun, machree, mavourneen, muley, ogham, poteen, puss, rap, rapparee, shamrock, shanty, skean, slew, slob, spree, tanist, twig, usquebaugh, whiskey, wirra. From Scots Gaelic: Airt, ben, bog, capercaillie, clan, claver, claymore, corrie, drab, filibeg, ghillie, glen, gob, inch, kelpie, kiaugh, lead, linn, loch, pibroch, plaid, ptarmigan, scalawag, slogan, sporran, spunk, strath, trews, trousers. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/3 "2005-11-14T15:52:46Z")
> [@Slithy Tove](#): > > Do we use any Gaelic words in everyday speech? Who’s we? In Connemara they do, all the time. In the west of Ireland but not the Gealtacht (Gealtacht= Irish speaking area, for instance the abovementioned Connemara) you do find Gaelic words sprinkled in with the English, for example “boreen” for a small road. In America probably not so many, though I give you “whiskey” (Uisce Bhata roughly pronounced “Ooshke Wata” and Anglicised to “whiskey”. It means “water of life”) I’m sure someone else will think of some more, but I’ve had a long night and my brain’s a bit dead. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/4 "2005-11-14T16:50:34Z")
“Smithereens” is from the Irish _smidirín_ - deriving from _smiodar_, a fragment. The “-een” bit is a diminutive. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/5 "2005-11-14T17:09:19Z")
> [@Slithy Tove](#): > > Northwest of Atlanta, I was at a French-chateau themed winery that had an Irish-themed pub (not wanting to be all Holden Caufieldish, I kept my opinions about the phoniness of it all to myself). On the pub’s walls were advertising signs and streets signs from, I guess, Dublin. All totally incomprehensible to me as well as to the waitstaff. I probably use more Aboriginal words (boomerang) and Tagolog (yo-yo) than Gaelic words that I know of. > > Do we use any Gaelic words in everyday speech? I recall reading in high school that the Irish were second largest immigrant group to come to America (Germans were the largest). As **Johanna** ’s post shows, most Gaellic words used in America have been so firmly imbedded in the culture that we don’t even recognize them as “foreign” anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/6 "2005-11-14T19:40:04Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I recall reading in high school that the Irish were second largest immigrant group to come to America (Germans were the largest). As **Johanna** ’s post shows, most Gaellic words used in America have been so firmly imbedded in the culture that we don’t even recognize them as “foreign” anymore. English is a real melange of other languages anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/7 "2005-11-15T00:20:27Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > English is a real melange of other languages anyway. Not really. Not to any greater degree than any other world language. We’ve inherited numerous words from other sources, but so have most languages, as very often culture-specific terms (like ‘whiskey’) are imported along with the items they describe. On the other hand, the great majority of English words come from Latin (which is, of course, not English’s genetic ancestor) but similar degrees of borrowing are not uncommon in other languages either. The majority of Japanese words, for instance, are imported from Chinese, even to the point of displacing the native numeral system. In such cases, most of the most commonly used words are ones from the native word stock (Germanic in the case of English, and whatever origin Japanese came from in their case - it’s not a settled question.) English also has substantial early borrowings from Norse - not so much in number as in the salience of the terms - ones like “leg” and “they”, for instance. But the languages were extremely close at the time anyway - possibly it was more a question of separate dialects than languages, which makes the significance of the borrowings considerably smaller. English hasn’t borrowed any more extensively than many other languages; the majority of words in some of the south Indian Dravidian languages, for instance, come from the (unrelated) Indic (Sanskrit and so forth) that were most likely much later arrivals to the subcontinent. Grammatically, on the other hand, English is quite solidly Germanic, with less evidence of structural borrowings from unrelated languages (as in the Balkans or southern China and southeast Asia, where much more heavily structural changes have spread across a geographical area across language lines.) With the marginal exception of minor borrowing of derivational morphology from French, it’s tough to find anything in English grammar (as opposed to its lexicon) which is not from native Germanic stock (I say marginal because the status of derivational morphology as really ‘grammatical’ is a bit more debateable.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/8 "2005-11-15T05:23:16Z")
_Smithereens_ is a good example, **seosamh**. I just thought of another one: “Shenanigans” comes from Irish _sionnachuigim_, ‘I play the fox’. From _sionnach_, fox. Funny, the second half of _uisce beatha_ pronounced “wata,” sounds almost like English “water,” but it’s the Irish word for life, related to Greek _bios_. The word for water, _uisce_, actually is related to English “water,” both from Proto-Indo-European \*wed-, along with e.g. Greek _hudor_, Hittite _watar_, Russian _voda_, Sanskrit _uda_. ---
**Author:** ![max\_power](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/db5fbb/32.png) [@max\_power](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/max_power)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/9 "2005-11-15T13:04:15Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Funny, the second half of _uisce beatha_ pronounced “wata,” hmm, i realise the different regions in ireland have different pronunciations, but in the irish i learned (in dublin) uisce beatha is pronounced _ishka baha_ A word commonly used in ireland is craic, pronounced crack, which just means fun… ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/10 "2005-11-15T13:54:55Z")
Irish people call their language “Irish” not “Gaelic”. Banshee, shebeen and cairn derive from Irish or Scots gaelic too. Place names: “drum”- a hill “rath”- a fort “bally”- a town “kill” - a wood “ard”- a high place “agh”-a field “ballin”- a river mouth “cashel”- a ring fort “beg”- little “kill/kil”- a church or wood e.g. Rathgael- fort of the Gaels Drumbeg- little hill Craic…a multipurpose expression which does not translate well. “What’s the craic?”- it can mean anything from “Do you have any gossip?” if you meet your friend in the street, to “How are your coping with your terrible loss?” if you say it to the bereaved at a funeral. Then there are the following: “Any craic?” “The craic was ninety” “It’s a bit of craic” “He’s great craic” “It was only a bit of craic” “It was no craic at all” which all mean slightly different things, depending on context. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/11 "2005-11-15T14:07:19Z")
I recall an online discussion once where someone had made a list of words in English that derived ultimately from Celtic languages. The largest group of these words (and the ones that tended to most often be common words) were words that were borrowed into Old French (or perhaps into Late Latin) and then were borrowed into Middle English after 1066. Apparently the mixing of the Celtic and the Roman populations in (present-day) France in late antiquity was more thorough than the mixing of Anglo-Saxons and the Celts in the early middle ages. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/12 "2005-11-15T14:07:22Z")
> [@max power](#): > > A word commonly used in ireland is craic, pronounced crack, which just means fun… Although it’s probably not a good idea to call your American girlfriend from your vacation in Belfast and tell her that you “had some good ‘crack’ at the pub last night.” :eek: Yeah, I speak from experience. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/13 "2005-11-15T14:24:12Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > English words originating from **Irish Gaelic** : > Back, bard, blarney, bog, bother, brat, brogan, brogue, carrageen, clabber, colcannon, colleen, cosher, donnybrook, drumlin, dudeen, dulse, esker, gallowglass, galore, hubbub, kern, leprechaun, machree, mavourneen, muley, ogham, poteen, puss, rap, rapparee, shamrock, shanty, skean, slew, slob, spree, tanist, twig, usquebaugh, whiskey, wirra. > > From **Scots Gaelic** : > Airt, ben, bog, capercaillie, clan, claver, claymore, corrie, drab, filibeg, ghillie, glen, gob, inch, kelpie, kiaugh, lead, linn, loch, pibroch, plaid, ptarmigan, scalawag, slogan, sporran, spunk, strath, trews, trousers. Hey now, “bog” is on _both_ of those lists. And some of these I think you’re just making up. (_Usquebaugh?!_) ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/14 "2005-11-15T14:37:56Z")
There’s a BBC website about accents, and there are voice clips of Youth leaders from Craigavon in Northern Ireland who go on about “craic”. They make the following joke. American: “How was the party?” Tyrone man: “It was great, the craic was ninety!” American:“That’s a bit dear!” ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/15 "2005-11-15T18:43:03Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Not really. Whoosh! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/16 "2005-11-15T19:01:00Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > There’s a BBC website about accents, and there are voice clips of Youth leaders from Craigavon in Northern Ireland who go on about “craic”. > > They make the following joke. > > American: “How was the party?” > Tyrone man: “It was great, the craic was ninety!” > American:“That’s a bit dear!” Which is ironic, because no American would say “dear”. He/she would say “expensive”. Unless it was one of those cute, cuddly, fuzzy crack pipes, of course. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/17 "2005-11-15T19:58:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Funny, the second half of uisce beatha pronounced “wata,” sounds almost like English “water,” but it’s the Irish word for life, related to Greek bios. Hm, I would have thought it was more closely related to Latin _vita_. And I’ve seen a few other examples of Latin-looking words in Irish, as well (even such basic concepts as “man” and “woman”). Which means that a borrowing from Irish is not necessarily Celtic in origin. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/18 "2005-11-15T20:10:28Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Grammatically, on the other hand, English is quite solidly Germanic, with less evidence of structural borrowings from unrelated languages (as in the Balkans or southern China and southeast Asia, where much more heavily structural changes have spread across a geographical area across language lines.) With the marginal exception of minor borrowing of derivational morphology from French, it’s tough to find anything in English grammar (as opposed to its lexicon) which is not from native Germanic stock (I say marginal because the status of derivational morphology as really ‘grammatical’ is a bit more debateable.) Interestingly, one example of a non-English grammar rule that is strictly followed in English is in the use of the Gaelic word “galore.” It is one of a small list of English adjectives that are only seen following the noun they modify (right now, I can’t think of a single other example, but I’m sure there are a few). I don’t know if that’s actually a departure from Germanic rules in general, but it’s certainly unusual in English. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/19 "2005-11-15T20:41:18Z")
> [@Saltire](#): > > Interestingly, one example of a non-English grammar rule that is strictly followed in English is in the use of the Gaelic word “galore.” > > It is one of a small list of English adjectives that are only seen following the noun they modify (right now, I can’t think of a single other example, but I’m sure there are a few). I don’t know if that’s actually a departure from Germanic rules in general, but it’s certainly unusual in English. That is an interesting example. But words like that didn’t lead to any productive changes in grammar - other adjectives can’t follow their nouns along the same model. It’s actually relatively surprising how small the heritage of Celtic words is in English, given that England was obviously quite firmly Celtic in pre-Roman times. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992/20 "2005-11-15T21:12:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Funny, the second half of uisce beatha pronounced “wata,” Nope – as mentioned earlier, it’s like “baha”. (In Manx, which uses an orthography much closer to English, spells the word “ushtey bea”.) > [@](#): > > A word commonly used in ireland is craic, pronounced crack, which just means fun… “Crack” is actually an English word (same one as makes up “cracker”), and is occasionally spelled “craic” to make it look pseudo-Gaelic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gaelic-in-english/330992.md?page=2)