Irish

English

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Irish

Wikipedia

Irish edition of Wiktionary

Etymology

From Middle English Irish (12th c.), from Old English *Īrisċ, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)), further origin heavily debated but probably from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *piH-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”), akin to Ancient Greek πίειρα (píeira, “fertile land”), Sanskrit पीवरी (pīvarī, “fat”).

Pronunciation

• audio (US)

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• enPR: ī'rĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈaɪɹɪʃ/
• enPR: īə'rĭsh, IPA^(key): /ˈaɪəɹɪʃ/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈaɪɹəʃ/
• Hyphenation: Ir‧ish

Proper noun

Irish

1. (uncountable) The Gaelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic.

   Irish is the first official and national language of Ireland.

2. (as plural) The Irish people.
   • 2015 March 1, “Infrastructure”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 2, episode 4, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     America used to love dams... Yes, and we built those dams with ingenuity and brawn and, of course, piles and piles of dead Irish.

3. A surname.
4. A female given name of chiefly Philippine usage.

Usage notes

• Use Irishman, Irishwoman, Irish person, etc for one singular person.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

Irish (countable and uncountable, plural Irish or Irishes)

1. (uncountable, obsolete) A board game of the tables family.
2. (uncountable, US) Temper; anger, passion.
   • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Nebraska, published 1987, page 65:

     But her Irish was up too high to do any thing with her, and so I quit trying.

   • 1947, Hy Heath, John Lange, Clancy Lowered the Boom:

     Whenever he got his Irish up, Clancy lowered the boom.

   • 1997, Andrew M. Greeley, Irish Lace, page 296:

     The Priest is as fierce a fighter as I am when he gets his Irish up.

3. (countable, uncountable) Whiskey, or whisky, elaborated in Ireland.
   • 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat ‎:

     Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go out and have a smile, saying that he had found a place, round by the square, where you could really get a drop of Irish worth drinking.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

Irish (comparative more Irish, superlative most Irish)

1. Pertaining to or originating from Ireland or the Irish people.

   Sheep are typical in the Irish landscape.

   • 1992 April 26, “Hot Off the Press”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 3, Episode 5:

     A. Fink-Nottle: But it's absolute balderdash, Bertie. I mean, listen to this: "Sure and begorrah, I don't know what's after being the matter with you, Michael." I mean, what on earth is this "what's after being" stuff mean?
     B.W. Wooster: My dear old Gussie, that is how people think Irish people talk.

2. Pertaining to the Irish language.
3. (derogatory) nonsensical, daft or complex.
   • 1995, Irving Lewis Allen, The City in Slang: New York Life and Popular Speech:

     The slur continued with Irish confetti, a popular term for paving stones or Belgian bricks that were laid in New York streets beginning about 1832.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Erse
• Gaelic
• Wiktionary’s coverage of Irish terms
• Appendix:Irish Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Irish

Further reading

• Irish–English Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary — the Rosetta Edition.
• ISO 639-1 code ga, ISO 639-3 code gle (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Irish, gle ⁠

Anagrams

• Rishi, rishi, sirih

Cebuano

Etymology 1

From English Irish, from Middle English Irisce, from Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Éire (“Ireland”)), from Proto-Celtic *Īwerjū (“fat land, fertile”), from Proto-Indo-European *pi-wer- (“fertile”), from *peyH- (literally “fat”).

Proper noun

Irish

1. the Goidelic language indigenous to Ireland, also known as Irish Gaelic

Noun

Irish

1. an Irishman or Irishwoman

Adjective

Irish

1. pertaining to or originating from Ireland or the Irish people
2. pertaining to the Irish language

Etymology 2

From English Irish. Also a corruption of Iris.

Proper noun

Irish

1. a female given name from English

Middle English

Alternative forms

• Irishe, Irisse, Ireshe

Etymology

From Old English Īras (“Irishmen”), from Old Norse Írar, from Old Irish Ériu (modern Irish Éire (“Ireland”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiːriʃ/

Noun

Irish (uncountable)

1. Irish

Descendants

• English: Irish
• Yola: Eeerish, Eerish

References

• “Īrish, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.