shoneen
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Irish Seoinín (“Johnny”), from Seán (“John, John Bull”) + -ín (diminutive suffix).
Pronunciation
Noun
shoneen (plural shoneens)
- (Ireland, derogatory, ethnic slur) An Irish person considered excessively Anglophile, an Irish person who acts English or desires to be part of English society.
- 1889, W B Yeats, The Ballad of Father O'Hart:
- Good Father John O'Hart
In penal days rode out
To a shoneen who had free lands
And his own snipe and trout.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- So then the citizens begin talking about the Irish language and the corporation meeting and all to that and the shoneens that can’t speak their own language