gaelic cuss words?

[Jarvisfamily4]

I was struck with a thunderbolt of literary inspiration, and have reluctantly agreed to write the story down.

I need to know a few expressions in gaeilc, though. Particularly, for tonight's writing, a cuss word along the lines of "Damn'. In the context of: my conscious is making me do something good that I really don't want to do or have time to do... Damm!

But, I'm sure as the story progresses, I will want other phrases in there, as points of interest.

Do you know of any accurate sites that do Irish Gaelic translations, or anyone out there know enough to help me?

Thanks!

Danielle

[Dathi]

Greetings,

"Feck" immediately springs to mind!!! This is the general purpose Irish imprecation, applies to many situations and acceptable in "polite" society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feck

Not so much Gaelic but in very common usage in Hiberno-English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-En ... _of_phrase

I can't vouch for the etymology, but this paper sounds right: Some Notes on the Origin and Meaning of the Word 'Feck'. by Pádraig Ó Méalóid

http://trivialities.livejournal.com/3626.html

And more here:
http://www.feck.net/splange/ftfaq.html#feck

If that's a bit close to the "other" word you may try these: mac an donais! (Damn it!) or mac na galla! Mac na bèiste! (Son of a bitch)


CFN,

Dathi

[DJ Droood]

"pogue mahone" (my granny pronounced it "pok-ma-hon") meaning "kiss my (grits)"

She also used to call me a "Bleaka Vhor" (remembered phonetic spelling), which I think roughly translated to "fibber".

If she was upset, she would shake her head and say "yee-a, yee-a, yee-a" (god, god, god)

[skydove]

Does that mean then that the Irish band 'The Pogues' actually means 'The Kisses" - the mind boggles!

[Art]

Since we're digging broadening horizons and digging into the language, methinks we'll move this thread to the Irish language sub-forum. Residing there it can be viewed and touched by noted language scholars and common pub denizens alike all to the fuller exploration of the question.

[Beith]

Hi,

Feck! is a Hiberno-English word (ie. Irish-English) and specific to use here (although spreading further afield thanks to tv series like Father Ted) and would be the kind of expression you're looking for Jarvisfamily. It's used as a word for many things - as an expletive "Feck!", an adjective "that feckin' TV won't work", an order "feck off!", a question or statement of surprise "What the feck?!", a statement of disbelief: "Would you ever feck off out of that?!" (as in "I don't believe you") you name it. or derivatives such as "he's a right fecker that one!". It's harmless. Everyone uses it. You can be feckin' sure of it!

Póg mo thón (anglicized 'pogue mahone' and cheekily used on some pub names in some places where Irish isn't understood) literally means "kiss my ass". (Not sure what grits are...I thought it was some kind of American breakfast cereal! but I suspect DJ Drood means something else entirely!) yes "the Pogues" is an anglicized spelling of Póg in Irish which means "kiss" and put into an anglicized plural. The band name comes from that: "The kisses".

Día is God "jee-ah" but pronounced "yee-ah" when the vocative particle precedes it as in "A Dhía" (O God) "Ah yee-ah" etc.



There are many other swear-words but I'm not going to post them here. Far too rude!

however a link of interest: The HibernoEnglish Dictionary archive ( I posted this previously here in the Irish forum but here's another link to it)http://www.hiberno-english.com/archive.htm

Professor T.P.Dolan is the compiler of a wonderful Hiberno English Dictionary. It's a wonderful work - a collection of terms in dictionary style arrangement with explanations and means of use of words used in everyday English spoken in Ireland, which are not found in or represented in the English language generally. A mix of Irish words, phonetically anglicized Irish words, hybrids, slang expressions specific to here.Some of our idiom and syntax comes from Irish langauge, so we have many expressions and use of word order different to what one finds in the "Queen's English". The book was published some years ago and there is an online archive where you can spend many happy hours feckin' away your time looking up the blaggards, bogtrotters and Biffos to your heart's content!

Enjoy it.

Now feck off with the lot of yis!

Beith

[pangurban]

Does that mean then that the Irish band 'The Pogues' actually means 'The Kisses" - the mind boggles!

If I remember my musical history correctly "The Pogues" were originally called " "Pouge Mahone" and changed it when people caught on to what it meant.

[skydove]

It all makes sense now thanks Pangurban and Beith.

[wyeuro]

feicim /e! i always thought 'feic' was the singular imperative of 'to see', i.e. equivalent of 'look!', and that that was why it wasn't considered obscene in irish, except by the english authorities which is why they (we convicts ) used to get flogged, hanged and transported for speaking it (not always all three or in that order ) and i had worked out that 'f/ag /amh' meant 'leave' plus interjection of dismay. but don't worry, i'm not going to insist upon it.
sl/ainte
wyverne /|\

[Jarvisfamily4]

I thought I was going crazy - I could have SWORN I posted this thread, and when I went back, it was gone... I almost re-posted it thinking I had shut off the computer or left the page without posting!

I forgot to mention that the story takes place in 1847... don't know about Gaelic, but I know English swearing has changed slightly in that time!

I love the lively number of posts here!
I think Feck might be a bit strong-sounding. I just read the many links about it, and while in Irish it is NOT offensive, I think in an American book, to those of us who do not know better, it would sound too close to it's vulgar American cousin.
I think something more along the lines of the 'mac na...." explatives, but have a quesion: the first is written as Mac AN and the rest are Mac NA. Is that a type-o, or is it really different? and are the two last once both S.O.B., or only that last one... if only the last one what is the meaning of the second one?
I am very particular about my cuss-words, aren't I!

I fully understood the reference to kiss-my-(grits)!!!!

I am going to look up those links - thank you. Hopefully one will also be a translation page along the lines of babblefish (which doesn't have gaelic so far as I can see).

(I am going to write a sentance in this post that doesn't begin with "I"....)

The next two phrases I needed were 'Miss", as in calling out to a stranger on the street... 'excuse me, miss!"... (or whatever the equivellent would be) and the expression "No Irish Need Apply' translated into Irish Gaelic.

Thanks all - - I'm off to look at those links now. Keep swearing away!!

[wyeuro]

I just thought of the one in the folk song, 'finnigan's wake', where he wakes from the dead(drunk) saying, 't-ainm an diel, d'ye think i'm dead?' or something like it, meaning 'name of the devil' i think. it sounds like 'TAHnm 'n' JEEL'.
wyverne /|\

[Jarvisfamily4]

Thank you for these contributions... the supporting character has just had to go to confession for invoking the devil (twice!)
It's perfect, and as the story unfolds, I'm sure he'll be needing the services of the confessional a few more times!