{"id":1223,"date":"2025-03-17T09:54:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T10:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2025-03-18T23:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T23:20:00","slug":"nine-english-words-you-probably-didnt-know-came-from-irish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/17\/nine-english-words-you-probably-didnt-know-came-from-irish\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine English words you probably didn\u2019t know came from Irish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"REPUB\/REDIRECT\t<\/div>
From slogans to smithereens, you\u2019ve got the Irish to thank for your craic-ing language (Picture: Shutterstock\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a> gets millions of people parading the streets clad in green clothes, with shamrocks painted on their face, celebrating Irish culture.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the hard graft of Irish migrants, Paddy\u2019s Day is celebrated all over the world in 2025.<\/p>\n

From Sydney to Santiago, Dublin to Dubai, and Tokyo to Toronto, you\u2019re bound to found some craic. Only St Nick could compete for the title of the world\u2019s favourite saint.<\/p>\n

But you might encounter Irish words and phrases more often than you think.<\/p>\n

Some of our most beloved slang and terminology has roots in the Irish language, known to its speakers as Gaeilge<\/p>\n

From the nickname of the Conservative Party<\/a> to our slang for having fun, and one of Britain\u2019s favourite drinks<\/a>, many have a surprising origin on the island of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Craic<\/h3>\n

\u2018What\u2019s the craic\u2019, you might ask your friends as an alternative to \u2018what\u2019s the story\u2019 or \u2018what\u2019s happening\u2019 when you meet them for a couple of pints down the pub.<\/p>\n

And you\u2019ll be sure to have some \u2018craic\u2019 once the juices are flowing.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"LONDON,\t<\/div>
Can you guess the link between Ronnie Scott\u2019s famous jazz club and the Irish language (Picture:Ricky Vigil M\/GC Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It needs little explanation, but for the unacquainted, it\u2019s a word meaning fun or a good time, that\u2019s entered English from Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But its origin is a little more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

Testament to the exchange of culture across these isles, craic actually started off inBritain.<\/p>\n

It was picked up from the Scots and northeast English word \u2018crack\u2019, meaning loud gossip, banter or bragging.<\/p>\n

Craic then acquired its characteristic Irish spelling, and it has kept this since returning to popular use in England.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"CHICAGO,\t<\/div>
Chicago\u2019s decision to dye its river green is a controversial choice some see as overboard (Picture: Jacek Boczarski\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Galore<\/h3>\n

This word for \u2018abundance\u2019 \u2013 you\u2019ve got Guinness galore \u2013 has a slightly less grand meaning in the original Irish.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the anglicised spelling of \u2018go leoir\u2019, meaning \u2018enough\u2019, which was picked up by English speakers some 400 years ago.<\/p>\n

Hooligan<\/h3>\n

Conjouring images of a drunken rabble brawling after a football <\/a>match, this word for a violent troublemaker actually comes from an Irish family name.<\/p>\n

Variously spelled Houlihan, O\u2019Houlihan or \u00d3 hUallach\u00e1in, the English term \u2018hooligan\u2019 first entered print in 19th century police reports on young gangs in London.<\/p>\n

It was popularised around the start of the 20th century, possibly due to its use as the name for a fictional rowdy Irish family in a music hall song.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
There\u2019ll be Guinness and craic galore this Paddy\u2019s Day (Picture: William West\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Slogan<\/h3>\n

It might be strange to think that every political campaign, commercial advertisement and the occasional school group project has its own \u2018battle cry\u2019.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s exactly what slogan means in the Old Irish and G\u00e0idhlig \u2013 Scottish Gaelic \u2013 it\u2019s derived from.<\/p>\n

Slogan came to English as \u2018sluagh ghairm\u2019 \u2013 the words for \u2018army\u2019 or \u2018crowd\u2019 plus \u2018cry\u2019.<\/p>\n

The term now has the same meaning in Irish and Scots Gaelic as it does in English.<\/p>\n

Smithereens<\/h3>\n

The exact origin of this word is still up for debate, but it\u2019s likely it came from the Irish word \u2018smidir\u00edn\u00ed\u2019, meaning \u2018little bits\u2019.<\/p>\n

Smidir\u00edn\u00ed is derived from \u2018smiodar\u2019, which means a fragment\u2019, with the addition of the \u2018een\u2019 sound indicating something is small.<\/p>\n

Ter ar wack<\/h3>\n

A colloquialism from Liverpool, this somewhat old-fashioned farewell reflects the sheer scale of Irish migration to and through this port city.<\/p>\n

Millions arrived in the decades after the \u2018famine\u2019 of the 1840s. By 1851, a fifth of the city\u2019s population was Irish, many of them living in damp, overcrowded cellars prone to flooding.<\/p>\n

An estimated 75% of Liverpool\u2019s population has some Irish ancestry, and you can see that in the local slange.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ter ar wack\u2019 is believed to originate from the Irish phrase, \u2018tabhair aire, a mhac\u2019.<\/p>\n

Pronounced almost identically, it means \u2018take care son\u2019.<\/p>\n

Tory<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
The Conservatives have come a long way from the linguistic origins of their \u2018Tory\u2019 nickname, among the outlaws of several centuries ago (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How often do you see Conservative politicians insulted to their faces on national telly?<\/p>\n

More than you might think, and not just when news anchors are struggling to pronounce Jeremy Hunt\u2019s name live on air.<\/p>\n

The popular nickname for the Conservative Party<\/a> \u2013 the Tories \u2013 comes from the Irish word for outlaw, \u2018t\u00f3raidhe\u2019.<\/p>\n

Its use in English dates all the way back to the reign of King Charles II in the late 17th century.<\/p>\n

At that time it was used to refer to supporters of the future King James II, a protestant, who defeated is catholic rival in succeeding to the throne.<\/p>\n

The Irish previously used it to refer to English and Scottish settlers stealing their land.<\/p>\n

Whiskey<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\t\t\"This\t<\/div>
You\u2019d probably be ill-advised to exclusively drink whiskey, but our ancestors thought differently when the water quality was worse (Picture: Tullamore Dew\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the world\u2019s favourite liquors, whiskey has a poetic meaning in Irish, from which it was borrowed nearly 500 years ago.<\/p>\n

The Irish term still in use today, uisce beatha, literally means \u2018water of life\u2019.<\/p>\n

Uisce beatha was itself a direct translation of the Latin aqua vitae, which referred to distilled alcohols.<\/p>\n

Jazz<\/h3>\n

This is a slightly controversial one as there are various etymologies floating around.<\/p>\n

But one popular among Irish people who jokingly claim \u2018the Irish invented jazz<\/a>\u2019, is that the name for this music genre comes from the Irish word for heat, \u2018teas\u2019.<\/p>\n

If this is the case, it\u2019s possible the word was used to describe the energy and emotions around the music.<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From slogans to smithereens, you\u2019ve got the Irish to thank for your craic-ing language (Picture: Shutterstock\/Getty Images) St Patrick\u2019s Day gets millions of people parading the streets clad in green clothes, with shamrocks painted on their face, celebrating Irish culture. Thanks to the hard graft of Irish migrants, Paddy\u2019s Day is celebrated all over the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}