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What the Puck..? 31.05.12

by Linda McGrory

DAVID Cameron might only be getting to know his Irish counterparts but the British Prime Minister might be interested to know that the word 'Tory' actually derives from Gaelic.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has recently been researching the origins of some common words that have their origins in Irish.
Lexicographer, Susie Dent, recently devoted her 'Origins of Words' section of the popular Channel 4 programme 'Countdown' to the research.
The Dictionary Corner resident word expert, told presenter, Nick Hewer, whose mother hailed from the North, that 'puck' in ice hockey owes its origins to the Irish 'poc' meaning a stroke or shot at the ball (sliotar) in hurling.
The research also shows that 'puck', as used in ice hockey, first appeared in a Boston newspaper in 1886 while Ireland did not field a national ice hockey side until 2004.
An ice hockey puck which owes its origins to the hurling sliotar.
According to OED lexicographer, Katherine Connor Martin, the oldest borrowing from Irish into English is 'mind'. This is from the Irish 'mionn', "an obsolete term for a type of ornament attested in Old English".
Meanwhile, most recent imports from Irish to English are 'craic', 'punt' and 'fleadh'.
"There was a steady trickle of Irish loanwords into English from the 15th through 18th centuries, but this increased to a flood during the 1800s. Oddly enough, this apex of Irish imports in English coincided with a period of steep and decisive decline for the Irish language itself," blogs Ms Connor Martin.
"The 19th century was also a period of mass emigration, during which Irish immigrants streamed to the rest of the United Kingdom and to North America, taking their distinctive vocabularies with them. After a millennium of linguistic coexistence, Irish origins lurk in some unexpected corners of the English lexicon, where the connection to Ireland itself has been obscured."
People might be surprised to learn that 'trousers' - or English 'trowse' - has its origins in the Irish and Scots Gaelic word 'triubhas'.
The OED records a wit in the 1600s as saying: “A jellous wife was like an Irish trouze, alwayes close to a mans tayle".
Other words derived from the Irish include 'slob' which appears to derive from the Irish 'slab' as well as 'galore' which comes from the Irish phrase 'go leor', and means “to sufficiency, enough”. According to the OED 'galore' as it is used in English "has taken on a more effusive meaning, implying not merely sufficiency but abundance".
The recent research also examines the word 'puss' as it is used for face or mouth - not as a synonym for cat. 'Puss' comes from the Irish 'pus', but is first attested in English from the US. There it had become a slang term before developing more widely into the compounds sourpuss and glamour puss.
Meanwhile, Mr Cameron and his party might be surprised to learn that their Tory nickname derives from a band of Irish outlaws or 'tóraidhe' from the mid 17th century.
Ms Connor Martin writes: "Soon the word was being used of outlaws as far afield as Scotland and even India. Then, during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81, those who wished to disinherit the Catholic heir presumptive to the British throne (known as Exclusionists or Whigs) used Tory as a disparaging nickname for their opponents.
"When that Anti-Exclusionist faction eventually coalesced into a political party, it kept the Tory name. The present-day Conservative Party in the UK is a descendant of that original party, though it no longer wholeheartedly embraces the Tory nickname."

*Linda is a self-confessed 'Countdown' addict.
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