Irish/Vocabulary/Nouns

Irish is very rich in descriptive nouns - not all of them particularly polite or politically correct. Here are some:

• amadán an idiot

• amhas a goon, a thug

• bómán a half-wit, a blockhead

• cliobóg a strong girl

• cneámhaire crook, con artist

• falsóir a lazy-bones. This is typically an Ulster word, at least in this sense. Further south, people prefer to call a lazy-bones leisceoir.

• fámaire means actually a summer visitor, a sightseer, a tourist, but this is a relatively new meaning. An older meaning was "an idler, a loiterer", and this may say something about how hard-working country people regarded early tourists who could actually afford not to work! - Other words for "tourist" are turasóir (from turas, which means "tour, journey") and cuairteoir, which is the usual Irish word for "visitor", but can be used of tourists.

• leisceoir a lazy-bones

• lúbaire a crafty person, a twister, a treacherous person, a con artist, a deceiver, a tricker

• meabhróg a bright and intelligent girl

• óinseach a stupid woman

• plobaire a blubbering person, a puffy-cheeked person, a fat person

• seifteoir someone who is resourceful (the word is related to the English word "shift", which was borrowed into Irish as seift = expedient, resource, resort)

• slúiste an idle loiterer

• slusaí a flatterer

• socadán a busybody (who puts his or her soc - muzzle, snout - into other people's affairs)