Glossary
Finding yourself a little lost in the local dialect in Big Girl, Small Town? Can’t tell your tae from your tae? Here’s a glossary of the Aghybogeyisms for international audiences, with pronunciations by wonderful voice-actor Tina Lynch.
Ach - Exclamation, often used at the start of a sentence to express empathy, unhappiness, sympathy, disappointment etc.
Aghybogey - (placename); a fictional village in rural Northern Ireland (from the Irish Achadh Bogaigh meaning 'boggy/swampy field').
Alkie - Slang for alcoholic or binge drinker
Ah - I
ah'm - I'm
anna - And a
ann - And
arse - Buttocks or irritating person
Aye - Yes
Babby - Baby. Plural ‘babbies’.
baste - Literal meaning is beast. Hateful, loathsome, scary thing or person; “That was a baste of a day” referring to a bad day at work. Used at times as a strong condemnation or insult for a person.
Bate - Beat or beaten. Also means to hurriedly complete an action: “I bate my lunch into as me I was due on a conference call at 12.45pm”.
Blether - Mindless talking, often a near monologue.
Bogging - Dirty, filthy
Bogger - Insulting name for a person from the country.
Boke - Vomit
Bokey - Nauseous
Boking - Vomiting
Bout ye - Shortened version of ‘what about you?’ - a friendly enquiry into someone’s mental and physical health that is often only answered by saying ‘Bout ye?’ in return.
childern - Colloquial pronunciation of children.
cleastered - Plastered with a sticky or greasy substance.
clabber - Muck (often farmyard mud mixed with animal faeces)
clart - A dirty, unhygienic female.
Clonbogey - (placename) a fictional townland (from the Irish Cluin Bogaigh meaning Swampy Meadow).
Coul - Cold; feeling cold; extreme low temperatures; the common cold
Cowped - Toppled over
Craic - Great fun; the latest news; the status of any subject.
Croil - A very small person, a runt, a stunted fruit or vegetable.
Cuddy - A young woman or small girl. Plural: cuddies.
Cub - Young man or small boy
Cuz - Because
Dander - A gentle stroll
Diddies - Breasts
Doing - A physical assault or a traditional prank before a wedding where the bride or groom (or both parties) are tied up in the back of a pick-up or trailer, covered in the contents of the kitchen bin and driven around their local area.
Eejit - Intellectual inferior; person who gets on your nerves
Fag - Cigarette
Fáilte - Irish for welcome
Fanny - Female genitalia (not buttocks)
Footer - To fiddle with something. Footery meaning something small and fiddly that requires time and patience to tackle.
Free State - The Irish Free State was founded in 1922 with 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties. Though Ireland officially became the Republic of Ireland in 1948, the term ‘Free State’ is still used informally by some rural Nationalists.
Frig-all - Not much, nothing
Frig - An expletive – milder than fuck – used to express disbelief, surprise or shock.
Frigger - Insult applied to an irritating person.
Fut - Foot
garvaghy - (placename); a fictional townload in rural Northern Ireland (from the Irish Garbhachadh meaning rough field).
Gumption - Initiative, intelligence, common sense
Dirning - Droning on
Dryshite - Someone who is zero craic, or a bit of a pain to get rid of
Gawk - (Verb) to look intensely (often open-mouthed).
(noun) an ungainly male
Gleek - A quick, covert glance.
Gob - Mouth
Gobshite - Insult levelled at a know-it-all or an irritating person.
G’wan - Go on
Gulder - To roar, shout
gurning - Crying or complaining
fella - Fellow, man, chap.
foundered - Feeling very cold, next to hypothermia
hallion - A large, uncouth male who is often up to no good
internment - Refers to the British Army’s mass arrest and imprisonment without trial of 342 people suspected of being involved with the IRA.
hoke - Rummage – to search for something physically, by going through objects
hoor - Whore
hooring - Can mean rushing around, driving fast, or the act of prostitution.
kilt - Killed or in extremities – e.g. overworked, in pain, under pressure.
leggarred - Heavily applied, often used to describe layering something on top of something else (e.g. butter on bread)
lamped - The condition of being drunk or having been punched.
lock - A small amount (more than a couple, but less than a wheen).
langered - Very drunk
lug - (Noun) ear (verb) to carry something very heavy or cumbersome
mank - Muck, dirt, filth
Meenkeeragh - (placename) from the Irish Mín na gcaorach meaning "Mountain Pasture of the Sheep”
Dunree - (placename) from the Irish An Dún Riabhach, meaning "Grey Fort"
Month’s mind - A requiem mass held one month after someone’s death.
musta - Must have
nyammen - Whinging; crying in a self-pitying, attention-seeking way; long-winded expression of displeasure at a person or situation; a young kitten’s cry.
on the lock - Getting drunk in a public place.
on the tear - Getting drunk in a series of places, both public and private.
oxter - Armpit
pish - (Noun) urine (verb) urinating or raining heavily
Prod - Insulting abbreviation for Protestant often used by Catholic nationalists.
the Rah - The Irish Republican Army
Reek - (Verb) emitting smoke (noun) pungent odour
Redd up - To tidy up
Reddener - Blush
Rift -Burp or belch
Scart - To dodge or make a quick pass around something
Sheugh - A drainage ditch at the edge of a field, often full of rain water.
Settee - Sofa, couch
Skitter - Diarrhoea; an annoying person or animal; a youth
Snootery - Snobby; posh
Steaming - Drunk
Stocious - Drunk
tae - To
tae - Tea
Taig - An ethnic slur used by some Protestant loyalists to refer to Catholic nationalists. It has been appropriated by some Catholics to self-describe.
The Cause - Euphemism for the IRA’s armed paramilitary campaign against British rule in Ireland usually used by supporters of the campaign.
Thole - Put up with, endure
Thon - That object or person over there.
til -To
till - Until
wan - One
wean - Child – a corruption of ‘wee one’
wee - Small
weemen - Women
well oiled - Describing the condition of someone who is feeling the effects of having consumed a large amount of alcohol
wile - (Adverb) very, meaning extremely, e.g. I’m wile tired. (adjective) terrible, shocking, e.g. ‘isn’t it wile about climate change?’
whatter - Water
wouldnta - Would not have
wrecked - Tired or drunk (depending on the context)
ye -You
yer - Your
GAA - Gaelic Athletic Association – the governing body of Irish hurling and Gaelic football.
RTÉ - Raidió Teilifís Éireann - Irish national public broadcasting service
BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation - British national public broadcasting service
UTV - Ulster Television - Northern Irish TV channel
Civil Resistance - The use of nonviolent resistance by Nationalists to challenge British rule.
Long Kesh - A colloquial name for Her Majesty's Prison, Maze, a prison in Northern Ireland used to house paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles.
NHS - National health service
Sinn Fein - An Irish republican political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.