Page:English as we speak it in Ireland - Joyce.djvu/224

CHAPTER XIII.

VOCABULARY AND INDEX.

[In this Vocabulary, as well indeed as through the whole book, gh and ch are to be sounded guttural, as in lough and loch, unless otherwise stated or implied. Those who cannot sound the guttural may take the sound of k instead, and they will not be far wrong.]

Able; strong, muscular, and vigorous:—'Nagle was a strong able man.'

Able dealer; a schemer. (Limerick.)

Acushla; see Cushlamochree.

Adam's ale; plain drinking-water.

Affirming, assenting, and saluting, 9.

Agra or Agraw: a term of endearment; my love: vocative of Irish grádh, love.

Ahaygar; a pet term; my friend, my love: vocative of Irish téagur, love, a dear person.

Aims-ace; a small amount, quantity, or distance. Applied in the following way very generally in Munster:—'He was within an aim's-ace of being drowned' (very near). A survival in Ireland of the old Shakesperian word ambs-ace, meaning two aces or two single points in throwing dice, the smallest possible throw.

Air: a visitor comes in:—'Won't you sit down Joe and take an air of the fire.' (Very usual.)

Airt used in Ulster and Scotland for a single point of the compass:—

'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw I dearly like the west.'

(Burns.)

It is the Irish áird, a point of the compass.

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