228
ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND.
[CH. XIII.
Bum; to cart turf to market: bummer, a person who does so as a way of living, like Billy Heffernan in 'Knocknagow.' Bum-bailiff, a bog bailiff. (Grainger: Arm.) Used more in the northern half of Ireland than in the southern.
Bun; the tail of a rabbit. (Simmons: Arm.) Irish bun, the end.
Bunnans; roots or stems of bushes or trees. (Meath.) From Irish bun as in last word.
Bunnaun; a long stick or wattle. (Joyce: Limerick.)
Bunnioch; the last sheaf bound up in a field of reaped corn. The binder of this (usually a girl) will die unmarried. (MacCall: Wexford.)
Butt; a sort of cart boarded at bottom and all round the sides, 15 or 18 inches deep, for potatoes, sand, &c. (Limerick.) In Cork any kind of horse-cart or donkey-cart is called a butt, which is a departure from the (English) etymology. In Limerick any kind of cart except a butt is called a car; the word cart is not used at all.
Butthoon has much the same meaning as potthalowng, which see. Irish butún, same sound and meaning. (Munster.)
Butter up; to flatter, to cajole by soft sugary words, generally with some selfish object in view:—'I suspected from the way he was buttering me up that he came to borrow money.'
Byre: the place where the cows are fed and milked; sometimes a house for cows and horses, or a farmyard.
By the same token: this needs no explanation; it is a survival from Tudor English. (Hayden and Hartog.)
