Motley Idioms of Cavan folk during the middle of the last century

BY BRENDAN MURRAY

Idioms are the life and spirit of language; usually they are colourful abrasive comments on personal attributes and traits, as well as advice and sharp philosophical comment. In the past they were part and parcel of the everyday language of country people, but alas, in these modern urbane times, they are being lost through lack of usage. They were definitely not the language of the schoolroom; certain ones were popular, flavoured by the atmosphere and circumstances of the times, be they arduous, joyful or religious. They preserve words and expressions peculiar to individual regions and were mostly used by women, the cruder ones by inebriated men.

• “Time enough” lost the ducks
• And there I was, and the train gone, and the ticket in me hand (Opportunity just missed)
• I hadn’t even time to bless myself (I was exceedingly busy)
• Come day, go day, God send Sunday (Things are being put on the “long finger” - promised undertakings not occurring)
•An idle mind is the devil’s workshop (“Keep busy” - Granny’s advice)
• Look at me; me face is me fortune! (Spiteful comment said in the first person singular by a jealous woman about a girl with no dowry, fond of flaunting her good looks)
• All he has is what God gave him (He has no wealth- a bad catch)
• He’s a right little canat (A rascal)
• He’s got a pern head on him (a small brainy head)
• Here’s “me head and me ase is coming” (Nickname for a man who walked with his head and upper body forward and consequently his behind prominent - a gait probably acquired from pushing barrow or plough)
• He’s as crooked as a ram’s horn (Completely untrustworthy)
• I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him
• That wan - she’s a right rip (A troublemaker)
• She’s a right Dolly Vardan (a cheeky little madam)
• She’s a right targe, a right tartermetic (Always welcomes an argument)
• A right targy face of a wan (She has a bold expression)
• I could see through her; I can read her like a book (Her strategy is always obvious to me)
• She’s a right little scallywag (A little trickster of a child)
• She’s a real sticking plaster (Follows friend or husband everywhere)
• She sticks to him like a leach
• She’s an ashy-pet (She sits behind the fire all day “minding” the ashes - doing no work)
• Well! She made by blood boil (Raised my blood pressure - usually by her sharp comments)
• I’ll crucify you if you do that again - ( a mother speaking to a bold child)
• Now! We can look them all straight in the face. (We have paid them what we owe them, to the last half-penny (thanks to that little windfall)
• Her husband’s response to the above comment would be - (darling, put on the pan of rashers!)
• Between me, you and the four walls (That is top secret - not for repeating)
• That wan, she can’t hold her water (She can’t keep a secret)
• I don’t believe you, not even if you swore it on a stack of bibles (Women’s response to “tall story” usually told by her inebriated husband
• Hit me now and the child in me arms (Said loudly by fighting tinker woman to attract attention to her aggressive husband)
• Go on; fight; ye’r mother never reared a jibber (boys encouraging a pal to fight)
• Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe (don’t depend on everyone’s advice)
• Never a truer word was spoken, or, you never said a truer word (There’s no doubting the honest truth)
• She’d give you the shirt off her back (She’s a very decent woman)
• She’d give you the bit out of her mouth (yes! she’s a “terrible dacant” woman)
• “She’s as mane as duck’s water”
• She wouldn’t let him smell her water (he’s not good enough for her)
• Here comes “sweet arse” or “sweet arse the girl” (describing a female who is insincere, overly gracious and ladylike)
• He’s as honest as the day is long
• He’s an honest to God footballer (He’s safe and dependable, tries no fancy stuff, just high catching and long accurate kicking)
• The poor man was “short taken” ... he had to run outside to make his water (urinate)
• It’s gone west (Probably stolen)
• I haven’t a hate (I have nothing, said by a young fellow turning out his pockets to a pal to prove he has no money)
• He’s gone, hate and plate (Not a trace of him left behind)
• He’s gone to scrap’ins (Very thin - the flesh has fallen off him)
• As dead as a door nail (Used when confirming that a small animal, such as a rat, a mouse, a cat is really dead)
• He’s stone dead! - He’s stone cold dead! - Not a spark left in him” said by youngsters checking if a small animal was dead or alive
• Someone has just walked across my grave (Said by a person who just experienced a cold shiver running through their body)
• He fell out of his standing (He fell flat to the ground, dead or unconscious)
• “A real “go-boy” that’s what he is (a scamp, he busily evades)
• She was dressed to kill, dolled up to the 9s (wearing beautiful clothes and looking great)
• There’s many a slip between cup and the lip (Be careful; a mistake can occur at the last second if you are over confident)
• Cast not a ‘clout until May is well out (In the interest of your health, don’t shed any of your winter garments, not even a small piece of protective cloth, before the end of May)
• The older the fiddle, the sweeter the tune (Encouraging words for a young lass to marry an older man)
• One swallow never made a summer
• The “afaluve” (smell) would knock you down at a hundred yards
• Manners maketh the man and it also maketh the woman
• The plate was alive with them (with dead rats, cats, fleas that would bite the arse of you, etc)
• Do you know what ‘thought’ did? Put a feather in a dunghill and thought he’d grow a hen
• “Arrah go on; Go away outa that!” (Said in a friendly conversation - I know you are joking “pulling my leg”
• You’re dominoscoed (You’re beaten)
• Get outa me sight, the lot of ye (Scram!)
• That shook you and the brown bread worked you (Said by a boy shouldering another during the ‘emergency’ period when only brown bread was available)