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Michael Quinion makes a compelling argument in agreement with Jack: http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-sha1.htm As regards the word meaning a shelter, apparently it was first recorded in Ohio, and shortly after that in Canada, prior to the great influx of immigrant Irish workers. Either w...

There is a sociological reason why Canadian settlers would have wanted a word specifically for a workers' bothy at that time, and for them getting the word from French. There is no particular reason for a word getting transferred from Irish then rather than at any other time, particularly when what ...

... a lot more sense, since they place it in Canada in the early 19th century and there seems to be no earlier usage. If it had been derived from Gaelic it should have been around centuries before that, and should have been known more widely. Not necessarily. There were a lot of Irish immigrants ...

... a lot more sense, since they place it in Canada in the early 19th century and there seems to be no earlier usage. If it had been derived from Gaelic it should have been around centuries before that, and should have been known more widely.

... down. In the French-Canadian branch of my family, my Grandmother regularly made 'bannock', clearly named from Scot's usage. Not sure what the Gaelic would be for that. Bob

""As a general rule never buy a book with a leprechaun,a bunch of shamrocks or a pint of porter on the cover!""

Great. NOW you tell me!

On the origin of 'dour' the Dictionary of the Scots Language says "Of doubtful origin. The vowel is not the normal equivalent of the u in F. dur or L. dūrus." See http://www.dsl.ac.uk/

Immoderator mentions Liverpool,where a common - and unique - term of affection is 'wack'.But I've only heard it applied to men/boys.Surely from 'a mhac' - 'son'? Redwolf -I was 'corrected' by a fellow Irishman for writing 'Slán' on the end of a greeting card! Quite a lot of indifference to the ould ...

Merriam-Webster sez that the Latin durus (hard) is the source, and the word "dour" itself is from Middle English. But who knows; this stuff gets convoluted after a bit of time, and even the best dictionaries evade infallibility. Anyway and FWIW, in reasonably typical Yank fashion I defiant...

Is there any reason to suppose that the English (or possibly Scots) term "dour" came from the Irish "dúr" (stupid)?

[Thread revival. - Mod] Shanty,as in shanty towns etc.Sean ti.Saw an old wreck on Oileáin Cléire with this name.Any old derelict house really. Sure. "Sean-Tí" = "Old House" (quite literally) Redwolf I've seen some other derivation for it - from French Canadian,I think.Seemed a b...

macdara wrote:[Thread revival. - Mod]

Shanty,as in shanty towns etc.Sean ti.Saw an old wreck on Oileáin Cléire with this name.Any old derelict house really.

Sure. "Sean-Tí" = "Old House" (quite literally)

Redwolf

[Thread revival. - Mod]

Shanty,as in shanty towns etc.Sean ti.Saw an old wreck on Oileáin Cléire with this name.Any old derelict house really.

not to put the kibosh on this thread....... 1836, kye-bosk, in slang phrase put the kibosh on, of unknown origin, despite intense speculation. Looks Yiddish, but origin in early 19c. English slang seems to argue against this. One candidate is Ir. caip bháis, caipín báis "cap of death," som...

I couldnt possibly take the credit for it. All dues go to the Dublin Viking Museum where I took the tour with the kids round 10years ago :D . Where I live in Belfast we still retain alot of the grammatical structures of Irish if not the words themselves. We still say `I be down in Maddens` as a way ...