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Interesting. Did you notice they misdefined the Irish word? They were correct in that "brógán" is a diminutive of "bróg," but "bróg" doesn't mean "brogue," it means "shoe"!

Redwolf

Redwolf wrote:I wonder if, at one point, Irish immigrants used "brógán" to refer to low shoes as opposed to boots, or something like that?

Could be. We always used the term to refer to ankle-high leather boots like these:


Which agrees with this definition.

Growing up in northeastern Tennessee, we always called our leather farming/work boots "brogans". Don't hear that used much these days. Huh. You know, I remember that, too. Mom and Dad, at least, used the word "brogan" when I was but a sprat, but I seem to recall that the word's ...

Growing up in northeastern Tennessee, we always called our leather farming/work boots "brogans". Don't hear that used much these days. Huh. You know, I remember that, too. Mom and Dad, at least, used the word "brogan" when I was but a sprat, but I seem to recall that the word's ...

The word "brogue" (as a slang term for an Irish accent) comes from the Irish word "bróg" ("shoe"). I've heard a couple of theories for this, both derogatory: The first being that it started with the English making fun of the fact that the Irish often didn't have shoes ...

As it happens there is a Scots Canadian song as Gàidhlig Chanaideanach from I think the 19th century, and I believe it was collected in Newfoundland by Margaret Bennett, called Òran Nam Mogaisean or "Song of the Moccasins" which ...

One (rather dubious) example I heard over the summer was "moccasin", which a Scottish friend suggested to me came from the Scottish Gaelic "mo chasan" ("my feet"). The story goes that a Scottish fur trapper was bartering with some Native Americans one day and, pointing ...

The word "bog" actually comes from the Irish adjective "bog," which means "soft" (most likely by way of "talamh bog" -- "soft ground.") The actual Irish word for a bog (as in where you did turf) is "portach." Of course, from that you get &q...

... on standard North American Englishes, but in places like Cape Breton you hear quite a few constructions that must have either come from Scottish Gaelic directly, or from Irish via Newfoundland (depending on whether they're heard more in the country or in the towns). I'm thinking of things like ...

... One (rather dubious) example I heard over the summer was "moccasin", which a Scottish friend suggested to me came from the Scottish Gaelic "mo chasan" ("my feet"). The story goes that a Scottish fur trapper was bartering with some Native Americans one day and, ...

A couple of others: "Dig" (as in "you dig?") came into the jazz lexicon via the Irish "an dtuigeann tú?" ("do you understand?"...also used as a general place holder, in the same way we might say "you know?") "Phoney." Actually came from the...

It was suggested by one of my Oideas Gael teachers that the British slang "Smashing" meaning something very good comes from "is maith sin".

"Galore" (go leor) is an obvious one. My copy of Slanguage: A Dictionary of Irish Slang by Bernard Share has a lot of these. Borrowings galore, in fact. Galore made it into english because of Compton Mackenzie's novel Whisky Galore which was filmed under that name in the UK, but renamed T...

Pixilated, pixel, pixie, etc.

Smithereens