An Fháinleog Caibidil 8

ailt08/03/2011

Is í a chneá féin is luaithe a mhothaíonn gach duine Everyone feels their own hurt first.

1. Some compound words
We meet beaguchtach, which means loss of courage, again. The word méarchlár is made up from méar = finger, and clár = board, and means ‘keyboard’. Note again that clár is aspirated.

It is a bit more difficult to explain the compound word seanléim in the phrase beidh mé ar mo sheanléim go luath.Léim is a jump, and sean- (which we met before in the word seanfhondúirí, and is also in the word seanfhocal, a proverb) generally means ‘old’, as in seanaimseartha = old-fashioned; seanathair = grandfather; seanbhean = old woman; seanmháthair = grandmother; seanduine = old person (usually an old man); seanscéal = old story. When someone says Tá seanaithne agam ar Mháire, you could guess that the person speaking knows Máire of old, and when someone says Tá seancheann ar an pháiste sin you could easily guess that this child has an old head on him, although it may not be obvious that, in Irish, this is less a compliment than a comment that the child’s precociousness is more than a bit irritating.

However, sean- is also used as an intensifier. The phrase in ard mo chinn means at the top of my voice, but i sean-ard mo chinn means even louder. Rinne mé mo dhícheall means that I did my best, while rinne mé mo sheandícheall means that my best was not just a huge effort, but an effort that strained every muscle and sinew in my body.
Seanléim belongs to this category. Thug mé mo sheanléim means that I gave the very best jump that I could, while beidh mé ar mo sheanléim go luath means that I will soon be completely recovered, in the best of form, fighting fit.

2. Sin mar a bhí an scéal
Scéal is a word you learn early, and you learn that it means ‘story’. Well and good, but it can mean a lot more. In his great Irish-English Dictionary, Patrick Dineen tells a fuller story – “Scéal … a story, tale or legend, a piece of news, tidings, intelligence, message, an event or matter …” The best way of coming to terms with this plethora of meanings is through examples:
Cén scéal? – What’s new? What’s the crack? What’s going on?
Dheamhan scéal – Damn the bit (one possible answer to the above)
Sin mar atá an scéal – That’s how things are
Cad é mar atá an scéal agat? – How are things with you? How’s life?
Sin scéal eile ar fad – That is quite another matter
Tá scéal ag dul thart – There’s a rumour going around `
Dála an scéil – By the way
Le scéal fada a dhéanamh gairid – to make a long story short
Scéal scéil – second-hand news, hearsay
Drochscéal – bad news
Ní scéal rúin é más fios do thriúr é – It is no secret if three people know it (Proverb)

Scéal i mbarr bata – this was the phrase proposed for a telegram around the time they were proposing gearrán iarrainn for a bicycle. It was based on the early Irish sagas, when messages would be written in the Ogham alphabet on a stick and sent by a runner. The term died a natural death, being replaced by the elegantly appropriate compound word sreangscéal, sreang being a wire, and scéal meaning news, tidings, message, or whatever you’re having yourself.

3. Fools and foolishness
Nach mé atá amaideach. Nach mé atá seafóideach.
Both amaideach and seafóideach mean foolish. Irish is rich in terms for fools and folly.

The first word, amaideach, is the most widely used. A fool is an amadán, a word that came into English as ‘amadaun’ or ‘omadhawn’. A boc-amadán is the exact equivalent of a buck eejit, and a deargamadán means a total eejit (literally: a red eejit). Another related noun is amaidí, which generally refers to a general state of silliness:
Stad den amaidí – Stop acting the fool, Stop clowning around.
Rinne mé amadán dom/díom féin – I made a fool of myself
Is minic ádh ar amadán – A fool is often lucky (proverb)
Ba mhinic a tháinig caint chríonna ó bhéal amadáin – Many’s the time a fool talked sense (proverb)
‘Amadán na gcluas fada’, mar a dúirt an t-asal lena dheartháir – ‘You long-eared fool’, as the ass said to his brother (proverb)

Seafóid is more restricted in its meaning, and refers only to foolish talk or nonsense. Seafóideach means nonsensical, silly.

Bómánta differs from amaideach as ‘stupid’ differs from ‘foolish’. The difference can best be illustrated by the noun. Amadán is a generic term that covers the entire gamut of foolish people, but bómán is more precise, referring to a slow-witted dullard with a vacant expression and a slack mouth. A dobhrán is even dopier than a bómán.

4. More fools
Gám – This word also exists in Hiberno-English as ‘gaum’. You would never describe anyone small and neat as a gám, no matter how foolish he is (the term is rarely applied to females). It invokes an uncoordinated, lubberly, doltish, occasionally loutish quality. A variant of the word is gamal, with a Hiberno-English variant of its own, ‘gomeril’. Gám can occasionally be used affectionately.

Óinseach – This is nearly always applied to women, but is even more of an insult when applied to a man. It implies silliness, and sometimes giddiness. It is never used with affection.

Pleidhce – Deriving from a term for a stump of wood, and originally just another word for a fool, this word has taken on new nuances. Pleidhcíocht is tomfoolery, and pleidhce now tends be used do describe people on the socially undesirable spectrum, ranging from the hallion all the way to the borderline delinquent, but no further.

Uascán – This is a hogget. And for those who do not know, a hogget is a sheep that no longer has the charm of a lamb, but is not yet fully grown. A human uascán is someone with similar qualities, sheepish, simple-minded, easily alarmed and with a permanently bewildered expression, as well as being useless and clumsy.

Plobaire – This combines two distinct meanings. One describes a flabby, soft-bodied person, the other derives from the incoherent babbling of a child. You cannot be a skinny plobaire, but if you are overweight, and given to excessive, meaningless talk, you have earned the name.

Prioll – This is defined in Ó Dónaill’s dictionary as a silly person or a silly talker. However, it is also a closely related, if deniable, relation of the word breall, which Ó Dónaill identifies as an ugly protuberance, while both Ó Dónall and Dinneen coyly acknowledge that it can also mean ‘glans penis’.

5. Cumha agus uaigneas
Tá cumha orm

In Donegal the word cumha is pronounced as if it were spelt ‘cumhaidh’. The word is not easy to translate. It is used to express an overwhelmingly strong feeling which involves a sense of loss or grief, whether for a person, a place or a time. Some examples:
Tá cumha orm i ndiaidh Mháire – I’m lonely after Máire (this Hiberno-English phrase comes from the Irish. It means that the person speaking misses Máire a great deal)
Bhí cumha air ag imeacht – He felt sad at leaving
Tá cumha uirthi i ndiaidh an tseanbhaile – She is pining for the old home
Cuireann an tseanáit cumha orm – The old place fills me with nostalgia
Thig cumha orm nuair a smaointím ar an tseanam – A great sense of loss comes over me when I think of the old times
Níl cara ag cumha ach cuimhne – Memory is grief’s only friend (proverb)

Cumha also means homesickness. There is a stone slab near Gartan in Donegal called Leac na Cumhaidh – leac is a large flat stone. It is said to be the bed on which Saint Colmcille slept before he went into exile to Scotland, and it is believed that to lie on it will cure homesickness.

Uaigneas shares some meanings with cumha, but also has a different range of meanings. As well as a sense of loss or isolation, it can express a sense of solitude, both in the positive and negative senses of that word, and can also mean a lonely, unfrequented place. It can also be used to express fear of being alone, or fear of the dark, or a sense of eeriness. Its adjective is uaigneach. Duine uaigneach can be a person who is lonely or solitary, but can also mean someone who is afraid of the dark or afraid of ghostly presences. Áit uaigneach can be a remote, secluded or desolate place, but, in certain contexts, can also mean a place in which people feel the presence of something that is unearthly, and a bit frightening. By way of contrast, áit uasal, translated into Hiberno-English as ‘a gentle place’ means somewhere that is definitely haunted by fairies – there are dozens of names for the fairies; daoine beaga – the little people, is the most commonly known, but they are also known as daoine uaisle – the gentle people, gentle meaning ‘noble’ in the older sense of ‘gentleman’, ‘gentlewoman’.

Some examples of uaigneas and uaigneach:
Tá uaigneas orm i ndiaidh Mháire – Tá cumha orm i ndiaidh Mháire
Beidh muid uaigneach gan thú – We’ll be lonely without you
Thóg siad teach amuigh ar an uaigneas – They built a house in a remote (or secluded, or desolate) place