Some (Irish?) lingo

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Nov 12 23:40:55 UTC 2009


1)  hoop-la (int.) OED dates this from 1870, with one other
19th-century quotation (1877).  And the following is a variant spelling.

Chums {London], 1892 Sept. 14, p. 9.

"The Wandering Pig: or, The Strange Tale from Limerick."
[An illustrated tale (see my previous message).]
[Caption to the illustration of the pig butting the nearly supine
Irishman in the stomach with its head:]
"Whoop-la!"

2)   sky farmer; two senses in the OED, dating from 1753.  The
following quotation doesn't seem to precisely fit any of the 6
quotations currently in the on-line OED, nor are any of those 6 from
the 19th century.

John Bull [London], 1824 October 18, p. 343.

The Limerick Chronicle of Oct. 9, states, that a set of depredators,
under the name of brokers, or sky farmers, offer continued violence
to the country people who come to market with their corn.

[I assume the violence offered is financial.]

3)  kitchen-stuff.  OED 2.b. fig., from 1637 through 1754.

The Satirist, and the Censor of the Time [London], 1834 March 2m p. 67.

A Limerick paper asserts that a learned (Irish) judge has "just led
to the hymeneal altar his aged cook." For our parts we have few
pretensions to learning, neither can we plead guilty to a relish for
'kitchen stuff."

[There are a few more double-entendres in the remainder of this piece.]

Joel

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