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The origin of Shenanigan as "sionnach uighm" is very questionable. Seems like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Hooligan definitely does come from Ir
by bartislartfast 4y ago
The origin of Shenanigan as "sionnach uighm" is very questionable. Seems like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Hooligan definitely does come from Irish, from a troublesome family O'Houlihan
A few other interesting English words that come from Irish:
Galore (from Go leoir, meaning a lot), bother, a slew of, phoney, bog and bogeyman, and unsurprisingly "whiskey".
- feintruled 4y agoSmithereens is my favourite! There is a bit of a cottage industry going in manufacturing Irish etymologies though, you can find someone somewhere claiming just about every unusual English word came from Irish!
- biorach 4y ago"phoney"?
- bartislartfast 4y agophony? did I spell it wrong?
- biorach 4y agoNot the spelling, the etymology - what Irish word is it derived from?
- bartislartfast 4y agofrom "fainne" which means ring. Making fake rings was apparently a common enough scam that it gave its name to fawney which became phony
- biorach 4y agodamn, new one on me