h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Press - a cupboard. Also "hot press" for Airing cupboard

Grinds - Revision lessons. "I can't come out tonight, I've my maths grinds"

I don't know if these are just Dublin but...

Debs - graduation ball (Debutant ball originally)
mitching - skipping school/class
knacker drinking - underage kids drinking (usually cider or vodka for some reason) in the local park, on the beach, in a field etc. - you get the idea

LOL!

I saw a beautiful example of "Knacker drinking" on paddies day last - we were standing in St. Stephens green and all these kids were trooping in with naggins of whisky and vodka and the like...and then the gardai were confiscating it and putting it in their van. By the end of the morning the axle was nearly busted - but I'd say there was some party at the garda that night .

I tried to explain the concept to some Germans here the other night - we were sitting out by the lake behind my student res, having a few glasses of wine as the sun went down, and I commented that it was high class knacker drinking. Needless to say it took a while to explain, and then when I did explain it they didn't realise why I found it amusing to be drinking outside!

Cultural differences

Another one is that when I work in our local Irish pub, these KIDS come in, and the first few times I asked the barman was he not going to check their ID? *chuckle* took me a while to get used to the age limits here!

Have you taught your German chappies the karma of rounds drinking? We had a german guy working here and he either (a) couldn't understand the rounds concept or (b) did understand and was a tight git . Either way he rekoned rounds drinking to be a perculiarily UK and Ireland thing.

Rounds? They haven´t a clue. They also don´t understand the concept of getting in a few drinks at last orders. I go around asking what they want to drink as we´re doing last orders and they´ve got about an inch of beer at the bottom of their glass. They look at me as if I´ve about ten heads and say "But I´ve still got some left, I don´t need another". And they´re deadly serious! One day two English guys came into the pub and I´d just brought them each a pint about ten minutes before last orders, so in my German frame of mind I said to them, "I´m sure you´re alright there?". They nearly fell off their stools with shock - they wanted two more pints each seeing as it was last orders!!

It must be cultural - and I thought Germans appreciated their beers!

How about 'ecker' for homework? I said that to some kids I met recently and they just looked at me....

Oh, yeah, and 'cogging' too, for copying someone else's work.

'Keeping sketch': watching out for the Gardai/responsible types while some nefarious activity is being undertaken.

Boxing the fox- robbing an orchard (where one can easily pick up a geansai full).

Now ecker is one I'd never heard of. Now that I'm back home I going to have to keep an ear out for some of the more unusual ones....

best one I've heard in a while is "smuggling peanuts" - where a girl is wearing a top that clings and shows things it shouldn't in cold weather!

Having worked in Munich I can say he was just a tight git, or a kraut gobshite

In Galway, the equivalent of "knacker drinking" is "bushing", from the common practice of drinking in, well, a bush!

'Press' is used in Hiberno-English because it's a leftover from English Traders (and invaders) hundreds of years ago.
Whilst the English language evolved to favour 'cupboard', Hiberno-English evolved in a different direction and as time went by and there were long periods of lack of association with English Merchants leading to some stagnation in the language, Irish being still the first language.
There are lots of examples of this. It's another good way to catch a West Brit out as they will use the English not Hiberno.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Press - a cupboard. Also "hot press" for Airing cupboard

Grinds - Revision lessons. "I can't come out tonight, I've my maths grinds"


These aren't specific to Dublin, they're all over the country. Grinds are, to be precise, extra tuition in addition to schoolwork. Private tuition (usually one teacher to one student, or perhaps a very small group). The teacher may possibly be an actual qualified teacher, but is more likely to be a college student or something of that sort. The quality of grinds varies.

I give maths grinds to a Higher Level Junior Cert. student. We cover the things he's weak at and skip anything he tells me he can already do. Only once has he asked me to go over his homework with him. (I always get him to do most of the work, anyway, so I didn't mind. It wasn't really cheating. And anyway, his morality isn't my problem.)


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Mitching was mentioned on the <./>../../../Radio4</.> programme Word of Mouth recently. Apparently it's used in the North.


TRiG.