{"id":17,"date":"2009-04-06T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T11:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=17"},"modified":"2016-07-22T21:15:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T21:15:50","slug":"clever-%e2%80%9ccute%e2%80%9d-smart-intelligent-wise-andor-cunning-%e2%80%93-as-gaeilge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/clever-%e2%80%9ccute%e2%80%9d-smart-intelligent-wise-andor-cunning-%e2%80%93-as-gaeilge\/","title":{"rendered":"Clever, \u201cCute,\u201d Smart, Intelligent, Wise, and\/or Cunning \u2013 as Gaeilge!"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019ve recently discussed fools in general in the April 1st and 3rd<\/sup> blogs.\u00a0 We\u2019ve differentiated amad\u00e1in<\/strong> from \u00f3inseacha<\/strong> and worked g\u00e1maithe<\/strong>, gamail<\/strong>, gamal\u00f3ga<\/strong>, agus gamaraill<\/strong> into the mix.\u00a0 Now lets segue to \u201cwise fools\u201d and then to various terms for being clever, \u201ccute,\u201d smart, intelligent, wise and\/or cunning.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Wise fools, first.\u00a0 This will be a direct translation of from the Greek-based \u201csophomore.\u201d The English word \u201csophomore\u201d is popularly derived from Greek \u201csophos<\/em>\u201d (wise) and \u201cmoros<\/em>\u201d (foolish), although it is actually more likely from \u201csophumer<\/em>\u201d or \u201csophom<\/em>,\u201d a dialectic exercise.\u00a0 \u00a0Either way, the Irish term is \u201csofam\u00f3r,<\/strong>\u201d based on the sounds in English. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u201cSofam\u00f3r<\/strong>\u201d seems to be a fairly new word in the language.\u00a0 It\u2019s not in any of the older dictionaries I have and, as of this writing, shows up as being \u201cfor approval\u201d in Irish vocabularies, suggesting that it\u2019s a newcomer.\u00a0 Most likely the term has been added recently to Irish as the language gets increasingly internationalized.\u00a0 The Irish educational system doesn\u2019t use the terminology found in the U.S. for which year you are in at high school or university (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior).\u00a0 So far, the word \u201cfreshman\u201d doesn\u2019t exist as such i nGaeilge<\/strong>, and the adjectives that mean \u201cjunior\u201d or \u201csenior\u201d (s\u00f3isearach, sinsearach<\/strong>) would have to be qualified.\u00a0 At an Irish university, you generally just identify the year you are in by number (sa ch\u00e9ad bhliain<\/strong>, in the first year, for example) rather than by saying \u201cI am a freshman.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Words used to describe smartness in Irish can range from the truly complimentary to those suggesting slyness or cunning, sometimes referred to in Irish English as being \u201ccute\u201d (short for \u201cacute\u201d). \u00a0Here\u2019s a selection:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0cliste<\/strong>: clever, smart<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00e9irimi\u00fail<\/strong>: intelligent, clever, talented, gifted<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0cleasach<\/strong>: smart, cute, tricky, crafty<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0slim<\/strong>: sly, cunning, also slim, smooth, or sleek (remember to pronounce this one as if it had the English sounds “SH” + “L,” as if it were \u201cshlim,\u201d like the initial sound of “schlemiel,” not like the English word “slim” as in “slender”)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>glic<\/strong>: smart, cute, sly, shrewd, crafty<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 As hinted at in a previous blog, \u201cglic<\/strong>\u201d is the key to the wordplay in Doyle\u2019s The Last Roundup<\/em>, which follows the life of Henry Smart.\u00a0 When Smart comes to America, he takes the surname Glick, which fits well in the Jewish community where he finds himself in multicultural New York, since Glick, based on German Gl\u00fcck, is well known there.\u00a0 But Henry knows the word\u2019s double meaning and probably feels all the more \u201cglic<\/strong>\u201d for having picked it.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Just one more, for closers, cr\u00edonna<\/strong>: wise, prudent, mature, thrifty, old<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u201cCr\u00edonna<\/strong>\u201d is used for two of my favorite expressions for grandparents, \u201cm\u00e1thair chr\u00edonna<\/strong>\u201d and \u201dathair cr\u00edonna<\/strong>\u201d (wise mother, wise father).\u00a0 How many expressions for grandparents are there i nGaeilge<\/strong>?\u00a0 Quite a few more \u2013 that\u2019ll be the pointe b\u00edse<\/strong> (cliffhanging or suspense point) for blag \u00e9igin eile<\/strong> (some other blog).\u00a0 Bhur mblag\u00e1la\u00ed — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) We\u2019ve recently discussed fools in general in the April 1st and 3rd blogs.\u00a0 We\u2019ve differentiated amad\u00e1in from \u00f3inseacha and worked g\u00e1maithe, gamail, gamal\u00f3ga, agus gamaraill into the mix.\u00a0 Now lets segue to \u201cwise fools\u201d and then to various terms for being clever, \u201ccute,\u201d smart, intelligent, wise and\/or cunning.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Wise fools, first.\u00a0…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[4061,4237,4696,4699,4830,5072,5264,5316,5317,5318,5319,5387,5518,6023,6349,460551,6827,6848,6877,6886,6895,6896,6897,7087,7637],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-amadain","tag-athair-crionna","tag-cleasach","tag-cliste","tag-crionna","tag-eirimiuil","tag-freshman","tag-gamail","tag-gamaithe","tag-gamaloga","tag-gamaraill","tag-glic","tag-henry-smart","tag-mathair-chrionna","tag-oinseacha","tag-schlemiel","tag-sinsearach","tag-slim","tag-sofamor","tag-soisearach","tag-sophom","tag-sophomore","tag-sophumer","tag-the-last-roundup","tag-wise-fools"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8166,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/8166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}