{"id":9622,"date":"2017-09-12T13:05:45","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=9622"},"modified":"2017-09-20T03:15:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T03:15:18","slug":"how-to-say-mess-in-irish-14-ways-and-counting-starting-with-praiseach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/how-to-say-mess-in-irish-14-ways-and-counting-starting-with-praiseach\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Say ‘Mess’ in Irish: 14 Ways (and Counting), Starting with ‘praiseach’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the most recent blogpost (nasc th\u00edos<\/strong>), we looked at several Irish words for “mess,” inspired by thinking about the phrase “dog’s dinner,” which can either mean “food for dogs,” literally, or “a mess.”\u00a0 And that was inspired by listening to some radio commentary about Brexit (and btw, do you remember the Irish word for Brexit?\u00a0 It’s also a compound word, constructed much like “Brexit,” but it does end up about twice as long!\u00a0 Freagra th\u00edos<\/strong> –1).\u00a0 So I got to thinking, how many more ways could there be.\u00a0 This list isn’t necessarily exhaustive, but I think it’s a good head start.<\/p>\n

The word I’ve heard the most for “mess” is “praiseach<\/strong>,” so I’ll start with that:<\/p>\n

praiseach<\/strong>, mess, fiasco, litter, pottage, thin porridge, gruel, wild cabbage, kale, boodle, puddle, slop, slobber<\/p>\n

an phraiseach<\/strong>, the mess, etc.<\/p>\n

na prais\u00ed<\/strong>, of the mess, etc..\u00a0 Probably not very widely used in this genitive form (only a few hits show up online), but it can occur in phrases like “in ainneoin na prais\u00ed” (in spite of the mess …) or “i ndiaidh na prais\u00ed<\/strong>” (after the mess …)<\/p>\n

Remember, most dictionaries indicate that this noun is singular only.\u00a0 To indicate many messes, one could say something like “an oiread sin de phraiseach<\/strong>” (such an amount of mess), or perhaps use words like “carn<\/strong>” or “moll<\/strong>” (both meaning “heap”) in the plural (cairn, mollta<\/strong>; by the way, for the latter, don’t confuse it with “molta<\/strong>,” a form of the verb “moladh,” meaning “to praise” or “to suggest”). \u00a0But a plural form does exist “praiseacha<\/strong>,” reverting to “praiseach<\/strong>” for the genitive plural (which actually makes searching for examples a little difficult).<\/p>\n

Typical ways to add a little intensity to this are adding “amach is amach<\/strong>” (out and out) or “ceart<\/strong>” (right) or “uaf\u00e1sach<\/strong>” (terrible), giving us:<\/p>\n

praiseach amach is amach,<\/strong> an out-and-out mess<\/p>\n

praiseach cheart<\/strong>, a right mess.\u00a0 Note what happened to the word “ceart<\/strong>“.\u00a0 Why did this happen?\u00a0 Freagra th\u00edos<\/strong>–2.<\/p>\n

praiseach uaf\u00e1sach<\/strong>, a horrible mess<\/p>\n

Needless to say there are a few less polite ways to translate the above phrases, which I’ll omit for this family-friendly blog (blag oiri\u00fanach do theaghlaigh<\/strong>)!<\/p>\n

You might remember from last time that this word can also mean “kale” (usually “c\u00e1l<\/strong>,” in my experience) or “wild cabbage.”\u00a0 And, lo and behold, it turns out to be linguistically related to the Latin “brassica<\/em>” (cabbage and some similar vegetables), used for various Latin taxonomic names of plants, and also bringing us full circle back to the Celtic world, with the Welsh word for “cabbage,” which is __________ (freagra th\u00edos–3)<\/p>\n

A related word is:<\/p>\n

praiseach\u00e1n<\/strong>, a messer, a bungler<\/p>\n

Next we’ll recap two others mentioned last time:<\/p>\n

pr\u00e1c\u00e1s<\/strong>, mess, medley, hodgepodge, morass, slop, farrago (an pr\u00e1c\u00e1s, an phr\u00e1c\u00e1is<\/strong>, usually no plural)<\/p>\n

brach\u00e1n<\/strong>, mess, porridge, stirabout (an brach\u00e1n, an bhrach\u00e1in, usually no plural)<\/p>\n

And a few we didn’t include last time:<\/p>\n

ciseach<\/strong>: its most basic meaning is “wattled causeway,” distantly related to “cise\u00e1n” (basket) and “cis” (basket, wicker) or “improvised path,” but it can also mean the following: mess, hash, fiasco, morass, shambles; \u00a0mostly used in the singular (an chiseach, na cis\u00ed) but it can have a plural: ciseacha, remaining “ciseacha” for the genitive plural (at least according to teanglann.ie)<\/p>\n

sciodar<\/strong>, usually used to describe watery, ermm, food, well, really diarrhea, but can also be “(watery) mess” or “slurry,” in general<\/p>\n

tranglam<\/strong>, mess, clutter, bustle, confusion, congestion, and frequently used for traffic jams (tranglam tr\u00e1chta, nicely alliterative, to boot!)<\/p>\n

Other ways to imply mess, but using less specific vocabulary include:<\/p>\n

bunoscionn<\/strong>, lit. upside-down (T\u00e1 an seomra ranga bunoscionn, The classroom is a mess)<\/p>\n

droch-chuma<\/strong>, lit. bad appearance (T\u00e1 droch-chuma ar an duine sin, That person is a mess)<\/p>\n

drochdh\u00f3igh<\/strong>, lit. bad way (T\u00e1 drochdh\u00f3igh air sin, That’s a mess)<\/p>\n

salachar<\/strong>, dirt, mess; can mean excrement, depending on the context (F\u00e9ach! \u00a0T\u00e1 a l\u00e1n salachair ansin!, Look! \u00a0There’s a lot of dirt\/mess\/excrement there)<\/p>\n

tr\u00ed ch\u00e9ile<\/strong>, lit. confused, very very lit. “through itself” (T\u00e1 an seomra tr\u00ed ch\u00e9ile, The room is a mess, I would say suggesting<\/p>\n

Bhuel<\/strong>, that’s eleven basic ways to say or suggest “mess” so far, and a few more with qualifications. \u00a0I think there will be plenty more for another blogpost.\u00a0 And that’s not including any words like “mess hall” or “mess kit,” which are completely different.<\/p>\n

Hope you found this fun and helpful.\u00a0 An bhfuil d\u00e9ag\u00f3ir agat agus seomra aige\/aici at\u00e1 ina phraiseach \/ ina chiseach, srl. n\u00f3 a bhfuil drochdh\u00f3igh n\u00f3 droch-chuma air<\/strong>?\u00a0 How many other ways could you describe it?\u00a0 SGF — R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/p>\n

PS: As for the question in the graphic above, I think that “droch-chuma<\/strong>” or “drochdh\u00f3igh<\/strong>” would actually be best, although they’re not quite so, shall I say, “graphic,” or maybe just “extreme.”<\/p>\n

Freagra–1: Breatimeacht<\/strong>, from “Breatain” (Britain) + imeacht (going, leaving, departing)<\/p>\n

Freagra–2: praiseach cheart<\/strong>: the “c” of “ceart” becomes lenited (turns to “ch”) because “praiseach” is grammatically feminine.\u00a0 If we wanted to say the same thing of “pr\u00e1c\u00e1s,” which is grammatically masculine, the phrase would be “pr\u00e1c\u00e1s ceart.”<\/p>\n

Freagra–3<\/strong>: bresych<\/em>, cabbage (in Welsh).\u00a0 So next up on the agenda is to figure out whether the Welsh use some cabbage-related word to mean “mess” as well.\u00a0 Somehow, I don’t think I learned that in the “Cwrs Carlam<\/em>.”\u00a0 Or do the Welsh just stick to “traed moch<\/em>” (pigs’ feet) as the figurative expression for “mess.”\u00a0 Actually cabbage and pigs’ feet is probably a time-honored combination, if you’re so inclined.\u00a0 I actually bought pigs’ feet (known in Irish as “cr\u00faib\u00edn\u00ed<\/strong>) once, but didn’t end up eating them. \u00a0C\u00e9ard f\u00fatsa?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nasc: When Is a Dog\u2019s Dinner Not a \u2018Dog\u2019s Dinner\u2019?: Some Irish Vocabulary Notes for \u201cMess\u201d<\/a> Posted by\u00a0r\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/a>\u00a0on Sep 7, 2017 in\u00a0Irish Language<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) In the most recent blogpost (nasc th\u00edos), we looked at several Irish words for “mess,” inspired by thinking about the phrase “dog’s dinner,” which can either mean “food for dogs,” literally, or “a mess.”\u00a0 And that was inspired by listening to some radio commentary about Brexit (and btw, do you remember the Irish…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":9629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[489799,489802,489801,255611,489800,32966],"class_list":["post-9622","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-brachan","tag-bunoscionn","tag-ciseach","tag-mess","tag-pracas","tag-praiseach"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t