“Listen, I'm going to slap on me runners and leg it down to the chipper!” If you understand this sentence then you’re well on your way to understanding how the Irish use the English language and make a version of it that's entirely their own. We've decided to put together a list of words that are uniquely Irish. More to the point, words that the writer (an Irish immigrant in New York) uses regularly which never fail to stump Americans.
Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Here’s our pick of the top eleven "confusing" Irish/English words: This one seems like sound Irish logic to me. What do you do when you put on your sports shoes?..
.You run! Therefore your sneakers shall be known as runners. Again, this seems totally logical to the Irish mind.
The hotpress is the airing cupboard where you might store sheets and towels, located next to the boiler. So, therefore, it is a press (cupboard) that is hot. Now, here’s where the office staff starts to wince.
The American name for this painful little spot on your tongue or gums is a canker sore. We’ve all decided that this sounds far worse than a gum boil, so we’re going to stick with the Irish terminology on this one. You would use this in a sentence like: “Do you know the yoke you use to make coffee?" See, it’s simple.
The Irish appear to be noun-deficient and have many words that can be used to replace nouns. For example “Where did I put that thingamabob?" No, this is not.