List of English words of Irish origin
This is a list of English words derived from the Irish language.
B
;banshee: A mythical being.;bog: A piece of wet spongy ground.
;boreen: A country lane.
;bother: Possibly from bodhar, "deaf, bothered, confused", or from bodhraigh, "to deafen, to annoy". The earliest use appears in the writings of Irish authors Sheridan, Swift and Sterne.
;brock: A badger.
;brat: A dialectal word for an overall or apron.
;brogan: A kind of shoe.
;brogue: A kind of shoe.
C
;char: A kind of fish. Possibly from cera, " red", referring to its pink-red underside. This would also connect with its Welsh name torgoch, "red belly.";clabber, clauber: Wet clay or mud; curdled milk.
;clock: O.Ir. clocc meaning "bell"; into Old High German as glocka, klocka and back into English via Flemish; cf also Welsh cloch but the giving language is Old Irish via the handbells used by early Irish missionaries.
;colleen: A girl, especially an Irish one.
;craic: Fun, used in Ireland for fun/enjoyment. The word is actually English in origin; it entered into Irish from the English "crack" via Ulster Scots. The Gaelicised spelling craic was then reborrowed into English. The craic spelling, although preferred by many Irish people, has garnered some criticism as a faux-Irish word.
;cross: The ultimate source of this word is Latin crux, the Roman gibbet which became a symbol of Christianity. Some sources say the English wordform comes from Old Irish cros. Other sources say the English comes from Old French crois and others say it comes from Old Norse kross.
D
;drisheen: A kind of sausage.;dulse: An edible species of seaweed.
E
;esker: An elongated mound of post-glacial gravel.F
;Fenian: A member of a 19th-century Irish nationalist group.;fiacre: A small four-wheeled carriage for hire, a hackney-coach. Saint Fiacre was a seventh-century Irish-born saint who lived in France for most of his life. The English word fiacre comes from French.
G
;Gallowglass: A Scottish mercenary in Ireland.;galore: In abundance.
;gob: A mouth.
H
;hooligan: One who takes part in rowdy behaviour and vandalism. Possibly from the Irish surname Hooligan, an anglicisation of Ó hUallacháin.K
;keening: Lamentation.;kibosh: Possibly from caidhp bháis, "cap of death", in reference either to the black cap worn by a judge when pronouncing a death sentence or to the gruesome method of execution called pitchcapping. Yiddish and Turkish etymologies have also been put forward.
L
;leprechaun: A mythical being.;limerick: A kind of poem.
;lough: A lake, or arm of the sea.
P
;phoney: Fake. Probably from the English fawney meaning "gilt brass ring used by swindlers", which is from Irish fáinne meaning "ring".;poteen: Hooch, bootleg alcohol.
S
;shamrock: A clover, used as a symbol for Ireland.;Shan Van Vocht: A literary name for Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries.
;shebeen: An unlicensed house selling alcohol.
;shillelagh: A wooden club or cudgel made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob on the end.
;Sidhe: The fairy folk of Ireland, from sídhe. See banshee.
;sleveen, sleiveen: An untrustworthy or cunning person. Used in Ireland and Newfoundland.
;slew: A great amount .
;slob: Mud. Note: the English words slobber and slobbery do not come from this; they come from Old English.
;smithereens: Small fragments, atoms. In phrases such as "to explode into smithereens". This is the word smithers with the Irish diminutive ending. Whether it derives from the modern Irish smidrín or is the source of this word is unclear.
T
;tilly: Used to refer to an additional article or amount unpaid for by the purchaser, as a gift from the vendor . Perhaps more prevalent in Newfoundland than Ireland. James Joyce, in his Pomes Penyeach included a thirteenth poem as a bonus, which he named "Tilly", for the extra sup of milk given to customers by milkmen in Dublin.;Tory: Originally an Irish outlaw, probably from the Irish verb tóir meaning "pursue".
;turlough: A seasonal lake.