Irishismn.
/ˈʌɪrɪʃɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˈaɪrɪʃɪz(ə)m/ 1. A statement which is manifestly self-contradictory or inconsistent. Cf. Irish bull n. at Irish adj. and n. Compounds 3. Cf. Irish adj. 5a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > nonsense, rubbish > unintelligible language, gibberish > [noun] > instance of > characteristic of Irish
Irishism1709
Hibernicism1758
Irishcism1765
1709 E. Ward Secret Hist. Clubs xxiv. 274 They could no more tell a Story without fifty Irishisms, than a Fanatick Pray without as many Grimaces.
1734 W. Pulteney in Lett. Countess Suffolk (1824) II. 101 So I, supported by so great an authority, may venture on an Irishism, too.
1785 Mem. & Adventures Flea I. ii. 29 The poor lady appeared to be (if I may use an Irishism) scalped on the face.
1791 E. Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) I. 325 I was just going to exhort you to pass through Brussels..a fair Irishism, since if you read this you are already at Paris.
1860 Hunt's Merchants' Mag. Sept. 374 Well, to use an expressive Irishism, ‘such tin is no tin at all’.
1877 Appletons' Jrnl. Oct. 341/2 ‘Just think if we were to go to sleep quarreling, and one of us died in the night, how sorry we should both be when we woke up in the morning, to be sure!’ After which astounding Irishism she went her way, perfectly satisfied with the result of her attempt at peace-making.
1911 E. M. Clowes On Wallaby x. 258 The idea of settling down in one house for life would be—to use an Irishism—the death of any Australian.
1965 Times 15 Feb. 3/2 What happened yesterday, to borrow an Irishism, was that nothing happened.
1997 B. Magee Philos. of Schopenhauer (rev. ed.) iii. 51 That there should be anything is not, to use an Irishism, what one would have expected.
2. A characteristically Irish word, phrase, or idiom. Also occasionally more generally: a characteristically Irish belief, attitude, or trait.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > Germanic > English > British English > idiom of
Irishism1737
Hibernianism1833
Iricism1833
Paddyism1890
1737 J. Ozell tr. F. Rabelais Wks. III. 231 This is not a Scotch-ism but an Irish-ism.
1823 New Monthly Mag. 8 364 There is in them..an open off-handedness (to use a significant Irishism).
1825 New Monthly Mag. 13 13 There are many Irishisms in his works.
1897 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang (at cited word) ‘Hold your whist,’ i.e., hold your tongue, is an Irishism which has passed into English slang.
1926 Amer. Speech 1 234 Thrung is an Irishism that has become popular, though it may not be wide-spread.
1992 Cent. Home June–July 49/1 All those inconveniences which at less-favoured periods would, to use an expressive Irishism, set you mad.
2008 Evening Standard (Palmerston North, N.Z.) (Nexis) 18 Mar. 10 Another Irishism I inherited was, until about puberty, never to say yes or no.
3. Chiefly depreciative. The fact or quality of being Irish; Irishness.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > the Irish > [noun] > quality or character
Teaguism1732
Iricism1743
Paddyism1799
Irishness1804
Irishism1820
Irishry1822
Hibernianism1833
1820 Morning Chron. 7 June Being but too apt, as it was well known, to consider Irishism as a crime.
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present i. i. 4 They, with their Irishism and necessity and savagery, had been driven to do it.
1879 G. Meredith Egoist III. iv. 81 The woman's vaunted penetration was unable to detect the histrionic Irishism of the fellow.
1902 19th Cent. & After Sept. 401 His [sc. the Irish-Australian's] Irishism is not the Irishism of the Irish in Ireland.
1995 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 1 Dec. 15 Keneally was repelled by its intellectual ordinariness and lingering Irishism.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1709