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08 Aug 01 - 03:16 PM (#523719) Subject: What's an 'eejit?' From: GUEST,Sheila An Irish author I'm reading often uses this word, and recently, in another thread, I read "ejit." Regardless of the spelling, is the person it describes pathetic, nasty, what? It sounds negative. Thanks. |
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08 Aug 01 - 03:19 PM (#523721) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: GUEST,Michelle It's means idiot. Frank McCourt used the term a lot in his book I believe. |
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08 Aug 01 - 03:46 PM (#523746) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: GUEST For a wee bit of fun, try looking it up at this Irish slang page: http://www.loughman.dna.ie/general/4mymofo.html
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08 Aug 01 - 03:53 PM (#523749) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: MMario who was that masked person, anyway?thanks Guest |
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08 Aug 01 - 04:22 PM (#523775) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Mrrzy Southern for idiot, too. Southern US, I mean. |
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08 Aug 01 - 04:38 PM (#523785) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Seamus Kennedy Also a glipe, a ganch, an amadán, a head-the-ball. Male eejits are usually referred to as "buck-eejits." Seamus |
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08 Aug 01 - 05:48 PM (#523837) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Amos And in certain seasons, their eejicy is multiplied by rivers of strange chemicals in their blood, and they go through a period of testosterone-induced change from the relatively harmless "eejit" phase into the brewski-seeking "fuckhead". These organisms have been known to flock (swarm) in places like Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Tijuana, Mexico during the Spring season. The highways outside these towns and others like them are often clogged with clumps of fuckheads, driving themselves to dramatic, self-destructive collisions and other death-inducing traumae. A |
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08 Aug 01 - 06:06 PM (#523860) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Noreen As Amos implies, an eejit is usually a good- natured idiot, i.e. eejit is a fairly mild term of friendly abuse (!) At least, my father used to call us that as children, so I hope that's true... :0) Noreen |
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08 Aug 01 - 06:09 PM (#523863) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: ddw Amos — this is a bad thing???? |
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08 Aug 01 - 07:45 PM (#523944) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: paddymac Jeez, Amos - didcha fall outtabed onda wrongside dismornin? (Sorry. I've been reading too much Joyce lately.) I agree that the tern eedjit, or eejit, etc, is non-complimentary, but not exactly pejorative, at least in an irrevocable determined sense. Too much of the crathure can turn any of us into an eedjit. |
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08 Aug 01 - 07:58 PM (#523957) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Áine You know, this thread is 'ripe' for a good round of 'You might be an eejit if . . . -- Anyone up for a game? ;-) Here's one to start you off: You might be an eejit if you end up buck naked and chained to a park bench after a long night of pub-crawling . . . -- Áine |
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08 Aug 01 - 08:05 PM (#523973) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: alison "eejit" is fairly good natured..... not as strong as "idiot"... like telling someone they are "daft".... I tell the Ozzies its a "Belfast term of endearment"- as in "yer an aul' eejit!".... nowhere near as strong as some of the others suggested above..... Noreen my Granda used to call us it too (mind you he called us "faggots" too *grin*)........ slainte alison |
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08 Aug 01 - 08:47 PM (#524000) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Celtic Soul I always thought it was the way "idiot" was pronounced in parts of the British Isles. This being a phonetic spelling. Or, a short definition: Me many a time when I engage mouth before firing up brain. |
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08 Aug 01 - 08:52 PM (#524006) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Angie A term of endearment 'acht awa ye go ye eijit' or derogetory ' ye fekin' eijit' |
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08 Aug 01 - 09:02 PM (#524012) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Noreen True, Angie- a feckin' eejit would be quite different! :0) |
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08 Aug 01 - 09:12 PM (#524016) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Helen Celtic Soul, I agree about its origin. If you say the word "idiot" with a "j" sound rather than an "i" after the "d" then you end up with "idjit". Or "eedjit" if you say the first syllable like Ren, i.e. "you ee-di-ot Stimpy". You get the "j" sound by running together the "i" & "o" sounds as one syllable which results in a "y" sound, which combines with the "d" to make the "j" sound. Too much info, I know, but it fascinated me when I first heard someone pronounce "idiot" as "idjit" and I had to make some sense of how that pronunciation occurred to be able to get the word out of my brain - an ear-word, not ear-worm?? Helen |
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08 Aug 01 - 09:19 PM (#524019) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Den It depends on how you say it, eg, you're a fecking eejit, or och the poor ould eejit. Den |
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08 Aug 01 - 10:45 PM (#524060) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Amos Or on appropriate occasions, "Feck the pore aul' ijit!!" |
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08 Aug 01 - 10:53 PM (#524068) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Peter Kasin Saw it in a dictinary of Glaswegian - a hilarious book - same meaning as the above. |
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09 Aug 01 - 07:57 AM (#524187) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: mooman Dear Noreen, I believe "feckin' eejit" is the recognized and approved term for the person who, in a state of advanced inebriation, knocks your instrument over during a session. I have also heard it used, in the North of England, as a term of endearment for a person who backs a rustbucket into a flashy Alfa Romeo and then buggers off pronto! (;>) mooman |
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09 Aug 01 - 08:30 AM (#524207) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Noreen mooman: the former is now the Mudcat dictionary definition of the term. The latter may have required a few extra adjectives! :0( Noreen |
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09 Aug 01 - 08:43 AM (#524212) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: paddymac Well, Aine, how 'bout: "You might be an eejit if you wake up doe nekkid on a park bench after a long night of pub crawling." :>) |
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09 Aug 01 - 11:11 AM (#524304) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Airto You might even be a dirty lookin' eejit after a night on a park bench. |
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09 Aug 01 - 12:58 PM (#524380) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: GUEST,Sheila Thanks all. I certainly have gotten the gist by now! Sheila |
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09 Aug 01 - 01:15 PM (#524394) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: dick greenhaus And then there's the Yiddish form: ID-YOT (with the emphasis stringly on the second syllable. Same derivation. Same meaning. A little more forceful. |
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09 Aug 01 - 01:30 PM (#524410) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Jim Krause I'm not convinced that eedjit is necessarily a mild form of abuse. Seems to me like the characters on the BBC show Ballykissangel use the term quite freely when they are quite exasperated with each other. Jim |
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09 Aug 01 - 01:34 PM (#524412) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Jim Krause You might be an eedjit if when the sales clerk says to you "That'll be twoquidthreeshillingsandtuppence, Guv." and you say "How much is that in real money?" Jim |
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09 Aug 01 - 02:19 PM (#524455) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Fiolar At one time under "The Mental Treatment Act 1930", Idiots, Imbeciles and Morons were legally recognised terms for certain grades of mental handicapped persons as distinct from mentally ill people. The 1930 act was repealed by the Mental Health Act of 1959. The word "eejit" is usually of Irish derivation and usually means a fool and is colloquial version of idiot. Other words used in Ireland include "Streel"; "Browl"; "Oinseach"; Liobar"; "Liob." They mean roughly (in order) a slattern; a stupid person; a foolish woman; a clown (male) and ditto (female). There is a saying in Irish "do pos liobar, liob" which means roughly "one clown married another" or "As God made them He matched them." |
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10 Aug 01 - 02:01 AM (#524900) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Seamus Kennedy No offense Jim, but you might be an eejit if you believe everthing you hear on Ballykissangel. Seamus |
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10 Aug 01 - 03:00 AM (#524907) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: GUEST,chrisj an 'eejit' is just archaic pronouncation of 'idiot'. It was once 'with it' to pronounce such words with a 'j' sound: 'injun'(indian), 'inja'(India) and so on. As often happened the older pronouncation lingered on at the periphery of the English-speaking world. |
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10 Aug 01 - 06:54 AM (#524960) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: ard mhacha And in Ireland to confirm, the "Meeja",for The Media. Slan Ard Mhacha. |
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10 Aug 01 - 12:21 PM (#525120) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Jim Krause Seamus, no offense taken. I still liked the show. When friends asked me what it was about, I told them to think of Northern Exposure in Ireland. Maybe not a perfect analogy, but I didn't think it was so eejidioc. Jim |
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10 Aug 01 - 01:55 PM (#525188) Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?' From: Hollowfox My mother once called a particular eejit (not me) a "lost ball in high grass". |