What's an 'eejit?'

Subject: What's an 'eejit?'
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 03:16 PM

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.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: GUEST,Michelle
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 03:19 PM

It's means idiot. Frank McCourt used the term a lot in his book I believe.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 03:46 PM

For a wee bit of fun, try looking it up at this Irish slang page:

http://www.loughman.dna.ie/general/4mymofo.html

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: MMario
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 03:53 PM

who was that masked person, anyway?

thanks Guest

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 04:22 PM

Southern for idiot, too. Southern US, I mean.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 04:38 PM

Also a glipe, a ganch, an amadán, a head-the-ball. Male eejits are usually referred to as "buck-eejits."

Seamus

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 05:48 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Noreen
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 06:06 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: ddw
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 06:09 PM

Amos — this is a bad thing????

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: paddymac
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:45 PM

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.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Áine
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:58 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: alison
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 08:05 PM

"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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 08:47 PM

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.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Angie
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 08:52 PM

A term of endearment 'acht awa ye go ye eijit' or derogetory ' ye fekin' eijit'

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Noreen
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:02 PM

True, Angie- a feckin' eejit would be quite different! :0)

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Helen
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:12 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Den
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:19 PM

It depends on how you say it, eg, you're a fecking eejit, or och the poor ould eejit. Den

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 10:45 PM

Or on appropriate occasions, "Feck the pore aul' ijit!!"

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 10:53 PM

Saw it in a dictinary of Glaswegian - a hilarious book - same meaning as the above.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: mooman
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 07:57 AM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Noreen
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:30 AM

mooman: the former is now the Mudcat dictionary definition of the term.
The latter may have required a few extra adjectives! :0(

Noreen

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: paddymac
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:43 AM

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." :>)

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Airto
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:11 AM

You might even be a dirty lookin' eejit after a night on a park bench.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 12:58 PM

Thanks all. I certainly have gotten the gist by now! Sheila

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:15 PM

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.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:30 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:34 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Fiolar
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 02:19 PM

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."

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 02:01 AM

No offense Jim, but you might be an eejit if you believe everthing you hear on Ballykissangel.

Seamus

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: GUEST,chrisj
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 03:00 AM

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.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: ard mhacha
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 06:54 AM

And in Ireland to confirm, the "Meeja",for The Media. Slan Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Jim Krause
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:21 PM

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

Subject: RE: What's an 'eejit?'
From: Hollowfox
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 01:55 PM

My mother once called a particular eejit (not me) a "lost ball in high grass".