Pedantic Crack

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: belfast
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 10:09 AM

To revert briefly to the original topic. I was in Dublin recently and I saw a poster advertising a comedy club. It was called "The Craic House". I think we can all agree that the gaelic spelling is absolutely necessary for that one.

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 11:21 AM

Greg

As you probably know, several 18/19 C. slang dictionaries have "bun" for backside or front-side (! to be circumspect). Some of the more academic ones relate it to the Gaelic word for bottom or base. Plausible, certainly.

Regards

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 11:29 AM

Then there is the "bottom loaf". they say this is so-called because it is baked in the bottom of the oven, but there could be an alternative theory.

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Oct 03 - 08:28 PM

can somone translate "dropkick murphys" into irish gaelic?

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Oct 03 - 09:13 PM

That kind of thing is apparently called "roasting" by today's English star footballers. A food metaphor once again, I note.

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 19 Oct 03 - 12:28 AM

Haw haw. The word currach, means a boat of some kind. A good trip, a good crossing, a good one - slang curaic or craic.

BTW The Gaelic for the english slang word 'crack' is 'mbeal' as in Cam - beal or Campbell - that one means 'wrymouth'

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: s&r
Date: 19 Oct 03 - 03:28 PM

Ages ago I was following through the origins of "sally" as in sally gardens; I found salix(Latin) sallee(native Australian) and sally (Irish). All meaning willow.

Subject: Cric Crac
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 07 Nov 03 - 04:23 PM

"In Haiti a story teller will say 'cric' if he has a story to tell. If the audience want the story teller to continue they say 'crac'."

from Jennifer Loughton, Speaking Works. Hemel Hempstead, UK: KCP Publications, 2002

part of a series of books for secondary school English classes, it looks quite interesting if basic; with information & exercises about voice production, theories of language origin, story telling, collecting and using oral history, public speaking and 'loaded language' (connotations and gender bias).

Subject: getting to the bottom of things
From: Felipa
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 06:00 PM

this discussion is continued at Pogue Mahone

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 06:08 AM

Does anyone know who lead the Pedant's Revolt?

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:06 AM

However you spell it or pronounce it , Portaferry was great fun and is happenning again the first weekend of February 2005 !!

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 03:44 PM

Robbie

What - not who!?

Regards

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: Snuffy
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 08:35 AM

If it was the Pedant's Revolt it could only have been the Pedant.

But the Pedants' Revolt ....

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: dianavan
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 10:57 PM

Phillipa - I had never heard the word 'craic' used to describe lively conversation until I was in Ireland. It was used as in, "There was some mighty craic in that pub last night." Some pubs were well known for the craic. As a visitor, thats what I wanted (in addition to the music and a pint).

Crack has many other English meanings but I have never heard it used to describe converstion.

In fact, I have come to think of it as particular to the conversational ability of the Irish which is highly developed when compared to the English, Canadian or American.

Go for craic! Its unique.

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 12:05 PM

Who lead the Pedants Revolt.--Which Tyler

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 19 Dec 04 - 09:51 AM

Are you saying that the spelling "craic" is not all it's cracked up to be?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 06:17 AM

G'day dianavan, Phillipa et al,

dianavan states:
" I had never heard the word 'craic' used to describe lively conversation until I was in Ireland ... Crack has many other English meanings but I have never heard it used to describe converstion."

I'm refreshing this topic because, in another thread, I said I was chasing a tune set to Australian poet Banjo Paterson's poem Santa Claus in the Bush, which begins:

It chanced out back at the Christmas time,
When the wheat was ripe and tall,
A stranger rode to the farmer's gate --
A sturdy man and a small.

"Rin doon, rin doon, my little son Jack,
And bid the stranger stay;
And we'll hae a crack for Auld Lang Syne,
For the morn is Christmas Day."

............................

I have this poem in the 1921 book The Collected Works of A B Paterson ... a combination of his 1895, 1902 and 1917 published collections, so the very latest Paterson could have written that line is 1917 ... and his use in a humorous poem, set in the Australian bush, must mean he expected the expression to be immediately recognised (in this case, as a good Scots term) by the average Australian.

Whatever the history of the transliteration as craic ... this indicates that Australians of a century back recognised crack as a familiar term for a Scot's pleasurable yarning ... 'for old times' sake'.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: GUEST,gearoid
Date: 07 Apr 05 - 09:17 AM

i watched a programme the other day about viking ancestors in england. i showed people in the wirral, near liverpool, speaking a dialect derived from viking people which used the word 'crack' (not sure how they spelt it) to to mean conversation. seeing as the word is used a lot in the north of england and mainly on the coast, newcastle area and north yorkshire, where other close to norse dialects are spoken i wonder if the word is from a viking word brought to england, scotland and ireland when the viking landed on these shores. makes sense to me!

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Jan 22 - 09:31 AM

Sunday 23 January 2020 BBC Radio 4 The World This Weekend; Hadrian’s Wall will celebrate its 1900th anniversary in 2022 with a year-long festival of events and activities.

Kathryn Tickell, talking about the community along Hadrian's Wall, played a recording from the old shepherding community;

"Once upon a time, you know, we'd go to one another's houses. Have a bit crack and music, you know." Demonstrating it was part of the Northumberland vocabulary.

Subject: RE: Pedantic Crack
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 24 Jan 22 - 12:44 PM

Reminiscent, then, of what RB described back in the 1780s, the second line giving another example of the use of "crack" in the same sense.

"On Fasten-e'en we had a rockin
Tae ca the crack and weave our stockin,
And there was muckle fun and jokin
    Ye needna doubt:
At length, we held a hearty yokin
      At sang-about".

(At that time, a "rock" or "roke" was a hand-held distaff, with "roke and reel" being the whole equipment of the distaff and the weight attached to the end of the strand of wool which was being spun as that weight was constantly rotated. By the way, in the poem "Lament for Bonny Heck, a famous Greyhound in the Kingdom of Fife", the dog in question is described as catching rabbits "by the neck/Or by the buns").