youvedonewhat said:
Ok, a punter is some ordinary person, a member of the public, someone in the audience, customer etc. Also someone who gambles.
A punt is a rowing boat and apparently some kind of Irish coin although I thought it was euros these days? Dunno, not sure.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Yeah, the punt was the currency of the ROI before the Euro took over (was literally the 'pound', similar to Great Britain).
Right! Irish colloquialisms 101! It's time for me to pretend that I am all-knowing, and will keep up such pretences for as long as possible!
The most common terms you will come across (IMO, and trust me, I'm Irish
) are these:
'Craic': A really flexible term, generally means good time etc. But 'what's the craic?' is, as quite rightly said, used to ask, 'What's new with you?' or something along those lines.
If you get into any kind of conversation, it's inevitable that 'yer man/woman' will crop up. It's just a term that's used to refer to a person whose name the speaker can't remember (often, on this board, used to refer to Bono!). Can also be followed by the name or surname of the person who they're referring to, in which case the term's just used for emphasis. eg. 'You heard what happened to yer man Mc Guinness last night?' And so on, and so forth...
'Eejit': It's not a harsh word really (don't listen to that site!). It's actually a very endering way of calling someone an idiot or fool. I say it to my friends all the time (along the lines of, 'Aw, you eejit!' if they've done something laughably stupid). Word of advice, never say it to a stranger. It does tend to take on a less affectionate form if it's used with someone you don't know!
'The Black Stuff': Guinness. Easy enough, but much more simple just to say Guinness if you're ordering it at the bar.
'Aye': Generally sarcastic intonation (e.g. 'Aye right, away on!' - meaning, very emphatically, that the speaker does not believe the person they're speaking to). Can often be used to mean 'yes', though.
If you want any more, there are plenty of sites on the web (I'd post one that I think is very good, but my post count's too small!) so just Google 'Irish slang'.
In case you come across the term 'culchie' on your travels, it's advised you don't use it. It's a pretty derogatory term used to describe country folk, and, like 'eejit', is only ever unoffensive between friends.
All that's probably more than you need to know, but I thought my apparently abundant knowledge of colloquialisms might as well be put to use. And seeing as my job here is done, I'll just retreat back into my lurking habits. Hope you found some use out of this!