Detritus

English

Notes on English.

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
    I will teach you in my verse
    Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse…
Gerard Nolst Trenité, The Chaos

Irish English

Irish English refers to a diverse range of English used within the island of Ireland. It’s influenced by the Irish language in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (for example, in how yes/no questions are answered).

Dublin had its own take on the perfect aspect. I didn’t know what to call it, but when you were ‘after’ doing something, it meant you’d just done it but didn’t expect the hearer to know. ‘I’ve just fallen in love’: we thought it might happen and it has. ‘I’m after falling in love’: look, I didn’t think there was a heart in this piece-of-shit chest compartment either, but here we are. ‘Only after’ was ‘just after’ plus exasperation: mud on a carpet you’re only after hoovering, losing someone you’re only after finding.

Words

If I could just say a few words… I’d be a better public speaker. – Homer Simpson

acnestis
The part of an animal's back that it cannot reach to scratch itself.
apeirogon
A polygon having an infinite number of sides and vertices.
chestnut
A worn-out joke or subject. (A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut.)
costate
Having ribs or the appearance of ribs. (virgular quinquecostate ogham writing – James Joyce, Ulysses)
firth
A narrow inlet of the sea; an estuary. (I picnic in virgin firths – Eunoia)
fuliginous
Sooty, dusty.
furphy
(Australian English) A rumour, or an erroneous or improbable story.
greeble
A fine detailing added to the surface of an object to make it appear more complex and visually interesting.
limpid
Completely clear and transparent. (Kingbirds flit in gliding flight, skimming limpid springs – Eunoia)
(Of music) Clear and accessible or melodious.
lunula
Something shaped like a crescent or half-moon, especially the pale area at the base of the fingernail.
morbs
Victorian slang: got the morbs. Temporary melancholia. (Abstract noun coined from morbid.)
perilune
The closest point in an orbit around the Moon. (See apsides.)
somnolent
Sleepy, drowsy. (the passengers seemed subdued to the point of somnolence – Alastair Reynolds, Chasm City)

Words