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How to speak like a true Dub: M-Q
- Milkman
- We read somewhere that Ireland is one of the few countries left where you can still have fresh milk delivered to your doorstep before you get up in the morning. If you're not from one of the others believe us, it's great.
- Ossified
- see Pissed.
- Oul' Fla
- var. oul' fle, oul' fella. Old Fellow. Not (necessarily) a member of Trinity College but an old man or, more usually, your father or husband. Only age, sex and marital status of the speaker can give an indication of which is meant. Not to be confused with Oul' Flower.
- Oul' Flower
- Usually preceded by "me" and in turn by "How the feck are ya?", this is the utmost Dublin compliment and nomenclature of friendship. When Stephen Roche won the Tour de France back in 1987 one of Dublin's oldest undertakers/florists (Kirwans, I think) ran an ad on the back of The Times that ran "Congratulations Stephen Me Oul Flower". Absolute Dub.
- Oul' Wan
- Pron. Owl Wan
"How's your oul' wan?"
"Game ball." (This is the stock answer)
Your wife. Earlier in your life, your mother. If an oul wan then any eldery (over 25) woman.
See also Oul' Fla, Young Wan
- Out Of My Tree
- Lorraine in America (surname withheld to protect the guilty) suggested I include this, as she has difficulty getting the transatlantics to understand her when she uses it. Since she also suggested puked my ring up I can only deduce that she leads an active social life.
So, "Out of my/his tree" = Pissed. It's one of those states that need not necessarily be alcohol-induced, though. Apart from other drugs, sheer euphoria (or stress) might do it. In other words, the statement "I was out of my tree" equates to "I will not be held responsible for anything I did".
A final note. The phrase always appears in the past tense. No one ever says "I am out of my tree" or (with the possible exception of Lorraine) "I will be out of my tree tonight".
- The Pale
- Where it's safe. Beyond the Pale it's not.
- The Pillar / An Lár
- Dublin used to have this thing with Admiral Nelson on the top. You could pay a few coins to climb about 5,000 steps to see if you could see Wales on a clear day. Unfortunately, some lads in a fit of patriotic pique decided it was a reminder of our colonial past and dismembered those few bits of Nelson the French had left intact. All the buses which used to stop there (most of them at the time) duly changed their destination plates to read An Lár, which means City Centre and is what they read still.
The site became something of a cause celèbre for Dubliners and was occupied for a few years by Anna Livia, before being graced by The Spire.
- Pissed
- Drunk. Probably the most common term for this condition. Others are scuttered, fluthered, ossified, gee-eyed (coarse: do NOT use the first word here in polite company). Pissed rarely has the meaning of Pissed off.
- Pissed-off
- Annoyed, as in pissed of with something or somebody.
- The Poly
- Derogatory name given by Trinity College students to UCD.
- Puked My Ring Up
- Suggested by a site visitor as needing explanation, I believe "puke" is well understood outside of Dublin. As for the "ring" in question, this is not the great Christy but, to put it simply (if crudely), your anal sphincter.
Got a suggestion to make, a word or phrase you think we should include? Email us at .
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