IRISHISM

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IRISHISM also, though rare, Iricism, Hibernianism, Hibernicism, Irishry. An Irish usage, custom, or peculiarity, and especially a form of language regarded as quintessentially Irish, including shibboleths and stereotypes such as the exclamations begorrah and bejabers, and such expressions as a broth of a boy and the top of the morning to you, well known in Britain, North America, and Australia, but used by Irish people only when consciously speaking ‘stage Irish’ for amusement or as a parody. Phonological, syntactic, and lexical Irishisms occur in: Divil the bit of a shtick could I find for to bate the baisht with I couldn't find a stick to beat the animal with; Will you be after havin a cup of tea?—I will, to be sure; Wasn't it herself broke the delph into smithereens? Rhetorical Irishisms are often plays on words (He's teetotally obsnorious), malapropisms (That man's a confederate liar, so he is), or Irish bulls (Nuns run in that family). See IRISH ENGLISH, -ISM.

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