What are 'praties'?
Karsten Hoffmann
Since I didn't find this term in any of my dictionaries I wonder what
'praties' are.
I heard this in the song 'Muirsheen Durkin' sung by Noel McLoughlin,
the verse goes like:
So goodbye Muirsheen Duirkin I'm sick and tired of working
No more I'll dig praties, no longer I'll be fooled.
For as sure as me name is Carney
I'll go off to California where instead of digging praties
I'll be digging lumps of gold.
Thanks for any answer.
--
Karsten P. Hoffmann < k...@mbs.gtn.com >
Warum gibt es keine halben Loecher? (Kurt Tucholsky)
Brian J Goggin
On Mon, 18 May 1998 08:17:23 GMT, k...@mbs.gtn.com (Karsten Hoffmann)
wrote:
>Since I didn't find this term in any of my dictionaries I wonder what
>'praties' are.
>
>I heard this in the song 'Muirsheen Durkin' sung by Noel McLoughlin,
>the verse goes like:
>
> So goodbye Muirsheen Duirkin I'm sick and tired of working
> No more I'll dig praties, no longer I'll be fooled.
>
> For as sure as me name is Carney
> I'll go off to California where instead of digging praties
> I'll be digging lumps of gold.
Potatoes.
===OED=====
d. Anglo-Irish pratie, etc.
[Pratie is characteristic Anglo-Irish; the Irish name is, in Munster,
práta, in Meath, préata, pl. prat-, preataidhe.] In quot. 1966 the use
is fig.]
_.1781 W. Dyott Diary 8 Sept. (1907) I. 5 In short, I think them [sc.
the Irish recruits] calculated merely to eat potatoes, or _pratys', as
they call them.
1826 _N. Nondescript' The --- 15 Apr. 56 _I was just thinking,' said
he in a whimpering tone, _what we poor Irish would do, if we hadn't
paraties.'
1829 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. (1855) II. 288 Englishmen feeding on
roast-beef_or Irishmen on _wetuns' and _praes'.
1830 Constellation II. 1/1 She took my advice, and doubling herself up
in the blanket, was asleep before your Honour'd say praties.
1833 Marryat P. Simple xii, You must do something to get your own
dinner; there's not praties enow for the whole of ye.
1869 M. Arnold Cult. & An. (1882) 74 When all the praties were black
in Ireland, why didn't the priests say the hocus-pocus over them?
1884 Cudworth Yorksh. Dial. Sketches 121 (E.D.D.) Peeling sum porates.
1927 in C. Sandburg Amer. Songbag 463 O, I met her in the mornin' And
I'll have yez all to know That I met her in the garden Where the
praties grow.
1932_53 Whistle-Binkie (Scot. Songs) Ser. i. 21 When evening sets in
Paddy puts on the pot, To boil the dear praties and serve them up hot.
1949 C. Graves Ireland Revisited vii. 82 Nobody uses the word
_begorrah,' and a potato is a _spud' not a _praty'.
1966 Listener 12 May 687/1 A sentimental domestic melodrama---what
Irish audiences_call a _pratie', or potato.
1972 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 12 Mar. 8/1 We call them _spuds'. The
Irish affectionately call them _praties' and they sometimes call
mashed potatoes _poundies'.
1973 Times 29 Aug. 7/6 Do you fancy some German sausage in the garden
where the praties grow?
===ends=====
*Pra'ta* is the Irish word for potato; the plural is *pra'tai'*. I
have never heard *praties" used in English, except in songs or in
jest.
bjg
DK
It's an Irish word (I think Irish-English, whatever that's
called, not Irish Gaelic) for potatoes.
--Katrina
Karsten Hoffmann wrote in message ...
>Since I didn't find this term in any of my dictionaries I wonder
what
>'praties' are.
>
>I heard this in the song 'Muirsheen Durkin' sung by Noel
McLoughlin,
>the verse goes like:
>
> So goodbye Muirsheen Duirkin I'm sick and tired of working
> No more I'll dig praties, no longer I'll be fooled.
>
> For as sure as me name is Carney
> I'll go off to California where instead of digging praties
> I'll be digging lumps of gold.
>
SLHinton17
Mimi Kahn wrote, on Tue, May 19, 1998
>There's an old folk song about famine in Ireland that begins something
>like:
>
> Oh, the praties they grow small, over here;
> Oh, the praties they grow small, over here;
> Oh, the praties they grow small,
> Yet we eat them one and all;
> Oh, the praties they grow small, over here.
>
>Very sad, very dirge-like, very minor key....
************************************************
A lovely song, usually enr=titled "The Famine Song.". I recorded it in my Decca
album, "The Real McvCpoy,: in 1957:
Ah, the praties they grow samll, over here, over here,
Ah, the praties they grow small over here.
Ah, the praties they grow small
And we dig them in the fall
And we eat t them, coats and all,
Over here, over here.
And we eat them coats and all, over here.
He we wish thast we were geese, niogyht and morn, night and morn.
How we wish that we weere geese, night and morn.
How we wish that we were geese
For they fly to where they please
And they live and die in peace,
Eating corn, eating corn.
And they live and die in peace, eating corn.
We are ground into the dust, over here, over here.
We are ground into the dust, over here.
We are ground into the dust
And the Lord in whom we trust
Will yet give us crumb for crust,
Over here, over here,
Will yet give us crumb for crust, over here.
(Repeat first verse.)
The tune and the verse pattern have been widely used, most notably with the
broadside ballad about Captain Kidd, and under that name as a hymn pattern in
such shape-note songs as "New Britain" ("Wondrous Love".) ("Captain Kidd" is
probably the older form, as Kidd's execution predates the potato famine by
about 40 years.) More recently (1948) Pete Seeger and Waldemar Hille used the
tune for "Step By Step," by an unknown author in the Preamble to the
Constitution of the United Mineworkers Association, 1863. John McCutcheon and
an orchestra have a great arangement of "Step By Step" on his album "Water From
Another Time" (Flying Fish/Rounder Records.)
"Praties" also appear in another well-known Irish Song, "I Met Her In the
Garden Where the Praties Grow." This tune has been reently used in Pat
Cooksey's "The Sick Letter" ("Paddy's Not at Work Today".)
--
Mimi
http://www.merriewood.com
(to respond via e-mail, call me anything but spamfree --
but please don't send me e-mail copies of Usenet posts)
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
Mike Barnes
In alt.usage.english, Mimi Kahn <spam...@merriewood.com> spake
thuswise:
>I believe she played the autoharp. I keep coming up with the name
>Susan Reed, but I may be totally off the wall.
To me "off the wall" describes it perfectly, no doubt about it. "Off
the wall" means "from instant recall, without the benefit of careful
research". It carries no implication of right or wrong.
Does it mean something different there, or was this was a slip-up?
--
-- Mike Barnes, Stockport, England.
-- If you post a response to Usenet, please *don't* send me a copy by e-mail.
Skitt
Mimi Kahn wrote in message <35701689...@news.mindspring.com>...
>On Wed, 20 May 1998 10:00:14 +0100, Mike Barnes <mi...@exodus.co.uk>
>wrote:
>
>>In alt.usage.english, Mimi Kahn <spam...@merriewood.com> spake
>>thuswise:
>>>I believe she played the autoharp. I keep coming up with the name
>>>Susan Reed, but I may be totally off the wall.
>>
>>To me "off the wall" describes it perfectly, no doubt about it.
"Off
>>the wall" means "from instant recall, without the benefit of careful
>>research". It carries no implication of right or wrong.
>>
>>Does it mean something different there, or was this was a slip-up?
>
>"without the benefit of careful research," and I don't know if it's
>right or wrong. It's just the name that comes to mind.
MWCD10:
Main Entry: off-the-wall
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1966
: highly unusual : BIZARRE <an off–the–wall sense of humor>
Padraig Breathnach
Mimi Kahn wrote:
>
> In any event, Susan Reed *was* her name.
>
So what *is* her name?
PB
John Ramsay
Hi, I believe that praties are potatoes. They are also mentioned in the
Bing Crosby song 'Galway Bay.' Don't know if the song is traditional or
if it was composed for Crosby.
SLHinton17 (slhin...@aol.com) wrote:
: Mimi Kahn wrote, on Tue, May 19, 1998
:
: --
: Mimi
: http://www.merriewood.com
: (to respond via e-mail, call me anything but spamfree --
: but please don't send me e-mail copies of Usenet posts)
: Sam Hinton
: La Jolla, CA
--
John Ramsay
Welland Ontario
bishb...@gmail.com
Tony Cooper
>The term is also mentioned in Bing Crosby's version of Galway Bay in 1948
The word occurs often in Irish folk songs. One of the most played is
"Muirsheen Durkin" where the lyrics include:
"So goodbye Muirsheen Durkin I'm sick and tired of working
For as sure as me name is Carney
I'll go off to California where instead of digging praties
I'll be digging lumps of gold."
"Maurice". Adding the "een", or "in" (as it is pronounced) means
"little" so it's Little Martin or Maurice.
"California", in the song, is pronounce "Californey" rhyming with
"Carney".
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
Paul Carmichael
> The word occurs often in Irish folk songs.
> "California", in the song, is pronounce "Californey" rhyming with
> "Carney".
the Irish migrants.
--
Paul.
https://paulc.es/
https://asetrad.org