What does "sloother" mean?
Ekkehard Dengler
Can anyone explain what the word "sloother" means? It appeared recently in
the Irish Independent, but occurs practically nowhere on the Internet, so I
suppose it must be an exclusive Irishism.
Judging by the context (unsatisfactory answers given by a politician), I
suspect it means something like "waffle" or "prevaricate", but I’m only
guessing here.
I'd also like to know whether "sloother" can be used both as a verb and as a
noun and whether it’s a regionalism or a common word in all of Ireland.
By the way, don’t acuse me of cross-posting; I admit that I tried to get
alt.english.usage to answer this a few weeks ago, but sadly I haven’t been
able to elicit any response.
Many thanks in advance.
Ekkehard Dengler
Germany
lazy|gun
news:aqdjgg$6ms$01$1...@news.t-online.com...
> Hi everyone!
>
> Can anyone explain what the word "sloother" means? It appeared recently in
> the Irish Independent, but occurs practically nowhere on the Internet, so
I
> suppose it must be an exclusive Irishism.
>
> Judging by the context (unsatisfactory answers given by a politician), I
> suspect it means something like "waffle" or "prevaricate", but I'm only
> guessing here.
>
Ah. Well, most of what our politicians say doesn't in fact *have* any
meaning.
It also depends on *which* crimi, I mean politcian said it.
--
scipost AT lazygun DOT net
The "Reply to" addy is a spamtrap.
Ekkehard Dengler
"lazy|gun" <nanaesp...@lazygun.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:aqdkro$913h0$1...@ID-148269.news.dfncis.de...
> "Ekkehard Dengler" <ED...@t-online.de> wrote in message
> news:aqdjgg$6ms$01$1...@news.t-online.com...
> > Hi everyone!
> >
> > Can anyone explain what the word "sloother" means? It appeared recently
in
> > the Irish Independent, but occurs practically nowhere on the Internet,
so
> I
> > suppose it must be an exclusive Irishism.
> >
> What was the sentence it appeared in?
I can't seem to find the sentence I read in the online edition of the
Independent; I have forgotten the date. But here's an example from a
transcript from the Dáil:
"[Some politician:] the Fianna Fáil Party, in an excess of *sloothering*
which must have almost overtaken their own record, put down a motion which
did not actually commit them to paying the 10 per cent themselves but
allowed the teachers to believe that it did."
> > Judging by the context (unsatisfactory answers given by a politician), I
> > suspect it means something like "waffle" or "prevaricate", but I'm only
> > guessing here.
> >
> Ah. Well, most of what our politicians say doesn't in fact *have* any
> meaning.
> It also depends on *which* crimi, I mean politcian said it.
I believe the word was used by the author of an article that dealt with the
debate following the raid on Sinn Féin's offices at Stormont.
Regards
Ekkehard
lazy|gun
http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/0363/D.0363.198602130003.html
I suspect it refers to the standard politicians way of speaking loudly,
forcefully and impressively while not actually saying very much at all.
He hopes that the verbal acrobatics he uses will take your mind off the fact
that there's no substance.
I think...
Offonmyown
the Irish Independent, but occurs practically nowhere on the Internet, so I
suppose it must be an exclusive Irishism<
I am not Irish, but my father was, and would refer to someone disparagingly as
"a sleuthery article". He never gave me a definition, but from the context I'd
say it meant someone who is sloppy and unreliable.
Though many Irish came into our home, I never heard anyone else use the word.
By the way, he pronounced it as if it were written shleuthery.
michael adams
> Hi everyone!
>
> Can anyone explain what the word "sloother" means? It appeared recently in
> the Irish Independent, but occurs practically nowhere on the Internet, so I
> suppose it must be an exclusive Irishism.
>
> Judging by the context (unsatisfactory answers given by a politician), I
> guessing here.
>
> I'd also like to know whether "sloother" can be used both as a verb and as a
>
> By the way, don’t acuse me of cross-posting; I admit that I tried to get
> alt.english.usage to answer this a few weeks ago, but sadly I haven’t been
> able to elicit any response.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
......................................................................
>
> Ekkehard Dengler
> Germany
Hi Ekkehard
The ball used in hurling (i.e Irish hockey he explains, donning his
crash helmet) is a sliothar which is very roughly pronouced slootha
(he says having kept on the crash helmet.) Could that make sense any
possible sense in this context? As you may or may not know, in English
"balls" (no don't ask) is used to mean "nonsense" or "rubbish" so maybe
"hurling balls" perhaps?
I doubt if anyone would ever dream of accusing anyone of cross posting
on this group Ekkhard. They're all much too polite for that!
All the best
Michael Adams
Ruairi Lynch
Sloother, thole, cowl and binting, libe, gowlogue, slocken and merdle
are just some of the unusual words used in Ireland. These will vary a
great deal from locality to locality, For example, "Gowlogue" in
Kilkenny is used to mean a large drink of whiskey, but it is also the
farmers' word for a forked stick or prop.
"binting" was used by a veteran of the Great War in a question to his
son, "I see you're all dressed up. Binting again?" The word comes from
the Arabic for girl and came into usage, as did so many unusual words,
through military travel. A common term in Britain today is 'Bint'
meaning a not overly inteligent young woman.
Can you include the reference Sloother was used in? The context will
be more helpful.
Ruairi Lynch
Trish
"Féachadóir" <Féach@d.óir> wrote in message
news:oe9lsu4l230mrig9l...@4ax.com...
> Scríobh Ekkehard Dengler:
>
> >"[Some politician:] the Fianna Fáil Party, in an excess of *sloothering*
> >which must have almost overtaken their own record, put down a motion
which
> >did not actually commit them to paying the 10 per cent themselves but
> >allowed the teachers to believe that it did."
>
> being described as a slippery snake
>
From 'Slanguage - a dictionary of Irish slang' by Bernard Share:
sloothering/slouthering
[adj., cf. Ir sliúdrálaí (n.), slippery individual]
Coaxing, sly.
1946 Donagh Mac Donagh in Robert Gracen (ed.) "Irish Harvest", 'Duet for
Organ and Strings' : 'Oh a villain she was, the same Mrs. Teevan, with a
slouthering smile for his reverence you could butter your bread with...'
--
Trish
Dublin, Ireland
Ekkehard Dengler
"Offonmyown" <offon...@aol.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:20021107111300...@mb-fi.aol.com...
Hi.
Thank you! You've given me a good idea. I tried the "eu" spelling you used
and found this at
http://indigo.ie/~kfinlay/Picturesque%20Dublin/picturesque17.htm:
"And here I am reminded of the Cove of Cork people, who have a sympathising,
sleuthering, [Sleuthering," a word foreign to English ears, is an expressive
phrase for insincere compliments.] flattering way with them, caught from
perpetually kissing the blarney stone."
Which made me think that slickness bordering on insincerity could be the
common denominator of all the contexts the word is encountered in. I do
apologise to everyone from Cobh for the stereotyping.
Regards
Ekkehard
Fr. Des
Yarra sure boy not at all; sure we are all very grateful over here in Cobh
to have our faults pointed out to us by some well meaning person with a
big name. Sure, we were getting far too big in our boots altogether
and your posts came at just the right moment to snap us out of our misguided
ways and to set us all up on the correct path and to restore in us
an approporiate sense of modesty, decorum, self-assurance, personal hygiene
and stubborness not to mention intransigence. We are very grateful and look
forward to further lessons from your good self where you can dissect our
personality faults even further and point out to us things that will be
hard to take initially but which will be for our own good in the long run.
Fr. Des
Cobh
Ekkehard Dengler
"Ruairi Lynch" <ruair...@hotmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:85a09a9b.02110...@posting.google.com...
I've been searching the Independent's Archives again, but haven't been able
to find the original passage. (Sorry!) I seem to remember reading that some
radio interviewer should have dismissed some politician's sloothering over
Sinn Fein's alleged espionage activities, but I'm nowhere near sure.
However, I've since stumbled on the gerund "sloothering" in the following
excerpt from a parliamentary debate that took place in 1973
(http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/index.html?http://www.oireachtas-debat
es.gov.ie/S/0074/S.0074.197301170004.html):
"[...] the people from the North wanted to hear "Yes" when a man meant "Yes"
and wanted to hear "No" when he meant "No". [...] they had no time for
evasions and had no time for the kind of "sloothering" associated with the
worst type of person who in their legend the southern majority to a large
extent consisted of."
Can we agree that "sloother" means (or has something to do with) "evasive
and/or deceitful talk"?
Anyway, thanks very much to *everyone* who's taken the trouble to reply.
What puzzles me, though, is that a writer for a national newspaper should
have used a word that seems to be relatively obscure even to Irish people.
Regards
Ekkehard Dengler
