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An Irish Education

6 October, 2014
Posted in: Princess

Herself: I need an uillinntomhas.
Me: A what?
Herself: You know for measuring angles.
Me: A protractor?
Her: What?
Me: It’s the English for uillinntomhas, I think. Uillinn is an angle isn’t it?
Her: Yes.
Me: What’s tomhas.
Her: Guess.
Me: I can’t.
Her: No, guess.
Me: Really, I haven’t a clue.
Her: No, tomhas means guess.

Bonus information: Uillinn also means elbow, now you know why uilleann pipes are so called. Would you prefer if I stopped now?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Praxis says

    15 October, 2014 at 11:28

    Interesting. Would suggest a fair degree of synthesis in Irish, or is ‘uillinntomhas’ atypical? Where on earth does ‘protractor’ come from, I wonder?

  2. sibling says

    31 October, 2014 at 13:39

    Your loyal readers are getting restless

  3. belgianwaffle says

    31 October, 2014 at 20:28

    Praxis, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from that – I’d say our celtic ancestors may not have been overfamiliar with the concept of the protractor and that it is a relatively recent coinage.

    Sibling, remain calm.

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