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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24 |
Does anyone know the origin of the word "smithereens," as in "The tornado blew the trailer to smithereens?"
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
smithereens” comes from an Irish
word, “smidirin,” meaning “small fragments, atoms,”
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
From www.takeourword.com, issue 50
Almost any word that ends with -een can be assumed to
be Irish and smithereens is no exception. The -een
suffix represents the Irish diminutive -ín as in colleen "a
young girl", boreen "small road" or "lane", kippeen "a
small stick". A smithereen is a smidirín in Irish. The only
problem with this is that Irish has no word smidir.
Smidirín is thought to be the diminutive of the English
word smither, a word with no known origin which means
just the same as smithereen.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320 |
And you mustn't forget poteen, a bit of the good stuff.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
How 'bout soup tureen?
MW:
"Main Entry: tu·reen
Pronunciation: t&-'rEn, tyu-
Function: noun
Etymology: French terrine, from Middle French, from feminine of terrin of earth, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin terrinus, from Latin terra earth -- more at TERRACE
Date: circa 1706
1 : a deep and usually covered bowl from which foods (as soup) are served
2 : CASSEROLE 1
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
The history bookis forget to mention it, but the biggest tragedy of the Potato Famine
was loss of poteen.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Now Bill, with people dying of starvation in their thousands and hundreds of thousands more going to wild, uncivilised places like North American between 1845 and 1850, why do you think that the loss of a bit of booze didn't get so much as a dishonourable mention in the history books?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear CK: you remind me of a gag by Red Skelton in movie about Alaska Gold Rush.
A guy comes back from a weeklong trip for supplies. He has thirteen bottles of
whiskey, and a loaf of bread. Skelton demands: "You goddam fool, what are we
going to do with all that bread?"
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
Almost any word that ends with -een can be assumed to
be IrishThis is throwing down the gauntlet, Bill.  -teen numbers immediately spring to mind, though there the derivation is (fairly obviously) from OE for ten. I'm sure more "exceptions" will be forthcoming... the English word smither, a word with no known origin which means just the same as smithereen.Never heard this one, though maybe that's not surprising if it's an old term. But I wonder aloud if "smithers" were odd little bits of metal left around by the work of a smith ? Does anyone know if odd little bits of metal would be left around by a smith?  That would appear to fit the meaning very well.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
anyone know if odd little bits of metal would be left around by a smith? Not really bits of metal, but particles of oxydised iron from the black layer that forms on the surface, fly about in the forge when the smith pounds on the red-hot workpiece.
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