An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea (67 page)

Read An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea Online

Authors: Patrick Taylor

rashers:
Bacon slices from the back of the pig. They have a streaky tail and a lean eye.

redd up:
Tidy up.

registrar (medical):
Trainee physician, equivalent to a North American resident.

right enough?:
Is that correct?

right:
Very or real.

rightly:
Perfectly well.

rook (n):
Corvus frugilegus
is a black bird like a crow of the family
Corvidae.

rook (v):
To cheat out of money or vastly overcharge.

run-race:
Quick trip.

schooner:
Glass specifically for sherry, named for the type of vessels that brought the drink to England.

see you/him/her:
An expression of emphasis, and the person referred to may not necessarily be in view.

senior lecturer:
Academic rank equivalent to assistant professor.

shed a tear for the old country:
Urinate. Usually used by or about men.

shit:
(v)
The action of defaecation.

shite:
(n)
Faeces.

sidhe
:
Irish
. Pronounced “shee.” The fairies.

Shuey:
Peculiarly Ulster corruption of Hughey, which is itself a corruption of Hugh.

sicken your happiness:
Really upset you.

sister (nursing):
In Irish hospitals at one time, nuns filled important nursing roles. They no longer do so except in some Catholic institutions. Their honorific, “Sister,” has been retained to signify a senior nursing rank. Ward sister: charge nurse. Sister tutor: senior nursing teacher, now also obsolete because nursing is a university course. In North America the old rank was charge nurse or head nurse, now nursing team leader, unless it has been changed again since I retired.

skin you:
Very cold.

skiver:
From scurvy. Waster. Good for nothing.

skivvy:
. Housemaid of the lowest rank.

slag:
Verbally abuse. Slagging can be either good-natured banter or verbal chastisement.

slÃ¡inte
:
Irish
. Pronounced “slawntuh.” Cheers. Here's mud in your eye.
Prosit
.

solicitor:
Attorney who did not appear in court, a function performed by more senior lawyers called barristers.

sorbo-rubber:
Foam rubber.

sound/sound man:
Very good/reliable and trustworthy man.

spalpeen:
From the Irish
spailpin,
originally an iterant farm labourer. Now used to denote a ne'er-do-well.

squirt:
RAF slang.
Burst of machine-gun fire.

stall the ball:
Dublin
. Wait a minute.

sticking out/sticking out a mile:
Very good/the acme of perfection.

stiver:
Tiny sum of money.

stop the lights:
Dublin
. Expression of utter disbelief.

stout:
A dark beer, usually Guinness or Murphy's.

stroppy:
Bad-tempered.

strunts:
Sulks.

sums:
Math. Taught initially as counting, addition (the
sum
of two numbers), subtraction, multiplication, and division.

surgery:
When used to describe a doctor's rooms, this is the equivalent of a North American doctor's office.

sweet, sweetie:
Candy.

sweet Fanny Adams:
Euphemism for “sweet eff all” and, dear reader, I'm sure you can work that out. Absolutely nothing at all.

ta-ta-ta-ra:
Dublin
. Party.

take your hurry in your hand:
Slow down.

take yourself off by the hand:
Please. Get real.

tall around:
Rotund.

targe:
Foul-tempered person.

telt:
Told (corruption of “telled”).

tetchy:
Irritable.

them there:
Emphatic for “them.”

thon/thonder:
That or there. “Thon eejit shouldn't be standing over thonder.”

tip the wink:
Inform.

titter of wit:
Behave sensibly.

tongue's hanging out:
Dying for a drink.

tousling:
Roughing up, either verbal or physical.

townland:
A mediaeval administrative region comprising a village and the surrounding countryside.

trunk call:
Long-distance telephone call.

using the loaf:
Being sensible about.

VE Day:
Victory in Europe Day. May 8, 1945.

VJ Day:
Victory over Japan Day, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. In the UK it is celebrated on August 15 (the initial announcement of surrender) and in the USA on September 2 (the signing of the surrender document on USS
Missouri
).

water stars:
Bangor term for the way small pools of water in rippled sand reflect the sun.

wean:
Pronounced “wane.” Child.

wee:
Small, but in Ulster can be used to modify almost anything without reference to size. A barmaid, an old friend, greeted me by saying, “Come in, Pat. Have a wee seat and I'll get you a wee menu, and would you like a wee drink while you're waiting?”

wee buns:
Very easy.

wee man:
The devil.

wee minute:
A short time.

Wee North:
The six counties comprising Northern Ireland.

Wellington boots (Wellies):
Below-knee-length rubber boots patterned on the riding boots worn by the Duke of Wellington.

wheeker:
Excellent.

wheen:
An indeterminate number.

wheest:
Be quiet.

where to go for corn (did not know):
At a loss for an answer.

whisky/whiskey:
Scotch is “whisky.” Irish is “whiskey.” Both derived from the Gaelic
uisce beatha
Â â¦ water of life. The earliest licensed distillery (1608 by King James I) is in Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

windscreen:
Windshield.

wizard prang:
RAF slang.
“Wizard” was very good, “prang” was a crash, but the full term meant that a very successful outcome had been achieved.

WREN:
Acronym derived from the initial letters of the
W
omen's
R
oyal
N
avy. Akin to WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force) or WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency ServiceâUS Navy).

ye:
You, singular.

yiz:
You, singular or plural.

yoke:
Thingummybob, whatsit. Descriptor for something one does not know the name of. Or, aircraft control column.

your man:
Someone who is not known: “Your man over there. Who is he?” Or someone known to all: “Your man, Van Morrison.” (Also, “I'm your man,” as in, “I agree and will go along with what you are proposing.”)

youse:
You. Plural.

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

A large number of people have worked with me from the beginning and without whose unstinting help and encouragement, I could not have written this series. They are:

In North America

Simon Hally, Carolyn Bateman, Tom Doherty, Paul Stevens, Irene Gallo, Gregory Manchess, Patty Garcia, Alexis Saarela, and Christina Macdonald, all of whom have contributed enormously to the literary and technical aspects of bringing the work from rough draft to bookshelf.

Natalia Aponte, my literary agent.

Don Kalancha, Joe Maier, and Michael Tadman, who keep me right in contractual matters.

Without the help of the University of British Columbia Medical Library staff, much of the technical details of medicine in the thirties and forties would have been inaccurate.

In the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Jessica and Rosie Buchman, my foreign rights agents.

The Librarians of: The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, The Rotunda Hospital Dublin and her staff.

For this work only

My friends and colleagues who contributed special expertise in the writing of this work are highlighted in the author's note.

To you all, Surgeon Commander Fingal O'Reilly MB, DSc, and I tender our most heartfelt gratitude and thanks.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Patrick Taylor
, M.D., was born and raised in Bangor, County Down, in Northern Ireland. Dr. Taylor is a distinguished medical researcher, offshore sailor, model-boat builder, and father of two grown children. He now lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.

www.patricktaylor.ca
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