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Thankyou Shae

Posted by Lotg on December 05, 2004

In Reply to: Smithereens revisited posted by Shae on December 05, 2004

: I go away for a week and you lot go all Gaelic behind my back!

: Keith is almost correct. Dolan's Dictionary of Hiberno-English has a little more to add.

: SMITHEREENS: small broken fragments; little pieces, from Irish smidiríní (plural of smidirín, dimin. of smiodar, fragment); but cf. E dial. 'smaddereen,' a small quantity (a dialectical form of smattering); Hogan* notes: 'The origin of this word is doubtful. Ir. smidirín is probably borrowed from the Anglo-Irish word. OED thinks that the latter is English dialectical 'smithers' = fragments + Anglo-Irish suffix '-een.' But 'smithereens' is recorded much earlier than 'smithers'; and there is an Anglo-Irish 'smither' = to break into bits.

: *Hogan, Jeremiah J., 'The English Language in Ireland,' Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland, 1927

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