212
ENGLISH AS WE SPEAK IT IN IRELAND.
[CH. XIII.
Art-loochra or arc-loochra, a harmless lizard five or six inches long: Irish art or arc is a lizard: luachra, rushes; the 'lizard of the rushes.'
Ask, a water-newt, a small water-lizard: from esc or easc [ask], an old Irish word for water. From the same root comes the next word, the diminutive form—
Askeen; land made by cutting away bog, which generally remains more or less watery. (Reilly: Kildare.)
Asthore, a term of endearment, 'my treasure.' The vocative case of Irish stór [store], treasure.
Athurt; to confront:—'Oh well I will athurt him with that lie he told about me.' (Cork.) Possibly a mispronunciation of athwart.
Avourneen, my love: the vocative case of Irish muirnín, a sweetheart, a loved person.
Baan: a field covered with short grass:—'A baan field': 'a baan of cows': i.e. a grass farm with its proper number of cows. Irish bán, whitish.
Back; a faction: 'I have a good back in the country, so I defy my enemies.'
Back of God-speed; a place very remote, out of the way: so far off that the virtue of your wish of God-speed to a person will not go with him so far.
Bacon: to 'save one's bacon'; to succeed in escaping some serious personal injury—death, a beating, &c. 'They fled from the fight to save their bacon': 'Here a lodging I'd taken, but loth to awaken, for fear of my bacon, either man, wife, or babe.' (Old Anglo-Irish poem.)
