spalpeen

English

Etymology

A late 18th century term, From Irish spailpín.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /spalˈpiːn/

Noun

spalpeen (plural spalpeens)

1. (Ireland) A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person.
2. (Ireland) A good-for-nothing person, often used so-named during a good humored ridicule.

Quotations

• 1979. Thomas Flanagan. The Year of the French. New York: The New York Review of Books:

  "And they stood you before the magistrates like a spalpeen or a tinker."

  "Sure the French wouldn't bring with them barrels of coppers for the spalpeens of Connaught. It is murder and bloodshed they would bring."

• 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 25:

  The men were mainly evicted farmers from Connaught and West Cork, beggared spalpeens from Carlow and Waterford; a cooper, some farriers, a horse-knacker from Kerry; a couple of Galway fishermen who had managed to sell their nets.

See also

• guttersnipe

References

• merriam-webster.com.
• [1].
• encarta MSN.
• Spalpeen. The New Oxford American Dictionary. Second ed.