Plastic Paddy
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom the sense of plastic as fake, ersatz, inauthentic, etc. and Paddy (“Patrick”) as a generic name for any Irish man.
Pronunciation
edit- Rhymes: -ædi
Noun
editPlastic Paddy (plural Plastic Paddies)
- (humorous, sometimes pejorative) A person of another ethnicity considered to be passing or posing as Irish.
- 1993, “Plastic Paddy”, in Mirrors[1], performed by Eric Bogle:
- He’s just a Plastic Paddy singing Plastic Paddy songs. In a Plastic Paddy pub that they call The Blarney Stone. There’s plastic shamrocks everywhere. There’s Guinness and green beer. And a sign in Gaelic above the bar which says “God Bless All Here”.
- (derogatory, ethnic slur) An Irish person considered to be inauthentically Irish, especially (UK) recent Irish arrivals to London.
Translations
editA person pretending to be Irish
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