English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Compare cat (terrible) and cat's melody.

Ciaran Carson suggests influence of Irish cat marbh/cat mara; literally "dead cat"/"sea cat", figuratively "calamity".[1]

Adjective edit

cat melodeon

  1. (Ireland, informal) terrible, appalling; of very poor quality
    • 1997, Michael Coady, “The Longest Puck”, in All Souls, Gallery Press, →ISBN, page 65:
      We're fed up of
      festivals and funerals
      and Munster Finals
      with backs that were
      cat melodeon.
    • 2016 April 18, “Broadband service is ‘cat melodeon'”, in The Southern Star[1]:
      Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) pointed out that half of West Cork doesn’t have phone coverage either, and that the situation with broadband was ‘cat melodeon’.
    • 2019, Conor Bowman, chapter 11, in Hughie Mittman's Fear of Lawnmowers, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
      I'm going to do something cat-melodeon wrong and say you did it and everyone will believe me.
  2. (Ireland, informal) cacophonous; raucous
    • 2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman"
      The lights went down and the crowd went cat melodeon
      We were all revved up and ready to engage
      Having hitch hiked all the way from Minnesota
      Zimmerman was there before us on the stage

References edit

  1. ^ Carson, Ciaran (1996) Last Night's Fun: A Book about Irish Traditional Music, Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 123