Mind your slanguage

Just a few of the Cork terms that are explained in That's Cork: use one in a sentence today.

Chats - Meaning breasts in Cork slang. But the word has also been used in Irish slang to refer to a small, inferior potato, which does not really flatter Cork women unfortunately. It is even less flattering to know that the work was also used in Irish slang to refer to the cheap methylated spirits drunk by alcoholics.

Langer - This word has been adopted by the Corkonians and was even the title of a recent song by Tim O'Riordan and Natural Gas.

Skelp - Means a blow, or strike, particularly with an open hand. A confusing word, but one source mentions 'one gets a skelp on the pus (face) and a slap on the jaw'. Nice to know what you're going to get if you have a scrap in Cork.

A noodeenaw is a term for an annoying person in Cork, and a noodenaddy is the term for an indecisive or dithering person in County Kerry. Both would come from the Irish niúidí neáidí, meaning hesitant in speech or manner, so we will have to give that one to the Kerrymen.

From That's Cork by Tom Galvin