Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 April 21

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April 21

Does Irish gean cánach really exist?

The phrase is reported in gancanagh, but I couldn't find that cánach on the internet. On wiktinary there is a Scottish Gaelic word cànach which is the genitive singular of càin meaning "tax". Given cànach = cánach the phrase would mean "love of a tax" and not "love talker". I'm not expert of Celtic languages, I'm just asking help to some users.--Carnby (talk) 15:55, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

I think @Alison: speaks Irish well enough. Maybe she can help. --Jayron32 16:45, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Well, gean is common enough - it just means love or fondness. Cánach - I'm not familiar with. Cáin in Irish is like a tax or a levy. Canadh means singing, as in "ag canadh". And I know my folklore reasonably well, and have never come across that term before, either in reading or in RL. Not to say that it doesn't exist! Maybe check in with @Evertype:? - Alison ^❤ 19:40, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

There seem to be many variant forms. Niall Ó Dónaill's 1977 FOCLÓIR GAEILGE—BÉARLA has:

• geancánach 1 = geancachán. 2. Folk: Fairy cobbler. S.a. píopa 4. (Var: geancán m)

  The cross references are:

  • píopa geancánaigh, acorn-bowl.
  • geancachán 1. Snub-nosed person. 2. Snuffler. (Var: geancaide m, geancaire m)

It's probably related to

• geancach 1. Snub-nosed. 2. (Of voice) Nasal. 3. Snubby, surly, rude.

gean-canadh and misspellings thereof look like an amateur's guess.

Other references:

• Notes and Queries 9th Ser. iii. 187 has:

  "GANCANAGH." This is said to be the name of a kind of fairy appearing in lonesome valleys and making love to milkmaids. The word is said to represent Irish gean-cánadh, love-singing. Is this the true derivation? Is the word known to be in use in any part of Ireland among English-speaking people? A. L. MAYHEW.

• English Dialect Dictionary Vol.2 p.553 has

  GANCANAGH, sb. Irel. Also in forms ganconer, gonconer. A kind of fairy said to appear in lonesome valleys, making love to milkmaids, &c.

  Lou. Extremely common, particularly near Drogheda (R.A.S.) ; What should he see but whole loads of ganconers dancing, Yeats Flk-Tales (1888).

  Hence Gonconer's-pipe, sb. an ancient tobacco-pipe.

  Found in raths, &c., ib. 324.

• Patrick S. Dinneen, Irish--English Dictionary

  1904 ed. p.356

  1927 ed. p.526

  GEANNCÁN -ÁIN, {plural} {idem}, {masculine} a snub-nose, a snub-nosed person; {also, alias} GANNCÁN (S). GEANNCANATH. -AIGH, {plural}- {idem}, {masculine} one of the lower and more vicious kinds of fairies, a leprechaun ({Citation:Coney's Irish-English Dictionary of 1849}).

• Stories of Leipreachans and Mermaids: 2nd Story (The Schools’ Collection, Volume 966, Page 351)

  The local name for the Leipreachan in this district is a geanncanach. He lives in a fort and is usually dressed in red, when people see him. He is supposed to be friendly.

• Muirithe, Diarmaid Ó (July 1996). The words we use. Four Courts Press. p. 22. ISBN 9781851822201.

  'You won't believe this', writes a lady from Dunleer, 'but we country girls were often warned by our mothers about the gancanagh, a little fairy man, when we were young — and by young I mean in our teens. What does gancanagh mean?' It means a man with an upturned nose (Irish geancachan); and your mothers were right to warn you, because he had the name of being a right boyo. [then quotes EDD above]

jnestorius^(talk) 21:14, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

• Consider these Wiktionary entries: can -ach -ach. They say the suffix is appliable only to adjectives and nouns (and verbal nouns too). I'm not sure whether these are applicable: wikt:cainnt wikt:caint. Шурбур (talk) 05:49, 22 April 2017 (UTC)
  • Compare also wikt:ioma-chànanach Шурбур (talk) 11:15, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

• According to the Dictionary of the Irish Language, cánach is a "wooly substance, down of plants". -Arch dude (talk) 05:12, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
  • A slightly different meaning, from the same source: " a general term for moss and other mountain and marsh plants but esp. applied to the Hypnum cupressiforme used for dyeing". -Arch dude (talk) 05:19, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

cánach is the genitive of Irish wikt:cáin. Cáin means not only taxation or tribute, but also the law, rule, regulation. —Stephen (talk) 16:56, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Looking for a word/expression

I'm after a word that refers to someone who makes little effort to think to the future, e.g. by concerning themselves with ephemeral pleasures at the expense of money and/or health. I'm sure that such words exist, but I can't think of one.--Leon (talk) 20:22, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Hedonist? See Hedonism. Akld guy (talk) 20:33, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

No, that was only an example of the kind of behaviour to which I was referring.

Happy-go-lucky. DuncanHill (talk) 20:36, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Not really.

Improvident? Grasshopper? Deor (talk) 20:50, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Perfect, thanks!

Wastrel; profligate. Alanscottwalker (talk) 21:43, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Poor forward thinking does not quite imply "Wastrel". "Profligate" doesn't refer to all sorts of poor forward thinking.--Leon (talk) 08:14, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Careless, which leads to these suggestions to consider. --76.71.6.254 (talk) 22:31, 21 April 2017 (UTC)

Insouciant, heedless? Wymspen (talk) 09:27, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Imprudent --Viennese Waltz 10:31, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

If you want an expression, how about the metaphor of The Ant and the Grasshopper? Aesop's fables cover a lot of human psychology. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 21:26, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Also The Three Little Pigs. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:14, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

See wikt:prodigal ("wasteful").—Wavelength (talk) 22:45, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

How about wikt:sybarite and Epicurean.--KTo288 (talk) 14:04, 26 April 2017 (UTC)