Spleoid

This week I came across the wonderful-sounding Irish word – spleoid [sˠpˠlʲodʲ], which appears in expressions like Spleoid ort! (Shame on you!) and Spleoid air! (Hang it! Confound it!). It is also used without the s as pleoid.

Other Irish words beginning with spleo- include:

– spleodar = cheerfulness, vivacity; exuberance, boisterousness
– spleodrach = cheerful, vivacious; exuberant, boisterous
– spleotán = patch of poor land

From: http://www.teanglann.ie

2 thoughts on “Spleoid

  1. I did look up “spleoid” and “pleoid” to see if I could find an etymology for the word but there doesn’t seem to be much on the internet.
    In a Scottish Gaelic and older Irish dictionary “spleoid” is glossed as “Satan” which is probably an allusion to “tormentor” related to “piolóid” and “sploid” (pillory, torture, torment). Another entry in an Irish Gaelic dictionary under “pleoid” is “plague”.

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