boreen

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish bóithrín, diminutive of bóthar (“road”), see Irish -ín (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /bɔːˈɹiːn/
  • Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

boreen (plural boreens)

  1. (Ireland) A narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland, often characterised by a ridge of grass growing in the middle.
    • c. 1900, “Star of the County Down (traditional folk song)”:
      Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen \ And she smiled as she passed me by.
    • 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 63:
      A boy in a disguise nobody believed in, an actor playing a part he didn't understand, he would trudge every rocky field and quaking bog, every pot-holed road and tortuous boreen, each of the thirteen villages on his father's estate, speaking the Irish he had learned from his father's servants.

Anagrams

Yola

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish bóithrín.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /boːˈriːn/

Noun

boreen

  1. A narrow, rural road.

Derived terms

References

  • Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (1990) “A Modern Glossary of the Dialect of Forth and Bargy”, in lrish University Review‎[1], volume 20, number 1, Edinburgh University Press, page 154
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