Checking saved dictionary data and trusted language sources. This will stop automatically if a source does not respond.
/spalˈpiːn/ · noun
(Ireland, ethnic slur) A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person..
"And they stood you before the magistrates, like a spalpeen or a tinker." / "Sure the French wouldn't bring with them barrels of coppers for the spalpeens of Connaught. It is murder and bloodshed they would bring."
The men were mainly evicted farmers from Connaught and West Cork, beggared spalpeens from Carlow and Waterford; a cooper, some farriers, a horse-knacker from Kerry; a couple of Galway fishermen who had managed to sell their nets.
[A] fortunate accident […] happened to me when I was a very little boy. A good-hearted old Irish nurse (whom I shall not forget in my will) took me up one day by the heels, when I was making more noise than was necessary, and, swinging me round two or three times, d——d my eyes for "a skreeking little spalpeen," and then knocked my head into a cocked hat against the bed-post. This, I say, decided my fate, and made my fortune.
Use spalpeen when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Spalpeen means (Ireland, ethnic slur) A poor migratory farm worker in Ireland, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
"And they stood you before the magistrates, like a spalpeen or a tinker." / "Sure the French wouldn't bring with them barrels of coppers for the spalpeens of Connaught. It is murder and bloodshed they would bring."
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.