Seanfhocal an lae - Irish Proverb A Day - All Comments

re: Irish Proverb 75 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 75

padraighain mac Diarmada — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 18:06:13 GMT

In the multitudes of words sin is not lacking....or na mbeith ag caint..

re: Irish Proverb 52 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 52

clar ni raighne ui dhonnchu — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 08:51:20 GMT

An bhfuil seanfocail a fhail le do thol "theres more than one way to skin a cat"

re: Irish Proverb 315 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 315

potemkin505 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 09:52:53 GMT

Anytime I've heard this phrase in usage, it has been used with the meaning "if you can just hold out, things will get better". As Hesk said above, its literally being addressed to a starving horse who is told if it can survive for a little longer it will get grass e.g. towards the end of a hard winter with spring on the horizon.

I've never heard it used cynically i.e. a warning of false promises. But that's really up to interpretation and usage!

I don't think the interpretation of "if you live like a horse you'll be treated like a horse" is the original intention of the phrase, however, as it is the horse that is being directly addressed. The commas around "a chapaill" are generally included to emphasise that.

re: Irish Proverb 315 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 315

NellyM — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 12:57:54 GMT

'Live horse and you'll get grass.' My mother and grandmother said it too.

It meant to us 'Prove that you're worth the investment, then I'll invest.' In other words, you're on your own. I think that it was a meditation on the dilemma of poverty, which was the order of the day for an Irish farmer.

re: Irish Proverb 184 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 184

Christopher123 — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 19:42:05 GMT

This proverb is interesting. In Ó Dónaill's dictionary, it's translated as 'what the eye sees not the heart craves not' The verb seachain seems to mean both 'to avoid' and, in older Irish 'to forsake' :

mairg fuair go seachónadh sibh

ar choicéadaibh chuain Ṡligigh

. . .

sein Teamhraigh

'alas if anyone found that for the cocket of Sligo Bay thou wouldst abandon ancient Tara', see www.dil.ie/search

So, the eye forsakes, gives up, what it does not see. Which could mean 'out of sight, out of mind' or that we ignore any evidence that is not given by the senses. Additionally, their might be some wordplay in 'súil', meaning both 'eye' and 'hope' Hope forsakes what the eye doesn't see: We abandon hope if we don't see a thing before our eyes.

re: Irish Proverb 315 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 315

fergalo — Wed, 03 May 2017 22:22:36 GMT

My mam, PBUH, who was born in 1912, used the phrase just as Seano stated it above, which is to say, "If you are willing to live like a horse (that is, expect nothing better) you will get grass (and nothing more)". I suppose that would be written, "Mair a chapaill is gheobhaidh tú féar".

I've seen it with commas that makes a difference:"Mair, a chapaill, is gheobhaidh tú féar".

I prefer my mam's admonition to expect better over the latter false-sounding promise.

re: Irish Proverb 315 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 315

Riobard Hand — Wed, 03 May 2017 11:20:46 GMT

I had understood this idiom in the context of some future reward based upon quicksand expectations . So foolishness!

re: Irish Proverb 51 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 51

liammacgabhann — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 16:09:02 GMT

"Faigheann cú ar a a chois rud nach bhfaigheann cú ina lúb."

Is it correct it should be written "...ar a a chois..."?

re: Irish Proverb 315 - Seanfhocail Ghaeilge 315

rorym — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 21:26:24 GMT

My father used this sometimes.

"Live horse" as in "Stay alive, oh horse". And you'll get grass--the grass you need to live. So it's a slightly dark way of saying 'do the impossible'. Dark because failure means the horse dies.

As least that's how he used it on me.

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