A chacc cuirre uidre ittige!

(o * shit * of crane * grey-brown * winged)

O shit of a flapping dun-colored crane!

The adjectives that make this a truly baroque insult in Irish probably can’t be carried over into English successfully. Our closest equivalent would be a blunt “You crane shit!” The word “corr” (genitive “cuirre”) can mean either “crane” or “heron” in Old Irish. The insult is one of five, directed in rapid succession against someone named Bressal or Brénnan in a quatrain edited by Kuno Meyer in “Mittelirische Verslehren” (IT iii 102 §189) and then in “Bruchstücke der älteren Lyrik Irlands”. The latter edition is:

A mâelscolb do messair,
a eclas crainn, a chacc cuirre uidre ittige,
a eôin re n-ossaib,
a fhertas a broinn bicire, a Brênaind!

Topics: Curses & Insults