Posted by fústar in 
Welcome friends and foes. Welcome to the unveiling of fústar. How to begin…
Perhaps a word about the title of this blog might kick us off. Here's what Professor Terence Patrick Dolan's wonderful Hiberno-English Archive has to say by way of definition:
fústar: // n. v. busy, agitated behaviour, Seán Ó Coileáin/Cork; to bustle about fussily < Ir. fústaire, bustling person < E dial. fooster < Ir. fústar, fussy behaviour, bustle, activity. 'Stop foostering about, will you!' foosterer n. a fussy person; a messer < Ir. fúastaire + E -er (see messer). 'Stop your fústaring and get on with your homework'...
So there you have it. In Irish it is rendered 'fústar', while the anglicised spelling is usually given as 'fooster', 'foosther' etc. Why was it chosen? No particular reason apart from the fact that…
a) I like the the way it sounds.
b) I have a soft-spot for words that suggest agitation.
and…
c) My father is a man who has turned "fústaring" into an art form.
In tribute to my Da then (and in the absence of a more convincing reason) I hereby christen this blog.
have you heard the term malifooster (I’m unsure of the correct spelling, if indeed there is one)?
Might be heard in a west of Ireland chipper in the small hours of Sunday morning as follows: “I’d malifooster a snack box”. Could also be assigned to the thrashing of someone within an inch (2.54 cm) of their life but, then again, what couldn’t?
what does the phrase “i’d malifooster a sheep” – oft heard on Belmullet Sound – mean?
I believe the American equivalent is “date-rape” if that clarifies things. Followed, in this case however, by a hearty meal as opposed to the other way round. A slight but vital difference.
Interesting. I know a geneticist working in Crete who is engineering a prettier sheep for graziers in the remoter parts west of Ballina and north of Mulranney. It’s all to do with the eyelashes apparently.
How right you are, the lashes are indeed key. Efforts are currently focusing on generating sheep with an increased batting quotient (IBQ). Clinical sheep-trials are nearing completion and the results are promising to say the least.
I’d be interested to see statistics generated on key indicators such as HAR HAR – Herder Attractedness Ratio to Herd Attractiveness Resonance.
It seems, Copernicus, that you have a feel for this sort of thing. One must also consider the, oft neglected, STD level – Subject’s Transient Desperation. Once the trials are complete and all of the data is collated we should have a clearer grasp of the ins and outs of the issue.
I bet you will.
If you can find a bookie Tom-fool enough to be offering odds you stand to make a forchun.
hmnn, that reminds me, I must pop in to Tom Fool Turf Accountant on Main St. Castleconnel.
Back to “Mallafooster” (or “Mallafoosther”). The good ol’ Hiberno-English Archive has this to say:
A handy phrase if either of you bowsies get out of control…
favourite Hiberno-English word of the day: latchiko
latchiko – disagreeable person, bit of a coward, only one ball (this last meaning presumably based on the fact that ‘latchiko’ sounds like an anglicisation of the Irish compound ‘leath-tiochog’, meaning half-bag, a half-ballocks); ‘Who are you calling a latchiko? Watch yourself!’
I’m particularly fond of the “one-ball wonder” definition. By all accounts there’s a Mayo man currently writing his memoirs with the catchy title: “confessions of a latchiko”
we had latchies in Limerick when I was lad – o sweet alliteration – another word for scanger. I presume the dismissive phrase “Go way you fucking La”, oft heard among north circular road schoolboys was a derivation of latchiko.