Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or belonging to the Celts of Ireland and Scotland or their language: as, the Erse tongue.
- noun The language of the Gaels or Celts in the Highlands of Scotland, as being of Irish origin. The Highlanders themselves call it Gaelic.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the Celtic race in the Highlands of Scotland, or to their language.
- noun A name sometimes given to that dialect of the Celtic which is spoken in the Highlands of Scotland; -- called, by the Highlanders,
Gaelic .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Either of the
Gaelic languages ofIreland orScotland - adjective Connected with Ireland or the Highlands of Scotland, or to the
Goidelic languages spoken in those places.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of several related languages of the Celts in Ireland and Scotland
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The name, as now written, is unseemly, but it is not so bad in the original Erse, which is Mouach, signifying the Sows 'Island.
Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887
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The name, as now written, is unseemly, but is not so bad in the original Erse, which is MOUACH, signifying the Sows 'Island.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. James Boswell 1767
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In the end, the only Celtic language to survive in the Scoticised kingdom of Alba – as Caledonia was renamed – was the Irish branch: Gaelic, or 'Erse' as it came to be called for a time much later, the language of the Scots of Dalriada.
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The name, as now written, is unseemly, but is not so bad in the original Erse, which is MOUACH, signifying the Sows’ Island.
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He spoke a loose mixture of Erse, Danish and Welsh, very well able to make himself understood in these parts.
His Disposition 2010
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From a geographical and historical point of view, this subfamily can be divided into two branches: the continental branch, which has disappeared by now, and the insular branch, which can further be broken down as follows: Brythonic (including Breton), Cornish and Welsh on the one hand, and Gaelic on the other, which includes Irish, Erse and Mannish (the dialect of the Isle of Man).
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I don't know any Erse speakers, so don't know what that means, but it is a melody to gaze out at the sea to and dream of dark eyes looking into your own...
Going like a bush fire... Imogen 2009
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Only recently for public consumption has the IRA's intrinsic sinister ethos of a one nation, one culture (Gaelic), one language (Erse), one religion (extreme right wing Roman Catholicism) been deliberately played down.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008
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- NJ. com: Jersey Writers var vs_blog_indexpage = "NJ. com: Jersey Writers"; var vs_blog_pagetype = "Individual"; var vs_blog_category = ""; var vs_blog_title = "Erse Verse from Before St. Patrick ..."
Erse Verse from Before St. Patrick ... Maureen Berzok 2008
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The Catholic religion had been compulsory in South Ireland from 1944 until 1980, and the Erse language, although that was largely corrupted by unavoidable English words and locutions, had also been made obligatory.
The Shape of Things to Come Herbert George 2006
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