boreen

English
A paved boreen in Ireland.

Etymology

Borrowed from Irish bóithrín, diminutive of bóthar (“road”).

Pronunciation
  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /bɔːˈɹiːn/
  • Rhymes: -iːn

Noun

boreen (plural boreens)

  1. (Ireland) A narrow, frequently unpaved, rural road in Ireland, often characterised by a ridge of grass growing in the middle.
    • c. 1900, “Star of the County Down (traditional folk song)”:
      Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen \ And she smiled as she passed me by.
    • 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 63:
      A boy in a disguise nobody believed in, an actor playing a part he didn't understand, he would trudge every rocky field and quaking bog, every pot-holed road and tortuous boreen, each of the thirteen villages on his father's estate, speaking the Irish he had learned from his father's servants.

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