Gaeilgeoir

• gaeilgeoir

Unadapted borrowing from Irish Gaeilgeoir

Gaeilgeoir (plural Gaeilgeoirs or Gaeilgeoirí)

1. (Ireland) Someone who speaks Irish fluently or often.
   • 2014 February 1, Seán Mag Leannáin, "We'll soon find out whether we lose our native language forever" The Journal:

     Another remarkable development is the way Gaeilgeoirí have made their own of the new social media – they’ve taken to Facebook and Twitter like ducks to water.

   • 2022 January 23, Victoria White, "The New Gaeilgeoirs: Forecasts of the Irish language’s demise are greatly exaggerated" Irish Independent

     Tate Donnelly, a Gaeilgeoir from Co Monaghan who was, at 21, the youngest candidate in the 2020 general election, running for the Green Party, admits these younger speakers are not using the language of the Gaeltacht, but argues that we need “a new colloquialism”.

   • 2023 February 24, Claire Fahy, “‘Bursting Proud’: Ireland Cheers Paul Mescal for Embracing Irish Language”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Brendan Gleeson, a well-known Gaeilgeoir, or fluent Irish speaker, also gave an interview in Irish, while Colin Farrell, his co-star in “Banshees of Inisherin,” slowly backed away and was relieved to quickly find someone who would ask him questions in English.

2. (Ireland, derogatory) An Irish speaker intolerant of non-Irish-speakers.
   • 1998, Gene Kerrigan, Another Country : Growing Up In '50s Ireland (Dublin : Gill & Macmillan) →ISBN p. 163

     And in that bigger world the priest and the bishop and the GAA man and the schoolmaster and the Gaeilgeoir and the TD did not loom as large as once they had.

   • 2019 January 19 , Ian O'Doherty, "Gaeilgeoir brigades still turning people off learning Irish" Irish Independent

     A reminder that the Gaeilgeoir Grenadiers haven't gone away came on Tuesday when junior Gaeltacht minister Seán Kyne said that any student who seeks an exemption from learning Irish should automatically be barred from learning German, French or Spanish.

• Gaedhilgeoir (superseded)

From Gaeilge (“the Irish language”) +‎ -eoir.

Gaeilgeoir m (genitive singular Gaeilgeora, nominative plural Gaeilgeoirí)

1. Gaelophone, Irish speaker or learner

• Gaeilgeoireacht f (“(act of) speaking Irish”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “Gaeilgeoir”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Entries containing “Gaeilgeoir” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.