I remember being at a church-related event here in Ireland where the American emcee “dismissed” the people at the end of the service. He grew a little flustered when the congregation, primarily Irish, burst into shrieks of laughter instead of departing in a reverent hush as one might expect.
Alas, it was but another breakdown in communication between English speakers from the US and English speakers from Ireland. At times we assume too great a similarity between our respective iterations of that vast and storied language. In Ireland, to dismiss someone means to fire them, as in to let them go, to sack them, to terminate, to send packing, to axe. Our American friend had just buoyantly informed everyone at church that they had lost their jobs.
In my six years as an American expatriate to Ireland, I have encountered a common trope among Irish people: they believe Americanisms are ruining their beloved Hiberno-English. Hiberno-English, for the uninitiated, is the English spoken in Hibernia, which is the moniker the Roman general Tacitus gave to Ireland. (Hibernia means ‘wintry land’ and it’s related to hibernate*.)
For instance, a classmate named Caoimhe** complained that her young son pronounces ORANGE the way it’s pronounced on American TV: AWR-inj. And someone else once opined that MOVIE sounds out of place in Hiberno-English, the purists preferring FILM, which for some inexplicable reason the Irish pronounce FIL-uhm.
All of this I acknowledge and I hang my American-born head in shame. But in all fairness (to use a common Waterford expression), it works both ways; the Irish also influence American English. Just in the past month, I heard expressions like GOBSMACKED and LEAVE IT WITH ME in American podcast episodes.
I have two theories for why Americans would borrow from Hiberno-English: First, in the last few centuries many Irish emigrated across the pond (an expression that always makes me feel like a doofus for the first split second after using it). These Irish played no small part in shaping American English, and thus when modern Americans encounter their linguistic palimpsest*** they incorporate the words quite naturally. And second, all the Americans I know are infatuated with Ireland, or at least what they think is Ireland, and they find it exotic to use Irish-isms.
Taken together, then, it only follows that they would be quick to adapt Irish staples like GOBSHITE****, ARSED, BANJAXED, and GURRIER.
Anyway, thanks for listening, you are all dismissed.
*So now we know.
**Almost certainly, that wasn’t her name, I just wanted to use a hyper-stereotypical Irish name. It’s pronounced KWEE-va, by the way, and it means beautiful.
***Definitely felt like a doofus
****Funny how I knew immediately what the word meant when I first heard it upon arriving in Ireland.