Irishman

How to spell irishman

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce irishman

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does irishman mean?

1. nounA man who is a native or citizen of Ireland, or of Irish descent.

Irishman in a sentence

• The pub was run by a cheerful irishman from County Cork.

• Every irishman in the office took the afternoon off for the match.

Where does irishman come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a compound built from Irish and man. The first element traces back to the Old English Iras, the name the Anglo-Saxons used for the people of Ireland, itself drawn from the native name that gave us Eire and Ireland. To that the suffix -ish was added, an old Germanic ending meaning 'belonging to' or 'of the nature of', producing Irish as the adjective and the people-name. The whole compound Irishman, meaning a man of Irish birth or descent, was in use by the late Middle English period and became common in writing from the 1500s onward. Man itself is a thoroughly native Old English word that has barely changed in a thousand years, which is why the spelling here is regular and the only real care needed is the single r and the -ish ending.

How the word is built

• Irish (from Old English Iras: the Irish, plus -ish: belonging to)
• man (a male person)