seannachie

English

Alternative forms

• schenachy, seannachy, senachie, senachy, sennachie, sennachy, shanachie, shanachy, shenachie

Etymology

From Irish seanchaí and Scottish Gaelic seanchaidh, from Old Irish senchaid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃænəxi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

seannachie (plural seannachies)

1. (Ireland, Scotland) A bard, genealogist, or storyteller in Gaelic culture.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary, Oxford University Press, published 2002, page 65:

     Take a glass of wine, Sir Arthur, and drink down that bead-roll of unbaptized jargon, that would choke the devil - why, that last fellow has the only intelligible name you have repeated - they are all of the tribe of Macfungus - mushroom monarchs every one of them; sprung up from the fumes of conceit, folly, and falsehood, fermenting in the brains of some mad Highland seannachie.

References

• “seannachie, n.”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC, retrieved 1 October 2024.
• “seannachie, noun.”, in Collins English Dictionary, accessed 1 October 2024.
• Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “SEANNACHIE, sb.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume V (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 309.