Sir, – In his note on the Cruiskeen Lawn of January 11th, 1941, (October 4th), Frank McNally is mistaken if he thinks that Dinneen’s “multiplicity of meanings for the same word” has much to do with Myles’s fantastic list of alleged equivalents of the word cur.
In Dinneen’s 1904 edition, the entry for this verb runs to eight pedestrian lines, corresponding to Myles’s first seven. Thereafter, yer man is away on the bike for a further 28, drawing on “more authentic sources known only to (his) little self”. Dinneen beefed up the 1927 edition with old saws and modern instances but, scorning to consult a mere teenager, he missed out on “a dustman’s dumpling, a custard-mincer, a corncrake’s clapper”, etc.
Among these inventions of Myles, I particularly like his “art of predicting past events”, and I applaud his confident inclusion (though in an unflattering context) of a “Celtic invasion”. Of course, doubters will still say there’s no evidence, but they might note Dinneen’s alternative meaning for Ceilt, namely “concealment”, which could explain its lack! – Yours, etc,