Gàidhlig / English
Blabhdaire

Blabhdaire

Posted by Abi on 9th April 2015

Do you know someone who always speaks without thinking? I’m sure that everyone knows somebody like that, and blabhdaire is our word of the week.

The word blabhdaire was collected in Glasgow but came from the Isle of Skye originally and it’s explained as ‘speaks before thinking.’

Blabhdaire is not included in Dwelly’s Gaelic Dictionary but the word bladair is explained as:

‘Flatterer. 2 Babbler. 3 Sycophant. 4 Blockhead. 5 Wide mouth 6(AF) Wolf. 7‡‡ Coward. 8** One of the followers of a Highland chieftain.’

In the Faclair Beag, blabhdaire is the word used to describe a ‘plonker.’

There are other works in the Fieldwork archive for chatty people, the word clapadaich was collected in Harris for:

‘noisy in speech; verbally noisy... Especially when the sentiments, speech are boring, etc.’

The words cabag and gobag were also collected to mean ‘a gossip.’

Do you know of any other words for blabhdaire? Why not let us know through Facebook or Twitter?

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