Herself: I need an uillinntomhas.
Me: A what?
Herself: You know for measuring angles.
Me: A protractor?
Her: What?
Me: It’s the English for uillinntomhas, I think. Uillinn is an angle isn’t it?
Her: Yes.
Me: What’s tomhas.
Her: Guess.
Me: I can’t.
Her: No, guess.
Me: Really, I haven’t a clue.
Her: No, tomhas means guess.
Bonus information: Uillinn also means elbow, now you know why uilleann pipes are so called. Would you prefer if I stopped now?
Interesting. Would suggest a fair degree of synthesis in Irish, or is ‘uillinntomhas’ atypical? Where on earth does ‘protractor’ come from, I wonder?
Your loyal readers are getting restless
Praxis, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from that – I’d say our celtic ancestors may not have been overfamiliar with the concept of the protractor and that it is a relatively recent coinage.
Sibling, remain calm.