David Elkin at the Cork Daily Edge reports on a pleasing phenomenon:
Over the past week or so, there have been some sightings on social media of a few very Cork sayings painted on to electricity boxes around the city. Not only that, but they’re painted in the vibrant rebel red and white colours you’ve come to associate with the city.
Like this definition of “langerload” [‘large amount of something’] And “bazzer” [‘haircut/hairdo’]
It’s all part of the #ReimagineCork project put together by volunteers who set out their purpose as:
a community effort focused on making Cork beautiful by rejuvenating laneways, urban green spaces, & derelict buildings.
[…]
Excellent work all
Alas, the only lexicographical source I can find for the excellent word langerload is Urban Dictionary, so I have no etymology for you. Thanks, Trevor!
“langerload” is “langer” + “load” akin to “fuckload”, “shitload”, etc. “langer” is the quintessential Cork word, meaning “prick” (lit. and fig.) Further etymology of “langer” is unkn. — suggested link to langur monkeys seen by the Munster Fusiliers is just so.
“langer” achieved wider Irish prominence c. 2000 when comic radio show Gift Grub had a recurring caricature of Roy Keane (legendary Cork soccer hard man) with the catchphrase “you’re some langer!” (usually cut at “you’re some la—“) The 2004 chart topping novelty The Langer Song further explains the term.
Unfortunately and confusingly, “langer” outside Cork became a slang term for “Cork person” — sometimes as a slur, but more often just a neutral term like “les rosbifs”, and even adopted by some Cork people who presumably never grokked the true sense.
Could Russian journalists be so kind to take an example and write about our elementary school students who make (and have been making since ever) my city beatiful by writing “хуй” on walls in a community effort?
“langer” is the quintessential Cork word, meaning “prick”
Ah, now all is clear! Thanks very much indeed.
Langer ‘penis’ has been discussed before on LH, here and here.
(As another example of ‘fish’ > ‘penis’ (this time coming coming from the Northwest European–Atlantic region like langer), perhaps compare Faroese murtur, meaning both ‘podley, small coalfish’ and ‘penis’ (from the account given here) — although admittedly both ‘podley’ and ‘penis’ could reflect separate developments from an earlier *‘little guy’.)
Less than two years ago, and I’d forgotten all about it!