This week’s exciting news from the US – that the word “gobshite” had made its debut appearance in the New York Times – sent me delving into this newspaper’s archives to find out when it first appeared here. Other words to make their New York premiere this week included “wokism”, “wrongthinkers”, and “paramiltarised”. But that’s not the case with gobán, yet another Hiberno-English term of insult, even though it too has a similar meaning. Legend credits the Gobán Saor as builder of many of the round towers that still dot Ireland, including Glendalough, and also of many churches and oratories. “Gobán”, “guban”, and “gub” are all sarcastic derivatives of Gobán Saor, suggests Dolan, where the first word is related to the Irish for “smith”.

Source: The Irish Times June 27, 2020 08:48 UTC