shoneen Anglo-Irish.
(ʃəʊˈniːn)
Also shauneen.
[f. mod. Irish Seón, ad. Eng. John + -{iacu}n diminutive suffix.]
(See quot. 1910.) Used (esp. attrib.) to indicate a person's inclination towards English rather than Irish standards and attitudes in cultural life, sport, etc. Hence shoˈneenism.
| c 1840 Keegan Leg. & Poems (1907) 67 The likes of him, a bandy-legged shoneen. 1889 Times 30 Jan. 6/5, I hope to hear of ye shooting Hubert Davis..the shauneen of a land⁓lord. 1909 Ibid. 21 Jan. 6/6 What difference did it make whether a man got a ‘shoneen’ education in Belfast or in Oxford so long as he was not educated an Irishman. 1910 P. W. Joyce English as we Speak it in Irel. 321 Shoneen, a gentleman in a small way: a would-be gentleman who puts on superior airs. Always used contemptuously. 1918 F. Hackett Ireland iii. 65 West Britonism makes us what we are, shoneenism and toadyism, so it is, they're the curse of Ireland. 1920 B. MacNamara Clanking of Chains iv. 44 But the shoneenism of Ambrose was in more perfect keeping with the shoneen heart of Ballycullen... The songs which he sang were out of the English music halls, the books which he read were English drivel. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 311 Irish sport and shoneen games. 1927 [see pro-Britisher s.v. pro-1 5 b]. 1958 B. Behan Borstal Boy iii. 326 Now, there was a lot of shoneen writing and playing up to the herrenvolk by Rugby writers. 1960 20th Cent. Oct. 324 This aunt practically invented the whole concept of shoneenism... She believed that God was Anglo-Saxon, Protestant. |