Erse

American  

[urs] / ɜrs /

noun

1. Gaelic, especially Scottish Gaelic.

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adjective

1. of or relating to Gaelic, especially Scottish Gaelic.

Erse British  

/ ɜːs /

noun

1. another name for Irish Gaelic

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Irish Gaelic language

Etymology

Origin of Erse

C14: from Lowland Scots Erisch Irish; Irish being regarded as the literary form of Gaelic

Example Sentences

Compounded of puns, disjointed syllables, half-words, it is closest to English, but Erse, Latin, Greek, Dutch, French, Sanskrit, even Esperanto appear, usually distorted to suggest both an alien and an English notion.

From Time Magazine Archive

The following poems from the ancient Erse are taken from the 'Lyra Celtica: an Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry,' edited by Elizabeth A. Sharp.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various

Some word was cried to him in the Erse, he answered, for a moment he appeared to be going to stop.

From The Wild Geese by Weyman, Stanley John

Erse, ėrs, n. the name given by the Lowland Scotch to the language of the people of the West Highlands, as being of Irish origin—now sometimes used for Irish, as opposed to Scotch, Gaelic.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

Still less numerous are students of the Irish language, who here find what they need, the Erse poetry on the left page, the literal translation on the right....

From The Revival of Irish Literature Addresses by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G, Dr. George Sigerson, and Dr. Douglas Hyde by Duffy, Charles Gavan