Erse

[urs]

noun

Gaelic, especially Scottish Gaelic.

adjective

of or relating to Gaelic, especially Scottish Gaelic.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for erse

Historical Examples of erse

There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used.
A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
Samuel Johnson
The Manx or Erse term which denotes the swell or rolling of the sea after a storm.
The Sailor's Word-Book
William Henry Smyth
A peculiar boat of the Orcades; also the Erse for a gurnard.
The Sailor's Word-Book
William Henry Smyth
In the Manx and Erse, signifies a rock that can be seen before low-water.
The Sailor's Word-Book
William Henry Smyth
The trouble was, of course, that the Erse colony on Eire was a bust.
Attention Saint Patrick
William Fitzgerald Jenkins

British Dictionary definitions for erse

Erse

noun

another name for Irish Gaelic

adjective

of or relating to the Irish Gaelic language

Word Origin for Erse

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for erse

Erse

late 14c., early Scottish variant of Old English Irisc or Old Norse Irskr "Irish" (see Irish); applied by Lowland Scots to the Gaelic speech of the Highlanders (which originally is from Ireland); sense shifted 19c. from "Highlanders" to "Irish."