Has anyone heard the word 'Brock' before?

babaloushka

My brother in law came out with this word 'Brock' today and I've never heard it used in Donegal before - granted, I'm not a native, but I've been here more years than I care to remember According to him, it's a derogatory term/adjective - something on the lines of 'crap' or similar.
Anyone know anything about the word or its origins?

smashey

I've heard it, it's from the Irish word for badger.

muffler

There's a guy I know who is known as "the brock" and if you knew him you would understand the meaning of the word or alternatively know why he got the nickname in the first instance.



From an online dictionary

O.E. brocc "badger," a borrowing from Celtic (cf. O.Ir. brocc, Welsh broch). After c.1400, often with the adjective stinking, and meaning "a low, dirty fellow."

shiibata

Lads I work with from Glenswilly would use that "broc" term quite a lot but they have their own language out that road anyhow:D

sesswhat

Farmhouses used to have a container in the kitchen for waste food we called the 'Brock bucket'. This was mashed up, sometimes with Indian corn or 'Injun meal' to feed the hens or the pigs.

This meaning of the word might be a version of Brochan (porridge).

Bligh

I worked for a time in the North East of Scotland the locals would call Fraserburgh, "the Broch"
That's the only time I heard this word used before

babaloushka

Well I never! I must have been living under a stone. So many people with information about 'Broc' - I expect that's the correct spelling. I knew about Brock the badger, I just couldn't make the connection to stuff that was rubbish or crap. The slop bucket analogy must be right too - he did say that he knew farmers who kept 'broc' to feed the pigs. And he's Letterkenny born and bred ....
Thanks to all who took the time to reply
Muffler - I DO know that man, just didn't realise it had anything to do with ... erm ... his ... ah ... personal presentation :eek:

shiibata

if you were at a mart and seen a pen full of rubbish sheep, you would say "thats some pen of broc" or "what a load of broc"..

muffler

babaloushka wrote: »

Muffler - I DO know that man, just didn't realise it had anything to do with ... erm ... his ... ah ... personal presentation :eek:

Well you could tyred discussing the reason for his nickname.

babaloushka

muffler wrote: »

Well you could tyred discussing the reason for his nickname.

A shy and retyring lady like me would NEVER put much store in that sort of information, even speculating from the hidden recesses of a board like this.

newname

yeah,

i've heard people around stranorlar and castlefin refering to someone as a brock, they meant someone was ugly/disgusting

sorella

Is it the same as Orkney "bruck": meaning rubbish/junk"

Clearing the beaches of bruck....rubbish

regob

i always used the word brock

babaloushka

sorella wrote: »

Is it the same as Orkney "bruck": meaning rubbish/junk"

Clearing the beaches of bruck....rubbish

Sounds like the same thing

sorella

I suspect Brock the Badger has a different source.

NB we have a village in Donegal called Bruckless; always makes me smile.

shiibata

sorella wrote: »

I suspect Brock the Badger has a different source.

NB we have a village in Donegal called Bruckless; always makes me smile.

Another village in Donegal called Brockagh

An Poc ar Buile

Broc is used quite a lot in North west Donegal in the Gaeltacht to mean rubbish or crap. Another context is, for example, when you have a handful of change in coppers then that would be called broc!

deman

An Poc ar Buile wrote: »

Broc is used quite a lot in North west Donegal in the Gaeltacht to mean rubbish or crap. Another context is, for example, when you have a handful of change in coppers then that would be called broc!

Perfect! That's exactly what I would have said.

carr6775

I'm quite familiar with the term arising from the slop bucket definition quoted earlier.

babaloushka

I just came across this definition from The A-Z Encyclopedia of Alcohol and Drug Abuse: "Brock (colloquial) a kilo of compressed hashish" :eek:
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, as my father used to say

foxshooter243

The definition of brock given by Sir Harry Percival Swan in his book "Twixt Foyle and Swilly" is that it is "kitchen refuse"

muffler

Seems obvious that the word means "rubbish" or the likes.






Now I must go and troll AH with this word

uncle ernie

An Poc ar Buile wrote: »

Broc is used quite a lot in North west Donegal in the Gaeltacht to mean rubbish or crap. Another context is, for example, when you have a handful of change in coppers then that would be called broc!

we always used it for a pocket full of change too. along with schrapnel

djdeclan

I haven't heard this word in ages, used to use it all the time but after moving to Dublin I got tired of explaining it everytime I said it so I stopped... I keep meaning to ask the nice people in Messrs on the Quays for some purdys with my carvery lunch just to see the reaction... Us young lads in Muff used to have a saying 'brock troffy' although I have no idea what it meant!

foxshooter243

sorella wrote: »

I suspect Brock the Badger has a different source.

NB we have a village in Donegal called Bruckless; always makes me smile.

"Brock" is also an old english word for the badger, it comes from the celtic word "broc"...thats why anywhere in england that has a placename beginning with brock like Brockhampton for example is always a place that was well known for having badger setts..;)

sorella

Thought so:) Thank you

foxshooter243 wrote: »

"Brock" is also an old english word for the badger, it comes from the celtic word "broc"...thats why anywhere in england that has a placename beginning with brock like Brockhampton for example is always a place that was well known for having badger setts..;)

getz

another old english name is for a rabbit

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coney

santa78888

brock is a word used in donegal to describe small potatoes that are to small too eat or sell, the brock potatoes are usuall fed to cattle or boiled for feeding hens.