mot

What it means

1. 1.

   A girlfriend, in older Dublin speech: 'the mot', 'me mot'. Now largely the property of men over fifty and of anyone quoting them.

In use

• He's bringing the mot to the match.

• Me mot's not talking to me.

  Note: Inner-city Dublin, and now heard mostly as self-conscious period flavour.

Where it comes from

Disputed. The popular derivation from Irish 'maith' ('good') is attractive and unsupported; an older English cant word 'mot' for a woman, recorded well before the Dublin usage, is the likelier source. The Irish explanation is repeated so often that it is worth knowing it is a guess.

First attested: 19th century in Dublin use

Other forms

Similar terms:

young one, bird