aboon - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
aboon, abain, abane, abeen, abin, abune prep, adv Above (in the U.S. only aboon is attested). [< Middle English aboven < Old English abufan/onbofan; oed aboon 16th century→; dost abone prep ‘above, over, higher up than’ 1386→, adv 4 ‘in (or into) the higher place or position’; dare aboon prep, adv ‘above, higher than’ western North Carolina]
1 prep Above, higher than.
Ulst.:
1804 Orr Poems 170 The herd’s aboon me on the laft.
1811 Boyle Poems 77 Now Jock, tak’ care what ye do wi’t, / An’ buy claith for my winnin’ sheet / An’ ae slit deal aboon six feet, / To mak’ my coffin; / An’ whan my neighbour wives do greet, / Let nane be scoffin’.
1885 Lyttle Robin Gordon 38 The Meer [is] the man that’s aboon a’ the megistrates, an’ sogers an’ polis.
1902 McIlroy Druid’s Island 40 Sic talent’s only wasted in the country, an’ far abune ordinary people’s heids.
c1910 Byers Glossary, abeen, abin, aboon = overhead, in the sky, aloft, upstairs
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 1 He came from abeen Churchill.
c1955 Montgomery Heard in Ulster 3 He’s abane that sort of thing.
1985 Gregg Scotch-Irish The form abeen dominates in south Down and Donegal, abane in north Antrim and Londonderry, and aboon elsewhere.
1991 O’Kane You Don’t Say 1 abeen = often used to indicate geographical position: ‘He was workin’ in the field abeen the house’.
U.S.:
1944 Wilson Word-list 38 aboon = above, to think oneself superior: ‘That [woman’s] aboon her own kinnery’.
2 adv Above, overhead, upstairs.
Ulst.:
1733 North Country Description 25 This Place was amest foo o’ Foke; as weel aboon as whar I was, this they cad the Kirk.
1753 Scotch Poems 371 Ye’d think that a’ the starns abeen, / Were gath’ring round their passing queen.
1902 McIlroy Druid’s Island 33 ‘The hoose abane?’ she cried oot in response tae some remark he had made.
c1910 Byers Glossary: abeen, abin, aboon = overhead, in the sky, aloft, upstairs.
1942 Bangor Words 1 aboon = above, higher up.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 2 the Man abain = God.
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)
