donsie - 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.
donsie, dansy, dauncey, dauncy, dawney, dawny, doncey, doncy, donny, donsy adj Sick, sick-looking; weak, frail, feeble, delicate; squeamish, fastidious about eating; stunted; dishonest, mean. [probably < Irish donas ‘bad luck, misery’ or Scottish Gaelic donas/donais ‘mischief, harm; bad luck’ + Scots -ie; oed dauncy adj ‘sickly; delicate, not robust’ U.S. and dialect; dare donsie probably from Irish, Scottish Gaelic donas ‘evil, harm’ perhaps with influence from obsolete daunch ‘fastidious, squeamish’, dunce, and other words] (Note: no attempt is made to separate the many overlapping senses illustrated in citations below; on the range of senses on each side of the Atlantic, see 1953 Traynor and 1976 Weals citations.)
Ulst.:
1861 Hume Rabbin’s Ollminick 17 People that’s donsy like, or bad ov a decay, disn’t last long about this time o’ year.
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 31 donsy, dauncey = sick, sick-looking.
1881 Hart Mere Irish 81-82 Immediately the door opened, and in walked a donsie looking wee fellow, not above a yard high.
1891 Simmons Armagh Words and Phrases 7 donny = sick, weak, in bad health.
c1910 Byers Glossary: dawney = in poor health, delicate, weak; donsie = neat, trim, affectedly neat.
1923 Lutton Montiaghisms 17 donsy, donny = feeble, weak, debilitated.
1924 Logan Ulster in X-Rays 69 A person who is delicate is said to be ‘doncey’; at any rate, in Mid-Antrim this is applied to persons only, but once in North Antrim at a football match the opposing captain told me his boots were ‘doncey’, meaning, I suppose, that they were also ‘delicate’.
1928 McKay Oul’ Town 26 Many’s the time he ploughed our field for us—my man is very ‘dauncy’ and sickly.
1930 McCurry Ulster Village 201 He ate nothin’, an’ was as dawny and worn as an oul’ man.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 84 donsie = (1) unfortunate, unlucky; (2) mean, miserly; (3) of persons: small, weak, stunted, diminutive; of things: defective; (4) uncertain, with difficulty; (5) frail, delicate, weakly; (6) ill, very ill; (7) dull, stupid.
1990 McIntyre Some Handlin’ 22 doncy = (1) unwell, sick, dizzy: ‘Frances was very well and she was feeling doncy’; (2) dishonest: ‘I look after my money when that doncy boy is around’.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 70 donsie = mean, petty, cheap: ‘Wuzn’t thon a donsie trick?’
U.S.:
1805 (in 1912 Thornton American Glossary 1.261) Citizen Lafferty must have a ‘doncy’ opinion of the cause, when he is afraid to bet even.
1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 462 dansy = in Pennsylvania, of people who are failing of old age.
1874 Eggleston Circuit Rider ‘Sick, Mort? Goin’ to have a chill? … You look powerful dauncy’, said the old man.
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 289 A remarkable word, common in the Smokies, is dauncy, defined for me as ‘mincy about eating’, which is to say fastidious, over-nice.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 16 donsie = light headed, not feeling up to the mark; giddy.
1938 Hall Coll Dauncy about eatin’ = don’t feel good, don’t feel like eatin’.
1952 Justus Children 36 Herb tea is a mighty fine tonic when a body is feeling dauncy—and so is good company.
1953 Randolph and Wilson Down in Holler 238 dauncy = lacking appetite, fastidious about food.
1976 Weals Words Stay Donsie or dauncy is another vanishing mountain word that appears to have meanings that differ when it is applied to self and when it applies to another person. ‘I feel donsie’, might mean I feel dizzy, or slightly ill, or nauseated. When put on somebody else donsie can mean, at least in some localities, that the person is intoxicated, addled, silly, stupid, or, according to some local interpretations, quick-tempered, and even saucy and pert.
