Erse
Erse noun: either of the Gaelic languages of Ireland and Scotland.
Noun
Erse (uncountable)
- Either of the Gaelic languages of Ireland and Scotland.
- Two points which appeal to the writer are that the stations of origin and of destination are printed (in Erse and English) once only and then are summarised at the foot, [...]. [...] Clar Chloinne Mhuiris is the Erse original of Claremorris, and Dublin appears as Baile Atha Cliath.1940 May, G. W. J. Potter, “Tickets of the Great Southern Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 292
- Now he's just sung in his mother tongue, the ancient Irish Erse, and cleared the pub completely by the forty-second verse!1993, “Plastic Paddy”, in Mirrors, performed by Eric Bogle
Adjective
Erse (not comparable)
- Connected with Ireland or the Highlands of Scotland, or to the Gaelic languages spoken in those places.
Origin of Erse
From Scots Erse (“Irish”), from earlier Ersche, Ersch, a contraction of Erisch, Erische (“Irish”), from Middle English Erische, Irische, Irisch (“Irish”). Doublet of Irish. Compare also Scots Irisch.
Words that rhyme with Erse
36 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- purse
- worse
- -verse
- coerce
- converse
- excurse
- immerse
- multiverse
- obverse
- terce
- terse
- amerce
- asperse
- herse
- neurodiverse
- perse
- reimburse
- transverse
- a blessing and a curse
- absterse
- accurse
- costotransverse
- demerse
- disburse
- intertransverse
- megadiverse
- murse
- nontransverse
- pretransverse
- public purse
- recurse
- renverse
- sperse
- submerse
- subtransverse
- thurse
Questions about Erse
- What does Erse mean?
- Erse means either of the Gaelic languages of Ireland and Scotland.
- What part of speech is Erse?
- Erse can be a noun or an adjective.
Words near Erse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Erse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Erse.wav.
Cite this entry: “Erse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/erse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.