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Mediterranean Irish

Mediterranean Irish noun: the Ionian Islanders.

Noun

Mediterranean Irish (plural Mediterranean Irish)

  1. (UK) The Ionian Islanders.
    • Since the 1830s, pro-British Ionians . . . took their cue from the colonial officers, who denigrated the Ionians, comparing them to the aboriginal groups like the Hottentots or Irish. Indeed, the British frequently referred to the Ionians as the "Mediterranean Irish."2000, Thomas W. Gallant, “Honor, Masculinity, and Ritual Knife Fighting in Nineteenth-Century Greece,”, in American Historical Review, volume 105, number 2, page 377
  2. (US) Synonym of Italian, an inhabitant of Italy or person of Italian descent.
    • His name is I. J. Saccamanno. He is a Mediterranean "Irish" and I love him like a brother.1959, Labor-management Reform Legislation: Hearings Before a Joint Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Congress, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 742
    Synonyms:
    Italian

Adjective

Mediterranean Irish (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to such people.
    • My dear deceased mama used to say to me when I was young and cried b/c I was all Italian. . . "You're Mediterranean Irish and that's good enough" on St. Pat's day!2007, "Advertisement for 'Kiss Me...I'm Irish' T-shirt, zazzle.com, comment posted by Donamaria, 24 Feb. (retrieved 21 Jan 2008)
    • My name is Tony Licari. . . . An Irish guy once told me I was "Mediterranean Irish." I guess that is slang for those of us with vowels at the end of our surnames.2007 March 28, “Licari of Arabia”, in blogspot.com, retrieved 20 Jan 2008

Synonyms of Mediterranean Irish

Forms of Mediterranean Irish

pluralMediterranean Irish
alternative formMediterranean Irishman

Origin of Mediterranean Irish

Originally in patronizing self-reference to British mistreatment of the Irish and their various prejudices about them, particularly with regard to their religion.

Questions about Mediterranean Irish

What does Mediterranean Irish mean?
Mediterranean Irish means the Ionian Islanders.
What part of speech is Mediterranean Irish?
Mediterranean Irish can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of Mediterranean Irish?
The plural of Mediterranean Irish is Mediterranean Irish.

Words near Mediterranean Irish in the dictionary

  1. Mediterranean hackberries
  2. Mediterranean hackberry
  3. Mediterranean house gecko
  4. Mediterranean house geckoes
  5. Mediterranean house geckos
  6. Mediterranean Irish
  7. Mediterranean Irishman
  8. Mediterranean Irishmen
  9. Mediterranean lens
  10. Mediterranean lenses
  11. Mediterranean Lingua Franca

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Mediterranean Irish (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.

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Cite this entry: “Mediterranean Irish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mediterranean_irish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.