Forms: 4 Erische, Erysche, 4–7 Ersch(e, 7 Erish, 8 Earse, 8– Erse. [An early Sc. variant of IRISH; either repr. OE. İrisc, or ON. İrskr, or possibly descending from a parallel form retaining the vowel of OIr. Ėriu Ireland.]
† 1. In early Sc. use: = IRISH.
c. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIV. 123. The erische [v.r. ersch] kyngis. Ibid., XVI. 309, XVIII. 115.
2. Applied by Sc. Lowlanders to the Gaelic dialect of the Highlands (which is in fact of Irish origin), to the people speaking that dialect, to their customs, etc. Hence in 18th c. Erse was used in literary Eng. as the ordinary designation of the Gaelic of Scotland, and occasionally extended to the Irish Gaelic; at present some writers apply it to the Irish alone. Now nearly Obs.
c. 1375. [Implied in Barbour’s use of ERSHRY: see below].
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, I. 217. Thow Scot, abyde … Ane Ersche mantill it war thi kynd to wer. [But perh. this belongs to 1.]
1500–20. Dunbar, Dance Sev. Deadly Sins, 116. Thae tarmegantis, with tag and tatter, Fful lowd in Ersche begowth to clatter.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., IV. 236. Though the Inhabitants of Inverness speak English, yet there are scarce any who do not understand the Erse or Irish.
1773. Boswell, Johnson, 15 Oct. Miss M‘Lean produced some Erse poems by John M‘Lean, who was a famous bard in Mull.
1777. Johnson, in Boswell, April. The Erse dialect of the Celtick language has, from the earliest times, been spoken in Britain.
1782. Shaw, Authentic, Ossian, 14. The Earse dialect of the Gaelic was never written nor printed until Mr. Macfarlane … published, in 1754, a translation of Baxter’s Call to the Unconverted.
1785. Burns, Addr. to Deil, xviii. Down to this time, Wad ding a Lallan tongue, or Erse, In prose or rhyme.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 209. The language, which is called the Manks,… is radically Erse, or Irish, but with a mixture of other languages.
1823. Byron, Juan, VIII. xxiii. He was what Erin calls, in her sublime Old Erse or Irish.
1838. Penny Cycl., XI. 32. s.v. Gaelic. The language spoken by the Scottish Highlanders is familiarly known among the Lowlanders by the name of the Erse, or according to the more usual pronunciation the Ersh, that is plainly the Eirish or Irish.
1864. I. Taylor, Words & Places (1873), 129. The Erse of Ireland, the Gaelic of the Scotch Highlands, and the Manx of the Isle of Man.
Hence † Erseman, Obs., a man who is Erse by birth or descent. † Ershry, the Gaelic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland and Scotland: see IRISHRY.
1500–20. Dunbar, Dance Sev. Deadly Sins, 113. Ffar northwart in a nuke Be he the correnoch had done schout, Erschemen so gadderit him abowt, In Hell grit rowme thay tuke.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVIII. 443. All the erischry … of Argyle and the Ilis alsua.
1425. Sc. Acts Jas. I., § 61 (1814), II. 11. Ande for twa causis ande principaly sene þe kingis notourus rebellouris ar reset in Erschry [ed. 1597 Irishrie] of Yrelande.
