Definitions

Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word failte.

Examples

  • But "failte" and hospitality inducin 'fresh acquaintance.

    The Galway Races

  • And if they are, I want to say in my best Arkansas accent, cead mile failte -- (applause) -- beatha saol agus slainte.

    President Address To Citizens Of Dublin

  • So on this St. Patrick's Day, I think we should begin with an appropriate greeting -- Ceade mile failte -- a hundred thousand welcomes.

    Remarks At Shamrock Presentation

  • Our friends were well pleased at his wish to attend, and asked me to go back and bring him to where a hearty _cead mile failte_ awaited him.

    The Life Story of an Old Rebel

  • Advance-stragglers, exhausted and travel-stained, presently arrived, to have their buttons cut off their coats, the feathers plucked from their hats, their arms wrenched from their sockets, and to be hugged with merciless and enervating tenderness in the wild paroxysm of an ultra-Irish _cead mile failte!

    The Siege of Kimberley

  • They had erected a triumphal arch over the little entrance-gate, formed of bent osiers twined with flowers, and surmounted with paper flags, on which were inscribed, in large coloured letters, such mottoes as the Scotch 'Ye're gey welcome,' and the Irish 'Cead mile failte.'

    Holiday Tales

  • Our friends were well pleased at his wish to attend, and asked me to go back and bring him to where a hearty cead mile failte awaited him.

    The Life Story of an Old Rebel

  • 'By my sowl, if it was you was in distriss,' says I, 'and if it was to ould Ireland you kem, it's not only the gridiron they'd give you, if you axed it, but something to put an it, too, and the drop o' dhrink into the bargain, and _cead mile failte_. '

    Stories of Comedy

  • Shout million-voiced _failte_, wave banners the while;

    Verses and Rhymes By the Way

  • Island is the remains of Doona Castle, the principal stronghold, of the heroic Grace, where she held the heir of Howth captive till ransomed, and till his father learned to understand what _Cead mille failte_ means at dinner time.

    The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "cead mile failte," and a wide variety of other spellings. Derived from Gaelic. Esp. in Ireland: a warm welcome; good hospitality. As a greeting, literally, "a hundred thousand welcomes."

    There was half a million people there of all denominations

    The Catholic, the Protestant, the Jew, the Presbyterian

    Yet no animosity no matter what persuasion,

    But failte hospitality inducing fresh acquaintance.

    --"Galway Races," trad., arr. the Pogues, c. 1988

    February 7, 2007

  • A plaque of this hung over my favorite Irish restaurant.

    February 7, 2007