The word in Irish or in Scottish Gaelic means "health.", Dublin 1977, reprinted 1992 Am Faclair Beag, s.v. 'slàinte' As a drinking toast it is common in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, though also increasingly in other countries within the whiskey/whisky drinking community.
Variations + Pronunciation Language Phrase IPA English slainte Irish Scots Gaelic Scots Gaelic Scots Gaelic Manx Broderick, G. A Handbook of Late Spoken Manx Niemeyer (1984) Manx
is the basic form in Irish. Variations of this toast include "good health" in Irish ( being the lenited form of "good"). In Irish, the response to is , which translates "to your health as well".
The basic Scottish Gaelic equivalent is , with the same meaning, to which the normal response is "your good health". Scottish Gaelic in three months. Hugo Language Books, 1996 . There are other variations such as:
"on your health!" with the response "health at yourself!"Dwelly, E. / The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic–English Dictionary 4th edition 1941 "great health" which is also used as a Jacobite toast with the alternative meaning of "health to Marion", Marion () being a Jacobite code name for Prince Charles Edward Stuart."Lady Traquair's Brew" Glasgow Caledonian University: Centre for Political Song. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
The Manx Gaelic form is Gunn, M. Everson Gunn Teo., Dublin 1994 or .Morrison, S. Manx Fairy Tales (reprint) 2002 Alternatively, "healthy body" is also used in Manx.
Etymology The word is an abstract noun derived from the Old Irish adjective "whole, healthy" plus the Old Irish suffix , resulting in "health" and eventually Middle Irish .MacBain, A. (1911) An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language Stirling Eneas MacKay, 1982 edition by Gairm Oftedal, M. (1956) The Gaelic of Leurbost. Oslo. Norsk Tidskrift for Sprogvidenskap. The root is derived from the Indo-European root *slā- "advantageous" and linked to words like German "blessed" and the Latin "health," as well as the River Slaney in Ireland.Pokorny, J. Online Edition Indo-european.nl retrieved 8 January 2010
In some modern Romance languages, words descended from the Latin word (such as in Italian, in Catalan and Romanian, in Spanish) are similarly used as a toast. (However, in Romanian, in Occitan and in French are from Latin "health.")
See also List of brief toasts worldwide
References