WE ALL KNOW ‘the shift’ means kissing someone, here in Ireland.
But the wonderful Twitter account, The Irish For, opened a can of worms over the weekend. He asked the general Irish public to clarify exactly what they’re referring to when they refer to the shift.
Over 4,000 people voted, including us
Of COURSE ‘a tonguey kiss’ won.
But hold on, who are the 9 percent who think it means getting the ride?
NO.
It seems in some parts up North, when you go around saying you got the shift… you’re saying something completely different
Zach Braff even figured this out back in 2013
Source: Zach Braff/Twitter
Eye-opening stuff.
It’s not the first time the word caused ructions
Sure enough, when the play was first staged in Dublin in 1907, there was a riot over ‘shift’.
The offstage audience, thrown off guard by the comedy of the opening scenes, erupted at the word ‘shifts’ (a woman’s chemise) in the third act. Some were outraged by the intimation that not all Irish girls were pure or holy, others were shocked by the strong (and strange) language.
Some just had no idea what it meant at all
It’s not getting added to the dictionary any time soon
We can all agree that there can absolutely be no confusion here
But hey, it sums us up doesn’t it?
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