Word expert Susie Dent says a popular Irish insult was actually first used in the US.
The term 'gobshite' is normally associated with Ireland and was brought to a wider international audience on programmes like Father Ted.
However, it turns out we aren't the only ones to have used the term.
Susie Dent, lexicographer and longtime 'Dictionary Corner' resident on Channel 4's Countdown, outlined the history of 'gobshite' on today's Moncrieff.
She explained: "The first example is in the US Navy, for an enlisted sailor - that's the 1910s. 30 years later it appears in Irish-English, to mean a foolish, incompetent or gullible person... someone who talks nonsense and speaks incessantly.
"You definitely popularised it, but it was around in the US Navy first."
So why did the word become so popular in Ireland?
Susie theorised: "Maybe it's an Irish characteristic... I'm not saying you're all gobshites, but that you guys wanted [a word to say] 'you cannot be one of those'.
"There are some great English equivalents though... like a bloviator, which is somebody who bangs on and on and on about a subject they don't know anything about."
From mumpsimus to eyeservant
Susie has recently released her new book Word Perfect: Etymological Entertainment For Every Day of the Year, offering readers information about a particular word for every day of the year.
She said: "Mumpsimus is possibly my favourite word in the entire book... a mumpsimus is someone who insists they're right, despite clear evidence that they're wrong."
Other words she highlighted include 'eyeservant' (someone who only works when the boss is looking) and 'snaccident' (the inadvertent eating of an entire packet of biscuits).
Susie said that the English language is something that changes all the time.
She explained: "Now in the dictionary it will tell you that literally can actually be used metaphorically - you didn't literally die laughing, but it's just used as an intensifier.
"Dictionaries... what they're there for is not to tell you how you should use a word, but how people are using words.
"We'll always have our bugbears, and there'll always be things we don't like... but that's the way English evolves."
Susie also told Sean that slang words are very much 'proper words'.
She said: "When I appear on Countdown, if a slang word comes up and I find it in the dictionary, sometimes people say 'what's that doing in there?' Even 'phwoar' is in there.
"Slang was the very first area of language to be documented in a dictionary... the very first dictionaries were in fact collections of criminal slang.
"By its very definition, slang is intended to keep outsiders out - those outsiders often have to look the word up, because they don't understand it."
Word Perfect is out now.
