At a neighborhood dinner party last night, Ken, a physician, told us he's collecting expressions for "so-so" (i.e. not bad, not good) in various languages from his patients. He already had "comme ci, comme ça", Luciana, who's from Italy, gave him "così così", and I remembered "etsi k'etsi" (with the mandatory hand waggle) from Greece. The he asked, "What's it in Gaelic?" All I could think of was "cuibheasach [cuíosach] gan a bheith maíteach", which has a nice rhyme but is a far cry from the terse repetition of the others. Is that it? Does Irish once again stand outside the pack?

Ní ritheann dada liom.

"Ag stracadh leis" atáimse nuair atáim so-so, "cuíosach" atá rud so-so.

Ní maith, ní olc?

quote:

"Ag stracadh leis"

Nó ag strácáil liom?

I think I've heard "ag coinneáil ag imeacht" as a reply to "cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?"

I did think of a terse phrase, ann as, but it's a bit more pessimistic than just "so-so":

- Conas atá sé, an créatúr?
- Tá sé ann as. = Tá sé beo ar éigin. = He's barely alive.

I think "Ara, measartha" might suit or "measartha" on its own. "Ara, (níl sé ach) measartha" - "Oh, (he is only) middling." I don't know the origin of "Ara" or "Óra" which are still heard but seldom written.

Ní hea, ach "ag stracadh leis (an tsaoil)"

Can I add, for your friend, that so-so in Chinese is "mamahuhu", literally meaning "horse-horse-tiger-tiger". If you have got Unicode, it is written 马马虎虎。In Russian, there is фифти-фифти, pronounced "fifty-fifty", obviously a borrowing from English!

I am not an expert on Irish, but I do have a copy of Dinneen's, and so I want to comment on "Ara". This is the entry in Dinneen's:

"Ara, interj., but, now, really, then, truly; used at the beginning of a clause in an expostulatory or deprecating sense; and largely employed by speakers of English: "Have you recovered?" "Ara not at all!" It is often preceded by a Dhia, and the whole contracted to dheara (yerrah), and in Kerry gnly. pron. dhearú and a Dhia arú (ara in M. and U. is generally arú or airiú; arú in Don.)"

Go raibh maith agat, David, as na leagancha Sínise agus Rúisise! Chuir mé ar aghaidh chuig Ken iad. Is dóigh liom go dtait(h)neoidh siad leis.

Agus ná déan dearúd den Araibis : "Ciof ciof".

Ciof = mar an gcéanna.

Kif kif. On dit ça en français également. Úsáidtear sa Fhraincis é anois chomh maith.

Je le sais, mon copain. Et en néerlandais on dit aussi fifty-fifty. Bizarre, non?

cuíosach gan a bheith maiteach = cant complain ...(not direct trans)