Linguistic shift

I mine A-Word-a-Day for quotations for the kitchen calendar and to keep my finger on the pulse of the quirkier aspects of the English language. This week they were floating a handful of adjectives with the challenge to re-coin them into nouns. It's a rather artificial conceit because very few neologisms invented by earnest wordsmiths, actually stick in the language. While vibrant new usage floats up from the ghettos and gets adopted by everyone. "Ooops, my bad" - do you use that phrase? It's an excellent recent example of recent adj-noun shift. AWAD uses "fat": noting that it was an adjective for 500 years before becoming a synonym for lard in the 1300s.

My contribution to the trope:
"Well I'm happy out! The Gaelic Athletic Association GAA in Ireland attracts fierce local loyalties. Each county plays in a strip of one, two or three colours and has acquired a nick-name, often from some real or supposed historical fact. One monnicker for Wexford is the Yellowbellies supposedly because Caesar Colclough, a 19thC magnate and a distant ancestor in my horse-riding protestant family, sent a team of hurlers to England wearing a distinguishing yellow sash. They comprehensively beat a team from Cornwall and the cry "Up the Yella'bellies" resounds down the years. Next time I'm watching a match in Innovate Wexford Park I'll try "Up the Xanthic" and hope I don't get tonked with a rolled up copy of The Enniscorthy Guardian."

In the interests of completeness, I have tabulated a list of the 26 counties and their nick-names:

Carlow	Scallion Eaters	Longford	Slashers
Cavan	Breffni	Louth	Wee County
Clare	The Banner Co	Mayo	Westerners
Cork	The Rebel Co	Meath	The Royals
Donegal	Herring-gutters	Monaghan	The Farney
Dublin	The Jacks	King's Co	Biffos
Galway	The Tribesmen	Roscommon	Sheep-stealers
Kerry	The Kingdom	Sligo	Yeats Co
Kildare	Lilywhites	Tipperary	Premier Co
Kilkenny	The Cats	Waterford	The Déise
Queen's Co	O'Moore Co	Westmeath	The Lakemen
Leitrim	The Wild Rose	Wexford	The Model Co
Limerick	The Treaty Co	Wicklow	The Garden Co

Some of these are clearly a bit pejorative, but even so will have been adopted with pride by the inhabitants. Like artists like Derain and Matisse who were damned as Les Fauves and rather liked the epithet. Actually some of these nicknames are new to me, but then again I've never watched a GAA match in Co. Louth.