cat melodeon

English

Alternative forms

• catmalogen, cat malogen, cat melodium

Etymology

Compare cat (“terrible”) and cat's melody. Ciaran Carson suggests the influence of Irish cat marbh/cat mara; literally "dead cat"/"sea cat", figuratively "calamity".

Adjective

cat melodeon

1. (Ireland, informal) Terrible, appalling; of very poor quality.
   • 1997, Michael Coady, “The Longest Puck”, in All Souls, Gallery Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     We're fed up of
     festivals and funerals
     and Munster Finals
     with backs that were
     cat melodeon.

   • 2016 April 18, “Broadband service is ‘cat melodeon'”, in The Southern Star‎^[1]:

     Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) pointed out that half of West Cork doesn’t have phone coverage either, and that the situation with broadband was ‘cat melodeon’.

   • 2019, Conor Bowman, chapter 11, in Hughie Mittman's Fear of Lawnmowers, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     I'm going to do something cat-melodeon wrong and say you did it and everyone will believe me.

2. (Ireland, informal) Cacophonous; raucous.
   • 2021 Christy Moore and Wally Page, "Zozimus & Zimmerman"

     The lights went down and the crowd went cat melodeon

     We were all revved up and ready to engage

     Having hitch hiked all the way from Minnesota

     Zimmerman was there before us on the stage