DCHP-3

streel

DCHP-2 (Mar 2014)

Spelling variants:
streal, sthreal

n. — Newfoundland, derogatory, rare

an unkempt person, esp. a woman.

Type: 2. Preservation — The term streel is used to describe someone who is dirty or unkempt (see the 2001 and 2011 quotations). The word streel is a likely preservation from Irish English (Clarke 2010a: 106-107), as a result of 18th and 19th century immigration from southeast Ireland to Newfoundland, and most significantly to the Avalon Peninsula. Streel likely derives from Irish "straoille", defined as 'an untidy, awkward or bewrayed person' (Dinneen 1927: 1110). Moreover, the connotation of streel is sometimes one of female promiscuity, possibly deriving from the Irish Gaelic word "sraoilleog", which is defined as ''a slut, a slovenly woman, a "streel"' (Dinneen 1927: 1110). Clarke (2010b: 107) lists streel as one of the few terms that "younger present-day residents of St. John's would probably recognize" in her discussion of the obsolete nature of many Irish terms on the Avalon Peninsula that would have been known only a couple of generations prior. This observation coincides with Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism's decision to include the term streel as one of the words in their Language Lesson series (see NL Tourism reference).
See also DNE, s.v. "streel".
The term appears to be found in the Ottawa Valley as well (see the 1982 quotation), which has a settlement history involving Scottish and Irish immigrants (see Pringle & Padolsky 1983).

Quotations

19--
A term of contempt, which was used by one woman to another who had angered her, was a "streel" - to on now you dirty streel". It conveyed the idea of dirty and slovenly.
1937
STREEL A term of contempt for a lazy or slovenly woman.
1968
streel, n. a slovenly, untidy person; usually a woman. "She's an awful streel around the house." "Girl, tidy yourself up, and don't be goin' around like the real streel." General. (straille, 1131, ... anything untidy or confused, a wench, an untidy girl).
1979
86. DIRTY, SLOVENLY WOMAN: streel, trollop, beater
1982
Linguists need not go to the "isolation" of Prince Edward Island for folkspeech. Ontario examples: A "Streel" (originally Anglo-Irish) is an untidy, slovenly woman.
2001
"A streel is an untidy person," says Twackwear co-founder Wanita Bates. "When you wake up in the morning and come downstairs, your mom might say, 'You look like some streel.' You've got bed-head."
2011
May was in her lingering days, and I felt somewhat relieved for the old girl. She was able to take her leave from us with a warm, bright farewell. Perhaps that will help us forget that for most of the month she gave us nothing but angry tears and a cold shoulder. May has been a regular 'streel', if I might borrow a word from my native Newfoundland. If you've never heard the word before, picture a woman who has been out in the rain without an umbrella, hair plastered to her forehead, face pinched against the cold and damp. Leaky boots add to her discomfort. She looks forlorn.
2012
A 'streel' is a slovenly person in Newfie-speak, but there's nothing shabby about this east-coast-on-the-west-coast of virtuoso musicians, who sing and play an eclectic repertoire of original, Maritime, and Celtic tunes.
2015
Maybe your Mom always said you were "Stund". They've got that. Maybe your older brother used to call you a "Torment". Got that. Maybe you're always going around like a "Streel", or your boyfriend calls you a "Piece A Gear".

References