Meanings
Plastic Paddy1
plural Plastic Paddies · alternative plastic Paddy
- humorouspejorativesometimesA person of another ethnicity considered to be passing or posing as Irish.
He’s just a Plastic Paddy singing Plastic Paddy songs. In a Plastic Paddy pub that they call The Blarney Stone. There’s plastic shamrocks everywhere. There’s Guinness and green beer. And a sign in Gaelic above the bar which says “God Bless All Here”.
1993, “Plastic Paddy”, in Mirrors, performed by Eric Bogle - derogatoryethnicslurAn Irish person considered to be inauthentically Irish, especially (UK) recent Irish arrivals to London.
Synonyms: plastic
plastic Paddy2
plural plastic Paddies
- Alternative letter-case form of Plastic Paddy.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAn Irish person considered to be inauthentically Irish, especially (UK) recent Irish arrivals to London.
Origin
From the sense of plastic as fake, ersatz, inauthentic, etc. and Paddy (“Patrick”) as a generic name for any Irish man.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French faux Irlandais
- faux IrlandaisA person pretending to be Irish
Irish Páidín Plaisteach
- Páidín PlaisteachA person pretending to be Irish
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Plastic Paddy
All rhymes →Cite this entry
Plastic Paddy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Plastic%20Paddy
“Plastic Paddy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Plastic%20Paddy. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Plastic Paddy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Plastic%20Paddy.
Source: Plastic Paddy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.