racy of the soil

comparative more racy of the soil · superlative most racy of the soil · alternative racy of one's soil

1. IrelanddatedusuallyDeeply connected to a place, especially Ireland; indigenous.

   RTÉ pundit Joe Brolly echoed this concern from his racy-of-the soil redoubt in the weekend’s Mail on Sunday.

   2014 April 19, Seán Moran, “Five-ish things the GAA can learn from the Sky television deal”, in The Irish Times

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   We have got such foreign and fantastic field sports as lawn-tennis, polo, croquet, cricket, and the like—very excellent, I believe, and health-giving exercises in their way, still not racy of the soil, but rather alien, on the contrary, to it, as are, indeed, for the most part the men and women who first imported and still continue to patronise them.

   1884 December 24, Thomas Croke, “To Mr Michael Cusack, Honorary Secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association”, in The Freeman’s Journal

2. datedDeeply connected to the land; rural or rustic; earthy.

   In the hedge: ... purple loose-strife. (That our young maid's long purples call and literal shepherds give a grosser name. So racy of the soil!)

   1924 Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not (Parade's End, Part 1) VI

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   Like the Church, the farmers exerted an unquestionable influence for the first 50 years of the State's existence. ... Just as to be truly Irish you had to be Catholic, you also had to be racy of the soil.

   2003 January 7, Fintan O'Toole, “Farm demo is simply anti-change”, in The Irish Times