I once heard a grandmother--an educated Dublin lady--say, in a charmingly petting way, to her little grandchild who came up crying:--'What did they do to you on me--did they beat you on me?'
The Irish preposition _ag_--commonly translated 'for' in this connexion--is used in a sense much like _air_, viz. to carry an idea of some sort of injury { 29} to the person represented by the noun or pronoun. Typical examples are: one fellow threatening another says, 'I'll break your head _for you_': or 'I'll soon _settle his hash for him_.' This of course also comes from Irish; _Gur scoilt an plaosg aige_, 'so that he broke his skull _for him_' (Battle of Gavra); _Do ghearr a reim aige beo_, 'he shortened his career for him.' ('The Amadán Mór.') See 'On' in Vocabulary.
There is still another peculiar usage of the English preposition _for_, which is imitated or translated from the Irish, the corresponding Irish preposition here being _mar_. In this case the prepositional phrase is added on, not to denote injury, but to express some sort of mild depreciation:--'Well, how is your new horse getting on?' 'Ah, I'm tired of him _for a horse_: he is little good.' A dog keeps up a continuous barking, and a person says impatiently, 'Ah, choke you _for a dog_' (may you be choked). Lowry Looby, who has been appointed to a place and is asked how he is going on with it, replies, 'To lose it I did _for a place_.' ('Collegians.') In the Irish story of _Bodach an Chota Lachtna_ ('The Clown with the Grey Coat'), the Bodach offers Ironbones some bones to pick, on which Ironbones flies into a passion; and Mangan, the translator, happily puts into the mouth of the Bodach:--'Oh, very well, then we will not have any more words about them, _for bones_.' Osheen, talking in a querulous mood about all his companions--the Fena--having left him, says, [were I in my former condition] _Ni ghoirfinn go bráth orruibh, mar Fheinn_, 'I would never call on you, _for Fena_.' This last and its like are the models on which the Anglo-Irish phrases are formed. { 30}
'Of you' (where _of_ is not intended for _off_) is very frequently used in the sense of _from you_: 'I'll take the stick _of you_ whether you like it or not.' 'Of you' is here simply a translation of the Irish _díot_, which is always used in this connexion in Irish: _bainfead díot é_, 'I will take it of you.' In Irish phrases like this the Irish _uait_ ('from you') is not used; if it were the people would say 'I'll take it _from you_,' not _of you_. (Russell.)