UKC

Anyone have any interesting local words that they don't hear much elsewhere?

Started thinking about this as a spin off from my wild swimming thread, where Fawksey mentioned swimming in 'the beck'. Growing up in the Lakes, the local river was always 'the beck' so in Ambleside if I went to the beck I'd be swimming in the River Rothay. At my grandparents house, the beck was at the bottom of the garden and was Aira Beck. I've never known how local a word 'beck' is so I'd love to know who uses it and where they're from.

Also, in Cumbria your lunch was your 'bait' whereas in Sheffield they call it 'snap'. Some differences can be within a few miles of each other - like in Leeds an alleyway down the back of a terrace is a ginnel (hard 'g') and in Sheffield it's a gennel (soft 'g').

Know any others? (Please, no talk of buns/baps/rolls/breadcakes/oven bottom muffins/stotties - bread products are an absolute can of worms as far as I can tell!)

In reply to Alyson:

Scouse for an alley is a Jigger, erm, that's about all I know.

In reply to Alyson:

Barmcakes :0)

In reply to Alyson: Back home near Mansfield, Notts, a ginnel/gennel is called a Jitty. A pavement might also be called a corsey(sp?).

In reply to Alyson:

It's norse, it means the same in Swedish. I have a Swedish Colleague whose surname is Otterbeck - I guess you can 'translate' that into English easily enough!

In reply to Alyson: I believe a sandwich is refered to in Scotland as "a piece".

When a Scot I worked with announced that he was "just going out to get a piece", the looks on the faces of the American and South African in the office were priceless, as was their extreme nervousness when he came back with something large, muffled in a paper-bag.

In reply to owlart:

Causey (I think!) is a local word that I have rarely heard outside Nottinghamshire. There seems to be quite a lot of common local words that are heard in Notts and S. Yorks though.

Bread and alleyways - definitely the two biggest contenders for local variation I reckon.

In reply to TobyA:

Furry beer?

In reply to Alii:

Noooo! Not the bread debate, please!

In reply to Alyson:

I often say that I am covered in clarts, which means mud.

In reply to Alyson:
>...

I sometimes use that word but I think I got it from my Mum, who grew up in Cumbria and also I think maybe I use it because I have always spent a lot of time in Cumbria. I doubt they'd use the term where I'm from.

In reply to Alyson:

Gurt.
no-one seems to say it here in london, unless they come from the isle o wight.

and Id imagine that Mallyshag is fairly restricted to that locale as well.
so a gurt mallyshag being a sodding great catapiller. (generally green for preference).

In reply to TobyA:

Dead right: it comes from the old Norse bekkr, meaning swiftly flowing stream.

A lot of "Northern" words come from the Old Norse: from about 850 Northern England was occupied by Vikings, whereas Southern England was not.

This is quite interesting, if this sort of thing interests you.

http://www.viking.no/e/england/e-yorkshire_norse.htm

Y.

In reply to Alyson:

I've always know "cheese on toast" as toasted cheese - not sure how local or widspread that is, but it doesn't seem common.

In reply to TobyA: I understand the lakeland 'fell' for hill comes from the norse too.

In reply to Simon4:
He He - In a similar vein, on a training course in San Fransisco a colleague of mine surprised our American colleagues by calmly announcing he was 'just popping out for a fag'. This was later upped by him (deliberately this time) asking if he could 'bum a fag off someone'

In reply to owlart:

Round me it's a 'snickit' (snicket).

Oh! and underpants are trollies.

In reply to zephr: Gurt! It's a West Country word

'She's gurt lush, she is...'

In reply to cathsullivan:

I'm from Pudsey in west yorks, and a pavement was always a "Causa", probably a corruption of causeway.
Mrs Ridge came out with 'laikin' for playing (another norse one)the other night. Up here in Cumbria we get post pronounced with a short'o' as in compost and bait for food. They don't understand that a buffet is a stool though.

In reply to Jovial Geordie:

Good one. I use 'clarty' to mean muddy - particlarly that thick mud that clings tenaciously to your walking boots until they've doubled in size (and weight!)

In reply to TobyA:

Opposite of Calderbeck? :0)

In reply to cathsullivan:

What about Dumble for a deeply cut down stream? Seems a uniquely Notts thing

In reply to Alyson:

Yeah I think that's very widespread. Never thought of "clart" as a word though.


I was brought up speaking very neutral non-dialectised English, a result of a non-native-English-speaking mother and a father who was a secondary school English teacher, possibly.

So my speech is not peppered with words like "geet" (for "very").

A colleague from the Wirral mentioned "going to have your blow" last week. This apparently means having a 5 minute break.

In reply to Paul F: for me (north lincs) a snicket is different to a ginell. Beck is a word i grew up with. Mardy seems fairly regional, not heard that elsewhere. Croggy is another one

In reply to Paul F:

Mmm - Snicket. One of my oldest childhood friend's family was from somewhere in Yorkshire I think, and they called the little path next to their house (in Gloucestershire) the snicket. It was adopted by all the local southerners.

Since moving up North (well more North for me) from right down South to Manchester / Derbyshire (work in one, live in one). I've discovered lovely new words. Mardy and Mither being my favourite.

I also always used to say that snow was 'pitching' instead of settling. No idea where it came from but it seems it's not used across the UK.

Also a fan of Gert (in particularly Gert Macky - meaning very big) being a west counry girl.

In reply to Alyson:
"like in Leeds an alleyway down the back of a terrace is a ginnel (hard 'g') and in Sheffield it's a gennel (soft 'g')."

in oldham its ginnel with a soft g

In reply to Alyson:

My nana always use to say 'Donnies' for hands (She was from Coventry same as me. I have started to use it now when I talk to my sproggets.

In reply to cathsullivan:

Ah, that would be it, short for causeway I'd guess. I've got a book on North Notts/Derbys dialect back home, I'll have to dig it out and remind myself. Getting on for ten years down south has changed my speech patterns quite a bit!

In reply to Alyson: Hennie (not sure if the spelling is correct) but it referred to wasteground. We had a large area of wasteground with long grass, wee hilly bits, fenced off areas etc that we used to play around on as kids and we would say, 'wir awa playin doon the hennie.'

In reply to Alyson: Ooh, thought of another Cumbrian one although it might be quite widely used, I don't know. Fettle - sort of means being in working order. So you can fettle your bike or you can be in fine fettle.

In reply to Alyson:

My mum used to warn us not to 'get clarted up' when we went out to play (futile though, every time!)

Causey is used in Barnsley to mean a pavement, causey-edge being the kerb stones.

My mum said something about 'ligging around' the other day. I know she meant laying or lounging but I'd never heard that used in Doncaster before. Anyone else?

In reply to Alyson:

In Stoke, they say you are nesh if you feel the cold easily. And they call people Shug (short for sugar)

There are ZILLIONS of them in Scotland!!

messages = shopping
shed = parting in your hair
skelph = splinter
boggin' = dirty
wean = child
ouze = fluff

I don't think Reading, where I grew up, has any. Although I did have someone gasping in amazement because I actually use "cor blimy!"

In reply to Alyson:

Scotland:

ginger = any type of fizzy drink
poke = bag
pokey hat = ice cream cone

In reply to Alyson:

Stoke:

bank = hill

In reply to Arnoid: Around this part of Cumbria it's a vennel. I think we share that with Scots. We also have the word Stottin' for heavy rain.

In reply to tlm:

I've only learnt this one very recently. I have some friends in Sheffield who use it, mainly to describe me as 'not being very nesh' which made no sense at all when I first heard it. I thought they meant I wasn't very nice!

In reply to Lemony: in fact: http://www.gonmad.co.uk/cumbria/ pretty much does cumbria.

In reply to Alyson: I've seen toilets here in Wales called 'Ty Bach' (little house)

In reply to Alyson: Croggy = giving someone a ride on the back of your pushbike. Everyone else seems to call it a backy.

Kets = sweets, so you'd say "Do you want anything from the ket machine?"

These are from the Bishop Auckland area in Co Durham.

In reply to Lemony:

Brilliant link - I love the Cumbrian dictionary on there. Lots of 'lowpin ower t'yats' and far too many words meaning drunk!

In reply to tlm:
...

My ex had an uncle who was from East London somewhere and he actually used the term 'done up like a kipper' quite seriously on occasion.

Oooh, yes, mardy is a good one. I always forget that a lot of people don't understand what that means. That's definitely used in Notts too. Never heard of a dumble though!

Fettle, yes - as in 'being in fine fettle' and we used 'snicket' as kids but (again) suspect may have got that from parents/grandparents rather than from the local norm.

In reply to Alyson: Oh yeah I've heard a scouser call his lunch nosh, that was quite funny because he was our teacher and where I am nosh means something quite different.

In reply to Alyson:

Yup, even in Finland which doesn't have an Indo-European language they use the Scandinavian word Fjells for the hills in the north that go above the tree line.

Some of the Scottish hill names are amusingly gallic mispronunciation of Norse words. You can just imagine a Scot 1000 years ago talking to some big hairy Norwegian saying "sorry... what did you say that hill's name is?"

In reply to cathirst:

I always used 'croggy'. Backy is for smokin'!! And when I was at school sweets were often called 'tuffies'.

In reply to tlm:


I lived in Glasgow for four years and have lots of Scottish friends - I don't think I ever heard any of them. Are they really "Scottish", or from some smaller region of Scotland - somewhere weird and exotic like... Fife?

In reply to Alyson: It seems like a bit of joke but I hear almost all the words in there from time to time. Plenty of them (Shanny, scran, radge,kecks...) I thought were reasonably universal til I got to university.

In reply to Alyson:
Not sure how widespread this is, but I've found people who don't know the term grockle (sp?) as in tourist or visitor. Round here, it is usually prefixed with some sort of expletive !

In reply to Alyson:

In the hood, we use 'shizzle' to mean both 'sure' and 'sh*t', and 'shiznit' means stuff. For example, 'Fo shizzle ma nizzle, pad me yo shiznit, aight?' would mean 'For sure my African American friend, pass me your stuff, please'

In reply to Alyson: As a kid we used to say "Are you leking out tonight" as in "Are you playing out." Turns out that lek (sp?) does actually mean play in viking speak (or something similar) and that the area in which grouse court each other is also called a lek.

In reply to cathsullivan: Yes backy is for smoking! In Scotland i've heard it being used to describe a croggy.

Fettle i've heard being used in the context "give it a good fettle" as in "give it a good clean".

In reply to TobyA:

Did you not hear of a poke of chips, or a poke of sweeties? I don't believe that! Not sure how wide spread, but its fairly common.

Ginger (Irn Bru) is used more generically for fizzy juice across central and west Scotland, but in more working class areas I think, so you might not have heard it if you were mixing with a university crowd...

In reply to smithy: you been watching Scrubs?

In reply to cathsullivan:

We used crogger (n lincs).

In reply to cathsullivan: Backy for a ride on the back of a bike, and baccy for smoking I think.

In reply to TobyA:

heard all of those so exotic must include Stirling &/or Aberdeen

Speaking of which, Aberdeen has more than a few local words but I'll leave it to a local but start with the expression 'fit like loon'

In reply to sasmojo:

Not in a while, been on gizoogle though!

In reply to cathsullivan:

It was a 'coggy' for us (north Doncaster)

Sweets, generally, were 'spice'.

In reply to TN:

My mum and grandad called sweets 'goodies'

In reply to zephr:

they use gurt to mean large in bristol too. (savages!)

Birmingham they uise cob for bread roll and gully for alleyway. and outdoor for offlicence

In reply to cathsullivan:

Croggy was a ride sitting on the front (across the handlebars)

On the back (usually standing on BMX stunt pegs) it was a backy

In reply to johnSD:


I went out with a girl for a bit who was from Fife I think, and she was the only person to ask for a poke of chips and dudes in the chippy would look at her suspiciously, although they were Italian... But the people from Glasgow and the people from Edinburgh would use different words anyway: ned/schemie etc.

I had a friend from the Black Isle and the first time she told me she was off oot to the shop for her messages I was really confused and presumed the shop must be sub-post office as well...

In reply to cathsullivan: Ah yes, my gran used to call sweets 'tuffies' too.

In reply to doz generale:
>.. .

And in Notts too. I remember having terrible trouble when I first moved to Manchester trying to get a cob for my dinner. Silly boggers didn't know wot I were on abaaat. Made me dead mardy. Me duck.

(Sorry Alyson)

In reply to Doug:


I had good mates at uni from Aboyne and Banchory and they were always trying to get us to speak doric - "fit ye do'in?" (that's a phonetic spelling as best I remember!) I was glad that other mates from elsewhere in Scotland were just as confused as us "foreigners".

In reply to Alyson:

In manchester 'sorted' (saw-eed) has so many meanings it's now more of a space filler.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Oooh, technical.

In reply to TN:

Damn, you got in with spice before me.

A snicket is a narrow passage between houses, a ginnel is a bit wider where you can just get the rag and bone cart down, an alley can be either.

By the way, it is siling down here ATM.

In reply to cathsullivan:

>I remember having terrible trouble when I first moved to Manchester trying to get a cob for my dinner

I remember when i first moved to plymouth trying to get a puddin for dinner. 'We don't do puddings just pies'

In reply to TobyA:


Didn't Evelyn Waugh write a novel about (then) Abyssinia, modern Ethiopia, where all the international journalists rush off to visit a town called "Ayedonthog", where all the fighting is going on? But a member of the British embassy staff who speaks the local language reveals that Ayedonthog means "I don't know", so that a local porter when asked by an explorer what that town or hill was called responded "Ayedonthog". And thus a non-existent place became the centre of world attention for a frenzied week.

In reply to Alyson:


I was visiting a house owned by an East Ender last week and he asked if I fancied a Rosie?

When I lived in Dorset, in the winter, the locals used to describe the snow as "pitching" ie "settling".

In reply to Alyson:

While most people ask for worcester sauce or Lee & Perrin's, I get blank looks when I ask for my Endo's... Mind you, I am exciled in London!

http://www.hendersonsrelish.com/home.htm

In reply to tlm:
not heard this one

Heard both of these. My grandmother used to say she was "a bit stotty" if she wasn't feeling terribly steady on her feet. Not sure how to spell it, but it is from stoatin' meaning "staggering drunkenly". She used to say "messages" for shopping as well.

My mother also uses stooshie and stramash, both of which I think mean a bit of an argy-bargy, a fight. Both mother and grandmother are from the west coast of Scotland.

(Shoogly is another one, meaning shakey, unsteady.)

In reply to Tony the Blade:
I get blank looks when I ask for my Endo's... Mind you, I am exciled in London!


Gods own sauce......mmmmmmmmmmmmm

In reply to smithy:

suprised no one has mentioned dab. as in having a right dab on meaning to be sweating a lot.

In reply to Alyson:

Lincolnshire has loads of them, the ones I can remember from growing up in North Lincs are:

A snicket was an alley or break between greenery, like a hedgerow or tangle of bushes while a Ginnel was an alley between buildings.

beck - a little stream. We usually called things a beck if you could cross it only getting your shoes & socks wet, anything bigger was a drain.

A lazy wind was one which didn't bother going round you, it just went straight through.

The bits of batter you could get from a chippie for free were called scraps. Chips n scraps was a staple food on the way back from a pub.

yonks meant a long time.

Lunch or any other food carried around was a pack I think.

Darts, or anything else pointy that you threw were "arras" - but this might have been adopted from Geordie-speak.

There were loads of others that grandparent type people used, but we probably just thought they were talking weird at the time.

In reply to Alyson:

A local Hastings word is "twitten" meaning a passageway running between the packed houses of the Old Town

In reply to Tony the Blade:

An endo is a minor pushbike stunt - balancing on one wheel (usually a "front endo")

In reply to Blue Straggler:

or a rather tasty relish that accompanies fish & chips!

In reply to Muz:

You only tell half a story!
He fails to mention that he told a girl at work that he 'had a right dab on' and she thought he meant he had a stiffy! (or whatever other colloquialism you want to use!)

Does anyone know 'backings' - meaning the alley/ginnel that runs between the backs of 2 rows of terraces?

In reply to smithy:

Puddings seem to be rarely available outside a radius of 50 miles of the Hollands factory.

Remember UCP tripe factory?

http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5544.php

In reply to Tony the Blade:

Stop it I am getting hungry now!!!

If Sean Bean can get it shipped to Hollywood, sure you can get a bottle down south. We have to ship it across the border to my mum and dad in Coventry.

In reply to fimm:
[snip]

I thought Shoogly was a certain young lady who's currently not posting to this hallowed forum!

In reply to leeford:

I buy in bulk and bring back down South with me! Mrs. Blade is a very recent convert - thank the lord!

In reply to Trangia:

What did you answer?

In reply to TobyA:

Aye, there's lots of very local dialect, and then others (like poke) that are probably country-wide but not always common. I had some friends in the scouts from south lanarkshire, and they talked about getting a "jeggybrew", which turned out to be jug (glass bottle) of Irn Bru - never heard it before or since, but in their town at least it was what you called it... Now that ned has spread round the whole country and become an everyday word (thanks to Chewin' the Fat, maybe?) I don't know if anyone in Edinburgh refers to schemies any more. Maybe it's just because I've grown out of it - can't remember the last time I heard shan or scaff either...

In reply to adam carless: Mmm, I always ask for chips and scraps too. It's a sign of a quality chippy if they know what I'm talking about!

In reply to adam carless: that's my understanding of snicket too. Didn't realise yonks was regional

In reply to Tony the Blade:

I am as well, Mrs converted me when I moved up here, It's amazing how many local home grown sheffielders have never heard of it.

In reply to ebygomm:


I got blank stares from a group of friends once when mentioning I hadn't seen/done something in yonks. So I'm just assuming it's regional, they may just have been uneducated I guess

In reply to johnSD:

I have a mate, originally from Fife, who refers to schemies. He also uses "backy" to refer to a lift on the back of a bicycle.

Cheap rubbishy (but irresistible) sweets were always called 'ket' when I were a lad.

'Nosh' for food comes from Yiddish, I think, as does 'zilch', meaning absolutely nothing.

'Gams' for legs , and 'guns' for arms is widespread in the North.

CJ.

In reply to fimm:


is that ever known as anything else?...

Collie Buckie might be another one to add to local words - means a piggy back, but I'm not sure how far it spreads

Jitty, jigger, ginnel and gennel all sound like they have a common root don't they? I like snicket - it's quite evocative and sounds like it should be a verb for squeezing through a narrow gap.

In reply to adam carless:

I didn't think yonks was regional either but you never know.

In reply to johnSD:

croggy!


(west yorkshire - the bit next to north yorkshire)

In reply to Alyson:
It's Siling it down here at the moment

In reply to Alyson: Down south a Swedebasher = Hampshire Hog = native of Hampshire.

In reply to nonymouse:

You've just reminded me, a yellowbelly is a lincolnshire native.

And to them, a "hill" is anywhere that water drains away from

In reply to Alyson: Growing up in Norn Irn (Northern Ireland) there's loads. Apologies for the crap spelling since I only ever heard them and never saw them written down.
shough: ditch
oxster: armpit
drooth: dehydration due to hangover (I guess the spelling is more like druidh?)

Bob

In reply to Alyson:

Pictures here;
http://www.mirfieldmemories.co.uk/mirfield_today.htm

In reply to Alyson:

Yitten, scared
Checker, house brick
Nipsy, local game
Skelington, you've got to love that one

In reply to Robert Dickson:


That's really interesting. I've heard my dad (who's from the north east originally) use drooth for that kind of murky drizzle that seems to hang in the air. He will describe a day as being droothsome.

In reply to Alyson:

there's a scottish word, 'dreich', which I understand to mean similar.

In reply to fimm: Oh yeah, stottering all over the shop after you've had a few!

In reply to cathsullivan: Used to say yonks too, meaning ages. Also yonkies, as in, 'that was yonkies ago,' and that turned into donkey's, 'that was donkey's ago.'

Used to say schemies in Dundee

Oooooh, and as well as backies for going on the back of a bike, peoples back gardens were referred to as backies. Going on someone's back was referred to as a cuddy back.

block of flats - closie

In reply to Alyson:

Spice - Sweets
Pop - Soft drinks
Proper - Very

I'm sure I'll think of some more soon

2pints - From Leeds

In reply to johnSD:

Yep, lots of people in England will know what neds are now. When I went to Glasgow all it meant to me was Ned's Atomic Dustbin!

In my home town (in Worcestershire) we used to talk about Kevs to mean the same thing, but now Chavs seems to have taken over - but oddly when I was kid 'Chav' or 'Chavvy' was the the same as 'Gypo' as we had quite a few local gypsy families who had to stand in for the blacks and asians as the target of abuse in our virtually all white town! Having gypsy around added something to the language though as you would call your mate "mush" affectionately or "mush kekker" if you were trying to annoy them. Those terms were from gypsies round our way.

When I got to Uni it was fun finding out what words different people used for the same thing - in my flat chewing gum could be chungy, chuddy or chuggy dependent on who was asking!

In reply to cathsullivan:


I don't think so - I'd say it and I'm from Worcestershire and my Finnish wife now says it - particularly she like "yonks and yonks" - and she picked it up working in Oldham.

In reply to 2pints: Yeah, I miss hearing things being described as proper good! I always liked that one.

In reply to Alyson:

How about Kirk for church and Manse for "house in which the minister lives" - usual in Scotland, do they get used elsewhere?

In reply to TobyA:

Yup, In Edinburgh we talked about schemies or scaffs to describe people from the estates (which makes me ashamed, now that I'm older),and the schemies from Niddry were called Nids, Nidroids, or Nidrons - not from the same root as "ned". I suppose gadgie would be have been used sometimes for the more violent or antisocial schemies, and more precisely this would be what neds are, rather than poor people as a whole.

When I were a younger lad "chav" or "chavvies" was used to describe nippy, screechy teenage girls, and this remained the case until very recently (the Little Britain/Catherine Tate influence). A boy could never be a chav, by definition - and it didn't have the same broad brush classification and connotations. I think the one-word-fits-all use of chav nowadays isn't really helpful for anyone, and it should be allowed to fall back into its varied regional uses that at least had meaning...

In reply to TobyA:

Chewing gum is spoggy.

In reply to TobyA:

They are from Glasgow...

In reply to Ridge: They don't understand that a buffet is a stool though.

That's because a stool in Cumbrian is a "copy"

In reply to fimm:

Certainly in the northern counties they get used a bit. Kirkstone Pass in the Lake District is so named because of a big standing stone shaped like a steeple, and I have a friend in Todmorden (West Yorkshire) who lives in a house called The Manse.

In reply to Trangia:

I always say that - but I say a cup of Rosie.

And a Ruby (Murray)! (=currey)

I was really worried about it when I first went up to Scotland, and they started looking for the tit....

Turns out, that is what they call a babies dummy... (short for a dummy tit)

In reply to sutty:

I lived in Mirfield when I was very little, but I don't really remember it much.

In reply to adam carless:

I thought yonks wasn't regional either...

In reply to tlm and others:


Looks like I've just got some uneducated friends then

In reply to 2pints:


My other half refers to any soft drink as 'juice' - which confused me for a while when he'd ask if I wanted a can of juice then bring me back coke (i equate juice with being from a fruit).

In reply to Alyson:

I remember my ex husband getting all confused when trying to order a bacon roll. He asked for a "ham sangwich" and got given a cold ham sandwich!!! He was most dissapointed!!!

What about a jelly piece =jam sandwich.

In reply to Alyson:

I was in a taxi in York a few months ago and the driver had managed to make himself unpopular with the dispatcher. When he got off the radio he said "oh, well, I'm getting wrong for that now". I had almost totally forgotten about that expression but hearing it again reminded me of my Nana who was from Co Durham and is long gone unfortunately. She always used to threaten us with 'getting wrong' (i.e., getting into trouble/told off) off our Mum if we did x or y. It was nice to be reminded of her. I was a bit puzzled that the phrase was being used in York but the taxi driver told me that he was from Co Durham too.

In reply to Alyson:

Loon – Aberdeen man
Quine – Aberdeen lady
Furry boots? – Aberdonian for ‘Where abouts?’
Fit? – Aberdonian for ‘what?

In reply to TobyA: norse and early/old english are very similar though arent they? i guess the Norman influence led to a greater divergence between the two germanic languages

In reply to tlm:
I grew up in Kent with people saying yonks, so if it was regional the region has expanded!

In reply to Alyson:

My younger brother refers to me as 'bawbag', not sure what that word means though...

:-/

In reply to Alyson:

I wonder if someone can correct me on this- but does anyone else say "somewhen" ?

apparently its a down south thing- and I havent really heard anyone else say it- and have had the piss ripped on several occassions by ignorant mainlanders...

so.. get back to me about it somewhen.

In reply to zephr:

I guess that's right in there for annoyingness with 'where are you to?'

In reply to Removed User:

Dreich - damp but not really raining
drouth - to be thirsty

Would have described these as pretty common in Scotland

In reply to cathsullivan:

I'm fairly sure we used "get wrong" when I was a child (South Nothumberland). We used to say "I'm telling on you" as well - no idea how regional that is.
(We've wandered away from non-standard English words, to phrases that may or may not be regional here, sorry.)

In reply to noggy:
My younger brother refers to me as 'bawbag', not sure what that word means though...

It's the bag that contains yer baws... (normally located in the groin region of blokes...)

In reply to 2pints:

Council Pop - Tapwater (or tap watta)

In reply to noggy:

Surprised no one else more local than me has come up with an more;

ones I have learned

Piece - sandwich
Hornygolloch - earwig
Chuddy - chewing gum
Chavvin' awa' - doing OK.

In reply to Alyson:

In the land of the tups (Derbyshire) we have jittys and croggys and the pavement is the causey. To be grumpy is "to have a monk on" and when you hit someone you "dab a chuffer on". An early breakfast is fosbit and your lunch is snap which usually consists of butties. The word "o" is used indistinguishably for you, me, he, she or it. The phrase "I haven't seen the man you are looking for, have you tried over by her place, good sir?" translates as "O anna seen oat'r o, ast o tried over be'o's gadda surree?"

In reply to johnSD: A gadgie wouldn't be a ned, but a total alchy tramp.

In reply to Chris F: We say choony for chewing gum (Dundee)

In reply to Clarence: The only bit I don't get is 'tups'. A tup is surely a ram of mating age? Hence tupping being... you know... (although in slang terms it doesn't necessarily mean with a sheep!) Are you all rams in Derbyshire?

In reply to Chris F:

just been forwarded this:

http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/doric.php

I wish I'd seen this when I first moved up here.


I've always been taken by the fact in Scotland (and a lot of England too), the people who speak the clearest most understandable English, are people from Inverness and the Black Isle.

In reply to noggy: When I worked in Aberdeen I firstly could only understand every one in three words. After 5 months I could understand maybe 2 out of 3 words.

Hardest was old gentlemen and shopfloor staff as they mingled doric with english.

In reply to noggy: I've heard of 'fash' for trouble, I think they use that in the Tyneside area too. Like in the Lampton Worm song: 'he wasn't fashed to carry it hyem, so he hoyed it doon the well'.

Most of the rest of that list is just gobbledegook though!

In reply to Alyson:
having relocated to manchester from Liverpool 2 new favourites are 'nowty' = grumpy, uncooperative and 'a numpty' = someone dim,daft

In reply to noggy: Very useful.

I only came across clype and swick recently.

In reply to grumpybearpantsclimbinggoat:


If you want really confusing, try Doric combined with English, but with a Polish accent...

In reply to mrjonathanr:

numpty is used in Scotland - IIRC it was one of Norrie's favourite insults.

In reply to Chris F: Is slaters (for woodlice) just Aberdeen ? don't think I've heard it anywhere else ?

In reply to Doug:

The say that down in the Kingdom too

In reply to Alyson:

I'm from London and it always confuses me when I go to my in-laws in Plymouth who say Dinner for lunch and tea for dinner.

What's all that about

In reply to Doug:

I've heard of 'water slaters' which is the water version of woodlice. I've not heard it applied to the land ones.

In reply to deanr:

They are chavs.

In reply to Alyson:

Does anyone use the word 'nesh' when describing someone who, say, wears a jumper on a sunny day or always needs the heating turned up? My mother uses it a lot as she meets a lot of 'nesh' people as she's the type who can wear shorts and short sleeves in a snowstorm!

In reply to Becky B:

I didnt hear that word until I moved to Cheshire.

In reply to Chris F:

There's a phrase in big letters on the side of Stracathro services on the A90 (near Brechin) that always catches my eye.

To this day I haven't a clue either how to say it, or what it means...

In reply to Alyson:

'clat' is a word which I think is local to Lincolnshire/Yorkshire

If something is a clat, it means it's a fussy job

You can also clat about, for example, clatting (fussing) about instead of just getting ready to go somewhere.

In reply to Becky B:

I use 'nesh' and did as a child too. I am, in fact, nesh. I'm not sure if it was much of a local (Nottingham) word for me though or something I got from my parents or grandparents (who were variously from Middlesbrough, Cumbria, County Durham).

In reply to cathsullivan:

Nesh is universal in the north I think.

In reply to sutty: Yep, nesh is as far down as Derbyshire where it is "starving" cold in winter.

As for tups, yes we are all rams down here, even the lasses.

A yorkshire tyke
A staffordshire irish
A lincolnshire yellowbelly
A nottingham c...

In reply to Clarence:

...limber!

In reply to Alyson: 'scunnered' is to be really fed up. 'glaiket' is someone who looks a bit simple. 'ben' means through as in 'go ben the hoose' 'shoogle' means to shake and playgrounds and fairgrounds used to have shoogy boats.

A lot of the Cumbrian words you used were familiar to me and used in the same context, clarty for example.

In reply to sutty:


I'd never heard nesh until some uni friends used it, think they were from Chesterfield area and I grew up further north than that.

In reply to ebygomm:

Used to spend half the year up in Co. Durham (my Grans), never heard it there either. Heard clarty (dirty) and beck was the local stream(s).

In reply to lasonj:

Hmmm. We used to use gadgie in the same way you'd say mate, or dude. An alky tramp would be called a jakie. Chav was occasionally used as an address in the same way as "mate" among some young er.. chavvy males. I heard some teenagers shouting "awright chav" to their mate from a bus a wee while ago, so the word has been in use in Fife and Edinburghj area for a while.

My favourite east of Scotland word has to be puss, as in "What's wrang wi your puss?"


Stuart

In reply to all:

So has no one else ever been called a mush kekker?

In reply to Removed User: I remember jakie from Glasgow - it can be an adjective as well as a noun - "he's right a jakie f***er".

In reply to Removed User:



A little more explanation needed on this one! Leaving it to my imagination would be a really bad move...

In reply to Removed User:

Glaikit is a great word.

"Ben" was often used by teenage lads in Fife thus:
Q: "Dae ye ken that Senga burd fae Lochgelly?"
A: "Ken her? Ah've been ben her."

In reply to Alyson:

Face.

In reply to Removed User: Ah. Yes, that's what I thought <cough!>

In reply to Alyson:

Of course it was...

In reply to Doug:

That's what I learned them as in Edinburgh, with my parents from near Falkirk

In reply to Alyson: Another Notts one: mate of mine was really offended when his local was called "chatty" in the good pub guide. Apparently in Notts, it means tatty, threadbare and messy, as in "you're sofa's looking a bit chatty"

They are also fond of a snap tin to keep their cheese cobs in. I don't know what they mean, 'cos I'd have an oven bottom barmcake for baggins

In reply to toad: One man's snap tin is another man's bait box.

I have a Cumbrian friend living here in Sheffield who won't acknowledge a request to meet for lunch unless it sounds like 'horeet marra, ist tha' ga'an aht fer t'bait like eh?' and just between you and me, I sound a bit ridiculous talking like that...

In reply to Alyson: Earby was in Yorkshire now in Lancashire is the only place I have heard, "lake" meaning play, as in have you been lakeing with yerself?

In reply to Doug:

My Mum (originally from Lanarkshire) says this.
How could I have forgotten glaikit?!

In reply to Fawksey: And had you? (suspect I know the answer to this...!)

Never heard that one before.

Does anyone else say 'any road' instead of 'anyway'? I think that might be very Cumbrian.

In reply to Alyson: Im ganning yerm for yan a me li'l byerts (Im going home for one of my little boots)

our greeting was "cushdee bar a chore a wha marra?" How are you freind?

In reply to Alyson: "spot" for home, are you coming back to my spot? "Mot" for girlfriend, but at some later stage, after about 76/77 this got corrupted to mean a part of ones girlfreinds anatomy

In reply to Fawksey: Yan for one, that's very Cumbrian! Most valleys had different versions of one to ten (for counting sheep) but yan was pretty common to a lot of them I think.

The one I know is yan, tyan, tethera, methera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera, dick but I've heard lots of others. I think mine is from Borrowdale:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera

In reply to Alyson:

The old Northumberland guide (dunno about the new one) had a handy Geordie/Coonty glossary of local terms in the back for visiting climbers. More guides should have this, though the north-east outcrops one would probably double in size.

In reply to Fawksey:

laikin, playing or tossing it off;
http://www.viking.no/e/england/yorkshire_norse.htm#L

In reply to Alyson: coming from between Carlisle and Penrith and only having occasiuonal forays into sunny Silloth west cumbrian was a hard dialect to understand

In reply to sutty: there we go! Thanks for that sir.

In reply to Fawksey: Aye, tis a different world t'other side o yon fells!

On the fell/hill thing, there are a few hills in South Yorkshire called lows which strikes me as particularly amusing - Bleaklow, Ringinglow etc. My favourite for sheer irony is High Low.

In reply to Alyson:

Was it you who started a similar thread a few months ago about dialects?
You have opened a vast subject which could go on forever. (Good isn't it)
Here is a repeat Cumbrian dialect example.
In Cumbrian, a stool is a "coppie", a chaffinch is a "scoppie" & to throw is "to scop"
so, if you have thrown the stool at a chaffinch, you have "scopped coppie at t'scoppie" It's not a written language.
On a more serious note:-
Re. your Cumbrian "friend" no-one is asking you to speak Cumbrian & if he/she is a "friend" why are you calling their way of speaking ridiculous on a website?
Anyway, the Cumbrian you say that he/she uses is very old fashioned & today is only used by older people, or a quick linguistic badge to show a Cumbrian origin, not as everyday speech.

In reply to D.Musgrave: My friend doesn't really demand to be addressed like that! Sorry if you thought I was being serious. We just do it to amuse ourselves and because no-one else knows what the chuff* we're talking about!

I think we did discuss something similar a while ago but I certainly didn't start a thread on it. Not that I remember.




*Sorry. Picked this one up in Yorkshire like some kind of disease...!

In reply to Alyson:

Anyone heard of "scooshies" for windscreen washers? The bloke uses it, I'm not sure if it's a Glasgow thing or just something he's made up.

My favourite Scottish one has to be "dreech" (I have no idea how that's spelt) to describe generally grey and minging weather.

In reply to kathrync:

Yep, I call them scooshers depending on who I'm talking with. Also, a bottle of scoosh was a bottle of lemonade.

Another good word: coup (pr. cowp). to tip something over. We would describe a very drunk person who couldn't stand up as being couped.

In reply to Alyson: saying "aye" while intaking breath not expelling it.

In reply to Alyson:

"Laik" appears in the Townley document - the Wakefield Mystery Plays: one of the shepherds gets Jesus "A little spruce coffer, with this you may laik"

(if I was not bone idle, I would look it up for you)

I think the Green Knight suggests "laiking" with Gawaine as well. Both sources 14th Century.

Y.

In reply to Alyson:

Has anyone mentioned

Spuggie = sparrow

Spadge = term of affection'

In reply to Removed User:

As does my mother.

In reply to kathrync:

Dreich - see http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/doric.php

In reply to Alyson:

One more I can think of is

snedge = snow

In reply to noggy:

I know the one you mean, me neither.

In reply to Doug

Slaters.

Yes from me (west coast, middle to south).

And it's the common name for them out here in New Zealand too.

http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/inv...

In reply to Chris F:

Oops, sorry. I had never seen it written down!

In reply to Alyson:

I'm from Lewis and we've got a few:

Blone - Girl
Cove - Bloke

Useless Fact: When someone in Scotland says something is 'Smashing' it comes from the Gaelic 'S'math Sin' which literally 'That's great'.

In reply to Alyson:

Oh, and I told the bloke to "Dinna Fash Yersel" and then had to translate...

In reply to fimm:
"Kirk for church "

by German speakers?

In reply to Alyson:

a lot of your cumbrian words were also around in the Durham area when I was a kid, not surprising really, not far away

beck is like the German bach for stream

carlings and carling sunday were often mentioned by my grandmother

nettie, worrit, saying "doubt" for think

In reply to fimm:

but that's very french I always thought

In reply to Alyson:

"lows" like southern "downs"

In reply to Alyson: A coup (pronounced cowp) is a rubbish tip, neb is your nose, gallus means its good as in 'see that, thats pure gallus so it is', bowfin means bad, sleekit means sly (or fly as we would say) and scud is a bottle of fizzy drink like Irn Bru.

See ye the morra ye wee brammer!

In reply to Removed User: bampot (not you personally) - is that just Scots ?

In reply to johnj:
>

Hey, that's not regional, EVERY five year old knows what that is!!

Sxx

PS here are a couple I thought of;
"bait" - packed lunch
"got a monk on" = in a mardy mood

In reply to Alyson:
"cracket" = a small stool, commonly used by miners
"marrer" = pitmatic for colleague/friend.

In reply to Doug:

We used barMpot for someone acting daft.

Did someone mention nettie,= Thie Veg in IOM

In reply to Alyson: My favourite east of Scotland word has to be puss, as in "What's wrang wi your puss?"
I think that your "puss" means your face, as in "sourpuss". Look at old Hollywood movies.

In reply to Alyson:

Here in zomerzet we use the traditional greeting 'ow be yon young'un meaning hello young person, how are you.

In reply to Alyson:
The way this good thread is going now, Alyson, there will be people using the posts to entertain & educate themselves. I have already been told by a school teacher (not sure what age she teaches) that she is picking up on words she didn't know, to teach her class about old English dialects. (not languages e.g. Welsh or Scot's Gaelic) but her Welsh & Scotish colleagues
have said that they are also looking at the thread to find old words /expressions that they didn't know or were unsure of, to assist their teaching.

In reply to Alyson:

Where I grew up Woodlice were known as Cheeselogs.

(Charlotte in Anni's Basement on Dave's log in )

In reply to Sarah G:
You are right about "bait" it does not mean a restaurant or home cooked meal, it means as you say, a packed lunch, as the men would take to work.
It may have been exactly the same food as a mother may have given to the whole family when they went on a day's outing, but then mothers would call it a picnic.

In reply to ebygomm:

Mardy is a Sheffield(and Yorkshire?) word as well,mardy-arse or mardy-bum.

Have heard 'erry up' instead of hurry up in Sheffield,and black gan and growler for black pudding and pork pie. Growler is slang for a ladie's front bottom as well.

While is also used in Sheffield for saying untill,'wait here while the light turns green',and at school people used to use revved up for annoyed or worked up.

While is also used in telling the time,ie 'ten while four'. And tea-cakes without currents are called bread-cakes.

Cheers
Tim

In reply to Alyson:

Chuff is a brilliant word.

I heard a cyclist say chuffing hell when the car infront of him stopped and turned right without indicating.

()

In reply to gobsmacker:

A clat up the road is a dirty person Being clatty, is being a flithy beast.

A wee dyke is a wee wall whereas in other places it's a lesbian who is short of stature

Snotters = bogies

A bottle'o' scoosh. =bottle of lemonade or other fizzy drink.

Drookit = soaked through

In reply to sutty:

'Dated' is a quite good term from Sheffield,for somebody who doesn't even know what day it is,i think it's dying out though.

Men sometimes call each other love in Sheffield without it being camp (and without that being a bad thing),just general blokes going about thier day. Have been called love by bus drivers and people in sandwich shops.

Tim

In reply to SC:

When I was at university in Bristol, I used to hear that a lot, along with "'ello my loverrr", which was slightly disconcerting when it came from the lady in the refectory who was old enough to be my Granny.

In reply to D.Musgrave: Having moved about a bit Ive heard ones work lunch not only described as "bait" but also "snap" and "jock".

Khali - sherbet

In reply to Alyson: I got brought up with lots of black country words but 'fode' I haven't heard anywhere else. As in go play on the fode just means patio/slabs something like that.

In reply to Fawksey: Ooooooh, now that's one I've not heard for 'yonks!'

But we used to call it Kellie. Awa to the shoppy for a baggy o Kelly

In reply to lasonj: I remember it as the stuff that was in coloured layers

In reply to D.Musgrave:
Phew- well, Dad took his bait to work with him everyday for 40-odd years, and although I was born and broght up in deepest darkest Lincolnshire, he was a Mackem. There were several words we used in the household that, now I live in the North East, I realise came from the Sunderland area.

Sxx

In reply to D.Musgrave: I think it is spelt pus (pronounced puhs) and not puss (which would be poohs as in puss(y) cat.) Don't know where the term originated from, but in Dundee you would hear schemies say, 'eh, what ye gawking at, ah'll bang yer pus ya wee gadgie mink!' (translated as hey you, what are you staring at? I'll punch your face you smelly tramp)

In reply to Fawksey: I just remember pink stuff in a bag. And it was proper sherbet too, none of this powdery stuff, but with grains the size of big sugar grains. And all sweet and sticky. You would sook your finger and dab it in the bag.

In reply to Alyson: Someone who has ginger hair is known as a 'minter'in these parts.

In reply to lasonj: chocolate bars from machines at railway stations, called Bar Six, a bit like a Kit Kat

In reply to Kate: That's funny, a minter here is when you go red with embarassment. Same as a beamer.

In reply to Fawksey: Lol! I didn't hang around at railway stations ;oP

In reply to Alyson:


This is used in Lancashire too, well a bit of Lancashire that is now in Greater Manchester, Bolton.

In reply to Alyson: My brother at leeds says "nash" a lot for something crap (though he could be saying something else entirely!)

In Burnley at least they say "bobbins" as in Kyle Lafferty played bobbins today.

In my part of Cumbria we said "raj"

In reply to lasonj: Along similar lines then. The word comes from a person called Keith Minter who had ginger hair and it's just stuck.

In reply to Alyson:

Fettle is a technical word used in both casting and moulding processes.
It is the final stage of manually removing the cast or mould marks from something produced either in an iron sand cast or a ceramics mould.

Fettling means to get something 'just right'. ie, the finishing touches.

The word is common in areas associated with pottery and ironwork.

In reply to Timmd:

Similar to that is "Duck" or "Ducky" in Nottingham and probably elsewhere in the midlands (I'd be interested in how far it goes). Can be said by anyone to anyone as long as you've got the correct accent (not sure it would work in my southern accent!).

Also Roundabouts are Islands in Nottingham but Circles in Dundee. Any others?

"Mither" is a word that doesn't travel well. Not many people in and around London understand it; curiously, in my experience, they don't seem to understand the need for the word!

Maybe the actual thing of "mither" is in itself curiously Northern!

In reply to Kate: Do you mean that is where the word originated from? Or it's someone's name that you personally knew, who had red hair? If the former, do you know who he was? Curious.

In reply to Another James:

"Duck" & "Me Duck" certainly reaches the northern suburbs of Birmingham.

In reply to lasonj: I don't know if that's where the word orginated from, I didn't know the person as they are 6 years older than me, but a fellow poster does. It came from when they were at school and it has stuck throughout the years.

In reply to Another James: 'Duck' is used in mid Bucks, I always thought it came from 'Aylesbury ducks' when a child in Aylesbury

And what about 'hen' (for a woman) - is that just central Scotland ?

In reply to Doug:

Hen is also west coast and it's a term of endearment 'Spose it's like love or darlin' elsewhere?

In reply to Simon4: piece in ayrshire - just up the road in Paisley it's a "chit" apparently

In reply to kathrync:
I used to hear that a lot, along with "'ello my loverrr", which was slightly disconcerting when it came from the lady in the refectory who was old enough to be my Granny.

Obviously not a real local. It should be "alright my loverrr"
Personally I hate bristol, the locals aren't too friendly. Somerset is much nicer & more friendly.

In reply to Alyson:
how commonly used is 'sling' for throw?
was surprised to find myself playing "slinga stanes<sp sp sp!>" with my mates swedish progeny recently.

In reply to Fawksey:

Me too. Although I most often used it to mean angry or mardy - such as when my mum was in a raj at me and my sister. It did also mean rubbish, although I've adopted 'bobbins' from a colleague for that as it's such a great word!

In reply to paresseux:

I didn't know that at all, thank you. It's great knowing where certain words have come from and seeing how they've evolved.

In reply to Alyson: Scotland - if you go to bed without having a bath or a wash on an evening its called a "clatty crash", a "softie" is a bread roll, to tell someone to go away you can either say "ging awa" or "awa yi go, a female is a "quine" a male is a "loon", a cuddle is a "bozy" and flower is a "flooer", the list is endless. Oh and in Scotland two positive's can make a negative "aye, right", go figure lol!