Local words and sayings...

[Earley Man]

Morfis' reply reminded me of Crowse, the Cornish dialect word for a work break or snack.

 

[nilagin]

Twittens and twittings seem to be similar down South?

What the hell are Twittens and twittings? 57yrs in the south and I have never heard of either.

 

[john.margetts]

(snip)

The movement of people has had an odd effect as I used to go through the 'ginnel' to get to a friends house but if he was walking to mine he'd go through the 'alley'. Twittens and twittings seem to be similar down South?

in Scunthorpe, that would be a ten foot

Things like barm cakes are also interesting. Great great uncle made 'barm cakes' in his bakery (in Oldham) and he called yeast 'barm'......hence cakes made with yeast and therefore 'bread cakes' being a bread roll. In Yorkshire they are often still called bread cakes (and I wonder if they splash them with Hendo's in Sheffield). One of my grans called them 'morning rolls' as she was a bit posh

a simple version would be a split in Cornwall but with the addition of saffron and fruit it would be a tea treat bun.

The mention of mizzle way down near the equator ...it was used in Lancashire to mean the same thing.
Another set of interesting ones is baggin - the snack we used to have with us out in the fields. In the midlands and North East I've heard people call that snapping, and snap. Lot's more variants as you wander the country!

that would be crowse in Cornwall, but I have heard it called snap (perhaps by an Emmet [an English foreigner]).

 

[Mr Badger]

a simple version would be a split in Cornwall but with the addition of saffron and fruit it would be a tea treat bun.

Now that would turn it into a tea cake in Cheshire (serve cut in half and buttered, with toasting optional).

 

[morfis]

What the hell are Twittens and twittings? 57yrs in the south and I have never heard of either.

Apologies, may be more localised areas - I've heard both used along the East Sussex coastal area and also by a friend in Kent. I must remember that some people South of Crewe do speak something similar to English.

Are 'tea cakes' (toasted for preference) a bit more universal or is that only in recent times?

A couple of others used by my family
barmpot - an idiot. Unfortunately use seems to be dying out in favour of cruder more general words
skrike/skriking - cry/crying
mither - to annoy (doesn't seem as common as I thought and I'm often asked what I mean)

Another that may or may not be local is 'tilly'. My dad used it as a pet name for my sister and other young girls. Though broadly using a lot of Lanky, he tended to use a lot of naval slang as well which confuses my recollectiion.

 

[troutfisher]

My old Scottish granny used to refer to someone looking a bit unwell and off colour as " Peely Wally" while my Nottinghamshire granny would say " 3 sheets to the wind" the one that foxed me when I moved to Yorkshire was "laikin"meaning playing-as in " what tha laikin at " in a derogatory sense or descriptive as in "Eees Lakikin at t'cricket"

 

[Cartus]

Apologies, may be more localised areas - I've heard both used along the East Sussex coastal area and also by a friend in Kent. I must remember that some people South of Crewe do speak something similar to English.

Are 'tea cakes' (toasted for preference) a bit more universal or is that only in recent times?

A couple of others used by my family
barmpot - an idiot. Unfortunately use seems to be dying out in favour of cruder more general words
skrike/skriking - cry/crying
mither - to annoy (doesn't seem as common as I thought and I'm often asked what I mean).

I'm familiar with 'mither' and use it myself, I’ve always imagined it to be a N.English word for some reason.

Tea cakes are a bit like hot cross buns (without the x) and not the chocolate/marshmallow things in M&S in my experience.

 

[MartynK]

barmpot - an idiot. Unfortunately use seems to be dying out in favour of cruder more general words

In some parts of Scotland, drop the 'r' and it becomes 'bampot'. I don't think it's as common as it used to be though.

 

[MartynK]

My old Scottish granny used to refer to someone looking a bit unwell and off colour as " Peely Wally" while my Nottinghamshire granny would say " 3 sheets to the wind" the one that foxed me when I moved to Yorkshire was "laikin"meaning playing-as in " what tha laikin at " in a derogatory sense or descriptive as in "Eees Lakikin at t'cricket"

I've always thought 'three sheets to/in the wind' meant drunk? It's derived from the days of sail, with a 'sheet' being a rope.

 

[Mr Badger]

There's also pather, which means to trample/step repeatedly and aimlessly about "Stop pathering about, I've just washed the floor!". Radged, which can describe something or someone in poor condition, often beyond much hope of recovery. Reesty, which describes the taste of butter when it's going off, and if you get up into the hills above Macclesfield someone might still call you 'Surry', which is used in a similar way to mate or friend... "Ow y'at, surry?" for "how are you doing, mate?".

 

[Cartus]

I've always thought 'three sheets to/in the wind' meant drunk? It's derived from the days of sail, with a 'sheet' being a rope.

I've always understood it to mean (well) drunk. There are very many nautical and boating references and expressions still in regular use in the English language, a result of Great Britain's long seafaring past I guess, "take the helm", "on board with...", "sleep tight", "don't make waves", "loose cannon", "swing the lead" to name just a few that I can think of offhand.

 

[morfis]

I've always thought 'three sheets to/in the wind' meant drunk? It's derived from the days of sail, with a 'sheet' being a rope.

Always did to us...'four sheets to the wind' being even more drunk. My gran used to say "one over the eight" to mean a bit drunk. In my case one over the two would do it!

'Surry' is good - never heard that. cock, luv, duck all similar.

 

[HelenC]

My all time Suffolk favourite is "on the huh"... which most of my horizons are . I'm sure that explains what it means!

 

[tijuana taxi]

Cash Registers were known as yiddish pianos, homosexuals were irons or ginger, prostitutes were toms or brass, greeks were bubbles

All bar one are rhyming slang, often just use the first word such as having a jimmy (riddle) boracic (lint) nanny (goat)
Both words for the shorter ones like tom tit, pigs ear and jam jar.

 

[MartynK]

There's also pather, which means to trample/step repeatedly and aimlessly about "Stop pathering about, I've just washed the floor!". Radged, which can describe something or someone in poor condition, often beyond much hope of recovery. Reesty, which describes the taste of butter when it's going off, and if you get up into the hills above Macclesfield someone might still call you 'Surry', which is used in a similar way to mate or friend... "Ow y'at, surry?" for "how are you doing, mate?".

I wonder if 'radged' has the same derivation as 'radge' (a crazy, mad, often violent person) in Scotland? It's interesting how many similar words have different meanings in other places.

 

[Mr Badger]

I wonder if 'radged' has the same derivation as 'radge' (a crazy, mad, often violent person) in Scotland? It's interesting how many similar words have different meanings in other places.

I don't know. What I also find interesting is how many different accents, dialects and words we have in such a small country. Go just down the road from here into Staffordshire and it's a completely different accent and dialect, duck; yet it's about 15 mins away in the car! An hour in the car in the other direction and it's a completely different language in North Wales; Cymraeg, inni!

'Surry' is good - never heard that. cock, luv, duck all similar.

An alternative pronunciation of surry is sirri. It made me chuckle a bit when that Android smartphone assistant type app, Siri, came out... I thought this should go down well up Gurnett way (a hamlet in the hills above Macclesfield, where I believe the dialect was once in fairly common use)!

 

[morfis]

What I also find interesting is how many different accents, dialects and words we have in such a small country.

I think that is part of the reason I have always found it interesting. Encounters with farmers from all over the North West and Wales when I was younger. Almost all had their own local variant of Yan, tan tethera (I have no idea about the way they 'ought' to be spelled) to the extent that from one valley to another only a short geographical distance away there would be differences. Even the most different would be obvious to someone not from that area. In the Lake District and in Wales I remember women using the same words when counting stitches/rows of knitting. In more recent times I have heard other but still very similar counting words in Wiltshire and Norfolk.
I don't remember ever hearing similar North of The English/Scottish Borders except near Moffatt