LITERARY WORDS WITH DIALECT MEANINGS
[Sidenote: _Clever, Comical, Conceit, Discourse_
_False, Flippant, Idle_
_Jolly, Kind, Maxim, Odd_]
The linguistic study of the dialects becomes an entertaining pursuit
when we turn our attention to the dialect usage of literary words in a
sense other than that to which we are accustomed in standard English.
This can only be illustrated by quotations, for only thus can the true
inwardness of the dialect meaning be appreciated. _Adapted_ (Hmp.)
means accustomed to: a man adapted to pigs is a man experienced in the
rearing of swine; _agreeable_ (Yks.) means suitable, to one’s taste
or liking, e.g. Noo, reach to, an’ mak’ yersels agreeable, an’ if ye
dean’t lahk it lay back, is a friendly invitation to guests at the
board to help themselves to what they fancy; an _auction_ (Yks. Lan.
Chs. Stf.) is a dirty or untidy place or room, a meaning which no doubt
has had its origin in the state of dirt and disorder occasioned by a
public sale: Ah nivver seed sitch a auction i’ all my life as their
hahse is, t’furnitur’s onnywheear but whear it sud be; _cake_ (Yks.) is
bread, whilst _bread_ means oatcake, e.g. Etten cake’s sooin forgotten
is a proverbial saying; to _call_ a person (gen. dial. use) means to
abuse him to his face, to abuse any one behind his back is to _illify_.
A Yorkshire minister preaching on Christian forbearance counselled
his hearers thus: If they call ya, tak neea heed on’t, bud if they
bunch [kick] ya, or cobble ya wi’ steeans, gan ti t’justice, an’ a’e
deean wi’t at yance. _Casualty_ (n. m. and w. dials.) is used as an
adjective meaning precarious, risky, uncertain, not to be relied upon,
e.g. Cauves is cazzlety things to rear; a _Christian_ (gen. dials.) is
a human being as distinguished from one of the lower animals, e.g. W’y
’e’d get on that wall, said a woman of a favourite dog, an’ bark like
a krischun ’e ’ood, ’e knowed so well who wuz a-comin’. A shop-bill
announcing the attendances of a veterinary at Mansfield Market more
than a century ago, concluded with the words: ‘N.B. Likewise bleeds
Christians.’ A _chintz_ cat is a tortoiseshell cat; _clever_ (Nhb.
Dur. Yks. Ken. Dev. Cor.) means well, in good health, active, e.g. Hoo
are ye the day, lad? Man, aa’s clivver; _comical_ (Wor. Hrf. Glo. Bdf.)
means unwell, out of sorts, e.g. I’ve felt bad and comical a many days;
used of roads (Shr.) it signifies bad, dangerous, e.g. It’s a comical
road, specially if theer comes on a mug [fog]; a _conceit_ (Irel. n.
and midl. counties) is an opinion, idea, fancy, e.g. If a wanst teks
a consate, loike, you mee as good talk to a win’mill, and it can be
used as a verb in a like sense, e.g. What do you understand by being
confirmed? Why, I consate I’ll have to fight the devil by mysel’;
_dead_ (Irel. Hrf. Glo. Cor.) means faint, unconscious, e.g. I was dead
ever so long; a _deaf_ nut (n. midl. and sw. counties) is one without a
kernel, e.g. He does not look as if he lived on deaf nuts is said of a
man who looks well-fed and prosperous; to _disannul_ (n. midl. w. and
e. counties) means to abolish, destroy, e.g. Mr. B. has disannulled
the pigsty; or to disarrange, inconvenience, e.g. Yo’ can come in,
yo’ oonna disannul the ladies; _discourse_ (Lin. Som. Dev.) is bad
language, e.g. Of all the discoose ever I yurd in my life, that there
beat everything; a _dormouse_ (Glo.) is a bat; _dubious_ (Chs. Shr.) or
_jubious_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks. Lan. Stf. Der. War.) means suspicious, e.g.
’Er’s as jubous as ’er’s scrimmity [niggardly], weighs the flour out,
an’ then the bread after it’s baked, be’appen ’er thinks as I should
ate the duff; a _faggot_ (midl. and s. counties) is a dish, usually a
small cake or rissole made of the fry, liver, or inferior portions of
a pig or sheep, e.g. ‘Hot faggots to-night’ is a not uncommon notice
to be seen, for example, in the windows of small eating-houses in
Malvern, Cheltenham, or Oxford; a _fig_ (Brks. Hmp. Wil. Som. Dev.
Cor.) is a raisin, hence _figgy-pudding_ stands for plum-pudding.
A woman who made plum-puddings for sale, placed this notice in her
shop-window: ‘Figgy pudden wan appeny a slice, more figgier wan penny
a slice.’ It is a common saying that a Cornishman’s idea of happiness
is: A fresh preacher and a figgy-pudding every Sunday. _False_ (n.
and midl. counties), applied to children and animals, means sharp,
shrewd, clever, precocious, e.g. as fause as a Christian, often said
of a clever animal; _fierce_ (midl. and e.An.) means brisk, lively,
in good health, and is usually applied to babies, it can also signify
brave, valiant, mettlesome, as in the ironical simile: as fierce as a
maggot; _fog_ (in gen. dial. use) is the aftermath, the second crop of
hay, or the long grass left standing in the fields during winter. In a
M.E. account of the fate of Nebuchadnezzar we read: ‘He fares forth on
alle faure [fours], fogge watȝ his mete.’ A printed notice conspicuous
in the market-square of Settle a few years ago advertised ‘120 acres
of fog for Sale’. _Flippant_ (Dor. Som. Dev.) is used of rods or
sticks in the sense of pliant, used of persons it means quick, nimble;
_frightful_ (Hrf. e.An. Som.) means timid, easily frightened, e.g.
Lauk! Miss, how frightful you are! said by a homely wench when Miss
screams at a toad or a spider; a _gentleman_ (midl. and s. counties)
is a man who need not work, or is disabled from work, e.g. He’s a
gentleman now, but he just manages to doddle about his garden with a
weedin’-spud. It can be applied to a sick woman, e.g. I’m sure I’ve
done all I could for mother; if she isn’t a gentleman, I should like
to know who is! _Good_ (Sc. n.Cy. Suf.), with names of relationship,
denotes kinship by marriage, e.g. my good aunt, is my aunt by marriage;
my good son, is my son-in-law; _good-natured_ (Dev.) can be used of
inanimate objects, e.g. A good-natured stone is one easy to work; a
_gull_ (midl. counties) is an unfledged gosling, called in parts of
Hampshire a _maiden_; _head_ (Som. Dev.) can signify the cream on the
surface of milk, so that if a farmer’s wife is asked for milk in the
forenoon, she may reply: I ’ont break my head vor nobody; a _hypocrite_
(Suf. Sus.) is a person who is unwell, or a lame person, e.g. She’s
quite a hypocrite, she can’t walk a step without her stilts; _idle_
(Suf. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor.) means mischievous, saucy, flippant.
It is said that half the choir in a Dorsetshire village resigned when
a lady told them they were _idle_. They believed that she had accused
them of leading a vicious life. To _imitate_ (Chs. Shr. e.An. Nrf.
Suf.) means to attempt, endeavour, e.g. Don’t yow imitate hittin’ me,
or yow’ll find it won’t pay; an _income_ (Sc. n.Irel. n.Cy.) is an
internal disease, or an abscess, boil; _inconsistent_ (Nhp. Hnt.) means
reprehensible; to _intend_ (w.Yks.) can be used to express a desire or
expectation beyond one’s own control, e.g. I had intended our Rector
to be a Bishop; an _item_ (Yks. Chs. Der. Lin. War. Wor. Shr. Sus.) is
a hint, signal, cue, e.g. I sid the Maister comin’ so I gid ’im the
item. In Somerset and Devon it can mean a trick, antic, e.g. Her’s za
vull ov items as a egg’s vull ov mayte. _Jolly_ (n.Cy. n.midl. e.An.)
means fat, plump, e.g. the phrase _a jolly wench_ would be applied to a
young woman weighing about twelve stone; _kind_ (midl. and s. counties)
means in good condition, thriving, healthy, e.g. These’m nice kind
pigs, He’s always been a kindly bullock. It can also signify pleasant,
agreeable, as in the Lancashire saying: There’s never a gate ’at’s so
kind to th’ fuut as th’ gate one likes to go. A _maxim_ (War. Wor. Suf.
Som. Dev. Cor.) is a plan, contrivance, e.g. The curate’s a fustrate
’un amongst the lads, ’e’s got such a many maxims to amuse ’um; _mean_
(Yks.) signifies angry, e.g. I war ganging by t’field, and there war
Willy Lowis’ bull. I couldna rin, and ’ea cam and leuked at me across
t’stile. ‘Is ta gaen to be mean?’ says I; _megrims_ (Yks. Chs. Stf.
Der. Lin. War. Shr.) are antics, tricks, gesticulations, grimaces,
e.g. Them childern wun naughty i’ church, they wun makin’ maigrims
an’ witherin’ one to another all the wilde, where _witherin_ implies
muttering with an accompaniment of nods and winks; _miraculous_ (Sc.
Yks.) means wild, eccentric, reckless, venturesome, e.g. He’s a bit
mirak’lous wiv a gun; to _mortify_ (Yks. Der. Shr. Hrf. Glo. Oxf. Som.)
is to tease, vex, annoy, e.g. Drat the cheel! her’s enough to mortify
anybody out o’ their life; _novice_ (Yks.) is a very common term of
reproach, used of a person who is awkward in manner or procedure; _odd_
(Cum. Yks. Lan. Der. Lin. Lei. War.) means solitary, single, lonely,
e.g. He lives e’ a niced house, but it was so odd, there wasn’t a
place of worship within three mile; a very common phrase is: an odd
one, meaning a single one, e.g. Oor parson ewsed to keäp two curates,
bud noo he’s a-gooin’ to mak shift wi’ a odd un. A Primitive Methodist
preacher was advocating the missionary cause. Describing the heathen,
he said: Them poor creätures weds as mony wives as iver thaay’ve a mind
to, but th’Testament says as clear as daayleet, we’re nobbut to hev a
odd un a-peäce. To _perch_ (Lan. Gmg. Pem. Dor. Som. Dev.) means to
sit, sit down, take a seat, e.g. Prithee, perch!; similarly to _pitch_,
e.g. Plaze to pitch, ma’am; and to _print_ (Cum. Wm. Yks.), e.g.
Print thi body doon e’ that chair tell ah git a bit o’ this muck off
mi hands an’ fiase; a _phrase_ (Cor.) is a habit, custom, e.g. She’s
all the time groanin’, and it’s nothin’ in the world but a nasty old
phrase she’ve took up; a _pig_ (Sc. Nhb.) or _piggy_, is a hot-water
bottle. A traveller is said to have reported that in Northumberland the
people slept with the pigs for warmth, because he had been asked if
he would have a piggy in his bed. In parts of Scotland a _pig_ means
a flower-pot. A rich Glasgow merchant once sent for a London artist
to decorate the panels in the cabins of his yacht. The artist asked
what kind of decoration was desired. The reply was: Ony thing simple,
just a pig wi’ a flower. _Plain_ (Sc. Lin. Wor. Hrf. Dor.) signifies
frank, unaffected, homely, e.g. Lady Jane is such a plain lady, she
come into my ’ouse, an’ sits down, an’ takes the childern in ’er lap
as comfortable as con be. She’s as plain as you be, Miss, every bit; a
_posy_ (Lakel. Lan. Yks.) is used of any single flower, which explains
the line: ‘He promised to buy me a garland of posies’; a _pot_ (Yks.)
is an awful chasm, almost a bottomless pit, not uncommon in certain
moorland districts, technically it is a fissure in limestone; _pot_
(Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Not. Lei.) also means earthenware. Of a man with
a squint it may be said: He skens wor nor a pot cat. To _prove_ (Nhp.
Oxf.), applied to yeast or dough, means to rise, or to set to rise.
When I complained recently that the bread was hard and dry, I received
the following letter from the baker: ‘Dear Madam, I am sorry to receive
your complaint concerning the bread; the tin bread had been overproved,
I fear, but the foreman will make an extra care, so that it shall not
occur again.’ _Purgatory_ (Der. Stf. Wor. Shr. Hrf. Glo. Oxf.) is a
receptacle for ashes beneath or in front of the grate; a _radical_
(Cum. Yks. Lan. Oxf. Brks. and se. counties) means a troublesome boy,
an impudent, idle fellow, e.g. That little chap be a proper young
radical, a wunt do nothun’ his mother tells un; _rapid_ (Lin. Nhp. Glo.
Ken. Sus. Wil. Som. Dev.) means violent, severe, applied specially to
pain; a _retinue_ (w.Yks.) is a long, tedious tale; to _serve_ is a
very common verb meaning to supply an animal with food, e.g. Ah’ll gan
an’ sarve t’pigs; a _sessions_ (n.Cy. Yks. Ken. Sus.) is a disturbance,
fuss, a great difficulty, e.g. Noo there’ll be a bonny sessions aboot
it; to _settle_ (Yks. Lan. Lin.) is to reduce, to fall in price, e.g.
Breead’s sattl’d a haup’ny; _severe_ (Som. Dev.) means sheepish,
ashamed; to _shut_ (Shr.) means to yoke horses to the implements, to
_unshut_ is to unyoke, or unharness them. This latter word occurs in
an epitaph on a tombstone in Ludlow churchyard, over the grave of one
John Abingdon, ‘who for forty years drove the Ludlow stage to London, a
trusty servant, a careful driver, and an honest man’:
His labor done, no more to town
His onward course he bends;
His team’s unshut, his whip’s laid up,
And here his journey ends.
Death locked his wheels and gave him rest,
And never more to move,
Till Christ shall call him with the blest
To heavenly realms above.
[Sidenote: _Literary Words with Dialect Meanings: Radical, Serve,
Simple, Unshut_]
_Simple_ (Ken. Sur. Sus.) means unintelligible, hard to understand, e.g.
Will you please lend mother another book? She says this one is so simple
she can’t make it out at all; _small_ (Yks. Lan.) is thin, slender, so
that a man over six feet high may be _small_; in the phrase: a small
family (Sc. n.Cy.) it means young, e.g. A small family of nine
children; a _soul_ (Yks. Glo.) is a night-flying white moth; a _stag_
(n. w. and sw. counties) is a young cock. A School Inspector who asked a
child what it was that recalled St. Peter to repentance, was completely
nonplussed when informed that it was a _stag_. To _stammer_ (Sc. n.Cy.
Nhb. Cum. Yks.) is to stagger, stumble, totter, e.g. Grandfather’s very
stammering, though ’e’s lisher [more nimble] of his feet than uncle; to
be _suited_ (Cum. Yks. Lin.) is to be pleased, e.g. Oor Bill’s just
suited noo he’s getten into th’quire wi’ a white surplice on; to
_suppose_ (Yks. Not. Lin. Rut. Lei. War. Shr. Hrf. Sus.), in the phrase
_I suppose_, is used to express certainty, e.g. I suppoäse he’s deäd for
I was at th’ funeral; _tender_ (Hmp.), used of the wind, means sharp,
biting; to _terrify_ (midl. and s. dialects) is to annoy, irritate,
worry, e.g. ’E canna get a wink a slip uv a night, ’is cough is that
terrifyin’; it can also mean to damage, destroy, e.g. Thay wapses do
terrify our plums; _thin_ (Irel. Yks. Chs. Wor.), used of wind or
weather, means cold, piercing, e.g. My word! but it’s a thin wind this
morning, it’ll go through you before it’ll go round you; a pair of
_twins_ (Shr.) is an agricultural implement for breaking the clods and
uprooting the weeds of ploughed land, e.g. Tell Jack to shet [yoke] a
couple o’ ’orses to that par o’ twins; to _upbraid_ (Nhb. Yks. Lan.
Lin.) is used in speaking of digestion, e.g. Ah nivver eeats onions bud
they upbraids mă; to _up-raise_, or _up-rise_ (Dev. Cor.) is to church a
woman, e.g. Please, Sir, can Mrs. Smith be uprose this afternoon?; to
_live upright_ (Yks. Lin. Nrf.) means to have independent means, e.g. He
lives upright, and keeps a pig; to _worship_ (Som.) is to be fond of,
e.g. Her [a cat] idn arter the pheasants, ’tis the rabbits her do
worship; _young_ (Som. Cor.) means unmarried, e.g. Are you young or
married? Of a very young bride it was said: She du look a pretty lot
better than when she was young.
[Sidenote: _Literary Words in the Dialects with Peculiar Idiomatic
Uses_]
Sometimes the simplest of English words have a peculiar idiomatic use in
the dialects, which may sound curious to our ears; for instance, with
_belong_ (Wm. Lin. Stf. Nhp. Som.) property and its possessor are
reversed, e.g. Who do belong to these here bullicks? A town boy, seeing
some geese pasturing on the wide expanse of Newby Moor, wanted to carry
off one of them, and being remonstrated with, he replied: Why! nobody
belongs to ’em! To _break_ (Nhp. Glo. Hmp. Wil. Som. Dev.) is used of
things which tear, and conversely, _tear_ is used of things which break,
e.g. Please, governess, her’s a-broke my jacket. Who’ve a-bin an’ a-tord
the winder? He wadn a-tord ’smornin’. _Few_ in many dialects is used in
speaking of liquid food, more especially of broth, e.g. Will ye hev a
few mair broth? _Just_ (Nhb. Der. Gmg. Pem.) implies nearly, almost,
e.g. She’ve a just cut her hand off, means she has narrowly missed doing
so; _partly_ (Yks. Chs. Der. Oxf. Brks. Hnt.) is similarly used, e.g.
He’s partly ten years old. It is also often used as a termination to a
sentence, much in the same way as _like_, or _in a manner of speaking_
and other phrases intended to round off the angles of a too explicit
statement, e.g. Well, ah thenk a’d a-coom if his woife ’ud a-let him,
paartly. To _want_ (Sc. Irel. and n. dialects) signifies to do or be
without, to be free from, e.g. She never knew what it was to want a
headache; to _half_ do a thing (Oxf.), used with a negative, implies an
excessive amount of energy in the performance of the action, e.g. She
didn’t half cry, means that she made a tremendous noise; _while_ (Sc.
n.midl. and e.An.) means until. A north-countryman taking a
Sunday-school class ‘down south’ surprised his hearers by saying: Now,
boys, I can’t do nothing while you are quiet. An epitaph in a Lancashire
church runs:
Here must he stay till Judgment day,
While Trumpets shirl [shrill] do Sound,
Then must he Rise in Glorious wise,
And Gloriously be Crown’d.
Another, commemorating a married pair in Lincolnshire, is as follows:
Married we were in mutual love,
And so we did remain,
Till parted by the God of love
While we do meet again.
This use of _while_ was once literary, and occurs in Shakespeare’s
Plays. The conjunctions _if_, _and_, used as present participles, form
an expression denoting hesitation, e.g. I axed that ŏŏman about the
weshin’, an’ after a good bit o’ iftin’-an’-andin’ ’er said ’er’d
come--but ’er didna seem to car’ about it (Shr.). _Neighbour_, used as a
verb, is very common in the sense of associate with, visit, go about
gossiping, e.g. I give them the time o’ day, but I don’t neighbour with
any of them.
[Sidenote: _Familiar Forms in Standard English with different Meanings
in the Dialects_]
Then there are an almost unlimited number of dialect terms which
sound like familiar forms in standard English speech, but which are in
reality words of totally different origin and meaning. _Agate_ is a
very common adverb in all the north-country dialects, meaning on the
way, afoot, astir, &c., concerning which a story is told of a farmer’s
wife giving her instructions to a new, south-country servant thus:
Thoo mun git a-gait i’ good tahm i’ t’mornin’ an’ leet t’fires. The
poor girl was seen wandering about the fields in the early morning,
and when the mistress appeared and reproached her for the unlighted
fires, she explained that she had been searching in vain for an old
gate to break up and use for kindling. A villager meeting the new
curate accosted him with: ‘Ah see you’re a-gait.’ ‘No,’ replied the
parson in an indignant tone, ‘I’m the curate.’ A _badger_ (n. and midl.
counties) is a corn dealer, or a huckster, a very old term, found in
early English Dictionaries; a _banker_ (Yks. Stf. Lin.) is a navvy, a
drain-and ditch-digger. The judge and bar were puzzled by being told
that a disreputable fellow whom the police had found asleep under a
stack was a banker. ‘A banker!’ exclaimed the judge. ‘Yes, sur, and he
is a banker, that I’ll take my Bible oath on, for I seed him mellin’
doon kids at the stathe end not ower three weeks sin’,’ replied the
witness, and an interpreter had to be found in court to explain to the
men of law that the witness had described a navvy occupied in hammering
down faggots supporting the foreshore of a river. A _banker-mason_
(Rut.) is one who works fine stone: We call them as chops stones
for walls, choppers-and-wallers. If you called a banker-mason a
chopper-and-waller, he’d look awkward [annoyed]. To _boast_ (w.Yks.)
is to dress stone with a chisel, which chisel is termed a _boaster_;
a _bounder_ (Cor.) is the holder of a tin-bound or parcel of land in
the tin-mines; a _damsel_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Yks. Lan. Chs.) is a damson
plum, e.g. Fine fresh damsels at sixpence a peck; a _dodger_ (Ken.)
is a night-cap; a _fresher_ (e.An.) is a young frog; a _humbug_ (Yks.
Lan. Chs. Der. Lin. War. Wor. Hrf. Glo. Wil. Dev.) is a particular kind
of sweetmeat, varying in different localities. A well-known vendor
of _humbugs_, familiarly called Dan, until a few years ago regularly
plied his trade on the platform of Shipley station, and was wont to
relate with pride that he had once sent a parcel of his wares to Her
Majesty Queen Victoria, by the hand of Princess Beatrice. _Love_ (Ess.)
means lather, soap-suds; an _old maid_ (Wor. Glo.) is a horse-fly; to
_peck_ (Wor. Oxf. Brks. Sus. Wil.) is to use a pickaxe. In a case of
manslaughter the witness giving evidence remarked: You see he pecked
he with a peck, and he pecked he with a peck, and if he’d pecked he
with his peck as hard as he pecked he with his peck, he would have
killed he, and not he he. _Raps_ (Chs. War. Shr.) are sports, games,
fun of any kind, e.g. It wuz rar’ raps to ’ear the ’unters shoutin’ to
the scar-crow to know which way the fox went; _shale_ (w.Yks.) denotes
a fire-lighter, made by cutting down a piece of soft deal wood into
something resembling a tree-fern. A showman proclaimed that within his
show we were to be told something worth a pound for a penny. Inside
was a man cutting shales, and all he said was: Always cut from you
and you’ll never cut yourself. To _simper_ (Irel. w.Yks. e.An.) is to
simmer, cp. ‘I symper, as lycour dothe on the fyre before it begynneth
to boyle,’ Palsgrave, 1530; a _slip_ (Irel. Pem. I.W. Dor. Som. Dev.
Cor.) is a young pig; to _steal_ (Yks.) is to put handles on pots. The
following conundrum was once very common: As Ah went ower Rummles Moor,
Ah pept dahn a nick an’ Ah seed a man steylin’ pots, an’ they wor all
his awn. Hah could that be? A _wig_ (in gen. dial. use) is a kind of
cake or bun, a _plain wig_ is a bun without currants, a _spice wig_ is
one with currants. The Lincolnshire version of the common nursery rhyme
runs as follows:
Tom, Tom, the baker’s son,
Stole a wig, and away he run;
The wig was eat, and Tom was beat,
And Tom went roaring down the street.
[Sidenote: _‘Pig’ or ‘Wig’_]
The ordinary version substitutes ‘pig’ for ‘wig’, and makes Tom’s
father a ‘piper’. It is a question for textual critics to settle,
but natural sequence of idea and detail is on the side of the
‘wig’-version being the original one; and it is easy to see how in
a literary nursery, authority would say that the most omnivorous of
small boys could not eat a periwig, and therefore the word must be
pig. This change once made, Tom’s father becomes a piper for the sake
of alliteration, rather than because there is any historical connexion
between a piper and a pig.