Transcribed from the 1873 Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer edition by David
Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
A
GLOSSARY
OF
PROVINCIAL WORDS & PHRASES
IN USE IN
SOMERSETSHIRE.
BY
WADHAM PIGOTT WILLIAMS, M.A.,
_VICAR OF BISHOP'S HULL_,
AND THE LATE
WILLIAM ARTHUR JONES, M.A., F.G.S.
WITH
AN INTRODUCTION
BY R. C. A. PRIOR, M.D.
[Picture: Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society emblem]
LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, & DYER.
TAUNTON: F. MAY, HIGH STREET.
1873.
PREFACE
It is now nearly six years ago that the Committee of the Somersetshire
Archaeological Society asked me to compile a Glossary of the Dialect or
archaic language of the County, and put into my hands a valuable
collection of words by the late Mr. Edward Norris, surgeon, of South
Petherton. I have completed this task to the best of my ability, with
the kind co-operation of our late excellent Secretary, WM. ARTHUR JONES;
and the result is before the public. We freely made use of Norris,
Jennings, Halliwell, or any other collector of words that we could find,
omitting mere peculiarities of pronunciation, and I venture to hope it
will prove that we have not overlooked much that is left of that
interesting old language, which those great innovators, the Printing
Press, the Railroad, and the Schoolmaster, are fast driving out of the
country.
WADHAM PIGOTT WILLIAMS.
Bishop's Hull, Taunton,
7th September, 1873.
INTRODUCTION.
The following paper from the pen of Dr. Prior was read at a Conversazione
of the Society at Taunton, in the winter of 1871, and as it treats the
subject from a more general point of view than is usually taken of it, we
print it with his permission as an introduction to our vocabulary:--
On the Somerset Dialects.
The two gentlemen who have undertaken to compile a glossary of the
Somerset dialect, the Rev. W. P. Williams and Mr. W. A. Jones, have done
me the honour to lend me the manuscript of their work; and the following
remarks which have occurred to me upon the perusal of it I venture to lay
before the Society, with the hope that they may be suggestive of further
enquiry.
Some years ago, while on a visit at Mr. Capel's, at Bulland Lodge, near
Wiveliscombe, I was struck with the noble countenance of an old man who
was working upon the road. Mr. Capel told me that it was not unusual to
find among the people of those hills a very refined cast of features and
extremely beautiful children, and expressed a belief that they were the
descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the country, who had been
dispossessed of their land in more fertile districts by conquerors of
coarser breed. A study of the two dialects spoken in the county (for two
there certainly are) tend, I think, to corroborate the truth of this
opinion.
It will be urged that during the many centuries that have elapsed since
the West Saxons took possession of this part of England the inhabitants
must have been so mixed up together that all distinctive marks of race
must long since have been obliterated. But that best of teachers,
experience, shows that where a conquered nation remains in greatly
superior numbers to its conqueror, and there is no artificial bar to
intermarriages, the latter, the conqueror, will surely be absorbed into
the conquered. This has been seen in our own day in Mexico, where the
Spaniards, who have occupied and ruled the country nearly four hundred
years, are rapidly approaching extinction. Nay, we find that even in a
country like Italy, where the religion, language, and manners are the
same, the original difference of races is observable in different parts
of the peninsula after many centuries that they have been living side by
side.
It seems to be a law of population that nations composed of different
stocks or types can only be fused into a homogeneous whole by the
absorption of one into the other--of the smaller into the greater, or of
the town-dwellers into the country stock. The result of this law is,
that mixed nations will tend with the progress of time to revert to their
original types, and either fall apart into petty groups and provincial
distinctions, as in Spain, or will eliminate the weaker or less numerous
race, the old or the new, as the one or the other predominates. The
political character of our English nation has changed from that which it
was in the time of the Plantagenets by discharging from it the Norman
blood; and our unceasing trouble with the Irish is a proof that we have
not yet made Englishmen of them, as perhaps we never shall. A very keen
observer, M. Erckman, in conversation with the _Times_ correspondent, of
the 21st December, 1870, made a remark upon the state of France which is
so illustrative of this position, as regards that country, that I cannot
forbear to give it in his own words. The correspondent had expressed his
fear that, if the war were prolonged, France would lapse into anarchy.
"It is not that," said M. Erckman, "which fills me with apprehension. It
is rather the gulf which I begin to fear is widening between the two
great races of France. The world is not cognisant of this; but I have
watched it with foreboding." "Define me the two types." "They shade
into each other; but I will take, as perhaps extremes, the Gascon, and
the Breton." "He proceeded," says the correspondent, "to sketch the
characteristics of the people of Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony, and to
contrast them with those of Brittany, middle, and north France, their
idiosyncrasies of race, feeling, religion, manners--their diverse
aspirations, their antagonisms. For sufficient reasons I pass over his
remarks." A still more striking case of the kind is that of Egypt, a
country that for more than 2,000 years has been subject to foreign
conquerors, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and Mamelukes, and
the annual influx of many thousand negro slaves, and where,
notwithstanding all this, the peasantry, as far as can be judged by a
careful examination of the skull, is identical with the population of the
Pharaonic period.
This, then, being assumed, that a turbid mixture of different races has a
tendency to separate after a time into its constituent elements, and
certain originally distinct types to re-appear with their characteristic
features, how does this law of population apply to Somersetshire?
It is clear from the repeated allusions to the Welsh in the laws of Ina,
King of the West Saxons, that in his kingdom the ancient inhabitants of
the country were not exterminated, but reduced to the condition of serfs.
Some appear to have been landowners; but in general they must have been
the servants of their Saxon lords, for we find the race, as in the case
of the negroes in the West Indies, to have been synonymous with the
servile class, so that a groom was called a _hors-wealh_, or horse
Welshman, and a maid-servant a _wylen_, or Welsh-woman. As long as
slavery was allowed by the law of the land--that is, during the
Anglo-Saxon period, and for two centuries at least after the
Conquest--there was probably no very intimate mixture of the two races.
The Normans, as, in comparison with the old inhabitants of the country,
they were few in number, cannot have very materially affected them. We
have, therefore, to consider what has become of them since--the Saxon
master and the Welsh slave. In the Eastern Counties the invaders seem to
have overwhelmed the natives, and destroyed or driven them further
inland. Here, in Somerset, their language continued to be spoken in the
time of Asser, the latter part of the 9th century; for he tells his
readers what Selwood and other places with Saxon names were called by the
Britons. We may infer from this mention of them that they were still
dispersed over these counties, and undoubtedly they still live in our
peasantry, and are traceable in the dialect. Now, is there any
peculiarity in this which we may seize as diagnostic of British descent?
I submit that we have in the West of Somerset and in Devonshire in the
pronunciation of the vowels; a much more trustworthy criterion than a
mere vocabulary. The British natives learnt the language that their
masters spoke, and this is nearly the same as in Wilts, Dorset,
Gloucester, Berks, and Hampshire, and seems to have formerly extended
into Kent. But they learnt it as the Spaniards learnt Latin: they picked
up the words, but pronounced them as they did their own. The accent
differs so widely in the West of Somerset and in Devonshire from that of
the counties east of them that it is extremely difficult for a native of
these latter to understand what our people are talking about, when they
are conversing with one another and unconscious of the presence of a
stranger.
The river Parret is usually considered to be the boundary of the two
dialects, and history records the reason of it. We learn from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A.D. 658, that "Cenwealh in this year fought
against the Welsh at Pen, and put them to flight as far as the Parret."
"Her Kenwealh gefeaht aet Peonnum with Wealas, and hie geflymde oth
Pedridan." Upon this passage Lappenberg in his "England under the
Anglo-Saxon kings" remarks: "The reign of Cenwealh is important on
account of the aggrandisement of Wessex. He defeated in several battles
the Britons of Dyvnaint and Cernau [Devon and Cornwall] who had
endeavoured to throw off the Saxon yoke, first at Wirtgeornesburh,
afterwards, with more important results, at Bradenford [Bradford] on the
Avon in Wiltshire, and again at Peonna [the hill of Pen in
Somersetshire], where the power of the Britons melted like snow before
the sun, and the race of Brut received an incurable wound, when he drove
them as far as the Pedrede [the Parret] in A.D. 658."
The same author in another passage says (vol. i. p. 120): "In the
south-west we meet with the powerful territory of Damnonia, the kingdom
of Arthur, which bore also the name of 'West-Wales.' Damnonia at a later
period was limited to Dyvnaint, or Devonshire, by the separation of
Cernau or Cornwall. The districts called by the Saxons those of the
Sumorsaetas, of the Thornsaetas [Dorset], and the Wiltsaetas were lost to
the kings of Dyvnaint at an early period; though _for centuries
afterwards a large British population maintained itself in those parts_
among the Saxon settlers, as well as among the Defnsaetas, long after the
Saxon conquest of Dyvnaint, who for a considerable time preserved to the
natives of that shire the appellation of the _Welsh kind_."
In corroboration of Lappenberg's opinion, one in which every antiquary
will concur, I may notice in passing that many a farm in West Somerset
retains to the present day an old name that can only be explained from
the Cornish language. Thus, "Plud farm," near Stringston, is "Clay
farm," or "Mud farm," from_ plud_, mire. In a word, the peasantry of
West Somerset are Saxonized Britons. Their ancestors submitted to the
conquering race, or left their country and emigrated to Brittany, but
were not destroyed; and in them and their kinsmen of Cornouailles in
France we see the living representatives of the ancient Britons as truly
as in Devonshire and Cornwall, in Cumberland, or Wales.
The characteristic feature of their dialect, and the remark applies of
course equally to the Devonian which is identical with it, is the sound
of the French _u_ or the German _u_ given to the _oo_ and _ou_, a sound
that only after long practice can be imitated by natives of the more
eastern counties. Thus a "roof" is a _ruf_, "through" _is thru_, and
"would" is _wud_. The county might consequently be divided into a
"Langue d'oo" and a "Langue d'u."
An initial _w_ is pronounced _oo_. "Where is Locke?" "Gone t' Ools, yer
honour." "What is he gone there for?" "Gone zootniss, yer honour." The
man was gone to Wells assizes as a witness in some case. In a
public-house row brought before the magistrates they were told that
"Oolter he com in and drug un out." ("Walter came in and dragged him
out.") _Ooll_ for "will" is simply _ooill_. An _owl doommun_ is an old
oooman. This usage seems to be in accordance with the Welsh
pronunciation of _w_ in _cwm_.
There are other peculiarities that seem to be more or less common to all
the Western Counties, and to have descended to them from that Wessex
language that is commonly called Anglo-Saxon--a language in which we have
a more extensive and varied literature than exists in any other Germanic
idiom of so early a date, itself the purest of all German idioms. It is
a mistake to suppose that it is the parent of modern English. This has
been formed upon the dialect of Mercia, that of the Midland Counties; and
it cannot be too strongly impressed upon strangers who may be inclined to
scoff at West Country expressions as inaccurate and vulgar, that before
the Norman Conquest our language was that of the Court, and but for the
seat of Government having been fixed in London might be so still; that it
was highly cultivated, while the Midland Counties contributed nothing to
literature, and the Northern were devastated with war; and that the
dialect adopted, so far from being a better, is a more corrupt one.
The peculiarities to which I allude as common to all the Southern
Counties are these: The transposition of the letter _r_ with another
consonant in the same syllable, so that _Prin_ for _Prince_ becomes
_Purn_, _fresh fursh_, _red ribbons urd urbans_--a change that certainly
is more general and more uniformly carried out in the Langue d'u district
than in the Langue d'oo, but cannot be quite exclusively appropriated by
the former.
Under the same category will fall the transposition of _s_ with _p_, as
in _waps_ for _wasp_, _curps_ for _crisp_; with _k_, as in _ax_ for
_ask_; with _l_, as in _halse_ for _hazel_.
A hard consonant at the beginning of a word is replaced with a soft one,
_f_ for _v_, as in _vire_ for _fire_; _s_ with _z_, as in _zur_ for
_sir_; _th_ with _d_, as in "What's _dee_ doing here _dis_ time o'night?"
_k_ with _g_, as in _gix_, the hollow stalk of umbelliferous plants, for
_keeks_. To be "as dry as a gix" is to be as dry as one of these
stalks--a strong appeal for a cup of cider.
Of another peculiarity which our Western district has in common with
Norway, I am uncertain whether it extends further eastward, or not; I
mean the replacing an initial _h_ with _y_, as in _yeffer_ for _heifer_,
_Yeffeld_ for _Heathfield_. One it has in common with Latin as compared
with Greek--the replacing an initial hard _th_ with _f_, as in _fatch_
for _thatch_, like L. _fores_ for [Greek text]. A singularly capricious
alteration of the vowels, so as to make long ones short, and short ones
long, is, as far as I am aware, confined to our Langue d'u district. For
instance, a _pool_-reed is called a _pull_-reed, a _bull_ a _bul_, a
_nail_ a _nal_, _paint pant_; and bills are sent in by country
tradespeople with the words so spelt. Again, a _mill_ is called a
_meel_, and a _fist_ a _feest_, _pebble_ becomes _popple_, and _Webber_
(a surname) _Wobber_. This looks like one of those dialectic
peculiarities for which there is no means of accounting.
In the selection of words for their vocabulary I trust that these
gentlemen will follow the example of Mr. Cecil Smith in his admirable
work on "The Birds of Somersetshire"--not to admit one of which he had
not positive proof that it had been shot in this county. Every one
should be taken down from the lips of a native, and such as cannot be
identified should be sternly rejected. The task that they have
undertaken is a laborious one; but there is no county in England that
affords such materials for tracing the influence of a subordinate upon a
conquering race--of a Celtic language upon one that was purely German.
I cannot conclude these remarks without adverting to a rich and hitherto
quite unexplored mine of antiquities--the names of our fields. There is
reason to believe that our country roads were traced out, and the
boundaries and names of our fields assigned to them, when these were
first reclaimed from the primeval forest, and that they are replete with
notices of ancient men and manners that deserve and will well repay our
careful study.
* * * * *
Since the above has been in type I have had the satisfaction of learning
from Mr. G. P. R. Pulman, of the Hermitage, Crewkerne, that at Axminster,
the river Axe, the ancient British and Saxon boundary line, divides the
dialect spoken to the east of it (the Dorset, to judge from a specimen of
it that he has enclosed) from the Devon. He goes on to say: "On the
opposite, the west side of the river, as at Kilmington, Whitford, and
Colyton, for instance, a very different dialect is spoken, the general
south or rather east Devon. The difference between the two within so
short a distance (for you never hear a Devonshire sound from a native
Axminster man) is very striking." That after a period of 1,200 years the
exact limit of the two races should still be distinguishable in the
accent of their descendants, is an interesting confirmation of the view
that I have taken of the origin of these dialects, and at the same time a
remarkable proof of the tenacity of old habits in a rural population; the
more so that the boundary line of the dialects does not coincide with
that of the two counties.
A GLOSSARY
OF
PROVINCIAL WORDS AND PHRASES
IN USE IN
SOMERSETSHIRE.
A, _pron._ He, ex. a did'nt zai zo did a?
A, adverbial prefix, ex. afore, anigh, athin
A, for "have"
A, participal prefix, corresponding with the Anglo-Saxon _ge_ and _y_,
ex. atwist, alost, afeard, avroze, avriz'd
Abeare _v._ bear, endure, ex. for anything that the Court of this Manor
will abeare. _Customs of Taunton Deane_
Abbey _s._ great white poplar. Abbey-lug, a branch or piece of timber
of the same (D. _Abeel_)
Abbey-lubber _s._ a lazy idle fellow, _i.e._ worthless as abbey wood
Addice, Attis _s._ an adze
Addle _s._ a fester (A S _adl_ disease)
After, along side
Agallied, _past part_, frightened
Agin _pr._ against. Auverginst, over-against, up to, in preparation
for, as Agin Milemas
Agon, _past part._ gone by. Also _adv._
Ail _s._ ailment, a disease in the hind-quarter of animals, ex.
Quarter-ail
Aine _v._ to throw stones at (A S _haenan_ to stone)
Aines, just as. Al-aines, all the same, or all one
Al-on-een, on tip toe, eager
Aller, (A S _alr_) alder tree. Allern made of alder
Amper, Hamper _s._ a pimple. Ampery, pimply
An _prep._ If
An-dog, Handog _s._ andiron
Angle-dog, or Angle-twitch _s._ a large earth-worm (A S _Angel-twicce_),
_Angle_ a fish-hook
Anpassey, Anpussey, the sign of &, _i.e. and per se_
Anty, empty
Appropo, (Fr. _Apropos_) but used as one of a small group of Norman
French words which have got into popular use
Apse, Apsen-tree, (A S _aeps_) the aspen tree
Ar-a-one, ever-a-one. Nar-a-one, never-a-one
Arry, any. N'urry, none
Asew, drained of her milk: applied to a cow at the season of calving.
From _sew_ to drain, hence _sewer_
Aslun, Aslue, Aslope, _adv._ indicate oblique movements in different
directions and levels
Asplew _adv._ extended awkwardly
Astroddle _adj._ astride
Auverlook _v._ to bewitch
Ax _v._ to waddle
Axe, (A S _ascan_) _v._ to ask, always used in Wiclif's Bible
Axen, (A S _ahse. aexse_) _s._ ashes, ex. Here maaid, teeak showl and
d'up axen
Axpeddlar _s._ dealer in ashes
Backlet _s._ the back part of the premises
Back-stick, Backsword _s._ single-stick, a favourite game in Wedmore
Backsunded _adj._ with a northern aspect
Bal-rib _s._ spare-rib
Bally-rag _v._ to use abusive language
Ban _v._ to shut out, stop, ex. I ban he from gwain there
Bane _s._ liver disease in sheep, east of the Parret; west of the river
the term Coed or Coathed is used, ex. I count they be beund
Bannin _s._ That which is used for shutting out, or stopping
Bannut _s._ Walnut
A woman, a spaunel, and a bannut tree,
The mooar you bate 'em the better they be
Barrener _s._ a cow not in calf
Barrow _s._ a child's pilch or flannel clout
Barrow-pig _s._ a gelt-pig
Barton _s._ a farm-yard, the Barn-town
Bastick _s._ basket
Bat, But, the root end of a tree after it has been thrown, also spade of
cards, the stump of a post
Batch, a sand bank, or patch of ground, or hillock, "a hill," as
Churchill-batch, Chelvey-batch, (lying within, or contiguous to, a
river); emmet-batches, ant-hills. Duck-batches, land trodden by cattle
in wet weather
Bats _s._ corners of ploughed fields: low-laced boots
Bawker: Bawker-stone _s._ a stone for whetting scythes
Be, indic. ex. I be, thou bist, he be
Bear-hond _v._ to help
Bear-nan, Bear-in-hond, Bean-hond _v._ to intend, purpose, think,
suspect, conjecture, ex. I do beanhond et'l rain zoon
Beat the streets, to run about idly
Beeastle, Beezle _v._ to make nasty
Bee-bird _s._ the White-throat
Bee-but, Bee-lippen, a bee-hive (_lepe_, a basket, Wiclif Acts ix, 25)
Beetel, Bittle, or Bitle _s._ a bron-bitle, or brand-bitle, a heavy
mallet for cleaving wood. Shaks. Hen. IV. "fillip me with a three man
beetle." Bitle-head _s._ a blockhead
Becal _v._ to abuse, to rail at
Bedfly _s._ a flea
Bed-lier _s._ a bed-ridden person
Beever _s._ a hedge-side encumbered with brambles
Begaur, Begaurz, Begumm, Begummers, words of asseveration and exclamation
Begrumpled _adj._ soured, displeased
Begurg _v._ begrudge
Behither _adv._ on this side
Belge, or Belve _v._ to bellow
Belk, or Bulk, _v._ to belch
Bell flower, Bell-rose, a Daffodil
Belsh _v._ to clean the tails of sheep
Benet, Bents _s._ Bennetty _adj._ long coarse grass, and plantain
stalks
Benge _v._ to continue tippling, to booze
Benns, or Bends, ridges of grass lands
Bepity _v.a._ to pity
Beskummer _v._ to besmear, abuse, reproach
Bethink _v._ to grudge, ex. He bethink'd I but everything
Betwattled _v.n._ to be in a distressed state of mind, also _v.a._
Betwit, to rake up old grievances
Bevorne, before
Bibble _v._ to tipple. Bibbler _s._
Biddy _s._ a chick. Chick-a-Biddy, a term of endearment
Biddy's eyes _s._ pansy
Bide _v._ to live or lodge in. Bidin _s._ a place where a man lives
Big, Beg, Begotty _adj._ grand, consequential, ex. Too big for his
birches
Billid _adj._ distracted, mad
Billy _s._ a bundle of straw, or reed, one-third part of a sheaf
Bim-boms _s._ anything hanging as a bell, icicles, or tags of a woman's
bonnet, or dress
Bin, Bin'swhy _conj._ because, seeing that, prob. "being," provided that
Binnic, or Bannisticle _s._ stickle-back
Bird-battin _v._ taking birds at night with a net attached to two poles.
Shaks. bat-fowling
Bird's-meat, Bird's-pears _s._ hips and haws
Bisgee, (g hard), (Fr. _besaigue_. Lat _bis-acuta_) _s._ a mooting or
rooting axe, sharp at both ends and cutting different ways
Bis't _v._ Art thou? (Germ. _bist du_)
Bit _s._ the lower end of a poker _v._ to put a new end to a poker
Bivver _v._ to shake or tremble, ex. They'll make he bivver, (A S
_bifian_, to tremble)
Blackhead _s._ a boil, a pinswil
Black-pot _s._ black-pudding
Blacky-moor's-beauty _s._ Sweet scabious
Blake _v._ to faint (A S _blaecan_, to grow pale)
Blanker, Vlanker, Flanker _s._ a spark of fire
Blanscue _s._ an unforeseen accident
Blather _s._ Bladder _v._ to talk in a windy manner, to vapour
Bleachy _adj._ brackish
Blicant _adj._ bright, shining (A S _blican_, to shine)
Blid _s._ applied in compassion, as poor old blid--blade
Blowth _s._ bloom, blossom, ex. A good blowth on the apple trees
Blunt _s._ a storm of snow or rain, snow-blunt
Boarden _adj._ made of board
Bobsnarl _s._ a tangle as of a skein of twine
Booc _s._ a wash of clothes, (A S _buc_ water vessel)
Bodkins _s._ swingle-bars. Weys and Bodkins, portions of plough-harness
Body-horse _s._ the second horse in a team, that which draws from the
end of the shafts
Boming _adj._ hanging down, like a woman's long hair
Boneshave _s._ hip-rheumatism
Bore, the tidal wave in the river Parrett
Borrid _adj._ applied to a sow when seeking the boar
Bos, Bus _s._ a yearling calf, a milk sop (Lat. _bos_)
Bottle _s._ a bubble, a small cask for cider _v._ to bubble
Boughten _past part._ of to buy
Bow _s._ a culvert, arched bridge, arch, as Castle-bow, Taunton
Bowerly _adj._ portly, tall, well-made, quy. _buirdly_
Bowsin _s._ fore part of a cattle stall
Brandis _s._ an iron frame to support a pan or kettle over a hearth-fire
(A S _brand-isen_)
Brash _s._ a row, tumult, crash (A S _brastl_ a noise)
Brave _adj._ in good health
Brazed _past part._ cramped with cold
Br'd, or Bard, Breaze _v._ to bruize, to indent, as on an apple
Breath _s._ a scent, a smell
Breeze _v._ to braize or solder a kettle
Brickle, Burtle _adj._ brittle
Brineded _adj._ brindled
Bring-gwain _v._ to get rid of, to spend, to accompany a person some way
on a journey, bring-going
Brit, Burt, to leave a dent or impression
Brize, Prize _v.a._ to press down
Broom-squires _s._ Quantock broom-makers
Brock _s._ a piece of turf for fuel (Du. _brocke_, a morass)
Broller, Brawler _s._ a bundle of straw
Brow-square, an infant's head cloth
Bruckley, Brode _adj._ as applied to stock given to break fence, to
cheese that breaks into fragments
Brummle, Brimmel (A S _brimel_) _s._ bramble
Bucked _adj._ having a strong hircine taste, applied to cheese
Buckle _v.n._ to bend, to warp
Buckle _s._ a dispute _v._ to quarrel.
Buddle _v._ to suffocate in mud
Bug _s._ beetle, as water-bug, may-bug, cockchafer
Bullen _s._ large black sloes; bullace-plum
Bullworks, Bullocking _adj._ rude, romping
Bumtowel _s._ long-tailed tit
Bungee, (g hard), _adj._ short and squat
Burcott _s._ a load
Burge _s._ bridge
Burr _s._ a sweet-bread
Bursh _s._ brush
Busket _s._ a bush or brake
But _s._ a basket for catching salmon; also a bee-hive. But, for Put, a
heavy cart
Butter and Eggs _s._ toad-flax, _linaria vulgaris_
Button stockings _s._ gaiters
Butty _s._ a partner
Buzzies _s._ flies
Byes _s._ furrows
By-now, a short time ago
Caddle _s._ bustle, ex. We'rn jussy caddle to-day
Cadock _s._ a bludgeon, a short thick club
Cag _v._ to annoy, vex
Cag _v._ to irritate
Callenge _s._ and _v.a._ challenge
Cal-home, or Cal-over _v._ to publish or call the banns of marriage for
the last time
Callyvan' or Carryvan, also Clevant and Vant, a pyramidal trap for
catching birds, quy. _colly fang_, (A S _fangen_, to take)
Cannel, Cannal _s._ the faucet of a barrel--tap-and-canal
Car _v._ to carry, ex. Cassn't car'n?
Carry-merry _s._ a kind of sledge used in conveying goods
Carvy-seeds _s._ carraway seeds, (_carvi sem_:)
Cauk _v._ to turn down the ends of shoes for a horse to stand on ice
Caxon _s._ a sorry wig
Chaccle _v._ to caccle as a hen
Chaity _adj._ careful, nice, delicate
Chaine _s._ a weaver's warp
'Ch'am, (A S _ic eom_: Germ. _Ich bin_) I am. 'Ch'ave, I have. 'Ch'ad,
I had. 'Ch'ool, I would. Uch'll go, I will go. "Chill not let go, zir,
without vurther 'casion." Shaks. Lear, iv, 6. This form occurs chiefly
in the neighbourhood of Merriott.
Cham _v._ To chew
Charm _s._ confused noise as of birds
Cheaymer, Chimmer _s._ a bed-room
Cheese-stean _s._ a wring or press for cheese
Chibbole _s._ (Sp. _cepolla_, Fr. _ciboule_) a young onion, before the
bulb is fully formed
Chilbladder _s._ a chilblain
Chilver, (A S _cilfer-lamb_), an ewe lamb. Pur, the male lamb
Chilver-hog and Pur-hog, sheep under one year old
Chine _s._ that part of a cask which is formed by the projection of the
staves beyond the head. Chine-hoops top-hoops
Chissom, Chism _v._ to bud, to shoot out; also, _s._ a bud
Chowr _v._ to grumble, to mutter (A S _ceorian_, to murmur)
Clam _v._ to handle in a slovenly manner
Clamper _s._ a difficulty, ex. I zined once and a got meself in jissey
clamper I never w'ont zine nothing no more
Claps _v._ clasp
Clathers _s._ clothes or rags
Clavy, a shelf. Clavel-tack, a mantel-piece, a place where keys
(_claves_) are kept, a shelf for keys. Holmen-clavel, an inn on Blagdon
hill, so called from having a large _holm-beam_ supporting the
mantel-piece
Cleve-pink, or Cliff-pink, a species of pink growing wild in the Cheddar
cliffs, _dianthus deltoides_
Clim, Climmer, Climber _v._ to climb. Clammer _s._ a worn footpath up
a steep bank
Clinkers _s._ hoof marks. Clinker-bells, icicles
Clint, or Clent _v._ to clench
Clit _v._ Clitty _adj._ applied to bread not properly kneaded
Clittersome _adj._ troublesome
Clivver-and-shiver _adv._ completely, totally
Clize, Clice _s._ a swinging door, or valve of a dike or rhine, (A S
_clysing_)
Cloam, Cloamen, coarse earthen ware
Clothen _adj._ made of cloth
Clotting, Clatting _s._ fishing for eels with a knot or clot of worms,
which is also called reballing
Clout _s._ and _v._ a blow in the face or head, to beat about the head
Clumber _s._ a clump, or large piece
Cly, Cliver, Clider, or Clidden _s._ goose-grass
Coathe, or Coe _v.a._ to bane, applied to sheep, rabbits, and hares
Cock-and-mwile _s._ a jail
Cock-lawt, Cock-lart _s._ a garret or cock-loft
Cock-squailing _s._ an old Shrove Tuesday sport--(in Somerset, Shaff
Tuesday), flinging sticks at a cock tied by the leg, one penny per throw,
whoever kills him takes him away
Cob-wall _s._ made of mud and straw, mud-and-stud, or wattle-and-dab
College _s._ an assemblage of small tenements, having a common entrance
from the street, and only one
Colley blackbird; Water-colley water-ouzel; Mountain-colley ring-ouzel
Colt a person entering on a new employment; Colting, Colt-ale a fine on
entering; footing; also, a thrashing
Comb-broach _s._ tooth of a wool-combe, a spit, knitting-needle (Fr.
_broche_)
Commandement _s._ (Four syllables as in Chaucer and Wiclif), command
Conk, or Skonk _s._ a collection of people (Lat. _concio_)
Connifle _v._ to embezzle, to sponge
Cop-bone _s._ knee-pan, patella
Count _v._ to think, to esteem
Couples, Cooples _s._ an ewe with her lambs; Double-couples _s._ an ewe
with twins
Coy _v._ to decoy; Cway Pool _s._ a decoy
Cowerd Milk _s._ milk not skimmed
Cow-babby _s._ a great childish fellow
Crab-lantern _s._ a cross froward child
Crap a bunch or cluster (Fr. _grappe_)
Crap, Crappy _v._ to snap, to crack
Craze _v.a._ to crack
Crease _s._ crest of a horse's neck, a crestaline of a roof
Creem _s._ and _v._ a cold shivering, to shiver; to creemy _adj._
subject to shivers
Creem _v._ to crush or squeeze severely the limbs of a person
Crewel _s._ a cowslip
Creeze _adj._ squeamish, dainty
Crip _v._ to clip--as the hair
Cripner, Kr'pner _s._ crupper strap
Crips, or Curps _adj._ crisp
Criss-cross-lain the alphabet, because in the Horn-book it was preceded
by a X (Fr. _croissette_)
Crope _pret. of creep_ crept, ex. A craup'd in
Cross-axe _s._ an axe with two broad and sharp ends, one cutting
breadth-wise, the other length-wise, called also grub-axe and twibill
Crowdy, Crowdy-kit (Celtic _crwth_) _s._ small fiddle; to crowd _v._ to
grate as the two ends of a broken bone, to make a flat creaking; Crowder
_s._ a fiddler (W. _crwthwr_)
Crown _v._ Crowner's quest _s._ Coroner's Inquest. To be crowned, to
have an inquest held over a dead body by the direction of the coroner
Crub, Croost _s._ a crust of bread
Cruel _adv._ intensive, as cruel-kind, very kind
Cry _s._ to challenge, bar, or object to
Cubby-hole _s._ a snug comfortable situation for a child, such as
between a person's knees when sitting before the fire
Cuckold _s._ the plant Burdock; cuckold-buttons, the burs, (A S
_coccel_, darnel, tares)
Cue _s._ the shoe on an ox's hoof, or tip on a man's boot
Curdle _v.a._ to curl, also, _v.n._; Curdles _s._ curls
Cut _s._ a door hatch
Curse _s._ cress
Cuss _v._ to curse; Cussin Sarvice the Commination
Custin _s._ a kind of small wild plum
Cutty _adj._ small, as cutty-pipe, cutty-wren; Cutty-bye, a cradle, a
hob-gobblin
Daddick _s._ rotten-wood; Daddicky _adj._ perished like rotten-wood,
applied metaphorically to the old and feeble
Dag-end _s._ applied to a sheaf of reed
Daggers _s._ sword-grass, a kind of sedge
Dame _s._ never applied to the upper ranks of society, nor to the very
lowest, but to such as farmer's wives, or the schoolmistress: rarely if
ever applied to a young woman
Dandy _adj._ distracted
Dap _v._ to hop as a ball
Dap _s._ the hop, or turn of a ball; also habits and peculiarities of a
person, ex. I know all the daps on'm
Dor, Dare _v._ and _s._ to frighten, stupify: ex. Put a dor on'n
Dare-up _v._ to wake or rouse up a person that is dying or asleep
Dave _v._ to thaw
Davver, or Daver _v._ to fade, to droop; Davered drooping
Dawzin _s._ a conjuring device to discover minerals by the twisting of a
hazel-rod
Devil-screech, Devil-swift, or Devilling _s._ the Swift
Devil's Cow _s._ a kind of beetle
Dew-bit _s._ an early morsel before breakfast
Diddlecum _adj._ distracted, mad
Diff _adj._ deaf
Dilly _adj._ cranky, queer
Dir'd _s._ thread, ex. Whaur's my d'r'd and niddel?
Dish-wash, or Dippity-washty _s._ a water-wagtail
Dirsh, Drush, or Drasher _s._ a thrush
Dirt _s._ earth generally, as mould in a garden
Dirten _adj._ miry, dirty, or made of dirt
Dock _s._ the crupper of a saddle
Dockery-stick _s._ phosphorescent wood
Donnins _s._ dress, clothes
Double-spronged when potatoes lying in the ground throw out fresh tubers
Dough-fig _s._ a Turkey-fig
Douse, or Touse _s._ a smart blow, particularly on the face, ex. A douse
on the chaps
Down-arg _v._ to contradict, ex. He 'ood downarg I
Down-daggered _adj._ disconsolate, cast-down
Draen, Drean _v._ to drawl (Fr. _trainer_)
Draffit _s._ a tub for pigs'-wash (_draught-vat_)
Drail _s._ the piece of leather connecting the flail with its handle
Drang _s._ a narrow path or lane
Drang-way a drove or gate-way
Drapper _s._ a small tub
Drash _v._ to thrash; Drashel, or Thrashle _s._ a flail (A S
_therscel_)
Drashold, or Dreshol _s._ a threshold
Drawl, Drail _s._ the forepart of the sull of a plough; in West
Somerset, weng (A S _wang_ or _weng_ a cheek)
Drift _s._ a lask, or looseness
Drimmeling _adj._ slow, continuous pain
Dring _v._ (_pret._ Drang) to throng, crowd, _s._ Dringet, a crowd
(Dutch, _dringen_, to press)
Drink _s._ small beer, or cider
Droot _v._ to drivel
Dro _v._ (_part._ Dro'd) to throw, ex. The tree wur dro'd
Drow, or Drowy _v._ to dry, ex. It do drowy terble now, as applied to
grass; Muck-adrowd, or Muck-adrowy _s._ dust
Drub, Drubby _v._ to throb
Druck _v._ to cram or thrust down
Druck-pieces _s._ pieces of wood let into a wall to support the pipe of
a pump
Drug _v._ to drag, also _pret._ of drag; ex. He drug un out of the pond;
Drugs _s._ harrows or drags
Dub, Dubby, Dubbid _adj._ blunt, squat
Dubbin _s._ suet or fat for greasing leather
Duck _v._ to carry a person under the arms in a suspended state
Dudder _v._ to confound with noise
Duds _s._ foul linen
Dumbledore, Dumbledory _s._ a humble bee, stupid fellow
Dummic, Dunnic _s._ a hedge-sparrow
Dumps _s._ the twilight, ex. Dumps of the yavening; Dumpsy towards
twilight
Dunch _adj._ deaf
Dunder-daisy _s._ large field daisy
Dungmixen _s._ a dung-heap
Durgin (g hard) _s._ a great stupid fellow
Durns _s._ side-posts of a door, (? _doorings_)
Ear-burs _s._ a swelling behind the ear
Ear-grass, or Hay-grass _s._ grass after mowing, from A S _erian_, to
till; the grass of tilled land
Ear-keckers _s._ the tonsils of the throat
Eave, Heave _v.n._ to give out moisture, as flagstones in wet weather
E'en-to, Ee'nsto _adv._ up to, all but, ex. There were ten e'ensto one
or two
Element _s._ the sky, used in this sense by Shakespeare in Twelfth-night
Elem'n, or Elm'n _adj._ made of elm
Eldern _adj._ made of the elder
Elt-pig _s._ a young sow
Elver, Eelver, or Yelver _s._ the young eel
Emmers _s._ pl. embers
Emp, or Empt _v._ to empty
En, or Un _pron._ Him, ex. A zid'n: he saw him (A S _hine_)
Er _pron._ He, ex. Er ziden: he saw him
Errish, Arrish, or Herrish _s._ stubble
Evet _s._ eft, or newt
Ex _s._ an axle
Eye _s._ the cavity beneath the arch of a bridge
Fadge _v._ to fare, to be in good condition. "How will this fadge?"
Shaks. Twelfth-night
Fags _interj._ truly! indeed!
Fairy, Fare, Vare _s._ a weasel (old Fr. _vair_, ermine)
False _adj._ forsworn, perjured
Falsing _adj._ coaxing
Fardel _s._ a small bundle, Shaks. Hamlet
Faut (faat) _v._ to find fault
Fauty (faaty) _adj._ given to find fault
Fauth, Foth, Voth _s._ the turning place of the plough at the side of a
field
Featy _adj._ pretty, neat
Feaze _v._ to harass, or ferret
Feaver-largin (g hard), _s._ a fit of indolence
Fell _v._ to sew down a hem
Fend _v._ to forbid (Fr. _defendre_)
Fess _adj._ gay, smart, ex. A fess fellow
Few, Veo _adj._ little, as a few broth
Fie _s._ to succeed, ex. Che-ating pl'y'll never fie
Fig _s._ raisin: figgety-pudden, figgy-cake, rich with raisins
Fildefare, Veelvare _s._ a fieldfare: varewell veelvare, farewell winter
Filtry _s._ rubbish
Fitch, Fitchet _s._ a pole cat, ex. As cross as a fitchet
Fitten _s._ an idle fancy, whim
Flap-jack _s._ small pancake, fritter
Flanker, Vlanker _s._ a spark of fire
Flannin, Vlannen _s._ a flannel
Fleet _s._ the windward side of a hedge
Fleet _v._ to float
Flick _s._ the inside fat of animals; also flitch of bacon
Flittermouse _s._ a bat (Ger. _Fledermaus_)
Flook _s._ a flounder; also a parasite in the liver of sheep
Flush _adj._ fledged, in full feather _adv._ even with
Foase _v._ to wheedle, to deceive _adj._ false
Fob _s._ froth, slaver _v._ to put off with a pretence
Fog _s._ old, withered or spoilt grass
Fog-earth _s._ bog-earth, peat
Foggy _adj._ fat, corpulent
Fooase, or Vooase _v._ to force, to oblige
Footer _s._ a worthless shabby fellow _adj._ footy
Fore-spur, or Vore-spur _s._ the fore-leg of pork
Fore-right, Vore-right _adj._ rash, head-long, head-strong
Forrel _s._ the cover of a book, the selvage of a handkerchief
Forware, or Verware _v._ to indemnify
Forweend _adj._ hard to please, wayward, spoilt in nursing
Frame _v._ to form, fashion the speech, ex. If I wur axed I could'nt
frame to spake it so
Frange _s._ fringe (Fr. _frange_)
Free-bore _adj._ free, free-born
French-nut _s._ walnut
Fret _v._ to eat, as the lower animals (G _fressen_, A S _fretan_, as
opposed to G _essen_, A S _etan_, applied to man): ex. The moth fretteth
the garment; a use of the word retained in the West, and usually applied
to the browsing of cattle
Furcum, or Vurcum _s._ the whole, even to the bottom
Furr, or Vurr _v._ to cast a stone far
Fump _s._ the whole of a business
Fuz, Fuzzen, Furze _s._ gorse, prov.
When fuz is out o' blossom
Kissing's out o' fashin
Fuz-pig _s._ hedge hog
Gad _s._ a fagot-stick; Spar-gad a twisted stick picked at both ends to
spar (Ger. _sperren_) or fasten down thatch. Near Bath, spick-gad
Gain _adj._ handy; Gainer more handy
Gale _s._ an old bull castrated
Gall _s._ a wet place, abounding in springs
Gally, Gallow _v._ to frighten; Gallied frightened Shak. K. Lear, iii,
2, "Skies gallow the wanderer"
Gally-baggur _s._ bug-bear, a trace of the time when gallows were a more
common sight
Gamble _s._ a leg, (Ital. _gamba_)
Gambril _s._ a crooked stick used by butchers to suspend a carcase
Gammets, Gamoting _s._ whims, tricks, pranks
Ganny-cock _s._ a turkey-cock
Ganny-cock's nob _s._ the appendage to a turkey-cock's beak
Gapes-nest _s._ an idle spectacle
Gare _s._ gear; Ire-gare _s._ plough-gear, iron-work
Garn, or Gearn, Gearden _s._ a garden
Gatchel _s._ the mouth
Gate-shord, or sheard _s._ a gate-way, a place for a gate
Gatfer _s._ an old man (good father)
G'auf to go off; G'auver to go over; G'in to go in; G'on to go on;
G'out to go out; Go'vorn go before him or them; G'under to go under;
G'up to go up: ex. Thear I wur', d' knaw, carnared (in a corner); coud'n
g'auver, g'under, g'in, nor g'out
Gawcum, Gawcumin _s._ a simpleton, a gawkey
Gee-wi' (g soft), _v._ to agree; Gee (g hard), to give, ex. To gee
out--to thaw
Gib, or Gibby (g hard), _s._ a pet lamb
Gibby-heels (g hard), _s._ kibed-heels
Giffin (g hard), _s._ a trifle, a small portion of time
Gilawfer, Gillifer, Gilliflower (g soft), stocks; Whitsun Gilawfer,
carnation, also the wallflower
Giltin-cup (g hard), _s._ butter-cup
Gimmace (g hard), _s._ a hinge
Gimmaces (g hard) _s._ a criminal is said to be hung in gimmaces, when
he is hung in chains
Glare _v._ to glaze earthenware. Also _s._ ex. The roads are all a
glare of ice
Glassen _adj._ made of glass
Glou, Glouie _v._ to stare
Glou-beason _s._ a glow-worm, a bold impudent fellow
Glutch, Glutchy _v._ to swallow _s._ the act of swallowing, Glutcher
_s._ the throat
Gold _s._ sweet willow; _Myrica gale_, abundant in the moors of
Somerset, in the herbalists called _Gaule_
Go-lie _v._ spoken of corn falling after rain; applied to wind, to
subside
Gool-french a gold-finch, a proud tailor
Gollop _s._ a large morsel
Gommer _s._ an old woman (good mother)
Good-hussy _s._ a thread-case
Goody _v._ to appear good, to prosper
Goose-cap _s._ a giddy, silly person
Goose-herd, or Goosier _s._ one who breeds or looks after geese
Gore-in, Gore-with _v._ to believe in, to trust
Gossips _s._ sponsors; Gossiping the festivities of the christening
Gout _s._ a drain, a gutter
Gowder _s._ a higgler of fruit
Grainded, Grainted _adj._ ingrained, dirty
Granfer, Grammer _s._ grandfather, grandmother
Granfer griggles _s._ wild orchis
Gribble _s._ a young apple tree raised from seed
Grig _v._ and _s._ to pinch, a pinch
Griddle, Girdle _s._ a gridiron
Gripe, or Grip _s._ a small drain or ditch _v._ to cut into gripes
Grizzle _v._ to laugh or grin
Gronin _s._ labour, childbirth; Gronin-chair nursing chair; Gronin-malt
provision for the event
Ground _s._ a field, a piece of land enclosed for agricultural purposes
Grozens, Groves _s._ duck-weed
Gruff, Gruff-hole _s._ a trench or groove excavated for ore
Gruffer, Gruffler _s._ a miner, one who works in a gruff or groove
Gumpy _adj._ abounding in protuberances
Gurds _s._ eructations; Fits and Gurds fits and starts
Gurl, or Gurdle _v._ to growl
Gush _v._ to put the blood in quicker motion by fright or surprise, ex.
A' gied I sich a gush
Guss _v._ and _s._ to gird, a girth
Gurt _adj._ great
Hack _s._ the place where bricks newly-made are arranged to dry
Hack, Hacket, Hick, Heck _v._ to hop on one leg, to play hackety oyster,
hopscotch, or hack-shell
Hacker _v._ to chatter with the cold, to stammer
Hackle _s._ a good job
Hag-mal _s._ a slattern, a titmouse
Hag-rided _adj._ subject to night-mare
Hag-ropes traveller's joy, wild clematis (A S _Hage_, a hedge)
Hain _v._ to let up grass for mowing
Halfen-deal _s._ moiety _adj._ composed of different materials
Half-strain _adj._ mongrel, half-witted
Halipalmer _s._ the palmer-worm, (holy-palmer)
Hallantide _s._ All Saints' Day, (hallow-een-tide)
Halse _s._ hazel; halse coppice
Halsen, Hawseny, Noseny, Osney _v._ to divine, predict, forebode (A S
_halsen_, from the hazel divining rod)
Halve, or Helve _v._ to turn over, to turn upside down
Ham _s._ an open field, usually near a river: on Mendip, old calamine
pits
Hame _v._ "rem habere" (A S _haeman_)
Hames, Heamsies _s._ parts of harness
Hang-fair, Hanging-vayer _s._ an execution
Hanch _v._ to gore as a bull
Hangles, (a pair of hangles) _s._ a pot or kettle-rack suspended over
the fire
Hank _s._ dealings with
Happer _v._ to crackle, rattle like hail
Hard _adj._ full grown, as hard stock, or sheep; a Hardboy a boy of
about 13 years old
Harr _s._ the part of a gate which holds the hinges, ex. Heads and harrs
Hart _s._ haft, or handle as of knives, awls
Hat, or Het _pret._ of _v._ to hit
Hathe _s._ to be in hathe, _i.e._, to be thickly covered with pustules,
to be closely matted together
Haydigees, (g hard and soft) _s._ high spirits
Hay-sucker _s._ the white-throat
Hayty-tayty seesaw, also _interj._ what's here!
Hay-ward _s._ pound-keeper, a keeper of hedges or hays (A S
_haeig-weard_)
Hedge-bore _s._ a rough workman
Heel, Hell _v._ to pour out or in, hence Heel-taps
Heel _v._ to hide, to cover (A S _helan_)
Heeler _s._ one who hides or covers. Proverb: The heeler is as bad as
the stealer
Heft _s._ and _v._ weight, to lift up, from _v._ to heave
Hegler, or Higler _s._ an egg or fowl collector and dealer
Hellier _s._ a tiler, one who covers
Hel'm _s._ haulm of wheat, beans, peas, potatoes (A S _healm_)
Hem _pron._ he or him, ex. If hem had hat hem as hem hat hem, hem 'oud a
kill'd hem or hem 'oud a kill'd hem
Hen _v._ to throw, see Aine
Hen-hussey _s._ a meddling officious person, a woman who looks after
poultry
Hent, or Hint _v._ to wither or dry up
Hern, His'n _pron._ her's, his
Herret _s._ a pitiful little wretch
Hevel-twine _s._ a fine sort of twine
Hike off _v._ to steal away slily, to skulk off
Hirddick, Ruddick _s._ robin, ruddock
Hird-in, Hird-out _v._ to remove one's goods. Transp. for rid
Hirn, Hurn, Hirnd _v._ _pret._ and _part._ to run (A S _yrnan_)
Hive, or Heave _v._ to urge in vomiting
Hizy-prizy _s._ Nisi-prius
Hoak _v._ to goar as an ox
Hob _v._ to laugh loudly _s._ a clown
Hob _s._ a cheek of a grate
Hod _s._ a sheath, a cover
Hoddy _adj._ hearty
Hog, Hogget _s._ a sheep or horse one-year old
Hogo _s._ strong savour or smell (Fr. _haut gout_)
Holders _s._ fangs of a dog
Holmen _adj._ made of holm or holly, as Holmen Clavel a holly mantle
piece
Holme-screech _s._ the missel-thrush, from its eating the berries of the
holly or holme tree
Homany _s._ a noise, disturbance
Home-to _adv._ up to
Honey-suck _s._ red clover
Hoop _s._ a bullfinch, ex. Cock-hoop, hen-hoop
Hoppet _v._ to hop
Hornen, Harnin _adj._ made of horn
Horse-godmother _s._ a masculine woman
Houzen _s._ houses
Hove _v._ and _s._ to hoe, ex. To hove banes, hove turmits with an auld
hove
How _v._ to long for
Huck-muck _s._ strainer over the faucet
Hud _s._ as of gooseberry, the skin, hull, husk
Huf-cap _s._ a weed commonly found in fields
Hug _s._ the itch
Hulden _v._ to conceal, harbour
Hulley, or Holley _s._ a basket-trap for eels
Hull _v._ to hurl
Hum-drum _s._ a three-wheeled cart
Humacks _s._ wild-briar stocks on which to graff roses
Ich (soft), _pron._ I 'Cham I am; 'Ch'ool I will; 'Ch'ood I would,
&c.
Idleton _s._ an idle fellow
Infaring _adj._ lying within, as an infaring tithing, _i.e._, a tithing
within a borough
Insense _v._ to inform
Ire _s._ iron, "ire or mire" said of stiff clay soil
Ire-gaer _s._ iron work or gear
Ize _pr._ I, ex. Ize warrant you wunt
Jib _s._ the wooden stand for a barrel
Jigger _s._ a vessel of potter's ware used in toasting cheese
Jitch, Jitchy, Jissy _adj._ such, ex. Jitch placen, such places
Joan-in-the-wad _s._ will-of-the-wisp
Jonnick _adv._ fair, straight-forward
Jot _v._ to disturb in writing, to strike the elbow
Junket _s._ curds and cream with spices and sugar, &c., from Ital.
_giuncata_, cased in rushes; from _giunco_, a rush; a name given in Italy
to a kind of cream-cheese
Kamics, Kramics _s._ rest-harrow
Keamy _adj._ covered with a thin white mould; applied to cider
Kecker, Kyecker-pipe, Kyecker, Kyeck-horn, the wind-pipe, a pervious
pipe, from _kike_ to look through
Keeve, or Kive _s._ a large tub used in brewing or cider making _v._ to
put the wort or cider in a keeve to ferment
Keep _s._ a large basket
Keffel _s._ a bad, worn-out horse (Welsh, _Keffyl_)
Kern _v._ to coagulate as milk; also applied to fruit and wheat becoming
visible after the blossoming
Kex, Kexy _s._ dry, pervious stalks, as of cow-parsley and hemlock
Kexies, see Kecker
Kid _s._ a pod To Kiddy _v._ ex. They do kiddy, but they don't villy
Kilter _s._ money
Kircher _s._ caul, used by butchers
Kittle, or Kettle-Smock _s._ a carter's frock
Knap _s._ a rising ground
Knee-sick _adj._ applied to corn when the stalk is not strong enough to
bear the ear
Knottle _v._ to entangle with knots
Knottlins _s._ the intestines of a pig prepared for food
Knot _s._ flower-bed
Knot-Sheep _s._ sheep without horns
Kowetop _s._ the barm which rises above the rim of the tub
Kurpy, Kerp _v._ to speak affectedly; scold (Lat. _increpare_)
Labber _v._ to loll out the tongue
Lades, or Ladeshrides _s._ the sides of a waggon which project over the
wheels
Ladies-smock _s._ bindweed _Convolvulus sepium_, _Cardamine pratensis_
Lady-Cow _s._ lady-bird _Coccinella septempunctata_,
Laiter _s._ the whole number of eggs laid by a hen before she becomes
broody, ex. She 've laaid out her laiter
Lamiger _s._ lame, a cripple
Lar _s._ bar of a gate
Larks-lees, Leers _v._ neglected lands
Lart, Lawt _s._ a loft, as cock-lart, hay-lart, apple-lart
Lary, Leary, Lear _adj._ empty, thin _s._ flank; Lear-quills, small
quills
Las-chargeable _interj._ be quiet! _i.e._, he who last speaks or strikes
in contention is most to blame
Lat, or Lart _s._ a lath, ex. Lartin nails
Lat _s._ shelf
Latitat _s._ a noise or scolding
Lattin-sheet _s._ iron-tinned; also as _adj._ made of tin, as a Lattin
Saucepan
Lave _v._ to throw water from one place to another; to gutter, as a
candle
Lay-field _s._ a piece laid down to grass
Lea, Leaze, Leers _s._ an open pasture field
Leapy, Lippary _s._ wet, rainy weather
Learn, Larn _v._ to teach, ex. Who larned 'e thay tricks
Leathern-bird, Leather-wing _s._ the bat
Ledge _v._ lay hands on; to lay eggs
Lent-lilies _s._ daffodils
Lescious ex. She is lescious of a place, _i,e._, knows of it and thinks
it may suit
Levers _s._ a species of rush or sedge
Levvy _s._ a level (Fr. _levee_)
Lew, Lewth, Lewthy shelter, sheltered, lee-side
Libbets _s._ tatters; _little-bits_
Lidden _s._ a story, a song (Ger. _lied_)
Lief, Leaf _v._ leave; ex. I would as lief
Ligget _s._ a rag
Lijon _s._ the main beam of a ceiling
Lip, or Lippen _s._ applied to certain vessels, as Ley-lip, Seed-lip,
Bee-lippen bee-hive (Wiclif's Test.: Leten hym doun in a _lepe_ be the
wall Acts ix. 25)
Limmers, Limbers _s._ the shafts of a waggon or cart
Linch _v._ a ledge, hence "linch-pin" (A S _hlinc_)
Linney, Linhay _s._ an open shed
Lirp _v._ to limp
Lirripy _adj._ slouching
Lissom _a._ lithesome, active, supple
Lissum, or Lism _s._ a narrow slip of anything
Locking-bone _s._ the hip joint
Long-tailed Capon _s._ the long-tailed titmouse
Lug _s._ a pole; a measure of land, perch or rod
Lug-lain _s._ full measure
Lumper-scrump _s._ cow-parsnip _Heracleum sphondylium_
Lurdin _s._ a sluggard (Fr. _lourd_)
Lizzom _s._ a shade of colour in heavy bread, or in a mow
Mace _s._ pl. acorns, mast
Macky-moon _s._ a man who plays the fool
Maethe (th soft) sweet as meathe (Welsh _Medd_, mead)
Maggems, Maay-geams _s._ May games, larking
Magne _adj._ great
Make-wise _v._ to pretend
Manchet _s._ a kind of cake eaten hot
Mandy _adj._ and _v._ haughty, domineering Commandy
Mang _v._ to mix
Mang-hangle _adj._ and _s._ mixed-up in a confused mass
Math _s._ a litter of pigs
Maules _s._ measles
May-bug _s._ cockchafer
Mawkin (maaking) an oven swab; scare-crow; a bundle of rags
Mawn _s._ a basket (A S _mand_)
Maze-house _s._ madhouse
Mazy _adj._ mad, ex. I be mooast maazed; a mazy ould vool
Mear, Mear-stone boundary (A S _meare_)
Meat-weer _adj._ applied to land capable of producing food that is good,
fit to eat; applied to peas, beans, &c.
Meg _s._ the mark at which boys play pitch and toss
Meg's, or Maggotts Diversions _s._ rattling or wanton fun
Meg-with-the-wad _s._ will o' the wisp
Melander _s._ a row (Fr. _melee_)
Me'll _v.a._ to meddle, touch; ex. I'll neither mell nor make; I ont
mell o't, _i.e._, I will not touch it
Mesh _s._ moss; lichen on apple-trees
Mesh _s._ a hare's creep or run _v._ to run through the same
Mess, Messy _v._ to serve cattle with hay _s._ Messin
Mid, Med _v._ might, ex. Nor zed a mid; midst, medst, ex. Thou medst if
wouldst
Midgerim _s._ mesentery
Mid'n might not, ex. I mid or I mid'n
Mig in the same sense
Milemas _s._ Michaelmas
Mind _v._ to remember
Misky form of misty
Miz-maze _s._ confusion
Mog _v._ to decamp, march off
Mooch _v._ to stroke down gently
Mood _s._ the mother of vinegar
Mole _s._ higher part of the back of the neck
Mommacks _s._ pl. fragments, scraps
Mommick, Mommet _s._ a scarecrow (Wiclif's N. Test.: "a sacrifice to
the _mawmet_" Act vii. 41)
Moocher, Mooching, Meecher _s._ one who skulks; absents himself from
school
Moor-coot _s._ a moor-hen
More _s._ a root
Moot _v._ to root up _s._ Mooting-axe
Moot _s._ that portion of a tree left in the ground after it has been
felled
Mop _s._ tuft of grass
More, Morey _v.n._ to take root; applied to trees
Mother, Mothering _s._ white mould in beer or cider
Mothering-Sunday _s._ midlent Sunday, probably from the custom of
visiting the mother-churches during that season
Mought for might _aux. verb_
Mouse-snap _s._ a mouse-trap
Mouster _v._ to stir, to be moving
Mow-staddle _s._ a conical stone with a flat circular cap, used for the
support of a mow or stack of corn
Muddy-want _s._ a mole
Mullin _s._ metheglin
Mumper, Mump, Mumping a beggar, to beg
Nacker _s._ a nag
Nagging _adj._ applied to continued aching pain, as toothache; also,
teasing with reproaches
Nammet, or Nummet _s._ luncheon; a short meal between breakfast and
dinner. Noon-meat
Nan, Anan _interj._ Eh! what? (Shakes.)
Nap _s._ a small rising, a hillock
Na-poast _s._ gnaw-post, a fool.
Narn, or Norn _pron._ neither, ex. Narn on's
Nasten _v.a._ to render nasty
Nathely _adv._ nearly, as a baby is nathely pining away
Naunt _s._ aunt
Nawl _s._ navel; Nawl-cut a term used by butchers
Neel, Neeld _s._ a needle (Shaks. Mid. N. Dr. iii. 2)
Nesh, Naish _adj._ tender, delicate (A S _hnesc_)
Nestle-tripe _s._ the poorest bird in the nest; weakest pig in the
litter; puny child
Never-the-near to no purpose
Newelty _s._ novelty
Nickle _v.n._ to move hastily along in an awkward manner _adj._ beaten
down, applied to corn
Nicky, Nicky-wad _s._ a small fagot of thorns
Niddick _s._ the nape of the neck
Nif _conj._ if and if
'Nighst, Noist _prep._ nigh, near
Ninny-watch _s._ a longing desire
Nippigang, Nimpingang _s._ a whitlow
Nitch _s._ a burden, a fagot of wood
Nix _v._ to impose on, to nick
Northern, Northering _adj._ incoherent, foolish
Nosset _s._ a dainty dish such as is fit for a sick person
'Nottamy _s._ applied to a man become very thin (anatomy)
Nug _s._ unshapen piece of timber, a block
Nug-head _s._ a blockhead
Nuncle _s._ uncle _v.a._ to cheat
Nurt, or Nort nothing (w. of Parret)
Nuthen _s._ a great stupid fellow
Oak-web (wuck-ub) _s._ cock-chafer, may-bug
Oak-wuck _s._ the club at cards
Oaves _s._ the eaves of a house
Odments _s. pl._ odd things, offals
Oh _v._ to long greatly
Old-man's-Beard _s._ clematis
Old-rot _s._ cow-parsnip (_heracleum_)
Onlight _v.n._ to alight from on horse-back
Ool will; o'ot wilt o'ot'n't wilt not
Ope _s._ an opening
Open-erse _s._ a medler (A S _open-oers_), a fruit used medicinally
Ordain _v._ to purpose
Orloge _s._ a clock (horologe)
Or'n _pron._ either, ex. O'rm o'm, either of them
Ort _pron._ aught, anything
Orts _s._ scraps, leavings
Oseny, or Osening _v._ to forbode, predict (A S _wisian_)
Ourn ours
Out-ax'd _part._ to have the bands fully published
Out-faring _s._ lying outside the borough
Over-get _v.a._ to overtake
Over-look _v.a._ to bewitch
Over-right (auver-right) _adv._ opposite
Ovvers _s. pl._ over-hanging bank of rivers, edge of rivers (A S _ofer_)
Pair-of-Stairs _s._ a staircase with two landings
Pallee _adj._ broad, as pallee-foot, pallee-paw
Palme _s._ catkins of the willow (_salix caprea_)
Pame _s._ the mantle thrown over an infant who is going to be Christened
Panchard-night _s._ Shrove-Tuesday night
Pank _v._ to pant
Papern _adj._ made of paper
Parget _v.a._ to plaster the inside of a chimney with mortar made of
cow-dung and lime
Parrick _s._ a paddock
Paumish _adj._ handling awkwardly
Pautch, Pontch _v._ to tread in mire
Payze, 'Pryze _v._ to upraise with a lever (Fr. _peser_)
Peart _adj._ brisk
Pease _v._ to run out in globules
Peasen _s. pl._ of pea _adj._ made of peas, ex. Peasen-pudding
Peazer _s._ a lever
Peek, Peeky, Peekid _adj._ pinched in face by indisposition
Peel _s._ a pillow
Pen, Penning, Pine, Cow-pine _s._ an enclosed place in which cattle are
fed
Pen _s._ a spigot
Pick, Peckis _s._ pick-axe
Pick, Peek _s._ hay-fork
Pigs _s._ pixies, fairies, as in the common saying, "Please God and the
pigs"
Pig's-hales _s._ hawes
Pig's-looze _s._ pig's-sty
Pilch, Pilcher _s._ a baby's woollen clout
Pill _s._ a pool in a river
Pill-coal _s._ peat from a great depth
Pillow-tie, Pillow-beer _s._ pillow-case
Pilm, Pillum _s._ dust
Pin, Pin-bone _s._ the hip
Pind, Pindy _adj._ fusty, as corn or flour
Pin'd _adj._ applied to a saw which has lost its pliancy
Pine, Pwine, Pwining-end, and Pwointing-end _s._ the gable-end of a
house
Pinions _s. p._ the refuse wool after combing (Fr. _peigner_)
Pink-twink _s._ chaffinch
Pinswheal, Pinswil, Pensil _s._ a boil with a black head
Pirl, Pirdle _v._ to spin as a top
Pix, Pex, or Pixy _v._ to pick up fruit, as apples or walnuts, after the
main crop is taken in
Pixy _s._ a fairy Pixy-stool _s._ toad-stool
Planch _s._ Planchant _adj._ a wood floor (Fr. _planche_)
Plazen _s. pl._ places
Plim, Plum _v.n._ to swell, to increase in bulk, as soaked peas or rice
Plough _s._ a team of horses; also a waggon and horses, or a waggon and
oxen
Plough-path _s._ bridle-path
Plud _s._ the swamp surface of a wet ploughed field
Pock-fretten, Pock-fredden _adj._ marked with small-pox
Pog _v._ to push, to thrust with a fist
Pomice, Pummice, Pummy, or Pumy-Squat _s._ apples pounded for making
cider (Fr. _pomme_)
Pomple _adj._ responsible, trustworthy
Pompster, or Pounster _v._ to tamper with a wound, or disease, without
knowledge or skill in medicine
Ponted _adj._ bruised, particularly applied to fruit, as a ponted apple
Pooch _v._ to pout
Pook _s._ the stomach, a vell
Pook _s._ a cock of hay
Popple _s._ a pebble
Porr _v._ to stuff or cram with food
Pot-waller _s._ one whose right to vote for a member of Parliament is
based on his having a fire-place whereon to boil his own pot, as at
Taunton
Pound-house _s._ house for cider-making
Prey _v._ to drive the cattle into one herd in a moor, which is done
twice a year (_i.e._, at Lady-day and at Michaelmas), with a view to
ascertain whether any person has put stock there without a right to do it
Proud-tailor _s._ gold-finch
Pulk, or Pulker _s._ a small pool of water
Pumple, or Pumple-foot _s._ club-foot
Pur, or Pur-hog _s._ a one-year-old male sheep
Purt _v._ to pout, to be sullen
Puskey _adj._ short-breathed, wheezing
Putt _s._ a manure cart with two or three broad wheels
Puxy _s._ a slough, a muddy place
Pyer _s._ a hand-rail across a wooden bridge (Fr. _s'apuyer_)
Quar _v._ to coagulate--applied to milk in the breast
Quarrel, Quarrey _s._ a pane of glass
Quat _adj._ full, satisfied
Queane _s._ a little girl, a term of endearment
Queest, Quisty _s._ a wood-pigeon or blue-rock. A quarish queest _s._
a queer fellow
Quilled, or Queeled _adj._ withered, as grass
Quine _s._ a corner (Fr. _coin_)
Quirk, Quirky _v._ to complain, to groan, grunt
Quat, or Aquat _adj._ sitting flat, like a bird on its eggs to quat
_v.n._ to squat (It. _quatto_)
Qwerk _s._ the clock of a stocking
Rade, or Rede _s._ part of the tripe or stomach of a bullock, the maw
Raening _adj._ thin, applied to cloth
Raft-up _v._ to disturb from sleep
Rain-pie _s._ woodpecker, yuckle
Rake _v.n._ to rouse up
Rally _v._ to scold
Ram _v._ to lose, by throwing a thing beyond reach
Rammel _adj._ (raw milk), applied to cheese made of unskimmed milk
Rams-claws _s. p._ crow's foot
Rampsing _adj._ tall
Range _s._ a sieve
Rangle _v._ to twine, move in a sinuous manner
Rangling Plants _s._ such as entwine round other plants, as hops,
woodbine
Rap _v._ to exchange
Rape _v._ to scratch
Rare _adj._ raw, or red, as meat
Rasty, Rusty _adj._ rancid, gross, obscene
Ratch _v._ to stretch
Rathe, Rather early, soon Milton: "the rathe primrose"
Rathe-ripe _s._ an early kind of apple; also a male or female that
arrives at full maturity before the usual age
Raught _part._ and _past tense_ reached, ex. E' raught down his gun
Rawn _v.a._ to devour greedily
Rawning-knife _s._ the large knife with which butchers clear their meat;
cleaver
Rawny _adj._ thin, meagre
'Ray _v.a._ to dress. Unray to undress
Read, Reed _v._ to strip the fat from the intestines
Readship, or Retchup, Rechip, Rightship _s._ truth, dependence,
trustworthiness
Ream _v.a._ to widen, to open, to stretch _s._ an instrument or tool
for widening a hole (generally used for metals) _v.n._ to bear
stretching. Reamy _adj._
Reams, Rames _s. pl._ the dead stalks of potatoes, &c.; skeleton (Query
Remains)
Re-balling _s._ the catching of ells with earthworms (yeasses) attached
to a ball of lead
Reed _s._ wheat-straw prepared for thatching (w. of Parret)
Reen, or Rhine _s._ watercourse, or dyke; an open drain
Reeve _v.n._ to shrivel up, to contract into wrinkles
Remlet _s._ a remnant
Reneeg _v._ to withdraw from an engagement (Lat. _renegare_) (Shaksp.
Ant. and Cleop. i. 5)
Rere-Mouse _s._ a bat (A S _hrere-mus_)
Revel-twine _s._ same as Hevel-twine
Revesse _s._ the burden of a song, from _vessey_, _v._ to make verses
Rew _s._ row _v._ to put grass in rows
Rexen _s. p._ rushes (A S _rixe_)
Rip _v._ to rate or chide
Riscous applied to bread imperfectly baked
Robin-riddick, or Ruddock _s._ redbreast
Roddicks, Roddocks _s._ ex. Off the roddocks, as a cart off the grooves
of the axle
Rode _v.n._ to go out to shoot wild fowl which pass over head on the
wing early at night or in the morning; also applied to the passage of the
birds themselves, ex. The woodcocks' rode
Roe-briar _s._ the large dog-rose briar
Roller, Rawler, Brawler _s._ a bundle of reed, ex. As weak as a rawler
Rompstal _s._ a rude girl
Ronge _v._ to gnaw, to devour (Fr. _ronger_)
Room, Rhume _s._ scurf of the scalp
Root-chains _s._ main plough chains
Roozement _s._ a slip or falling-in of earth
Ropy _adj._ wine or other liquor is ropy when it becomes thick and
coagulated; also bread when a kind of second fermentation takes place in
warm weather
Rose _v.n._ to drop out from the pod or other seed-vessel when the seeds
are over ripe
Rose, Rooze-in _v._ to fall in, as the upper part of a quarry, or well
Round-dock _s._ the common mallow
Rouse-about _adj._ big, unwieldly
Rout _v._ to snore
Rowless _adj._ roofless. A Rowless Tenement an estate without a house
Rowsse _v._ to rush out with a great noise
Rozzim, Rozzums _s._ quaint sayings, low proverb
Ruck _v._ to couch down
"What is mankind more unto you yhold
Than is the shepe that rouketh in the fold."
(Chaucer, Knight's Tale)
Rudderish _adj._ rude, hasty
Ruge _v.n._ to hang in folds, to wrinkle (Lat. _rugae_)
Rungs, Rongs _s. pl._ the rounds of a ladder, also of a chair
Rushen _adj._ made of rushes
Sand-tot _s._ sand-hill
Sape _s._ sap of trees, juice of fruit. Sapey _adj._ as fruit-tart
Sar, Sarve _v._ to earn wages
Scad _s._ a sudden and brief shower
Scamblin _s._ irregular meal
Scarry-whiff _adv._ askew
Scorse, Squoace, Squiss _v._ to exchange, barter
"And there another, that would needsly scorse
A costly jewel for a hobby-horse"
(Drayton's Moon Calf)
Scottle _v._ to cut into pieces wastefully
Scourge-mettle _s._ the instrument with which a boy whips his top
Scovin, Scubbin _s._ the neck and breast of lamb
Scrambed, Shrambed _adj._ deprived of the use of some limb by a nervous
contraction of the muscles; benumbed with cold
Scrint _v._ to scorch, singe; also to shrink a good deal in burning, as
leather, silk, &c.
Scun _v._ to reproach with the view of exposing to contempt or shame (A
S _scunian_, to shun, avoid)
Scurrick, Scurrig _s._ any small coin, a mere atom; ex. I havn't a
scurrick left
Scute _s._ a sum of money, a gratuity, the impress on ancient money,
from _scutem_, a shield. So _ecu_, Fr., a crown; shilling, from A S
_scild_, a shield. Chaucer uses _shildes_ for ecus, _i.e._, crowns
Seam _s._ a horse-load (A S _seam_)
Seed-lip _s._ a sower's seed basket
Seem, Zim _v._ to think, to be of opinion; ex. I do zim, or zim t' I
Seltimes _adv._ seldom
Sense _v._ to understand
Seven-sleeper _s._ dormouse
Shab _s._ itch or mange in brutes _adj._ Shabby
Shaff-Tuesday _s._ Shrove-Tuesday
Shalder _s._ rush, sedge growing in ditches
Sham _s._ a horse-hoe
Share, Sheare _s._ the quantity of grass cut at one harvest, a crop
Sharps _s._ shafts of a cart
Shaul _v._ to shell, to shed the first teeth
Shaw _v._ to scold sharply
Sheen _adj._ bright, shining
Sheer _s._ a sheath, ex. Scissis-sheer
Shelving-stone _s._ a blue tile or slate for covering the roofs of
houses
Shod _part. of v. to shed_ ex. No use crying for shod milk
Showl _s._ for shovel
Shrig _v.a._ to shroud or trim a tree
Shrowd, Shride _s._ loppings of trees
Shuckning _adj._ shuffling
Shut _v._ to weld iron
Shuttles, Shittles _s._ floodgates
Sife, Sithe _v._ and _s._ to sigh
Sig _s._ urine (Dutch _v. zeycken_)
Silch, Sulch _v._ to soil, daub
Silker _s._ a court card
'Sim t' I it seems to me
Simlin _s._ a kind of fine cake intended for toasts
Sin, Sine _conj._ since, because
Sinegar _s._ the plant stocks
Singlegus _s._ the orchis
Skag _s._ a rent, tear, wound
Skenter, Skinter _adj._ relaxed, as applied to oxen
Skiff-handed _adj._ awkward
Skiffle _s._ as to make a skiffle, to make a mess of any business
Skiffling _s._ the act of whittling a stick
Skilly _s._ oatmeal porridge
Skimps _s._ the scales and refuse of flax
Skimmerton-riding _s._ the effigy of a man or woman unfaithful to
marriage vows carried about on a pole accompanied by rough music from
cows'-horns and frying-pans. Formerly it consisted of two persons riding
on a horse back to back, with _ladles_ and _marrow-bones_ in hand, and
was intended to ridicule a hen-pecked husband
Skir _v._ skim, mow lightly, as thistles
Skir-devil _s._ a black martin, swift
Skirrings _s._ hay made in pasture lands from the long grass left by the
cattle
Skitty _s._ a water-rail
Skitty-vamps _s._ laced half boots
Skred, Skride _v._ to stride
Slat, Slate _v._ to split, crack, crumble
Slate _s._ a sheep-run. Slated _adj._ accustomed to, contented
Slerib _s._ a spare rib of pork
Sley for "as lief," ex. I would sley do it as not
Sliden, Slidder, Slither _v._ to slide
Sliver _s._ a thin slice
Slock _v._ to encourage the servants of other people to pilfer
Slooen _adj._ of sloe, ex. A slooen tree
Slop _adj._ loose (Dutch _slap_)
Slope _v.n._ to decay, rot, as pears and potatoes
Srnitch, Smit, Smeech _s._ smut, or fine dust
Snag _s._ a tooth standing alone; a small sloe
Snag-blowth _s._ the blossom of the black-thorn
Snake-leaves _s._ ferns
Snap-jack _s._ stitch-wort (stellaria holostea)
Snare _s._ the gut or string stretched tightly across the lower head of
a drum
Snell, or Snull _s._ a short thick stick about 4 inches long, called a
"cat," used in the game called cat and dog
Sneyd _s._ the crooked handle of a scythe
Snicker, Snigger _v._ to laugh in an insulting way
Snoach _v._ to snuffle, to speak through the nose
Snoffer _s._ a sweetheart (Dutch _snoffen_, to sigh)
Snool _v._ to smear anything by rubbing the nose and mouth over it
(Dutch _snavel_, a snout)
Snop _s._ a sharp blow
Soce, Zuez _s. pl. voc._ friends (Query _socii_)
Sog, or Sug _s._ a morass. Soggy _adj._ boggy; also as a verb, to be
sugged-out by the wet
Sowle _v._ to handle rudely, to hale or pull
"He'll go, he says, and sowle the porter of Rome gates by the ears"
(Shaks. Coriol. iv. 5)
Spane _s._ the prong of a fork
Sparcled, Sparked, Spicotty _adj._ speckled
Spar-gad _s._ sticks split to be used for thatching
Sparrables, Spurbles _s._ shoemaker's nails, ex. Sparrable boots
Spars _s._ twisted hazel or willow for thatching
Spawl _v._ to scale away _s._ a scale broken off from the surface of a
stone
Speard _s._ spade
Spine _s._ the sward or surface of the ground; the fat on the surface of
a joint of meat
Spinnick _s._ Spinnicking _adj._ a person every way diminutive
Spittle _v._ to dig lightly between crops
Splat _s._ a row of pins as sold in paper
Sprack, Spree, Spry _adj._ nimble, alert, active
Sprackles _s. pl._ spectacles
Sprank _v._ to sprinkle with water. Spranker, Sprenker _s._ a
watering-pot
Spreathed _adj._ said of skin harsh and dry with cold, but not chapped
Spried, Spreed _adj._ chapped with cold
Spounce _v._ to spatter with water
Spuddle _v._ to be uselessly or triflingly busy
Spur _v._ to spread abroad or scatter, as manure over a field (Lat.
_spargere_)
Squail _v._ to throw a short stick at anything. Squailer _s._ the
stick used in squirrel hunting
Squails _s._ nine-pins
Squap _v._ to sit down without any employment
Squatch _s._ a chink or narrow clift
Squelstring _adj._ sultry
Squinny _v._ to squint "Dost thou squinny at me?" (Shak. King Lear)
Squittee _v._ to squirt
Squoace, or Squss _v._ to truck or exchange
Staddle _s._ foundation of a rick of hay or corn, a mark left by a
haycock, or anything allowed to remain too long in one place
Stag _s._ a castrated bull
Stagnated _adj._ astonished
Stang _s._ a long pole
Stap _v._ for to stop
Stare-basin, Glow-basin _s._ glow-worm
Stean _v._ to stone a road. Steaned _part. s._ a large stone pitcher
(Dutch _steen_)
"Upon an huge great earthpot stean he stood"
(Spenser, Faery Queene)
Steanin _s._ a stone-pitched ford
Steeve _v._ to dry, to stiffen (Dutch _styven_)
Stickle _s._ shallow rapids in a stream. Steep _adj._ steep as a hill
Stitch _s._ a shock of corn, ten sheaves
Stive _v._ to keep close and warm
Stiver _s._ a bristling of the hair
Stocky _adj._ short, stumpy
Stodge _s._ thick slimy mud _adj._ miry; ex. "Pendummer, where the
Devil was stodged in the midst of zummer"
Stodged _adj._ stuffed with eating
Stool _s._ the stock of a tree cut for underwood
Stoor, Storr _v._ to stir, move actively (Dutch _stooren_)
Stomachy _adj._ proud, haughty
Stout _s._ a gnat-fly
Strablet _s._ a long, narrow strip
Strame _s._ a streak, mark, trace _v._ to trace (Dutch _stram_)
Straw-mote _s._ a bit of straw
Strickle _adj._ steep as the roof of a house
Strod _s._ a leathern buskin worn by peasants
Strout _v._ to strut, stand out stiff
"Crowk was his hair, and as gold it shon
And strouted as a fan large and brode"
(Chaucer, Miller's Tale)
Stub-shot _s._ the portion of the trunk of a tree which remains when the
tree is not sawn through
Stun-pole _s._ a stupid fellow
Stwon _s._ stone Stwonen _adj._
Suant _adj._ even, regular, applied to rows of beans or corn; grave as
applied to the countenance (Fr. _suivant_)
Sull _s._ plough-share (A S _sul_)
Suma _s._ a small cup made of blue and white stoneware
Surge _v._ and _s._ to bear heavily on, impetuous force
Swallow-pears _s._ service-pears, sorb-apples
Swather, or Swother _v._ to faint (A S _sweothrian_)
Sweem _v._ to swoon. Sweemy, Sweemish _adj._ faint (Dutch _swiim_)
Sweet-harty _v._ to court. Sweet-harting _s._ courtship
Swile _s._ soil, also Swoil-heap
Swill, Swell, Zwell _v._ to swallow
Tack _s._ a shelf, bacon-rack. Clavy-tack chimney-piece
Taffety _adj._ nice in eating
Tallet _s._ the space next the roof in out-houses (Welsh _tavlod_)
Tame _v._ to cut, to have the first cut (Fr. _entamer_)
Tanbase _s._ unruly behaviour
Tan-day _s._ the second day of a fair
Tang _s._ to tie; that part of a knife which passes into the haft
Tave _v._ to throw the hands about wildly
Tavering _adj._ restless in illness
Tawl-down _v._ to strike or smooth down a cat's back
Teak _s._ a whitlow
Teap _s._ a point, peak
Teart _adj._ sharp, sour, painful
Ted _v._ to turn hay or flax to dry. Ted-pole the pole used for the
purpose
Teg _s._ a last year's lamb not sheared
Teem _v._ to pour out
Terrible _adv._ intensitive, ex. Terrible good
Thic, Thicky, Thicky-there, Thickumy, Thickumy-there _pron._ that
(Chaucer _thilk_)
Thiller _s._ the shaft horse
Thill-harness opposed to trace harness
Tho _adv._ then, ex. I couldn't go tho, but I went afterwards
Thong _v._ to stretch out into viscous threads or filaments
Thongy _adj._ viscid, ropy
Thornen _adj._ made of thorns
Thurt _v._ to thwart, to plough crossways
Thurt-handled _adj._ thwart-handled
Thurt-saw _s._ a thwart-saw, a cross-cut saw
Tilty _adj._ irritable, _i.e._, easily tilt or lifted up
Timmern _adj._ wooden
Timmersom _adj._ timorous
Tine _v._ to light, ex. Tine the candle (root of tinder) _v._ a tooth
as of rake or spear (A S _tine_)
Tine-in _v._ to shut, to enclose. Tinings _s._ enclosures (A S
_tynan_)
Tip-and-tail heels over head
Titty-todger _s._ a wren
To appended to adverbs, as where-to, to-home, to-year, to-week, as
to-day
Toak _v._ to soak
Toggers _s._ the handle-pieces of the scythe
Toke _v._ to glean apples
Toll _v._ to decoy, entice, ex. A bit o' cheese to toll down the bread
wi'
Toll-bird _s._ a decoy bird
Tongue, or Tonguey _v._ to talk immoderately
Tossity _adj._ drunken ('tossicated)
Tranter _s._ a carrier. Coal-tranter a beggar
Trapes _s.v._ a slattern, to walk in the dirt
Trendle _s._ a brewer's cooler of an oval form
Trig _v._ to prop up _adj._ sound, firm, well in health, neat, tidy
Trig-to _v._ to open, set open, as a door
Trill _v._ to twirl
Trop intj. used by riders to excite a dull horse
Tuck _v._ to touch
Tucker _s._ a fuller, also Tucking-mill
Tun _s._ upper part of the chimney
Tunnegar _s._ a wooden funnel
Tup _s._ a ram
Turmets, Turmits _s._ turnips
Turve _s._ turf
Tut _s._ a hassock
Tutty _s._ flower. Tutty-more flower-root
Tut-work, Tuck-work _s._ piece-work
'T'war it was
Twibill _s._ a sort of axe with bill of two forms
Twily _adj._ restless
Twink, or Pink _s._ a chaffinch
Twi-ripe, Twi-ripy _adj._ unequally ripe
Twistle, Twizzle _s._ that part of a tree where the branches divide from
the stock
Under-creepin _adj._ sneaking
Ungain (from gain) unhandy
Unkit _et. id. adj._ lonely, dismal (A S _cwyde_, speech; _uncwyde_,
solitary, having no one to speak to)
Unray _v._ to undress, ex. I do ston to ray, and I do ston to unray
Untang _v._ to untie
Up, Uppy _v._ to arise, to get up
Uppin-stock, Lighting-stock _s._ a horse-block
Uppings _s._ perquisites
Upsighted _s._ a defect of vision rendering a person unable to look down
Ur, Hur _pron._ he, she, or it
Urn, Hurn _v._ to run (A S _yrnan_)
Utchy _pron._ I (Ger. _ich_)
Vage, Vaze _v._ to move about or run in such a way as to agitate the air
Valch _v._ to thrust with the elbow or fist
Vang _v._ to take or catch, to receive as well as earn wages; ex. To
vang a fire, to vang money; also to stand sponsor (A S _fangen_)
Vare _s._ weasel or stoat. Vair ermine
Vare _v._ to bring forth young, applied to pigs (from farrow)
Varmint _s._ a vermin
Vaught _part._ fetched, hence the proverb
vur vaught
dear a-bought
Vawth _s._ a bank of dung or earth prepared for manure; litter of pigs
Vay, or Vie _v._ to go, to succeed, to turn out well (Fr. _va'tail_) ex.
How doe't vay wi'ye?
Veelvare, Veldevere _s._ field-fare
Vell _s._ a part of the stomach of a calf used for making cheese;
membrane
Vent, Vent-hole _s._ the wrist of a shirt, the button-hole
Verdi, Verdit _s._ opinion, ex. Thats my verdit therefor I zay 't
Vester _s._ a pin used to point out the letters to children learning to
read
Vier _s._ fire
Vig _v._ to rub gently by a quick motion of the finger forward and
backward (Dutch _ficken_)
Vinnid, Vinny _adj._ mouldy, as bread; humoursome, as a spoiled child;
affected
Vitten, Vitty _adj._ fitly, featly, properly applied _s._ a whim or
pretence
Vleer _s._ flea
Vlother _s._ incoherent talk, nonsense
Voccating _adj._ going about chattering in an idle manner
Vore-right _adj._ blunt, rude, impertinent
Voss, Voth _s._ a side furrow
Vouce _adj._ strong, nervous
Vug _v._ to strike with the elbow _s._ a blow with the elbow
Vyer _s._ the fair, ex. Guaine to vyer?
W an initial W is often pronounced as in Welsh _oo_, ex. Walter, oolter;
witness, ootness; Wells, ools
Wallet _s._ brushwood, bramble-wood
Wamble, Wammel _v.n._ to move in an awkward manner, applied chiefly to
machinery
Want, Wont _s._ a mole
Want-wriggle _s._ mole-track
War _v. pret. of the verb_ "_to be_" I war, he war, we war, &c.
Wash-dish _s._ the wag-tail
Wassail _v._ drinking success to the apple crop
Way-zaltin _s._ a play in which two persons standing back to back
interlace each others arms, and by bending forward alternately raise each
other from the ground
Weepy _adj._ moist, abounding in springs
Welch-nut _s._ walnut (Ger. _welsche-nuss_)
Well _s._ a running spring, a source (Ger. _quelle_, as distintinguished
from a wenk or wink)
Weng _s._ the front rack of the sull
Wevet _s._ a spider's web
Whippences _s._ bodkins or swingle-bars of a plough
Whipper-snapper _s._ a little, active, nimble fellow
Whipswhiles _s._ a short interval, as between the strokes of a whip
Whister-twister _s._ a smart blow on the side of the head
Whiver _v._ to hover, to flutter. Whiver-minded _adj._ wavering
Widow-man _s._ a widower
Wim _v._ to winnow. Wim-sheet, Wimmin-sheet, Wimmindust _s._
Windle, Windle-thrush _s._ red-wing
Wink _s._ an excavated or sunken well (Query supplied with a Winch?)
Wipes _s._ faggots for draining or fencing
Wisht _adj._ sad, untoward
Without unless, except
Woek, Wuk _s._ oak
Woeks _s._ clubs on playing cards, from their shape
Wont-heeave, Want-snap _s._ a mole-hill, mole-trap
Wood-quist _s._ wood-pigeon, cushat
Wood-wall _s._ woodpecker
Worra _s._ part of the centre of the old spinning-wheel
Wosberd, Whisbird, Whosbird _s._ a term of reproach.
Wrede _v._ to spread abroad, as wheat is said to wrede when several
stalks shoot out of the ground from a single grain.
Wrick _v.s._ strain
Wride _v.n._ to stretch, to expand
Wring _s._ press, ex. A cider-wring
Writh-hurdles _s._ plated hurdles
Wrizzled, Wrizzly _adj._ shrivelled up, wrinkled
Yails _s._ the uprights in hurdles
Yal, Yalhouse, Yarm, Yel, &c. _s._ ale, alehouse, arm, eel, &c.
Yap _v._ to yelp like a cur
Yappingale, Yaffler, Yuckle _s._ woodpecker
Yeass _s._ an earthworm _pl._ yeasses
Yeo _s._ main drain of a level
Yeth _s._ hearth. Yeth-stone hearth-stone
Yoak _s._ the grease in wool
Yoaky _adj._ greasy, applied to wool as it comes from the sheep
Yokes _s._ hiccups
Yourn yours
Yow _v._ to cut the stubble short, to cut with a hook
Zam _v.a._ to heat for some time over a fire, but not to boil
Zam-sod, Zam-sodden half baked
Zand-tot _s._ sand hill
Zate _adj._ soft
Zatenfare _s._ softish, a foolish fellow
Zead _v._ for has seen
Zead _s._ seed. Zead-lip seed-lip
Zenvy _s._ wild mustard
Zinney _s._ sinews
Zwail _v._ to move about the arms extended, and up and down
Zwell _v._ to swallow
Zwodder _s._ a drowsy and stupid state of body and mind
Zwound _v._ to swoon
F. MAY, PRINTER, HIGH STREET, TAUNTON.Project Gutenberg
A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire
Williams, Wadham Pigott
Chimera45
College