The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire, James Jennings [e textbook reader .txt] 📗

insect is called wock-web, oak-web, because it infests the oak, and spins its web on it in great numbers.

Chaíty. adj. Careful; nice; delicate.

To Cham. v. a. To chew.

Chámer. s. A chamber.

Change, s. A shift; the garment worn by females next the skin.

Chay’er. s. A chair; chayer—Chaucer.

Chick-a-beedy. s. A chick.

‘Chill. I will.

Chim’ley. s. A chimney.

Chine. s. The prominence of the staves beyond the head of a cask. This word is well known to coopers throughout England, and ought to be in our dictionaries.

To Chis’som. v. n. To bud; to shoot out.

Chis’som. s. a small shoot; a budding out.

Chit’terlins. s. pl. The frills around the bosom of shirt.

Choor. s. A job; any dirty household work; a troublesome job.

Choor’er, Choor’-woman. s. A woman who goes out to do any kind of odd and dirty work; hence the term char-woman in our polished dialect; but it ought to be choor-woman.

To Choóry. v. To do any kind of dirty household work.

Chub’by. adj. Full, swelling; as chubby-faced.

Claps, s. A clasp.

To claps, v. a. To clasp.

Clávy and Clávy-piece. s. A mantel-piecce.

[_Clavy_ was probably given to that piece of wood or other material laid over the front of the fireplace, because in many houses the keys are often hung on nails or pins driven into it; hence from clavis (Latin) a key, comes clavy, the place where the keys are hung.]

Clavy-tack. s. The shelf over [tacked on to] the mantel-piece.

Clear-and-sheer. adv. Completely; totally.

Cleve-pink. s. A species of Carnation which grows wild in the crannies of Cheddar-cliffs: a variety of the Dianthus deltoides; it has an elegant smell.

To Clim, to Climmer. v. a. To climb; to clamber.

Clin’kers. s.pl. Bricks or other earthy matter run into irregular shapes by action of heat.

Clinker-bell. s. An icicle.

Clint. v.a. To clench; to finish; to fasten firmly.

Cliver-and-Shiver. adv. Completely; totally.

Clit. v. n. To be imperfectly fermented: applied to bread.

Clit’ty. adj. Imperfectly fermented.

Clize. s. A place or drain for the discharge of water regulated by a valve or door, which permits a free outlet, but no inlet for return of water.

Coäse. adj. Coarse.

Coathe. v. a. To bane: applied to sheep.

Cob-wall, s. Mud-wall; a wall made of clay mixed with straw.

Cockygee. s. Cockagee; a rough sour apple.

Cocklawt. s. A garret; cock-loft.

Originally, most probably, a place where the fowls roosted.

Cock-squailing. s. A barbarous game, consisting in tying a cock to a stake, and throwing a stick at him from a distance till he is killed.

Cock-and-Mwile. s. A jail.

Col’ley, s. A blackbird.

To Collogue, v. n. To associate in order to carry out some improper purpose, as thieves. [Two such rascals collogue together for mischief. Rob Roy, p. 319, ed. 1821.]

Collo’gin. s. (g hard). An association for some improper purpose.

[Johnson defines it flattery; wheedling; which does not convey the correct meaning.]

Colt-ale, s. (Sometimes called footing or foot-ale) literally ale given, or money paid for ale, by a person entering on a new employment, to those already in it.

Comforts (comfits.) s. pl. Sugared corianders, cinnamon, &c.

Com’ical. adj. Odd; singular.

Contraption. s. Contrivance; management.

Coop. interj. Come up! a word of call to fowls to be fed.

To Cork. v. a. Cawk; calk; to set on a horse’s shoes sharp points of iron to prevent slipping on ice.

To Count, v. n. To think; to esteem.

Cow-baby, s. A coward; a timid person.

To Crap, to Crappy. v. n. to snap; to break with a sudden sound; to crack.

Crap. s. A smart sudden sound.

Craup. preterite of creep.

Cre’aped. Crept.

Creem. s. Sudden shivering.

Creémy. adj. Affected with sudden shivering.

Creeplin. part. Creeping.

Crips. adj. Crisp.

Criss-cross-lain. s. The alphabet; so called in consequence of its being formerly preceded in the horn-book by a cross to remind us of the cross of Christ; hence the term. Christ-Cross- line came at last to mean nothing more than the alphabet.

Crock, s. A bellied pot, of iron or other metal, for boiling food.

Croom. s. A crumb; a small bit.

Crowd-string, s. A fiddle-string.

Crowdy-kit. s. A small fiddle.

Crow’ner. s. A coroner.

To be Crowned. v. pass. To have an inquest held over a dead body by the coroner.

Crowst. s. Crust.

Crow’sty. adj. Crusty, snappish, surly.

Crub, Crubbin. s. Food: particularly bread and cheese.

Cubby-hole. s. A snug, confined place.

Cuckold s. The plant burdock.

To Cull. v. n. To take hold round the neck with the arms.

Cute. adj. [Acute] sharp; clever.

Cutty. adj. Small; diminutive.

Cutty, Cutty-wren.s. A wren.

 

D.

 

DA`. s. Day.

Dàyze. Days.

Dade. Dead.

Dad’dick. s. Rotten wood.

Dad’dicky. adj. Rotten, like daddick.

Dame. s. This word is originally French, and means in that language, lady; but in this dialect it means a mistress; an old woman; and never a lady; nor is it applied to persons in the upper ranks of society, nor to the very lowest; when we say dame Hurman, or dame Bennet, we mean the wife of some farmer; a school-mistress is also sometimes called dame (dame-schools).

Dang. interj. Generally followed by pronoun, as dang it; dang êm; od dang it: [an imprecation, a corruption of God dang it (_God hang it_) or more likely corruption of damn.]

Dap, v. n. To hop; to rebound.

Dap. s. A hop; a turn. To know the daps of a person is, to know his disposition, his habits, his peculiarities.

Dap’ster. s. A proficient.

To Daver. v. n. To fade; to fall down; to droop.

Dav’ison. s. A species of wild plum, superior to the bullin.

Daw’zin. s. The passing over land with a bent hazel rod, held in a certain direction, to discover whether veins of metal or springs are below, is called Dawzin, which is still practised in the mining districts of Somersetshire. There is an impression among the vulgar, that certain persons only have the gift of the divining rod, as it has been sometimes called; by the French, Baguette Devinatoire.

Ray, in his Catalogus Plantarum Angliæ, &c., Art. Corylus, speaks of the divining rod: ” Vulgus metallicorum ad virgulam divinum, ut vocant, quâ venas metallorum inquírit præ cæteris furcam eligit colurnam.” More may be seen in John Bauhin.

 

Des’perd. adj. [Corrupted from desperate.] Very, extremely; used in a good as well as a bad sense: desperd good; desperd bad.

Dewberry, s. A species of blackberry.

Dibs. s. pl. Money.

Did’dlecome. adj. Half-mad; sorely vexed.

Dig’ence. s. [g hard, diggunce, Dickens] a vulgar word for the Devil.

Dird. s. Thread.

Dirsh, s. A thrush.

Dirten. adj. Made of dirt.

Dock. s. A crupper.

Doe. part. Done.

To Doff. v. a. To put off.

To Don. v. a. To put on.

Donnins. s. pl. Dress; clothes.

Dough-fig. s. A fig; so called, most probably, from its feeling like dough. JUNIUS has dotefig: I know not where he found it. See FIG.

To Dout. v. a. To extinguish; to put out.

To Downarg. v. a. [To argue one down]; to contradict; to contend with.

Dowst. s. Dust; money; Down wi’ tha dowst! Put down the money!

Dowsty. adj. Dusty.

[_Dr_ used for thr in many words:] as droo for through.

Draffit. s. [I suppose from draught-vat.] A vessel to hold pot-liquor and other refuse from the kitchen for pigs.

Drang. s. A narrow path.

To Drash. v. a. To thresh.

Dras’hel. s. The threshold; a flail.

Dras’her. s. A thresher.

Drauve. s. A drove, or road to fields.

Drawt. s. Throat.

To Drean. v. n. To drawl in reading or speaking.

Drean. s. A drawling in reading or speaking.

Dreaten. v. Threaten.

Dree. a. Three.

To Dring. v. n. To throng; to press, as in a crowd; to thrust.

Dring’et. s. A crowd; a throng.

To Droa. v. a. To throw.

Droa. Throw.

Drooäte. Throat.

Drob. v. Rob.

Drode (_throw’d_). part. Threw, thrown.

Droo. prep. Through.

To drool. v. n. To drivel.

To Drow. v. n., v. a. To dry.

The hay do’nt drowy at all. See the observations which precede this vocabulary.

Drowth. s. Dryness; thirst.

Drow’thy. adj. Dry; thirsty.

Drove. s. A road leading to fields, and sometimes from one village to another. Derived from its being a way along which cattle are driven. RAY uses the word in his Catalogus Plantorum Angliæ, &c., Art. Chondrilla.

To Drub. v. n., v. a. To throb; to beat.

Drubbin. s. A beating.

To Druck. v. a. To thrust down; to cram; to press.

Dub, Dub’bed, Dub’by. adj. Blunt; not pointed; squat.

Dub’bin. s. Suet.

Duck-an-Mallard. s. (Duck and Drake) a play of throwing slates or flat stones horizontally along the water so as to skim the surface and rise several times before they sink. “Hen pen, Duck-an-Mallard, Amen.”

To Dud’der. v. a. To deafen with noise; to render the head confused.

Duds. s. pl. Dirty cloaths.

Dum’bledore. s. A humble-bee; a stupid fellow.

Dunch, (Dunce?). adj. Deaf.

As a deaf person is very often, apparently at least, stupid; a stupid, intractable person is, therefore, called a DUNCE: one who is deaf and intractable. What now becomes of Duns Scotus, and all the rest of the recondite observations bestowed upon DUNCE?—See GROSE.

I have no doubt that Dunch is Anglo-Saxon, although I cannot find it in any of our old dictionaries, except Bailey’s. But it ought not to be forgotten, that many words are floating about which are being arrested by our etymologists in the present advancing age of investigation.

Durns. s. pl. A door-frame.

Dwon’t, Dwon. v. (Don’t) do not.

 

E.

 

Eake. adv. Also.

Earwrig. s. Earwig.

This word ought to be spelled Earwrig, as it is derived, doubtless, from wriggle. See WRIGGLE.

Eese. adv. Yes.

Eet. adv. Yet.

El’men. adj. Of or belonging to elm; made of elm.

El’ver. s. A young eel.

Em’mers. s. pl. Embers.

Emmet-batch, s. An ant-hill.

To Empt. v.a. To empty.

En. pron.Him; a zid en; he saw him.

Er. pron. He. [Used West of the Parret.]

Eth. s. Earth.

To Eve. v.n. To become damp; to absorb moisture from the air.

Evet. s. A lizard.

Ex. s. An axle.

 

F.

 

Fags! interj. Truly; indeed.

Fayer. s. and adj. Fair.

To Fell. v.a. To sew in a particular manner; to inseam.

This word is well known to the ladies, I believe, all over the kingdom; it ought to be in our dictionaries.

Fes’ter. s. An inflammatory tumour.

Few, Veo. adj. More commonly pronounced veo. Little; as a few broth.

Fig. s. A raisin.

Figged-pudding. s. a pudding with raisins in it; plum-pudding.

Fildèfare. s. A Fieldfare. “Farewell fieldèfare.” Chaucer. Meaning that,