Glossary of Dorset dialect words
Appearance
These are some words which are unique to the Dorset dialect, spoken in Dorset in the West Country of England.
Word | Meaning |
---|---|
A | |
A-cothed | Disease |
A-drawen | Drawing, for example "He be a-drawen a picture." |
A-feard | Afraid (Dorset motto, "Who's a-feard?") |
Agean | Against, for example "'e be runnin' agean thac strong wind." |
Aggy | The act of collecting eggs[1] |
Aïght | Eight |
Ailen | illness, ailing (verb or noun)[1] |
Air vlees | Flies that seldom land for hovering in the air |
Aish or Aishy | Ash tree |
Aish-a-twiddick | Ash twig |
A-lassen | Lest |
Alik' | Like |
All's | All this |
Amper | Pustules "I be all out in an amper!" |
Aller | The alder tree |
Allum | All of them |
Anby | At a near time, by and by |
Annan? | An interjectional exclamation. "What did you say?" |
Anewst, or Aniste | At nearest |
Anigh | Near, close by[1] |
Ankly | The ankle[1] |
Any-when | At any time[1] |
Archet | Orchard[1] |
Arn | A contraction of "e'er a one" |
Ash candles | The seed vessels of the ash tree |
Asker | Water newt |
A-strout | Stretched out[1] |
A-stooded | Stood (as a waggon) immovably in the ground |
A-stoggd | Having your feet stuck in either clay or dirt |
At | To play at, to have at |
Athirt | Across |
Auverlook | Overlook, bewitch, look on with the evil eye |
Avore | Before[1] |
A-vroze | Frozen[1] |
Awaked | Awake |
Ax | To ask[1] |
Axen | Ashes[1] |
Ayer | Air[1] |
A-zet | Set or planted |
A-zew | 1) To be dry of milk; no longer giving suck "The cow's a-zew" 2) To sew a pond, to drain or draw it dry. |
B | |
Backhouse | Outhouse[1] |
Backside | backyard or rear of property[1] |
Bad | Synonym for ill |
B'aint | be not |
Ballyrag | To scold[1] |
Bandon | Abandonment |
Bandy | A stick used for beating dung out of the way, usually long and sturdy with a bent end[1] |
Bandylags | Crooked/bowed legs |
Bankrout | Bankrupt |
Bantling | Child |
Barken | Barley[2] |
Barry | Borrow[2] |
Batch | Hillock[2] |
Battenbuoard | A tool for tamping thatch on a roof[2] |
Baven | A faggot of untrimmed branches[2] |
Beas' | Beast, usually refers to cattle[2] |
Beatplough | A tool used for cutting turf[2] |
Becall | To deride |
Bedraggled angels | Wet sheep |
Beens | Because, possible contraction of 'being as'[2] |
Bee-pot | Beehive[2] |
Beknown | Known about |
Bennits | The bent tips of grasses and similar[2] |
Ben't | Wasn't |
Bibber | Shiver with cold[2] |
Bide | Dwell[2] |
Biddle | Beetle[2] |
Bird-kippy | To keep birds from the corn[2] |
Bissen | Bist not, Art not |
Bit-an'-drap | A bite to eat and a drink[2] |
Bit-an'-crimp | Every last scrap of something[2] |
Biver | To shake or quiver with cold or fear |
Black Bards | Rooks (or 'storytellers') |
Black-bob | Cockroach |
Blatch | Black or sooty[2] |
Blather | An uproar[2] |
Bleare | To cry outload and fretful like a child |
Blether | To bleat or blare much; to talk noisily |
Blood beads | Berries |
Bloody Warriors | Wallflowers |
Blooth | Blossom[2] |
Bottom | Steadfast[2] |
Braims | Membranes |
Brake | A thicket |
Brembles | Brambles |
Brinton or Braton | Bold, audacious[3] |
Brockle | Broken[3] |
Bruckly or Brickley | Brittle[3] |
Brushen | Huge/giant |
Budget | A leather pouch for a whetstone[3] |
Bull-head | Tadpole |
Bumbye | By-and-by[3] |
Bundle | To bound quickly |
Bunker | Rabbit |
Button-crawler | Woodlouse |
Bwoneyard | Graveyard/churchyard |
C | |
Caddie | An uproar or carry-on[3] |
Caddle | Muddle[3] |
Cag | Cloy/clog |
Cag-mag | Rotten meat |
Cammish | Awkward |
Car | Carry or move: to car hay is to stack hay[3] |
Carner | Corner |
Cas'n | Can'st not |
Cast | Prematurely born |
Cazelty weather | Extremely bad weather (casualty weather)[3] |
Chalky | Ghostly |
Chammer | Chamber, bedroom, room |
Charken, charked | Burn (to charcoal), burned |
Chattermag | Magpie |
Chawly-whist | Ashamed |
Chaw | Chew[3] |
Cheese-late | A floor for drying cheese[3] |
Chetlens | The entrails of any edible animal |
Chilver or Chilver hog | A yearling ewe lamb |
Chimley | Chimney[3] |
Chop | Sell, barter or exchange[3] |
Chump | A log of wood[3] |
Clavy | Mantelpiece[3] |
Clinker | Icicle[4] |
Clitty | Stringy and sticky, tangled in clods or lumps |
Clodgy | Dumplike, close |
Clot | Lump, clod |
Clutchéd | Clutched |
Cockle | Tangle[4] |
Codgloves | Hedger's gloves, with a bad for all the fingers together |
Comely or Come | To be ripe. Inviting |
Conk-load | Nose-full |
Conzum-ed | Consumed |
Cowheart | Coward |
Cowlease | An uncut field, meadow[4] |
Cradlehood | Early stages of childhood, infancy, still in the cradle[4] |
Crate | Womb |
Creezey | Silky |
Crewel | Cowslip |
Cricket | A low stool or chair for a child[4] |
Crims | Cold-shivers, creeping of flesh |
Croodle | To rock, to coo. To make little crowings |
Croopy | To sink one's body, bending down the thighs behind the legs |
Crousty | Grumpy, in a bad mood[4] |
Culver | Wood pigeon |
Curdles | Hair curls[4] |
Cuty | Wren |
D | |
Dabster | Someone who is skilled in something, an expert[4] |
Dadder | To confuse or bewilder[4] |
Dander | Vex, anger[4] |
Darkling bird | Blackbird |
Daw | Jackdaw |
Death-biddle | Deathwatch beetle |
De-da | Simple, foolish, slow-witted |
Devil's bird | Magpie |
Dewbit | A bite to eat taken first thing in the morning before breakfast[4] |
Didden | Did not |
Dorring | Mocking |
Doughbiaked | Feeble-minded[5] |
Dout | Put out a flame or fire, "Dout the candle" for example[5] |
Downdashious | Audacious[5] |
Drashel | The strip of wood or concrete at the bottom of a doorway, the threshold[5] |
Draty | Draught, draughty, full of draughts of air |
Drawlatcheten | Idle, lazy[5] |
Drinky | Having consumed too much alcohol, inebriated[5] |
Dread-fulled | Full of dread |
Dread gates | School gates |
Drean | To drawl in speaking |
Dree | Three |
Drisk | A fine, wind-driven mist |
Drownsy | Drowned |
Drush | Thrush |
Duckish | Dark, gloomy[5] |
Drong | Squeeze or compress[5] |
Drongway | A narrow passage or alley; Most commonly a narrow footpath between two fenced fields[5] |
Dumbledore | Bumblebee[5] |
Dummet | Dusk |
Dungy | Downcast, dull |
Dunnick | Sparrow |
E | |
'e | He |
Eacor | Acorn |
Eet | Yet[5] |
Effets | Newts[5] |
Egg-tree | Ovary |
Elebm | Eleven |
Em | Them |
Emmets | Ants[5] |
En | Him |
Engripement | Grievance |
'enself | Himself |
'es | His |
'e's | He is |
Eth, ethly | Earth, earthly |
Ethed | Buried |
Ether-hunger | The hunger for earth, sometimes felt by persons approaching death |
Evemen | Evening[5] |
F | |
Faddle | To pack or bundle together[6] |
Fantod | Fuss[6] |
Farterous | Father-like |
Feasen | Faces |
Fess | Pleased with, proud[6] |
Fevrell | February |
Fleeceful | As much as fills a fleece |
Fleecy | Fleece; drunk, drunken |
Flummocks | To scare or frighten[6] |
Footling | Something worthless, beneath contempt[6] |
Footy | Insignificant, small, trivial[6] |
Fowel | The placenta of a cow |
Freen | Free from |
Frith | Thin twigs that have broken off from trees and bushes, historically used to make brushes; brushwood[6] |
Frog-hopper | Grasshopper |
Furby | Foul or sticky matter, as that on a tongue in sickness |
G | |
Gake | To stare open-mouthed, gawk, gape[6] |
Gallycrow | Scarecrow[6] |
Gannywedge | A wide yawn or to spread apart[6] |
Gap | Mouth |
Gapmouth | Nightjar |
Gawl, Gawly | An opening, an empty place, a bare patch; empty hollow |
Gi'e | To give, to yield |
Gilcup or Giltcup | A small, yellow flower of the family Ranunculaceae, common in meadows and pasture; buttercup[6] |
Girding | Taunting |
Girt | Large, great[6] |
Glene | To joke with[7] |
Glory hole | Vagina |
Glow | Stare or watch with fixed, open eyes |
Glutch | To swallow[7] |
Gnang | To mock by half-clear sounds, wagging the jaw with a grin |
God's stinking tree | Elder |
Goocoo | Cuckoo |
Goocoo pint | Wild arum, snakeshead, Arum maculatum |
Goocoo's bread | Wood sorrel |
Goocoo spettle or Spume | Cuckoo spit, a white froth secreted by insects |
Grab | Crab apple tree |
Gramf'er | Grandfather |
Gramm'er | Grandmother |
Grave | To bury |
Greygole | A small, blue woodland flower of the hyacinth family; Bluebell[7] |
Gribble | A young crab tree or blackthorm |
Grotten | A sleep-slade, a run or pasture for sheep |
Growed | Grew |
Gurrel | Girl |
Gwain | Going[7] |
Gwains-on | Rowdy behaviour (goings-on)[7] |
H | |
Hag-ridden | A nightmare attributed to a supernatural presence of a witch or hag, by whom one is ridden to sleep |
Halterpath | A path for a horse and rider; Bridleway[7] |
Handy | Thereabouts, an approximation, "Ees 6' or somewhere 'andy" for example[7] |
Hangen house | A shed under the continuation of the roof of the house |
Han'pat | Nearby, close at hand[7] |
Harled | Tangled |
Hassen | Hast not |
Hatch | A small gate[7] |
Heabm | Heaven |
Heal or Healéd | To cover over[7] |
Hedlen | Headlong[7] |
Heissen | A prediction of evil |
Hetful | Hot |
Heth | Hearth |
Hethcropper | A horse or pony bred on a heath[7] |
Hidy-buck | Children's game, hide-n-seek[7] |
Ho | To be anxious or to show caution[8] |
Hoar-stone | Standing stone or ancient boundary stone |
Hobble | A field-shed for cattle |
Hobby Horse | Woodlouse[8] |
Hogget | A yearling sheep of either sex, the meat of a hogget |
Hogget shears | Sheep shears |
Hold wi' | Side with |
Holm | Holly |
Holrod | Cowslip |
Holway | Hollow lane |
Homhle | A duck[8] |
Honey-zuck | A climbing plant of the family Caprifoliaceae; honeysuckle[8] |
Honking | Inhale deeply |
Hook | To gore with the horns |
Hoss-stinger or Ho's adder | Dragonfly[8] |
Hummock | Cow |
Hustle | To moan, spoken of the wind |
Hwome | Home |
I | |
Ice-candles | Icicles[8] |
Inneath | Behind, inside |
Inon | Onion[8] |
Inwards | Innards |
J | |
Joppety-joppety | Anxious, nervous trepidation[8] |
K | |
Keech | To clear a riverbank of weeds[8] |
Kit | Friend or family, kin[8] |
Knog | Knob |
L | |
Lag | Leg |
Lagwood | The larger cut-off branches and twigs of a tree |
Laminger | One who has become lame |
Lamploo | A game of tag in which those caught join hands with the pursuer/s to form a chain[9][10] |
Lear | An ailing in sheep |
Leaze | Field |
Leery | Hungry[9] |
Lerret | A traditional, double-ended boat with a flat bottom and high sternposts, which can be launched from a steep bank or beach [9][11] |
Let | A stopping or interruption |
Limber | Skinny, slim, slender[9] |
Limner | Painter and decorator[9] |
Lip | Basket[9] |
Lippen | Wet weather, rainy, sometimes also referred to as lippy[9] |
Lisome | Cheery, happy[9] |
Litter | Confusion[9] |
Litty | Of light and easy bodily motion |
Loneleft | Left alone |
Long tail | Pheasant |
Lovesome | Lovely, loving |
Lowsen | To listen |
Lure | A disease of sheep; an ulcer in the cleft of the foot |
Lwonesomness | Lonesomeness |
M | |
Magot | An impulse or whim[9] |
Maggoty | Very drunk |
Main | Strength, power[9] |
Mampus | A crowd[9] |
Mandy | Saucy |
Mare's tail | Equisetum arvense (horsetail) |
Mazzerdy | Knotty |
Meeces | Mice |
Mesh | Moss[9] |
Midin' | Might not, may not |
Milchi | Milk, milky pale |
Milk flower | Snowdrop |
Mingdom | A stinking, dirty or unpleasant kingdom |
Mommet | A guy, an effigy |
Moud or Moule | Field mouse[12] |
Mus'n | Must not |
Mwope | Bullfinch |
N | |
Nammet | A light lunch of meat[12] |
Near | Parsimonious, miserly[12] |
Nearen | Nearby |
Nesh, Neshen | Tender |
Nesseltripe | The weakest or last born |
Nether-ethed | Buried |
Netherwise | Viewed from below |
Nicky | Kindling[12] |
Nippy | Peckish[12] |
Nirrup | Donkey[12] |
No-but | Nothing but |
Noowhen | At no time |
Not | Flowerbed[12] |
Nuncheon | A noon-time meal, luncheon[12] |
Nuts | Joy; testicles |
O | |
Oone | One |
Orf | A viral form of pustular dermatitis found in sheep, and communicable to humans |
Out ov ban | Instantly, at once[12] |
Over-right | Opposite[12] |
Over-watch | Baby-sit |
Owl, owling | To owl about, to ramble by night |
P | |
Pank | To pant |
Parlour-sky | Attic, loft |
Parrick | A piece of fenced off land, a paddock[12] |
Peart | Healthy, vibrant, full of life[13] |
Pecker | Green woodpecker |
Peck upon | Dominate[13] |
Pelt | A rage, to feel angry[13] |
Peze, peaze | To ooze out |
Piaviours | Flagstones[13] |
Piggyback, a pig a back, a pack a back | To carry a child on one's back with their arms around your neck and their legs around your waist. |
Piss-a-bed | Dandelion |
Pisty poll | To carry a child on one's shoulders with their legs around your neck and their arms around your forehead. |
Pleck | A small enclosure |
'plexion | Complexion |
Pock-fretten | Pock-marked from acne |
Poll | Head |
Popples | Pebbles[13] |
Prog | Food[13] |
Purl | Curl, swirl, frill; or an abbreviation of pur lamb |
Pur lamb | A castrated ram lamb |
Puxy | A miry or boggy place |
Pwope | A bunchy thing, an effigy, a doll, a puppet |
Q | |
Quartere'il, Quaterevil | A disease of sheep, a corruption of the blood |
Quine | The corner of a wall[13] |
Quob | Quiver, shake[13] |
R | |
Rafty | Rancid |
Rake | To reek |
Rale | Walk[13] |
Rammish | Strong smelling, rank |
Ramshacklum | Useless[13] |
Rangle | To reach about like a trailing or climbing plant |
Rap | Swap, barter or exchange[13] |
Rathe | Early[13] |
Reames | The frame or ligaments of a thing, skeleton |
Rean | Consume food quickly and greedily[14] |
Reaphook | A curved blade for cutting grasses; Sickle[14] |
Reapy | Reap |
Red-bread | Vagina |
Reddick | Small garden bird with a red breast, commonly known as a robin (Erithacus rubecula)[14] |
Red rag | Tongue |
Reeve | Unravel[14] |
Riblets | Little ribs |
Roasting tomb | Stove |
Rod | Penis |
Rottletrap | Rickety[14] |
Ruddle | A red earth by which they mark they mark sheep |
Rudger or Rig | An uncastrated horse |
Rum | Queer |
Rumstick | Queer, a queer man |
S | |
Sar | To serve or feed animals |
Sarch | To search |
Satepoll | A foolish or silly person[14] |
Scaly | Mean, stingy[14] |
Sclerevil | Hardened and evil |
Scote | To shoot along very fast |
Scram | Screwy-grown |
Scratch, scratching | To write, writing; to carve |
Screak, screaking | To creak loudly |
Scriddick, scrid | A small scrap or shred |
Scrip | Shepherd's coat |
Scroff | Small bits of dead wood |
Scroop, scrooping | The low sound of one hard body scraping against another |
Scrounch, Scrunch | To crunch strongly |
Seem an I | Seems to me |
Shabby mothers | Ewes |
Shade | Spirit, ghost |
Shatten | Shall not |
Sheep nuts | Coarse mix pellets, sheep food |
Shim | a she/him |
Shockle | To shake about lightly |
Shoo | A cry to fray away owls |
Shram | A screwing up or out of the body and limbs from keen cold |
Sify | To catch the breath in sighing; to sob |
Sives | Chives or garlic[14][15] |
Skeat, skeating | A looseness of the bowels |
Sloey spears | The sharp spines on the branches of the sloe or blackthorn |
Slommock(en) | A slatternly, thick-set, stocky, short, dirty woman |
Smame | To smear |
Smeech | A cloud of dust[16] |
Smirchéd | Tarnished |
Smoor | To smear |
Snabble | To snap up quickly; To eat quickly or greedily[16] |
Snake's-head | Arum maculatum |
So't | Soft |
Soldier's tears | Mullein, a tall, stiff flowered, woolly plant |
Somen | Someone |
Somewhen | At some time |
Soonere | Ghost |
Span-new | Clean and shiny, like new[16] |
Spawl, spawly | A splinter flown off, as from wood or stone; splintered |
Sprak | Spry, lively[16] |
Speare | Thin, lanky |
Spet | To spit |
Spiles | The beard of barley |
Spotter | (Great or lesser) Spotted Woodpecker |
Spume | Come, semen |
Squitters | Diarrhoea in cattle |
Stare | Starling |
Stiver | To stiffen up much as an angry dogs hairs |
Stumpy | To walk with short stamoing steps |
Sweethearts | Goose grass |
Sweven | A dream |
T | |
Taffle | To tangle, as grass or corn beaten down by weather |
Tarble | Tolerable |
Tardle | To tangle |
Teake to | To reach forth to a man or thing with a ready good will |
Teare | Eager and bold as flies on food |
Tet | Teat |
Tewly | Small and weakly |
Theave | A three-year-old sheep |
Theosom | These |
Thick as inkle weavers | Close in friendship, from inkle, a kind of tape for a very narrow loom at which the weavers sat close side by side |
Thieves | Fairies |
Thik | That |
Thirtover | Perverse |
Thumbles | Thumbs |
Tidd'n | 'tis not |
Tilty | Grumpy, irritable, ill-tempered[16] |
Tinklebobs | Icicles[16] |
Torrididdle | A state of bewilderment or confusion[16] |
Toyear | This year; as in today, tomorrow etc.[16] |
Trapes, Trapesèn | A woman who tramps about bodly |
Tree-tears | Leaves |
Tuen | Tune |
Tup | A ram; (of a ram) to copulate with a ewe |
Twanketen | Sad, melancholic[16] |
T'wards | Towards |
'twere | It were |
Twiddick | A small twig |
Twink | Chaffinch |
Twoad | Toad |
Twoad's meat | Toadstools |
U | |
Undercreepen | Devious, sly, underhand[17] |
Unheal | To uncover |
Unray | To undress |
Upsmitten | Dust or liquid sprayed or blown upawrds |
Upsydown | Upside down, overturned[17] |
V | |
Vall | To fall |
Vang | To earn[17] |
Veag | Wrath, a high heat of anger (Anglo-Saxon faegth) |
Veäre | Weasel |
Veäry | Fairy |
Veäry ring | Fairy ring, a ring of fungi |
Veäry tale | Fairy tale |
Vess'y | To versey, to read verses by turns |
Vilthy | Filthy |
Vinny | Veiny or mouldy, like the Dorset cheese, Blue-vinny[17] |
Vitty | Neat and proper[17] |
Vive | Five |
Vlee | Fly |
Vlesh vlee | A blowfly, a flesh fly |
Vlit | Flit |
Vlittermouse | Bat |
Vloat | Float |
Vlutterbie | Butterfly |
Vog | Fog |
Vokket | To go about here and there |
Voley | Vole |
Vom | Vomit |
Vorehearing | Premonition, forewarning |
Vore-right | Going forward without regard to consequences or seemliness |
Voretold | Foretold |
Vorewarn | Forewarned |
Voul | Foul |
Vower, vowr, vow'r | Four |
Vuzzen | Fir trees |
W | |
Wagwanton | Quaking grass |
Want | Mole |
Want-heave | Mole hill |
Want-heave slave | A mole |
Ware | Pond[17] |
Waxen crundels | Swollen tonsils |
Weave | To rock backwards and forwards in pain |
Welshnut | Walnut[17] |
Werret | To concern or worry[18] |
Wether | A castrated male lamb |
Wevvet | Cobweb |
Wevvet queens | Spiders |
Wheel-bird | Nightjar |
Whinnick | To whine softly or slightly |
Whiver | To hover, to quiver |
Winker | Eyeball |
Woak | Oak |
Woodculver | Wood pigeon or ringdove |
Woone | One |
Wont | Mole, small burrowing mammal of the family Talpidae[18] |
Woppen | Big, heavy[18] |
Wopsy or Wops | Wasp[18] |
Wordle | World[18] |
Wurse | Devil, arch-fiend |
Y | |
Yakker | Acorn[18] |
Yer | Your |
Yer tiz | Here it is, yes it is |
Yis | Earthworm[18] |
Yoller | Yellow |
Yollerheads | Daffodils |
Yoller roses | Primroses |
Yop | Speak rapidly, jabber[18] |
Z | |
Zeale or Zack | Sack[18] |
Zebm | Seven |
Zedgemocks | Tufts of sedge grass |
Zet up | To anger, infuriate[18] |
Zing | Sing |
Zive | Scythe |
Zix | Six |
Zounds | Sounds |
Zummat | Something[18] |
Zwail | Swagger[18] |
Zweal | To scorch |
Zweat | Sweat |
Zween, zweemy | A feeling of swinging around in the head |
See also
[edit]Wiktionary has a category on Dorset English.
Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Newton (2014), p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Newton (2014), p. 8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Newton (2014), p. 9.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Newton (2014), p. 10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Newton (2014), p. 11.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Newton (2014), p. 12.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Newton (2014), p. 13.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Newton (2014), p. 14.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Newton (2014), p. 15.
- ^ Bertha Gomme, Alice (2009). The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc. (Complete). Library of Alexandria Publishing. ISBN 9781465572899.
- ^ "Lerrets and Fishing Off Chesil Beach". Dorset Ancestors. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Newton (2014), p. 16.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Newton (2014), p. 17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Newton (2014), p. 18.
- ^ Barnes (1863), p. 84.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Newton (2014), p. 19.
- ^ a b c d e f g Newton (2014), p. 20.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Newton (2014), p. 21.
References
[edit]- Barnes, William (1863), A Grammar and Glossary of the Dorset Dialect, Berlin: A. Asher and Co.
- Newton, Gill (2014), Dorset Dialect, Sheffield: Bradwell Books, ISBN 9781910551011
Harvey, PJ (2022), Orlam, London: Picador, pp. 283–297, ISBN 978-1-5290-6311-0