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Title: A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire

Author: Wadham Pigott Williams

Release date: April 28, 2008 [eBook #25212]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25212

Credits: Transcribed from the 1873 Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer edition by David Price

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A GLOSSARY OF PROVINCIAL WORDS & PHRASES IN USE IN SOMERSETSHIRE ***

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.

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 Archæological 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 æt Peonnum wiþ Wealas, and hie geflymde oþ 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 Sumorsætas, of the Thornsætas [Dorset], and the Wiltsætas 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 Defnsætas, 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 rüf, “through” is thrü, and “would” is wüd.  The county might consequently be divided into a “Langue d’oo” and a “Langue d’ü.”

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’ü 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 θυρα.  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’ü 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 hænan 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. æxse) 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 beünd

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 bífian, 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, Dräil 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 (faät) v.  to find fault

Fauty (faäty) adj.  given to find fault

Fauth, Foth, Voth s.  the turning place of the plough at the side of a field

Feäty adj.  pretty, neat

Feäze 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

Foäse 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

Fooäse, or Vooäse 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-beäson 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)

Haïn 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 hälsen, 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 hæman)

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 hæig-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

Hūmacks 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 laäid 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

Lāt, or Lart s.  a lath, ex. Lartin nails

Lāt 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. levèe)

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 (maäking)  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. melée)

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

Nä-poäst 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

Nâunt 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)

Nüthen 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

Oól  will; o’ot  wilt o’ot’n’t  wilt not

Ope s.  an opening

Open-erse s.  a medler (A S open-œrs), 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)

Pëart 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. rugæ)

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, Sparkéd, 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

Swāther, 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

Tëart 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

Vleër 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-nüss)

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

Wrîde 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

Zāte adj.  soft

Zatenfare s.  softish, a foolish fellow

Zead v.  for has seen

Zead s.  seed.  Zëad-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.

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Table of Contents

a GLOSSARY of PROVINCIAL WORDS & PHRASES in use in SOMERSETSHIRE.

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION.

On the Somerset Dialects.

A GLOSSARY OF PROVINCIAL WORDS AND PHRASES IN USE IN SOMERSETSHIRE.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE