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Transcribed from the 1873 Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
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.
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.
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:—
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, 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
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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
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)
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)
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
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
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.