'Mithering' and other obscure English words

[Albion]

I was writing a response to this post (http://forums.skadi.net/showpost.php?p=1152129&postcount=117) and allowed for my dialect to slip in.
It struck me a bit that words so common around here such as 'mithering' (to moan, whine or nag) just aren't in official dictionaries.
I didn't even know whether my phonetic spelling of 'mithering' was correct until I finally found it listed, it could have been 'mythering' depending on the speaker I suppose.

This posses some problems for one wanting to communicate in the native dialect but being bound by dictionaries which seem to borrow words from everywhere else in the world accept from the country's own North!
Maybe this is linguistic imperialism on part of the South, or maybe they haven't heard the word yet.

And do you ever invent new words? My latest one is 'Negroesque' (In the manner of; resembling a Negro / Sub-Saharan). I don;t think it'll catch on, but if it makes it into slang it'll stand a chance.:rolleyes:

So anyway, what other obscure words which don't seem to be in the dictionaries are there?

[Beorn]

Afeard, noggerhead, punkies, bist, etc...

[heathen_son]

Donney's/Danny's - Fingers

[Osweo]

Myther is a favourite of mine. It IS immensely frustrating when it's not listed in dictionaries too. My main gripe with that is that it's not so easy to find out about the history of the word. It actually means a lot to my own sense of identity, as a Manc, and having it a struggle to learn about is annoying. Interesting that mither is found down into Shropshire, by the way. I almost hugged an old woman who used it to me in Cambridgeshire, when i was travelling and hadn't heard it for perhaps a year. She'd left Shropshire some fifty years ago, apparently. :p

A similar word, as annoyingly lacking in approved orthography, is 't'rah'. When you're hesitant about how to write words you use every day, your language is somewhat alienated from you. :grumpy:

[Albion]

Myther is a favourite of mine. It IS immensely frustrating when it's not listed in dictionaries too. My main gripe with that is that it's not so easy to find out about the history of the word. It actually means a lot to my own sense of identity, as a Manc, and having it a struggle to learn about is annoying. Interesting that mither is found down into Shropshire, by the way. I almost hugged an old woman who used it to me in Cambridgeshire, when i was travelling and hadn't heard it for perhaps a year. She'd left Shropshire some fifty years ago, apparently. :p

A similar word, as annoyingly lacking in approved orthography, is 't'rah'. When you're hesitant about how to write words you use every day, your language is somewhat alienated from you. :grumpy:

T'rah is another good one we use around here too. It depends on the context, some people will use it to try and sound funny (young people) whereas most of the population over 25 use it fairly often as a replacement for 'bye'.
Plumbers when finishing a job will say 't'rah duck' to a woman for example.

'Duck' is another one, in some places it can be used for men too but in this part of the country it is used for kids and women. When I got called 'duck' in the North Midlands before I was taken aback.
According to the dictionary 'duck' is a type of bird and not a person. :eek: :D

[heathen_son]

My Great-grandmother (Northamptonshire) used to say m'duck. Most of my family (Warwickshire/Northants) say t'dah. In a display of stereotypical Brittery, my Grandfather would say "Toodle-pip". That might have been because he was over-compensating for being German, but he must have been emulating someone in the village (Northants).

I read in an old dictionary of Northamptonshire dialect that in the 18th century we called Moles "Molliwops", or something similar.

My Geography teacher used to shout at kids for "dithering". I have never heard it since.

A few people say "Fair to Middlin" when asked how they are doing. It means "Just about OK". I seem to have picked up "Not too shabby", but I don't know where.

As English people, we don't say "squiffy" (drunk) enough, despite "An Inspector Calls" being required reading when I was at school.

There's still plenty of stuff from the Black Country, but that's been dying out. Still, if you meet an old boy, it's difficult to know what they're saying.

NqIcbLkY2iY

[Osweo]

T'rah is another good one we use around here too. It depends on the context, some people will use it to try and sound funny (young people)
That's worrying, that the youth feel their own regional identity is something to mock. :(
I suppose they're emulating the shit off telly and music, unaware that if they were to meet their metropolitan and American idols, they would be considered laughable bumpkins all the same.... :tsk:

'Duck' is another one, in some places it can be used for men too but in this part of the country it is used for kids and women. When I got called 'duck' in the North Midlands before I was taken aback.
According to the dictionary 'duck' is a type of bird and not a person. :eek: :D
:p You know, I wonder if we're dealing with a fossilised memory of the Old English personal name Ducca here...

Yes... :chin:
Moles "Molliwops", or something similar.
Mouldywarp is one recognised version. :)


My Geography teacher used to shout at kids for "dithering". I have never heard it since.
Odd, as it IS standard English. 'To hesitate or faff about', no?

[heathen_son]

Odd, as it IS standard English. 'To hesitate or faff about', no?

I guess just not our schools standard?

To be fair, I have actually heard it since now that I think about it. It might have been on "The Simpsons" :D

[heathen_son]

That's worrying, that the youth feel their own regional identity is something to mock. :(
I suppose they're emulating the shit off telly and music, unaware that if they were to meet their metropolitan and American idols, they would be considered laughable bumpkins all the same....

I consider my bumpkinry as a badge of honour. I remember my sister being embarassed as I shouted "Ay up..." at someone across the other side of the University Halls of Residence. Despite being brought up in the same way, she wanted to sound more like she was from "London" (I still imagine that they ALL talk posh down there :D ).

[Albion]

You know, I wonder if we're dealing with a fossilised memory of the Old English personal name Ducca here...

Yes...

Could be, was it especially common?


I consider my bumpkinry as a badge of honour. I remember my sister being embarassed as I shouted "Ay up..." at someone across the other side of the University Halls of Residence. Despite being brought up in the same way, she wanted to sound more like she was from "London" (I still imagine that they ALL talk posh down there :D ).

I use that as well and get called old fashioned. It is common in Yorkshire and North Staffordshire.

[TheBorrebyViking]

Niggardly, such a hated word because the Liberals and their pawns don't know what it means.

[Graham]

I was writing a response to this post (http://forums.skadi.net/showpost.php?p=1152129&postcount=117) and allowed for my dialect to slip in.
[/B]

I still remember when you mithered on every single Scotland topic. Astrid Runa on that Skadi, looks like she's more defending, than 'girning'.

[Albion]

I still remember when you mithered on every single Scotland topic. Astrid Runa on that Skadi, looks like she's more defending, than 'girning'.

I was bored and needed something to do. ;)

Does "girning" mean pulling ugly faces as it does in Yorkshire then?

[Graham]

I was bored and needed something to do. ;)

Does "girning" mean pulling ugly faces as it does in Yorkshire then?
I think of it to moan. Like your word mither. If you said it here. People might think mother. :D



girn (gûrn)
intr.v. girned, girn·ing, girns Scots
1. To complain in a whining voice.
2. To contort one's face; grimace.
[Middle English girnen, variant of grinnen, grennan; see grin.]
girn n.

girn [gərn gɜːn]
vb (intr) Scot and northern English dialect
1. to snarl
2. to grimace; pull grotesque faces
3. to complain fretfully or peevishly

[Peasant]

girn = gurn?

[Treffie]

I remember an aunt of mine living in Pembrokeshire used to say `Gway` as an exclamation. eg,

Someone: Johnnie's going to university this year

Aunt: Gway! (get away)

[Osweo]

I remember an aunt of mine living in Pembrokeshire used to say `Gway` as an exclamation. eg,

Someone: Johnnie's going to university this year

Aunt: Gway! (get away)

I've heard it in Tipperary too.

[Wulfhere]

Mither is also very much part of Birmingham dialect, so much so that I hadn't even considered that it might not be in a dictionary. I would define it as something like hassle, though never quite as bad as the latter can sometimes be.

[Osweo]

I never quite liked the mIther spelling. Looks too much like the different sounding slither. Do yous reckon meither is better? Or myther?

Or is the English writing system just too fucked up to even try getting something that's roughly phonetic? :p

[Albion]

I never quite liked the mIther spelling. Looks too much like the different sounding slither. Do yous reckon meither is better? Or myther?

Or is the English writing system just too fucked up to even try getting something that's roughly phonetic? :p

Yeah, same here. I think 'meither' looks better, 'myther' just looks like poor spelling. If only English had been standardised in the North.

[Osweo]

Yeah, same here. I think 'meither' looks better, 'myther' just looks like poor spelling. If only English had been standardised in the North.

Hmmm, I finally sense my calling in life.

А пропер стандардайзейшън ов Норжерн Инглиш!!!!!!

ахем: МАЙЖЕР!!!

[Albion]

Yes, but no Cyrillic, Cyrillic is for Slavs. ;)

[Jake Featherston]

I use many peculiar English words. Its difficult to think of examples off the top of my head, but I do recall frequent use of "betwixt" (a synonym for "between"), and "poltroon" (a perfidious person, often a public official of some sort). Come to think of it, "perfidious" is pretty obscure these days.

I have a very extensive vocabulary, and oddly, my German immigrant girlfriend recently used an English word I had never heard before: Macerate.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/macerate

[Jake Featherston]

My Geography teacher used to shout at kids for "dithering". I have never heard it since.

A few people say "Fair to Middlin" when asked how they are doing. It means "Just about OK". I seem to have picked up "Not too shabby", but I don't know where.


I use all of these. Sometimes I will say "None too shabby," instead of "Not..."

[heathen_son]

Rapscallion!

[Osweo]

Bluddy French words... :tsk:


Rapscallion!
rapscallion
1690s, alteration of rascallion (1640s), a fanciful elaboration of rascal (q.v.). It is the parallel term of now-extinct rampallion (1590s), from M.E. ramp (n.) "ill-behaved woman" (mid-15c.), which is probably connected to the definition of romp in Johnson's Dictionary (1755) as "a rude, awkward, boisterous, untaught girl."

rascal
early 14c., rascaile "people of the lowest class, rabble of an army," from O.Fr. rascaille "outcast, rabble" (12c.), perhaps from rasque "mud, filth, scab, dregs," from V.L. *rasicare "to scrape" (see rash (n.)). The singular form is first attested mid-15c.; extended sense of "low, dishonest person" is from 1580s.


By the way, I found a funny early instance of mither the other day, while reading the diary of Manchester wigmaker Edmund Harrold, in 1712:


Aug. 1st I'm in a midered condition.


And that's all he wrote for the day. :D I'll quote a more typical day for comparison:


7th. This morning I had my old malancholy pain seized on me, with a longing desire for drink; so I went and paid my rent, then I sold J. G. a lock of hair pro loss 5s. 6d.; then I spent 2d with Hall &c., then 4d. with Mr. Allen, 'tourney; then fought with S. B. at Jane Win's about chat; then went a rambl - Key, Dragon, and Castle, and Lyon, till near 12 o'clock, till I was ill drunken; cost me 4 1/2d. from 6 till 12. I made myself a great foole, &c.

8th. This day I lay in bed till almost 11 o'clock; I've drunk no ale to-day, yet on 6 at night I'm vext about my ramble last night. I've mist public and private prayers 2 times. It's a very great trouble to me that I thus expose myself, hurt my body, offend against God, set bad example, torment my mind and break my rules, make myself a laughing stock to men, grieve the Holy Spirit, disorder my family, fret my wife (now quick), which is all against my own mind when sober, besides loss of my credit and reputation in the world. ....
Great book. :D

[heathen_son]

Bluddy French words... :tsk:

It's what my mother used to call me and my sister when we were being too noisy.

:pout:

That Edmund Harrold sounds like a right Rapscallion! Humbug!

[Osweo]

God... The Oxford English Dictionary - a very respectable institution - has some radical ideas about mither's etymology! :eek:


Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmʌɪðə/ , U.S. /ˈmaɪðər/
Forms: 18 mayther, 18 meither, 18 meyther, 18– mither, 18– myther.
Etymology: Variant of moider v.

...>

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmɔɪdə/ , U.S. /ˈmɔɪdər/
Forms: 16– moidher, 16– moyder, 17 moyther, 17– moider, 18– mauther, 18– modder (Sc.), 18– moidar, 18– moidur, 18– moither, 18– moodher, 19– mother.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps < Irish modartha dark, murky, morose (Old Irish modarda sullen, sad), of uncertain origin. Compare mither v.
Welsh mwydro, moedro to bewilder, perplex (18th cent.) has been adduced as a possible cognate of the Irish word, but is probably borrowed < English.

:eek:

[jerney]

Myther is a favourite of mine. It IS immensely frustrating when it's not listed in dictionaries too.

Well, what do you expect? They're busy adding words like "phat", "bootylicious", "sexting", "mankini", etc..

[Albion]

This post (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?p=832092#post832092) made me wonder about the word "eyup".
I don't think it's in a dictionary but it sounds very similar to North Germanic greetings and is probably derived from Norse influence in my opinion. Where the "up" at the end comes from I don't know.

[Graham]

Never heard anyone up here use 'eyup'. Take it that it's just like yup-yep-yes and ay-aye-yes

[Allenson]

My Geography teacher used to shout at kids for "dithering". I have never heard it since.

A few people say "Fair to Middlin" when asked how they are doing. It means "Just about OK". I seem to have picked up "Not too shabby", but I don't know where.


Old timers here will use 'dithering' to mean something along the lines of unproductive activity. 'Dubbing around' is used more now but has basically the same meaning.

'Fair-to-midddlin' and 'not too shabby' are certainly still heard and are usually accompanied by a wink or wry smile. :cool:

[Albion]

I've just thought of one when replying to another thread - 'slat'.

It has many meanings:


slat (slt)
n.
1. A narrow strip of metal or wood, as in a Venetian blind.
2. A movable auxiliary airfoil running along the leading edge of the wing of an airplane.
3. slats Slang The ribs.

But this is the one here:



Dialect

vb slats, slatting, slatted
1. (tr) to throw violently; fling carelessly
2. (intr) to flap violently
n
a sudden blow
[of Scandinavian origin; related to Old Norse, Icelandic sletta to slap]

I use it quite often, it means something like 'to throw' - 'I slat it in the bin' (I threw it in the bin)

It's quite common around here, does anyone else use it?

[Virtuous]

In the end, you are all poofters.

[Mistel]

I was writing a response to this post (http://forums.skadi.net/showpost.php?p=1152129&postcount=117) and allowed for my dialect to slip in.
It struck me a bit that words so common around here such as 'mithering' (to moan, whine or nag) just aren't in official dictionaries.
I didn't even know whether my phonetic spelling of 'mithering' was correct until I finally found it listed, it could have been 'mythering' depending on the speaker I suppose.

This posses some problems for one wanting to communicate in the native dialect but being bound by dictionaries which seem to borrow words from everywhere else in the world accept from the country's own North!
Maybe this is linguistic imperialism on part of the South, or maybe they haven't heard the word yet.

And do you ever invent new words? My latest one is 'Negroesque' (In the manner of; resembling a Negro / Sub-Saharan). I don;t think it'll catch on, but if it makes it into slang it'll stand a chance.:rolleyes:

So anyway, what other obscure words which don't seem to be in the dictionaries are there?

Instead of mither, people where I come from say "moither" (Shropshire).