DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[rossylass]

My friend and her mum made aprons and dolls clothes out of fents and sold them on various markets. The pinnies were made of strips of fabric sewn together. I occasionally went into Manchester to the "fent shop", which was very dark and old fashioned and where the pieces were sold by weight. They also sold leatherette pieces which Jane and her mum made into bags. They worked at home which was a huge Queen Anne house which they rented and was never improved because it was under the threat of demolition for road improvements. The goods for market were made on old treadle sewing machines in their kitchen, which had a range and when they ran out of coal they sometimes shoved some leatherette on the fire. There was no mains electricity and the house was lit by gas......we are talking late fifties and early sixties. It was eventually demolished which was a crime because potentially it was a beautiful house. The road was never touched!

Jane got a hawkers license - from the Post Office I think and we amused ourselves by marching the streets selling pinnies with placards around our necks inviting people to "stop me and buy one". Crazy girls.

[rossylass]

I found a letter quoted in a book, which the author claimed was from a Pickuls (probably Henry), although I'm not sure I believe him. It was a begging letter asking for help as his theatre had been damaged in a storm and whoever wrote it claimed he had a number of children and that his wife was " going to the straw again". I guess that this awful expression meant that she was due to have a baby. Has any body ever come across that one? The letter would have been written In the mid nineteenth century if atall.

[Stanley]

Never heard that one. I've heard "scratting up the straw", a reference to the fact that before farrowing a pig will scratch her straw up into a bed. Vera used to scrub the kitchen floor.....

[hartley353]

Both my parents used the word scratting usualy in a sentence on money. Eg scratting for a shilling would mean searching all places where money may be, looking for coppers that would mount up to the shilling.

[Tripps]

What's so special about "The Bee's Knees". Does anyone know?

[PanBiker]

It's where they store the pollen when foraging but other than that I don't know. An interesting question though.

[Tizer]

Expanding on Ian's post, I guess it's because bee's knees are well-suited to collecting pollen...so the bee's knees is used to describe anything well-suited for its purpose.

[Stanley]

Morris and Brewer are silent on 'bee's knees'. Sounds like a good origin to me!

[Tizer]

I'm sure I heard Justin Webb on Radio 4 use the term `high faluting' recently (not sure if I've spelt it correctly). Where does that come from, I wonder, and is there a verb `to falute'?

[Cathy]

Drubbing - another word for dusting when doing the housework
Collywobbles - feeling sick after eating something that wasn't quite right

These two words were (are ?) both used in the Cotswold areas.

[hartley353]

I'm sure I heard Justin Webb on Radio 4 use the term `high faluting' recently (not sure if I've spelt it correctly). Where does that come from, I wonder, and is there a verb `to falute'?

Very distant memory but I remember one of my tutors bringing this up as an Americanism, if my memory serves me well it was to do with the better off travelling by steamboats with high fluted funnels it is all one word when I googled it.

[hartley353]

Drubbing is now used to mean to beat in a contest, but you can see the connection to carpet beating. So Cathy's connection is correct.

[Stanley]

Highfalutin. Webster goes no further than saying that it originated in 1830/40 and is perhaps an association with flute playing.
Drubbing used for physical beating, especially in contests, I can't find any reliable root apart from a suggestion it may come from the Arabic.
In the US they use 'gubernatorial' as a description of office holding as state governor. It always intrigued me and I saw it recently on a memorial inscription in Ancient Rome. I looked it up and it's Latin for 'steersman'.

[Cathy]

Re high-falutin. I thought it related to flouting as in - scornful, disdain, contempt, flouting the system.
My search for Falutin brings up pretentious, bombastic, high-falutin folks, above one's station. All relating to a persons behaviour.

[hartley353]

Highfalutin its a lovely word, and you can well understand why folks would hear it and think I will use that. But when these words come into common usage people will use them out of context, and others will then adopt them and continue there use out of context till it becomes acceptable. This is what makes language so interesting that it continually evolves. Amongst my correspondents I have many young folks the way they write is unintelligable to me some times, but I bet their contemporaries understand them perfectly.

[Cathy]

Just came across this word - gewgaws, plural of gew-gaw, origin 1175 - 1225 Middle/Old English
Means a showy thing, especially one that is useless or worthless, eg: trinket, bauble. What a strange word!

[hartley353]

Good word that Cathy plenty of folk still using it, possibly french in origin they have a similar word for a joke, or game.

[Stanley]

It's a good one Cathy and I've used it often. Webster suggests origin might be Middle French 'gogo',.

[Stanley]

I came across 'blated' this morning while I was working on a transcript. Short for 'bleated' and used to describe someone going on at you about something.

[Cathy]

Has anyone used the phrase, Kittle-cattle.
Part of the novel I am reading says - "If the weathers's right for the turnips, it's all wrong for the wheat. And if the sun shines for hay-making, it's too dry for the kale to grow. Farmers is kittle-cattle, always on the moan". (Goodness thats not very nice is it?)

Dictionary describes kittle-cattle as difficult to deal with, prone to erratic behaviour, touchy, unpredictable.

[Stanley]

Cathy, not heard that particular phrase but I have come across 'kittle' being used for something that needs delicate handling. Come to think I have heard 'kittle kine' (Kine is an archaic word for cattle) for anything that is problematic. I looked 'kittle' up in Webster and the root seems to be a variety of similar words in most of the archaic north European languages all meaning 'ticklish' which seems to be about right.

[Stanley]

I found myself using 'skulduggery' this morning and was triggered to look it up in Webster. They aren't sure of the root but suggest it's from Old Scots 'sculduggery' which was associated with fornication. So probably nothing to do with skulls!

[chinatyke]

I used the word 'traipse' in an email today and wondered if this was local dialect or in general use.

Traipse = to trudge wearily

[Tripps]

I find that as you get older, words like this - once in common use in my life, but seldom heard or used now - take you straight back to a person or a place. This one immediately brings my mother to mind. Not looked it up, but I would guess it's a Northern dialect type word.

[Stanley]

'Traipse' has always been in my vocabulary both in Stockport and up here. I like the Yiddish version, schlepp.
I agree with you David, some of us are as affected by old words as old smells!
I came across an archaic word yesterday that got me digging. 'Mew' is an archaic term for a cage where hawks were shut up and is also used for being shut up or constrained in the archaic sense. Middle English 'mue'. What intrigued me was that a common word for the space in a barn where hay is stored is called a mowstead in modern spelling (Think Barley Mow pub name) but I noticed that many old farmers called it a 'mewstead'. It makes me wonder if the original root is 'mew' to shut in and not as I originally assumed something to do with mowing, the act of cutting. (Should I get out more....)