DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

When I was a lad 'swipe' for steal was common. realised last night that it seems to be current in the US but I haven't heard it used here for years.

[Bodger]

Do i recall a word from my Yorks days, "agate or agait", mother calling me to get out of bed, " art thee agate yet" ?

[PanBiker]

Swipe common and Bodge's "agait" also known for ready.

[Bruff]

I use 'swipe' in that context Stanley: 'who's swiped mi' pen?!'

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

Agait also used for `doing', as in "What's ee agait?"

Remember `Appen'? We used to say "Appen I'll see you tomorrow" meaning "Perhaps I'll see you tomorrow". I suppose the appen came from happen, as in "It might happen that I will see you tomorrow".

[Tripps]

Swipe's an interesting word - probably used most these days at tills "I'll just take a swipe of your card sir"
I've had to look it up and now recall that it also means to hit with a sweeping motion. I'd guess it derives from sweep?

From a book I currently have on the go......

Teacher to pupil (with heavy sarcasm ) - I can't find the word 'gradely' in my dictionary.
Pupil to teacher - well it can't be a reet gradely dictionary then!

[chinatyke]

Do i recall a word from my Yorks days, "agate or agait", mother calling me to get out of bed, " art thee agate yet" ?

I never heard agait until I moved to Burnley. As far as I am aware we didn't use it in Colne, 7 miles away..

[Tripps]

Similarly - I heard it in Rochdale, but never in Oldham which is not far away.

[Stanley]

The Stuyver or Stuiver was a Dutch coin from 1335 onwards. My dad used to say "I haven't got a stuyver" if he hadn't any money in his pocket. I don't think I've ever heard this in the UK, could it be an Australian idiom?
I'm editing Billy Brooks transcripts at the moment. Billy was almost 100 years old when I did them and he was a sharp knife. One of the things I loved was that he spoke 'Old Barlick'. Two words grabbed me yesterday. Speaking of a man who wanted to give backword on a transaction he said that he 'rued'. Talking about the premature death of his son he said "he was my main stoop". Meaning a support, same derivation as a stoop or stope as a gatepost or supporting sloping wall. You'll find 'stope' in mining terminology.

[PanBiker]

"Rued" used in our family, also to mean regret, "Rue the day".

[Tizer]

Stope is the German word for the stepped excavation in a mine and was brought to the UK by German miners and mine engineers. It comes from the same root as step and stoop in Germanic and Scandinavian languages. Stope used to mean `post' probably comes from the use of supporting posts in the mine stopes. The timber stoop around a house is so-called because of the steps used to reach it.

[Cathy]

Stanley, I've lived in Oz since 1964 and never heard of the word stuyver.

[hartley353]

Possibly Billy meant reneged, a word that has continued in use as a card players term.

[Stanley]

No, he meant what he said, as usual.
Mule spinners used a word I have never found anywhere else. A 'sawney' is when there is a fault in the mechanism of the mule which breaks all the ends simultaneously. They don't like 'em!

[chinatyke]

Mule spinners used a word I have never found anywhere else. A 'sawney' is when there is a fault in the mechanism of the mule which breaks all the ends simultaneously. They don't like 'em!

I guess that word will die out. Are there any working mule frames left?

[Bodger]

I wonder if theres a connection to " its up /down the swanee"

[Stanley]

There may be odd small mules still working in the woollen industry but the last big unit was at Taylor Hartley, Field Mill, Haslingden. Robert Aram alerted me and I went down in November 1988 and did the pics. These were condenser mules, the same process as Spring Vale where I did the LTP spinning.

[Cathy]

The above picture reminded me of watching (I think) Horrible Histories ??, it showed this type of mill environment and said that children were sent under the equipment to clean. Can you imagine sick, skinny, hungry, sleepy and very young children having to do that? All those moving parts, and how dangerous it must have been, I know, i know, that was then, but how awful and scarey for them and their parents!!

[Stanley]

Cathy. Don't lose too much sleep about it. I suppose it's possible that it did happen but it was certainly not common because the floor could be cleared quite easily without going underneath by using what they called a 'dasher'. This was a piece of sacking on the end of a stick and the floor was so smooth that the draught from the dasher blew the loose cotton out.



Look in the flood of light from the windows and you'll see a bloke using a dasher in 1979 at Spring Vale to get dawn off the heating pipes.
The images you are thinking of were produced as propaganda in the agitation to bring in the Factory Acts. They gave the impression that such practices were common and should be viewed with a pinch of salt. This isn't to say that abuses didn't occur but nowhere near as bad as the agitators made out.

[Stanley]

Spry. Meaning active. Is it Scottish? Don't hear it very often down here.

[Stanley]

Down at Rawtenstall there's a hill called Whinberry Naze. Ekwall reckons it is from the OE 'naess', an outcrop or spur of land. Same derivation as Ness of course as in Orford Ness.

[Wendyf]

That's interesting Stanley...we have Knarrs between Black Lane Ends and Colne, also called Nars or Naze on old maps, and that is a rocky outcrop.

[Stanley]

When you think about it there might be a link between this word and 'nez', French for nose.

[hartley353]

William of Normandy brought a great deal of french into our language.

[Whyperion]

William of Normandy brought a great deal of french into our language.

I thought that I heard on some TV programe that the amount of words infroduced by the Normans to the English at the time was about two that still remain in common use. Given that William had earlier made some alliances with the leader of Brittanity , he was still had differences close to war with the Prince of France (who controlled the area to the East of Rouen ? )