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Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 21 Feb 2012, 09:35
by Tizer
Collins gives `wick' as a dialect version of `quick', as in meaning alive.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 21 Feb 2012, 10:34
by Bradders Bluesinger
Mum often describes her Jack Russell as " a little Wick 'un " ...meaning quick and lively....

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 21 Feb 2012, 18:39
by catgate
I think you will find the phrase "the quick and the dead" in The Bible (if my memory can go so far back correctly).

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 24 Feb 2012, 11:24
by Belle
I don't think you will Catty, it is from the creed said in CofE churches, and possible their Catholic predecessors, but it is not a biblical quote as far as I can see.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 24 Feb 2012, 13:03
by Tripps
Wikipedia seems to think it's from the bible, and quotes two sources. - I just thought it was a film. :smile:

Noticed the word "sanction" used a lot last night regarding Syria. It then struck me that the word has two meanings - in one sense meaning to approve and allow an action, and in another meaning almost the opposite.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 24 Feb 2012, 13:39
by Belle
My mistake! I looked it up in an online searchable bible site but wasn't looking at the King James translation..it appears in 2 Timothy 4:1 and 1 Peter 4:5 in the king james.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 25 Feb 2012, 05:55
by Stanley
When I was a lad and in the church choir I was at two services and Wickliffe Sunday School every Sunday and in both the King James version was used. Makes you realise what an influence it was on the way we use language.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 25 Feb 2012, 19:00
by Bodger
Not really dialect, but if things were getting tight, ie the match was a draw, " it's muck or nettles na"

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 25 Feb 2012, 22:37
by catgate
Around the old outside privy/earth closet/long drop would grow a healthy bed of nettles.
I think you will find the root to the question hereabouts.
Of course, all old fashioned farm middens, often had their share of nettles.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 26 Feb 2012, 05:07
by Stanley
Bodge, I'd call it dialect. Either way you were in trouble!

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 01 Mar 2012, 08:08
by Stanley
I see that embedded in a list of words deemed ageist and patronising is 'love'. I have been using love as a term of affection for the ladies in my life for over 70 years and I'm afraid I'm not going to change now. It isn't the words, it's the context they are used in.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 01 Mar 2012, 09:17
by Bodger
Around my old neck of the woods, West Riding, Sheffield, Huddersfield, love was used when addressing either sex, and had nowt to do with fairies ?

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 01 Mar 2012, 10:57
by Bradders Bluesinger
" Duck " is exactly the same in Derbyshire....

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 01 Mar 2012, 12:00
by Tripps
I think that calling a man 'love' - by another man, is one of the defining differences between Lancashire and Yorkshire speech.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 02 Mar 2012, 05:53
by Stanley
How about 'dunce's cap'. Now where did that one come from?

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 02 Mar 2012, 10:58
by Tripps
I learnt this at school, and more remarkable still remember it. Named after the 13th Century Scots philosopher Duns Scotus, who was an all round clever clogs in his day. Not sure how he comes to be connected with lack of knowledge, but no doubt google would provide the answer.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 04 Mar 2012, 05:43
by Stanley
A common saying round here when something like hay-making was being done on a Sunday was 'The better the day, the better the deed'. Anyone else come across this?

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 04 Mar 2012, 11:56
by Belle
That's one I've heard Stanley...in my mind it belongs in the same box as "never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 04 Mar 2012, 18:26
by Bodger
some thing nice it's " spiffin"

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 05 Mar 2012, 04:22
by Stanley
I've heard 'spiffing'. More public school than public house I think.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 07 Mar 2012, 11:08
by Tripps
You have used the word "foreigner" regarding your fire irons meaning an item made at work for private use. (in the meal break of course). :smile: No one down here would understand that usage. They would call it a "homer"

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 07 Mar 2012, 16:18
by catgate
Tripps wrote:You have used the word "foreigner" regarding your fire irons meaning an item made at work for private use. (in the meal break of course). :smile: No one down here would understand that usage. They would call it a "homer"
That's what I call poetic justice.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 08 Mar 2012, 06:40
by Stanley
David, 'foreigner' has always been the description I have known. I think I heard 'homer' in the Midlands around 1970.

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 08 Mar 2012, 10:29
by Bradders Bluesinger
Plenty of "Homers" around Derby....I recall Stainless Steel developing tanks , and Fishing reels of sublime quality......
Nothing to do with Rolls Royce , of course !
Prior to that it was French polished wooden objects that had not come out of British Rail's carriage works , either...
In the day , I'm told there were more French Polishers per-capita , than anyware else .

Re: DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

Posted: 08 Mar 2012, 16:15
by catgate
Bradders Bluesinger wrote:.
..... there were more French Polishers per-capita , than anyware else .
Have you ever come across a Polish Frencher?