DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Whyperion]

Every time I have tried to eat a Ciabatta leads me to think the definition as stated is correct.

[Stanley]

I'll stick to my home-made bread.....

[Stanley]

When I was a lad in Stockport 'quod' was a common name given to gaol. Was it used universally? Where does it come from?

[EileenDavid]

Never heard that one Stanley but I hope Man United get more quods this year. Eileen

[Wendyf]

All I can find about quod is that it was slang for prison or jail.

[Bodger]

Was it quod or quad, ie short for quadrangle, the exercise area ?
How about " a bit on the side",, i have an interpertation, and its nothing to do with an extra partner,

[Stanley]

That connection with the exercise yard struck me as well. Other names for gaol, 'nick', 'chokey' 'porridge'.... In the army it was 'the glasshouse'.
I've always associated 'a bit on the side' as being an extra, like bread or salad with a meal or an extra source of income. Something in addition or extra.

[Stanley]

Yesterday we had a very light shower around 8am and it looks a bit threatening now. I remember that when this happened whan I was a lad my mother used to say "It's only Pride of the Morning, it won't last". Anybody else heard this one?

[Gloria]

I started a new thread with this query before I noticed I could have put it on here, so here it is again.
"You've got a nose like Sam Herb"---- has anyone heard this saying, and who the heck was Sam Herb?

[Wendyf]

Nope, never heard of Sam Herb or Pride of the Morning.

[Bodger]

Re "bit on the side", the explanation i heard that it was to do with gold miners etc, who would hide some nuggget etc. on the wall of the tunnel for removal later?

[Stanley]

That sounds feasible Bodge. When my mate Daniel did his picture story on the beach ship-breaking in Bangladesh he noticed that the workers were searched for contraband as they left the yard. They were so poor they were stealing small pieces of non-ferocious and steel nuts and bolts. A bit of bunce.....

[EileenDavid]

I remember my mam used to say rain before 7 fine by 11 Eileen

[Gearce]

That sounds feasible Bodge. When my mate Daniel did his picture story on the beach ship-breaking in Bangladesh he noticed that the workers were searched for contraband as they left the yard. They were so poor they were stealing small pieces of non-ferocious and steel nuts and bolts. A bit of bunce.....

Pardon me asking - 'non-ferocious'?

[Gloria]

Gearce, it didn't bite

[Stanley]

Same stable as insulting tape.

[Stanley]

My dad, an Australian, had a saying "A drunken man on a galloping horse will never see it!" When I came to Sough in 1956 I found that there was a local version of this, "They'll never see it off t'Ribble!"
Any more versions?

God knows why this one popped into my head but can you remember how cruel we were to each other as children? When I was in my first school, if we saw someone picking their nose we would chant "Doing it, doing it, picking your nose and chewing it!" Was I in a very rough school or did we all do this at one time or another?

[EileenDavid]

We had a slight variation of "a blind man would be fain to see it" or if it was something on your back then the saying was "a good soldier never looks behind" No Stanley you weren't in a rough school. Picking your nose and eating it dirty devil for doing it, was also common place in my school also I must have gone to a really rough school as they used to say swap you a black one for a green one. Then I went to an all girls school and we became young ladies very difficult when being the only girl in a field full of brothers. Eileen

[Stanley]

Thank God for that Eileen. I can rest easier! My mate Daniel did a pic of a wool dealer on the Bradford Exchange picking his nose, rolling the product into balls and flicking them away. When I was involved in boilers we classified jobs by how black your snot was at the end of the day. Not a bad guide to air quality, you get it in cities but not in the countryside.

[Stanley]

Have I asked about using 'rully' for a four wheeled trailer? I think I came across it in Warwickshire. Never heard it up here.

[EileenDavid]

Never heard that one Stanley. I used the word ginnel and people didn't know what it was is this another northern word. Eileen

[Whyperion]

When does a ginnel become a snicket , do you have to go half way down the alleyway to find out ?

[Bodger]

Ginnel
reminds me of the old joke about the old man who goes to the doctor complaining about piles, the doctor gives him some suppositries, telling him when he gets home, that each day for a week he should place one in his back passage,
A week later goes back to the doctor who asks how did the pills work. the man replies for all the good they did i may as well as stuck them up my A-se

[Tripps]

"When does a ginnel become a snicket "

My first thought was that the answer is when you cross from Lancashire to Yorkshire. I've know ginnel all my life, but never heard of snicket. I'm reminded of the expression "He couldn't stop a pig in a a ginnel", used sometimes in rougher times, to describe someone with bow legs. I've looked it up and it gets quite complicated, with some expressions used very locally. Wiki said "Entry " is used in Manchester. I qualify but would have said you go through the 'ginnel' to get to the 'back entry'. As usual in these cases everyone thinks that their version is the right one.

[Stanley]

Yes, 'entry' was the term in Stockport when I was a lad. As to regional variations, I once came across a piece of research that fascinated me. Researchers went out and plotted on the map the places where names for common objects changed. When they put all the results together they found that the concentrations of changes occurred mainly along identifiable lines across the country and then realised that these were the boundaries of the old kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex etc. The folk memory had preserved these differences over thousands of years.