DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Steeplejerk]

Tripps i think a "Reeky Lum" is a "smokey chimney" in scottish dialect.

[Tizer]

David W. - another source of Somerset willow is PH Coate and Son, long established and based near Taunton:
http://www.englishwillowbaskets.co.uk/w ... engths.htm
P H Coate & Son
Meare Green Court
Stoke St Gregory
Taunton
Somerset
TA3 6HY
Contact Details
Email: sales@englishwillowbaskets.co.uk
Telephone: 01823 490249 (Mon-Fri 9-5).

[Stanley]

Wendy, spellings vary so much especially when words were not written down and original dialect varies. Doubtless the same word... Webster dates first known usage to 16th C. Could be from Old French and is associated with the smell of old wine barrels.
Morton's 'In Search of England' throws up some goodies. 'Paying on the nail' probably originates from Bristol where the large bronze ornaments outside the exchange were called nails because of their shape and they were used as desks by traders writing down orders or accepting payment. 'Tawdry' probably originates from the annual St Audrey's Fair at Ely where traders sold cheap neck cloths called 'St Audrey's chains' and they became known as 'tawdries'.
Where does the verb 'to click' as in getting the attention of a young lady, come from?

[Stanley]

Thanks to Dorothy Hartley for alerting me to this one. 'By hook or by crook'. Thought to have originated in the rules by which villagers were allowed to gather dead wood for the fire. They were not allowed to cut any wood and could only use a weeding hook or shepherd's crook for pulling down branches out of trees. This restriction to ordinary working tools was supposed to preclude vagrants from gathering wood.

[David Whipp]

another source of Somerset willow

Thanks Tizer.

Crisis over for this year. Somerset Willow got our willow wands here, and everything is ready.

Today, folk will be able to create 'quill pens' adorned with small LEDs that they can carry in the literary lantern parade at tea time.

[Tizer]

Miniature lights get everywhere now...here is a pic I took at that Taunton model railway exhibition showing the street lights and platform lights on sale. There is also lighting for the inside of passenger rail coaches and buildings. You can even get little figures on bicycles and the cycle has working front and rear lights! Just look at the excitement on the faces of those railway modellers!

[Stanley]

Lovely pic. Aren't sub-cultures wonderful!

[Tripps]

They don't look too happy though, do they? They look as if they have just been sentenced.

I often think when watching antique programmes on TV, that now is the time to sell old Hornby train sets, since the time will soon come when the generation that has fond memories of steam trains etc, dies out

PS - I think that should read programmes about antiques. Or maybe not......

[Whyperion]

No , they have just found out what the prices are.

[Stanley]

Thanks to Dorothy Hartley for this one (her book is a gold mine!). The phrase 'kettle of fish' is a corruption of 'kiddle of fish. A kiddle was an illegal fish trap and it was a serious matter if one was found in the local lord's waters.
'Huff' pastry. The archaic name for suet pastry.

[Stanley]

Dorothy includes a lot of quotations from very early sources and it's interesting to see the names of common foods, quite different from what we use today but you can see the connection. It makes you realise how much the language has changed in 500 years. The 'new words' that we come across these days are part of the same process, the language is a living thing and always changing.

[Stanley]

A couple of curiosities culled from Dorothy. The phrase 'Mother's Ruin' for gin is thought to have its root in the fact that Gin with the addition of Valerian and Penny Royal was an abortificant. The 'Sally Lund' loaf was originally a cake made with dough risen by yeast. When properly made the top was a golden yellow and the base pure white. This was likened to the sun and the moon and so the cake was called a 'soleil lune' or variations on that theme. This became corrupted to 'Sally Lund'.

[Tripps]

We discussed "gone for a burton" quite extensively on the previous site version. I got an email today from my son, which shows that 1) I'm more of a bore about this site than I thought. 2) Sometimes your kids actually listen to you.

think I found another use of it. Hancock “The Conjurer” 19 m 10s

Hancock is going to do a magic show and is telling his stooge to make sure that he is the first to volunteer to assist him, otherwise the trick won’t work:

“You’d better be first up there otherwise my act will go for a complete burton”

[Stanley]

Remind me of what origin we settled on, I've forgotten.

[Tripps]

I seem to recall that many said it referred to Burton on Trent and beer, but as usual I differed, and suggested it referred to the travels of Sir Richard Burton the 19th century adventurer, scholar, and explorer. Remarkable chap - the Ranulph Fiennes of his day. - Just kidding - if I said what I think about him, I'd be warned off the site immediately.
I even bought one of Burton's books from abebooks for $1 as I recall - "To the Holy Shrines". He was disguised as a Persian dervish, and traveled to Mecca from Cairo. This was 1853 when infidels would not be too welcome there, to say the least.

[Stanley]

Yup, he was a strange character!

[Tripps]

Whilst listening to the arguments for and against "fracking" yesterday, I heard for the first time, the word ' seismicity'.
I took it to mean an area's vulnerability to earthquakes. By the look of wavy red lines beneath both words, it looks like the spellchecker has never heard them before either.

[EileenDavid]

I am sure they make words up I am still getting my head round that I was a cohort? Eileen

[Stanley]

I noted seismicity as well. I looked it up and it's a recognised word for describing how prone an area is to earthquakes. Perhaps whoever wrote the press release had done a degree....

[Stanley]

The word 'spate' grabbed me, as in sudden rise of water level in a beck. I looked it up in Webster... 'Spate', they trace it back to 15th C but give no clue to the origin beyond suggesting it's Northern dialect.

[Stanley]

Used 'sneck' this morning.......

[EileenDavid]

What about I am fair clemmed? My mam used to use it. Another of mams sayings was look after belly back ol take care of itself. Meaning if you eat properly you will keep warm. Eileen

[Stanley]

Remember those ads of the little lad going to school surrounded by a warm glow? Was it Ready-Brek?

[EileenDavid]

It was Stanley. Eileen

[Bodger]

"sneck" to someone aiming badly at darts etc. " tha cudnna it barn door sat ont sneck"