Glossary of words used in 'Wensleydale
Dialect Rhymes'
by
John Thwaite, with foreword and dialect glossary by A Stanley Umpleby
(Published Clapham: Dalesman,
1946
1st edition 8vo pp 32, with portrait on upper cover)
I have transcribed the
following from the above book as it is now very hard to find a copy
to buy, and it makes a useful glossary for those of you who are transcribing
letters.
| Anunder | beneath |
| Au' make | all kinds |
| Aysca | Aysgarth |
| Back-kest | misfortune, reverse, especially relapse during illness |
| Backstin | Backstone |
| Barns | Bairns |
| Baulks | beams in barns upon which hay is stored |
| Baur | bare |
| Beeake | bake |
| Bide | endure |
| Blisteren | blistering |
| Boggles | ghosts, hobgoblins |
| Caat | cannot |
| Caur | care |
| Cheg | 1 gnaw, or chew 2 to pull sharply or suddenly |
| Chitter | light chatter |
| Clippin' time | sheep clipping season |
| Cocksteul | toadstool |
| Cooers | cowers |
| Crack | 1. The leading one, 2 gossip |
| Cramly | Tottery |
| Creuk | Crook |
| Croon | Crown, the flock-book mark branded on the hors of sheep is said to crown them |
| Dander | Temper |
| Darks | Hides |
| Dippin'-time | Sheep dipping season |
| Draft yowe | A ewe taken out of the flock, either on account of age, or past breeding, or to be sold to breed half-bred lambs |
| Dree | Wearisome, tedious |
| Eeak | Oak |
| Fash | Trouble, inconvenience |
| Fause | False, sly, wheedling |
| Gate | A residence in Dent |
| Gey | Very, exceedingly, tolerable, (this is a characteristic Hawes word. Thwaite used it about a hundred times in his verses, and this fairly represents the frequency of its local use) |
| Gimmer | A female sheep not exceeding two years old |
| Gliff | A passing view |
| Gravilled | Embedded |
| Gret | Cried |
| Grisedil | Grisedale |
| Gunnersit | Gunnerside |
| Haas | Hawes |
| Haverkeeake | Oatcake |
| Heart aboon | Never despairing, overjoyed |
| Heugh | The haunt of which sheep resort, often used of moor pasture |
| Hime | Hoar frost when it hangs on the trees |
| Hockeren | To clamber or scramble awkwardly over anything |
| Kessen | Christen |
| Kidstins | Kidstones |
| Kirn | Churn |
| Kist | Chest |
| Kye | Cows |
| Lapped | Wrapped |
| La' Ra' | Low Row |
| Laykers | Players |
| Layky | Playful |
| Liggers off | Cattle that have finished their lactation period for milk production and are laid aside, in calf, to put on flesh ready for their next lactation period. When they come to the last month before calving they are called 'springers' |
| Maddles | Confuses, bewilders |
| Mells | Harvest home supper |
| Menseful | Neat, of decent and becoming behaviour |
| Meu | Mow of hay housed |
| Moidered | Confused, bewildered |
| Nag | Large hand hay rake |
| Nattle | To rattle, to tap |
| Pelt | Skin, hide |
| Pick their cawves | To cast or give birth prematurely |
| Pinchen | Cows holding back their milk |
| Plat | Flat |
| Poddish | 1. Porridge 2. Rubbish |
| Poo | Pull |
| Pooake | Poke, stir |
| Pooed | Pulled |
| Prosser | One who gives himself airs |
| Pussomed | Poisoned |
| Rackle | Rash headstrong |
| Rated | Inferior, of hay spoilt by weather |
| Rooarers | broken winded animals |
| Ryoup | Row, disturbance |
| Saut | Salt |
| Sawvin' time | An obsolete period in the farming year, 'sawin' was the rubbing of salve into sheep's wool |
| Scale | Spread |
| Seeave-au' | Money box |
| Sheearing | Sheep that has been once shorn, a yearling sheep |
| Sluffed | Broken |
| Snyzy | Of weather - cold raw |
| Soort | Quantity |
| Spaur | Spare |
| Speeanin' time | Weaning time |
| Springers | Cows in calf |
| Staud | Stalled, surfeited |
| Stooren | To drive along, as dust, or fine snow in a blizzard, to rush or pour down, as smoke down a chimney |
| Sweeale | River Swale |
| Sweeathe | Swath, hay sweeps |
| Swiniwhit | Swinethwaite, Parish of Wensley |
| Swo'dil | Swaledale |
| Sylen | Pouring |
| Teeups | Tups, rams |
| Terble | Terrible, tremendous, amazing, a word much used in Hawes |
| Tew | Tire |
| Tewit | The pee wit or green plover, lapwing |
| Thrang | Busy |
| Tit | A small horse |
| Tottle | Trot, walk unsteadily |
| Twinters | Sheep two years old |
| Waite | Thwaite, - name of a village in Swaledale |
| Wakker | Tremble |
| Weea | Sorry |
| Weea't | Will not |
| Weel-kent | Easily recognised |
| Wensydil | Wensleydale |
| Weshin' day | Now obsolete since compulsory dipping of sheep took the place of 'sawvin'. The flock used to be brought to a prepared pool, thrown in, and washed by a shepherd standing waist deep in the water. "Weshin' day" was about a week before "clippin' time" |
| Whaffy | Ailing |
| Whernsit | Whernside |
| Wick | Alive |
| Widn't | Would not |
| Wyet | Quiet |
| Yowe | Ewe |
Visit www.yorkshire-dialect.org/yorkshire_links.htm to hear original dialect