RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: Pennines on Friday 07 April 17 11:40 BST (UK)
-
In my local newspaper today (Lancashire Telegraph) - is a list of some old Lancashire words, with their definitions - under the headline of 'Ey up, how Lancashire are you?'
I remember all of them except one and some made me smile -- I hope they make you smile also!
Barmpot --- silly fool.
Brew --- cup of tea
Cack-handed --- not skilful or practical.
Cakehole -- mouth. (In my memory this word was always preceded by the words - 'Shut yer'
Do --a party/event
Fettle --- fix something
Gab --- Talk (usually too much)
Kecks --- trousers (I didn't think this was confined to Lancashire though)
Use yer loaf -- Use your brain.
There were others listed as well. The one I had never heard of was 'Alikar' - which was apparantly 'vinegar'.
-
Apart from Barmpot, these were all used in the part of Yorkshire I grew up in - I think they're pretty common over most of the north of England too.
I've never heard of Alikar either.
-
Here in Lincs too. Except cack handed was a term for left handed. I haven't heard of Alikar either.
-
Except for barmpot, fettle and keks, I heard those growing up and I don't even live in Lancashire and cack handed usually meant the person was left handed ;D ;D
-
I grew up in Cheshire, but of Yorkshire parentage, and I know all those words except Alikar. And I'm cack-handed ;)
My Yorkshire Dictionary does - alicker - vinegar (ale, with OF aigre sour) OF = Old French (Norman French)
-
Wonder if I grew up hearing those words thousands of miles away because many of us have English heritage of some sort somewhere along the line??? ;D ;D
-
Probably, 3SD, but they would possibly have to have lived in the north of England.
My dictionary comes up with the following words for left-handed, all of these in Yorkshire:
gallock-handed
gollock-
golly-
kallick-
gawky-
dawky-
doughy-
cod-/coddy-
keggy-
kaggy-
cuddy-
cuddy-wifted
cuddy-fisted
cuddy-pawed
cuddy-flipped
dolly-posh
-
I have heard of most of these as well.
I thought cack handed was clumsy or incompetent. :)
I used to call them kegs rather than kecks (but that might have just been my interpretation).
-
Eee by gum, I remember all these too from growing up in Bowton (Bolton) - except the alicker. Then I married a Scot and he used words like poke, ginger, roll so whilst I was trying to encourage the children to use 'proper' English they much preferred his words for a bag of sweets or chips, any kind of fizzy drink except Irn Bru which was always referred to by it's full name, and roll instead of barm cake, flour cake or oven bottom!
-
I am familiar with all of them apart from Aliker...Kecks were underpants...I am from East Yorkshire and also "Golly Handed"...Out of our family of four...3 of us are left handed but son is right handed but has some right brain dominance as he is Left Footed.
Carol
-
I have heard of most of these as well.
I thought cack handed was clumsy or incompetent. :)
I used to call them kegs rather than kecks (but that might have just been my interpretation).
As a left hander...I was often referred to as being "Cack-Handed" when doing jobs, to a right handed person it looks awkward hence the reference. But most people used the term Golly Handed where I come from.
Carol
-
My mum often said 'pass me the alikar'
-
I've always known "kecks" as trousers rather than underpants. Barmpot is used a lot in Scotland. Another couple of words are "mardy" and "ginnell".
-
Your "Ginnell" Lydiaann is our "Tenfoot"...my our Dil is Lancastrian and she say it....the men in our region use the phrase "Underkecks"
Carol
-
Cack-handed does mean both left handed and clumsy, as these were (rather unfairly) deemed to be the same thing.
The "cack-hand " is the hand used for lavatorial duties, as opposed to the clean right hand.
-
I'd hear most of the terms in Yorkshire, excepting the one for vinegar, and heard the "Kecks" one for the first and only time only a few years back, a child disparaging his younger brother who had "Messed 'is kecks" - so I assumed they were underpants? I'd say they are overall a rather lazy selection of northern words, probably straight from "T'Internet", to fill up a bit of space.
-
I'd say they are overall a rather lazy selection of northern words, probably straight from "T'Internet", to fill up a bit of space.
You are probably right Threlfall Yorkie - but because they made me smile - as I hadn't heard several of them for a while, I thought I would share them, thinking they might bring a smile to the faces of others as well.
-
E lass that's good of yer. ;D
-
Wonder if I grew up hearing those words thousands of miles away because many of us have English heritage of some sort somewhere along the line??? ;D ;D
Even in Oz most of those words were familiar. I accept that the list would need to have been generated by Northerners, but we had plenty of those over the years.
-
My brummie grandmother called the alarm clock the Alerum (a ler um). ;D
-
Barmpot is used a lot in Scotland.
Lydiaann,
The scots don't have an 'r' in Bampot.
I always remember our English teacher who was English & she insisted on calling my friend Fiona 'Fionar' ::)
Annie
-
In Sheffield, sweets were referred to as spice
-
Heard most of these growing up in NZ! ;D
Underpants were also breeks, undies, underdaks, grundies or undergruts!
Sneakers were sand shoes or Bata Bullets
Trousers in general - daks
Sweets - lollies
All still in pretty common use here.
If I was being cheeky, (which of course I never was ::) - my Mum called me a cheeky wee bizim! I always thought it was a word for (b with an itch). I could never understand that, as she didn't swear - but no, later on in years she told me she was saying besom - (which is apparently a broom) 😀
Incidentally, about a year ago, I discovered that one of my Paternal Paulson ancestors was a troglodyte who lived in a rock house in Mansfield UK. His occupation was listed as a besom maker ;D ;D ;D
Some people pronounce film as -fillim, ask as arks. 😀😀 (that one drives me nuts). GRR.
-
Some people pronounce film as -fillim, ask as arks. 😀😀 (that one drives me nuts). GRR
Fillim drives me insane as well ::) ;D ;D
-
My ex's family were not very good at saying a v sound in a word.
Example? Othen - for oven!
But other?? - Managed it Ok --- ??? ??? ??? with Uvver!
Can't remember "Uvver" of their doosies!!
-
I remember them all from my childhood, with the exception of Aliker, yet my family were all southerners and I grew up on the south coast. My mother used to tell me off if I used any of them, the only one she would say herself was "crack handed".
My pet hates are when H is pronounced haitch, when sentences are punctuated with the word "like" and double negatives. ::) ::) ::)
-
When my son was about four years old he asked me what a "Gizzit" was...it turned out that the boy he was playing with wanted my son to "give him it" (referring to the fire engine he was playing with) ;D
Carol
-
A word we tend to use around here in Lancs --and maybe elsewhere - which must really confuse foreign people is 'agate'.
We tend to use it when describing what someone else has said or done -- ie 'She/He were agate ......' and then we repeat what they have said and how they said it -- or what they did and how they did it.
That word is still in use.
-
A word we tend to use around here in Lancs --and maybe elsewhere - which must really confuse foreign people is 'agate'.
We tend to use it when describing what someone else has said or done -- ie 'She/He were agate ......' and then we repeat what they have said and how they said it -- or what they did and how they did it.
That word is still in use.
I haven't heard it in years but heard it daily when I was growing up in the West Riding.
-
Rosinish: I think, whether with an 'r' or without, Barmpot/Bampot is still basically of Scottish origin! How lovely that we still think of these old words - and will they be lost on the up-and-coming (teens/20s) generation who are more attached to the 'new' words generated by the ever-changing digital age? ???
-
I recall being baffled by a girl saying something that sounded to my ears like "I were a gate cumin fur t'orse pickle darn t' ginnel when ah were frit by dog" took me a long time to work through that.
A pet hate of mine is hearing "Drawring" instead of "drawing".
-
Yes - inserting an 'r' in the middle of a word where there isn't one -- really gets on my nerves too.
'Camping' can be another confusion to others I suppose - unless it IS universal.
We use for it in place of 'having a natter' -- so 'They were camping in the street' -- doesn't actually mean they were erecting a tent to sleep in!
-
Damn!!! Lost my response, now have to start again!!!! ;)
Love the "t'orse pickle" :D Reminds me of a verse my grandmother taught me - excuse the transcription, I was born and bred in Cheshire, but ancestors were all from the West Riding.
We're all dahn in't coil-oile, where muck's slaht on t'winders
We's used all us coil up, and geht dahn t'cinders
If bon bailiff comes sarchin, he'll never find us (find with a short "i")
Cos we're all dahn in't coil-oile, where muck's slaht on t'winders
-
Wonderful! ( I must admit, when I did encounter that baffling sentence from the girl I did have mental visions of a horse floating in a jar in rather a lot of vinegar - or should that be the hitherto unknown to me word "Aliker"?
-
A-up 🙃
-
Damn!!! Lost my response, now have to start again!!!! ;)
Love the "t'orse pickle" :D Reminds me of a verse my grandmother taught me - excuse the transcription, I was born and bred in Cheshire, but ancestors were all from the West Riding.
We're all dahn in't coil-oile, where muck's slaht on t'winders
We's used all us coil up, and geht dahn t'cinders
If bon bailiff comes sarchin, he'll never find us (find with a short "i")
Cos we're all dahn in't coil-oile, where muck's slaht on t'winders
BumbleB - please excuse my ignorance, 😀😀 but could you tell what your little verse means please? 🤔🤔
Does it mean something about being down in the coal hole with dirty Windows when the bailiff comes - coal has been all used up, and only cinders left??
-
Yes, JB, that is correct. ;D I think it was quite a wide-spread habit to hide when the bailiff was around wanting payment, although not necessarily in the coal cellar.
-
Talking about adding an 'r' in between a word ending with a vowel and another starting with one, we always used to call the TV programme "Law & Order" 'Laura'.
-
Love this one BumbleB - we used to sing at College. Our Choir Mistress was from Yorkshire!
https://youtu.be/J5leMI95urQ
-
Yes, a good one. We had a guy at the local Folk Club who used to sing "While Shepherds watched their flocks" to the tune of "On Ilkley Moor" :o
Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6q8vBlrP8
-
Thanks BumbleB! That was great! I love YouTube, can always find something good to watch on there if I don't like what's offering on the TV!
As I don't have a smart TV - I'm lucky that I can connect my iPad to the telly with a couple of special cables, and anything I am doing on my iPad comes up on the telly. Like watching YouTube! If I'm on a roll! ;D
It's also great if I am showing someone my Family Tree, or other things like photos etc, rather than them having to huddle around and look over my shoulder!
It was great at New Year, when my brothers and our families were having a get together.
I just connected up the iPad to his TV, sat back in the chair with my iPad, logged into Ancestry, and away we went!
Right bedtime for me! Goodnight/good morning to you all! Have a great week!
-
What would our ancestors be making of all this new-fangled stuff like phones, mobiles, tellys, vacs, washing machines, i-pads and other items that have one letter, then three! --- etc etc.
I remember a few years ago having to ask in a shop - which were the CDs and which were DVDs when buying a pressy for my grandson. Typical wrinkley!
-
Yes, a good one. We had a guy at the local Folk Club who used to sing "While Shepherds watched their flocks" to the tune of "On Ilkley Moor" :o
Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6q8vBlrP8
That was the original tune for "While Shepherds". It is thought that the Ilkley Moor words were probably made up for fun, whilst walking back from chapel.
-
Ah, that's a turn-round :o And very interesting.
-
Born in Manchester and brought up in Lancashire, I knew all those words except the last one.
Actually, when I was born M/c was in Lancs.!
I agree about the extra 'r' in drawing. It has annoyed me for years. I often wonder if they put the extra 'r' in the written word -drawing.
In the 60s my late father ran a youth football team. At his first match one of the boys asked "wurz casey?" My father replied that no one of that name was playing. The boy laughed and said he meant the football they were to play with! Casey was caseball, made of leather and heavy, in those days.
Kooky
-
What would our ancestors be making of all this new-fangled stuff like phones, mobiles, tellys, vacs, washing machines, i-pads and other items that have one letter, then three! --- etc etc.
Pennines, that makes me think of my grandmother's reaction to my dishwasher in the 1970's!
She was in her nineties, pretty switched on, and she and my Mum had come for lunch! My grandmother was always the first up to clear the table, and always washed the dishes. When I showed her the dishwasher, which was under the bench, and had a timber front on it to match the cupboards etc, she was very puzzled as to how a cupboard could wash (and dry) dishes! Just didn't understand it at all.
When I took her back to her two sisters, she couldn't tell them quickly enough that I had a magic cupboard under the kitchen bench that washed and dried dishes! My Magic Cupboard was examined carefully by her her each time she and Mum came, which was generally once a week!
My dear old Nanny! 👍😄🌺
-
That is hilarious Jaybeinz! A magic cupboard --- that's just wonderful. How posh are you though having a dishwasher in the 1970s!!
This thread has reminded me about words/sayings that I assume originated from people working in the cotton mills;
-- being 'stuck for bobbins' if you had nothing to do. (I still use that expression - but not everyone knows what I mean!)
--'mee-mowing' to each other (originating from workers in the mill speaking to each other without making a sound. The machines were too loud for workers to hear one another so they just 'mouthed' the words.)
I wonder who made up the word 'mee-mowing' in the first place. Someone must have used it first.
-
In my local newspaper today (Lancashire Telegraph) - is a list of some old Lancashire words, with their definitions - under the headline of 'Ey up, how Lancashire are you?'
Use yer loaf -- Use your brain.
This one is actually cockney rhyming slang : loaf of bread =>> head :)
Bob
-
In the 60s my late father ran a youth football team. At his first match one of the boys asked "wurz casey?" My father replied that no one of that name was playing. The boy laughed and said he meant the football they were to play with! Casey was caseball, made of leather and heavy, in those days.
Kooky
"Casey" ouch,
Back in the early 60s a boy that lived in our street was lucky enough to have one. I remember being hit in the face with it when he and my brother were having a kick about, it brought tears to my eyes.
Didn't it have a bladder inside it that had to be pumped up. I seem to remember a bicycle pump being used ?
-
;D ;D ;D - it's the only one I ever had Pennines - this one went in when we were building! Have moved several times since then, but have never had another one, worse luck! Don't have many dishes to wash these days though, so never takes long!
I still call them Magic Cupboards though! ;D
-
-- being 'stuck for bobbins' if you had nothing to do. (I still use that expression - but not everyone knows what I mean!)
--'mee-mowing' to each other (originating from workers in the mill speaking to each other without making a sound. The machines were too loud for workers to hear one another so they just 'mouthed' the words.)
I wonder who made up the word 'mee-mowing' in the first place. Someone must have used it first.
We use the word "bobbins" to mean the something is not very good or rubbish but not a clue were it originated from.
Never heard "mee-mowing" although I do know that the mill workers were brilliant lip readers.
-
I think that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph may have raided a copy of "A Blegburn Dickshonary", written by local journalist Joseph Baron.
If I remember correctly, I downloaded a copy from www.cottontown.org about a decade ago, but I can't find it there now.
Well worth a read if you can locate it.