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Dialect
Words Compiled by Fred
James, Kea OCS
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Dialect Word |
Meaning |
Pronunciation
and other information |
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Abroad |
Falling
apart. All abroad- broken.Take abroad-dismantle |
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Addle |
Non-fertile
egg. Addle headed-Some one not too bright |
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Afeard |
Afraid.
Frightened |
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Afore |
Before |
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Agien |
Again |
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Aglet |
Fruit of Hawthorne |
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Alley |
Marbles |
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Annat |
And that. All including. |
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Ansome |
Handsome Attractive |
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Apple Bee |
Wasp |
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Apse |
Fastening for a door or gate. |
"Put the 'apse on the door
there will'ie |
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Arden |
Wont
do as they are told |
"Arden
as sin he/she is". |
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Arish |
Corn
stubble left after the corn have been harvested |
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Ark. Ark now |
Please be quite |
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Arree |
Are you |
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Athert |
Square
across. Out of thert - not square across |
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Awkerd |
Awkward |
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Banker |
Type
of plough where banking up the soil for crops such as potatoes
is required |
See vore |
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Barra |
Wheel Barrow |
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Bested |
Better,
beaten |
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Biddix
(or biddicks) |
A
digging tool similar to a matock but single ended and a longer
handle |
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Billy loolley |
Unwelcome behaviour |
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Box Heater |
A
three cornered field or piece of land. Named after the
triangular shaped piece of iron that is used to heat a ironing
box |
Road
junction on the A30 at the Perranporth turn off, also on the
King Harry Ferry road in Feock |
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Bravem |
Very |
"Bravem
cold idn' it". The "a" pronounced
"eh" |
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Bravish |
Very |
A
reply from a greeting such as "Cold idn'a".
The "a" pronounced as above |
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Bread
and Cheese |
Leaves of Hawthorne tree |
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Browse |
A
thicket of brambles or hedge cuttings used to keep the corn
off the ground when building a rick |
Maybe
it should be spelt browse. Also used to protect from frost on
root crop clamps |
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Bubble
and squeak |
Boiled mashed potatoes mixed with cooked cabbage and fried. |
In
our house we use any pre-cooked root veg fried with any greens |
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Buzza |
Large earthenware jar. See clome |
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Cant |
Strange
attitude |
"I
don’t like he, he got a funny cant about 'un" |
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Cant |
Sloping or not level or upright |
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Canvas |
Floor
covering. Generally inexpensive |
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Chacking |
Thirsty |
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Cherks |
Ash that fused together |
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Churchtown |
The
area of the parish where the church is |
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Clome or Cloam |
Clay
or earthen ware |
I
am sure I have seen this in an old book of dialect words spelt
"clombe" |
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Collywobbles |
Feeling
nervous |
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Copper Finch |
Male bullfinch |
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Cows house |
Trousers |
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Cream |
What English call clotted cream |
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Crib |
Break
during working hours for drink and a snack |
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Cribhouse |
Place to have your crib |
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Crook |
Any thing to hang a coat or hat |
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Crouse |
Any
snack during the day but most rembered as late afternoon tea
taken during harvest time |
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Cuddy |
Shelter on an othewise open boat |
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Cundard |
Covered or open waterway |
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Da |
Father |
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Dimmet |
Getting dark |
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Diesil |
Thistle |
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Douse |
Dust
and chaff that is left after grain is separated from the
straw. Grain get carried away in sacks, straw is built into
ricks, douse is racked away to one side. Normally a boys
job.(Me as a lad) |
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Dowse |
Poor
water on a fire, also, Take in a sail |
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Dram |
Around the edge of a field |
Between the crop and hedge |
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Draw |
Harvest
potatoes |
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Draxel |
Threshold of door |
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Dredge Corn |
Mixture
or barley and oats |
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Droke |
Temporary
channel to drain a flooded area |
Rhyms with broke |
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Emmet |
Tourist or crowds. |
"The
place was heaving, like emmets" |
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Fitty |
Suitable for the job |
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Frail or Frayl |
Bag
made from raffia or similar |
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Flasket |
Large
basket to carry laundry |
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Fleet |
Slope
of roof or drain |
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Furze bush |
Gorse bush |
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Grammar Sow |
Woodlouse |
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Haul/tow |
Method of oyster dredging by one
person |
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Heidth |
Height |
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Hoggan |
Bread
or pastry baked to carry to work for lunch. At the sart of the
week it may have some leftovers from Sunday dinner mixed in
but by Friday it was just pastry. |
Could this be the origin of the
pasty |
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John Jake |
Snail |
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Kilter |
Straight
and level. More likely to be used when something is not
straight and level. Out of kilter |
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Klop |
Walk.
Used mainly for discribing some who is lame. |
"Poor chap could hardly klop" |
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Lambs-tails |
Catkins of Hazelnut |
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Launder |
These
days used for guttering on a roof but in the past used for any
elevated waterway |
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Lobb |
Throw |
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Ma |
Mother |
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Maid |
Girl |
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Maized |
Mad, Annoyed |
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Maun |
Large basket used mainly on farms |
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Milky Diesil |
Sow Thistle |
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Molly
Cuddle |
Over
protective to a child |
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Mooch |
Walk slowly or wander |
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Moors |
Low
lying field. Valley bottom |
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Mott |
Stump of a tree |
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Mott axe |
Mattock.
A digging tool for removing tree stumps |
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Mowey. (mowhay) |
Area of farm yard for hay or corn
ricks |
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Muhr
or Mur |
Gullemot.
Used by boatman in Falmouth around 1950. |
Also
used on some Islands in the North of Scotland and North
America. |
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Narry |
None |
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Not hurtted |
Good condition. Not harmed |
One
of the few words where the "h" is emphasized |
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Paddles |
One
man row with a pair of paddles |
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Pasty Nut |
Brazil Nut |
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Patch Hook |
Billhook |
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Pennyleggan |
No money |
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Pindy |
Gone off. Could be meat, milk or
butter |
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Plat |
An
area of reasonably level ground. See Splatt |
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Plat Down |
Compress a pile |
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Plod or Plod on |
Walk
slowly when tired |
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Plump up |
To
shake up pillow or cushion |
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Punt |
Rowing
Boat. On the River Fal oyster dredging boat operated by one
man |
See haul/tow |
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Quam |
Fainting fit or fright |
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Rab |
Stony ground or subsoil |
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Rack |
Shelf
made from heavy gauge wire fixed above a Cornish range |
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Ran Dan |
Rowing
by tree rowers. Also called two oars and two paddles |
Style
of racing in regattas |
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Ream |
What the English call cream |
Sometimes called raw cream |
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Rick |
Corn or hay stack |
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Riddle |
Sieve
soil to remove stones or clear dead embres from the fire |
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Saa |
Thank you |
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Scald |
Heat
milk slowly to collect the cream |
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Scat |
Broken
or no money |
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Scoot |
To run away |
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Screech |
Cry |
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Screed |
Pork
crackling |
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Scrumping |
Stealing apples |
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Smeech |
Greasy
fumes from cooking, oily smoke from a fire or a badly trimmed
wick from an oil lamp |
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Splat |
Area
of level ground. A building plot |
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Stave |
Steps of a ladder |
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Sure-nuff |
Agree or is it really? |
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Sye |
Scythe |
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Taw |
Large marble or alley |
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Teel |
Till. Plant in ground |
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Tetties. Tiddies |
Potatoes |
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Tetty ur Tiddy Cake |
A
cake made using some mashed potaoes in place of flour |
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Thunder and lighting |
Treacle and cream on bread |
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Tidd'n |
No it wasn't |
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Tie |
Matress |
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Tiz |
It is |
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Traspse |
Walking about |
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Trig |
Give support |
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Troacher
or Trowcher |
Door
to door sales person that's not very trustworthy |
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Truckles |
Casters |
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Turnip |
Swede |
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Twadd'n |
It was not |
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Twas |
It was |
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Two and again |
Not
a reliable person |
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Two clawed digger |
Digging
tool with two steel prongs about 8 inches long and 4 inches
apart |
8
Inches = 200mm. 4 Inches = 100mm |
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Vore |
The
trench left by a Banker or plough |
Used
for planting potatoes |
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Winnard |
Redwing,
also used to describe a sick person |
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Wisht |
Not
very strong. Poorly |
"He was wisht as a winnard" |
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Zam-zodled |
Stale food or tea |
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