Can't touch this

[venta]

I just used (on Skype) the phrase "as subtle as a ten pound mell".

Then I thought. Hmm. Mell. Is that a real word? The guy I was talking to didn't query it. I suspect this means he's used to me and ignores every other sentence. Anyway.

I did a bit of light searching for the phrase, and came up with nothing. Wikipedia doesn't know what a mell is.

Dammit.

A bit of hammer-browsing later, I was wondering if (as a kid) I'd misheard "maul hammer". Which is a genuine thing and everything.

I was just about to post here and ask if anyone else used the word "mell" like that when I thought of googling just the phrase "mell hammer" (rather than the whole "subtle as a ...").

And there, galloping to the rescue, is the Northumbrian Language Society. Scroll down that page and you'll find (point 4 on their list) a little table of some selected Northumbrian words.

A mell, it says, is a hammer. Well now. I felt somewhat better.

And then somewhat worse when I read the rest, and thought what? You're telling me gadgy and dunsh and and hacky aren't just normal words? This is the story of my life...

And is using "tab" for "cigarette" really limited to Northumberland? I only learned last week that boody wasn't a real word when someone looked at me funny. This is also the story of my life.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Wait... how do people describe a minor car accident without access to the word 'dunsh'?

Also, hacky always reminds me of that rhyme about the bull.

"Ca' Hacky, ca' Hacky, ca' Hacky through the watter
Hacky is a cliver beast
but Hacky winnit wade the watter"

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well yes - if you don't dunsh things, what on earth do you do?

I don't know the rhyme.

One of the things I really run into trouble with is trying to read dialect written down. I spent ages wondering what the word "cliver" meant because I was rhyming it with "diver".

I've caught up now :)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Well, that's basically the whole thing - trying to coax a bull called Hacky to cross a ford - he's a good bull but he doesn't want to go in the water. My grandma used to sing it to me when I was little.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I think I would probably call it a ding; I'm not familiar with dunsh.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Words like 'ding' or worse, 'prang' just sound terribly effete to my Northern ears! Dunsh is so much more onomatopoaeic.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Prang always sounds very Hooray Henry to me. It's probably acceptable if you've just crashed your plane circa 1940, other than that, stop it.

(Edited, because I apparently don't know when WWII started...)

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Planes were crashed before WW2. Actually, rather a lot of them crashed after about five minutes until they got that wing concept sorted! [grin]

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, crash rates were possibly even decreasing by the time the BoB happened :)

However, I do think of the word "prang" as being very much associated with the "Spits" and "Hurrys" of the early WWII RAF vocabulary.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I can rather see that ...

"Had a tangle with the Boche in my Hurry, and had a bit of prang."
"You've got no legs, Douglas ..."
"Well, no."

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on what you're driving, and what you've hit. 'ding' and 'prang' are the noise of a Morgan's limited metalwork being hit by a cricket ball, or colliding with a librarian's bicycle which has been poorly propped against the kerb and fallen over. 'dunsh' is the slow crushing sound made as the front of your car is slowly and gently stoved in by a barrel from a brewer's dray or by swerving too closely to a moving traction engine.

(And yes, I know I'm going to die now.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Die now?

My dear chap, I wouldn't dream of threatening you.

However, I do feel that the reckless disregard for human life you show by driving the LandCruiser without a sensible chap with a red flag walking in front is going to catch up with you sooner or later.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

the reckless disregard for human life you show by driving the LandCruiser without a sensible chap with a red flag walking in front is going to catch up with you sooner or later
You are certainly right, my dear lady - and it is something I should rectify at the earliest opportunity. Although I am not certain that anyone promenading in front of my car could be described as 'sensible'. Actually, this very weekend I shall be driving my car upon the stretch of road used for Britain's first motor-car race.