Time, Manner, Place

[venta]

Every so often, I use a word which makes everyone go "eh?". Often this is because I'm using regional words in the wrong region (and, in fairness, sometimes it's because I'm just indulging my taste for obscure words). But recently, I apologised for saying "playing hooky" (playing truant), and was told that this was in fact (a) well-known and (b) American. So I'm wondering... how many of the words I often avoid really are obscure northenisms. Are they in fact well known? Are they not actually northern, but instead, perhaps, words that were common when I was little/are common among kids but not grown ups, or something completely different?

So, what I want to know is, for the following words, would you know what I meant if I used them? Would you be able to work it out ? Would you use them yourself ? Do you know whence they come ? I'm not particularly interested in whether they're in dictionaries/googlable etc, what I'm after is a measure of well-known-ness. Please comment, even if only to say "I have no idea what you're talking about, you freak!"

And as a side-issue - I'd always thought "minging" or "minger" were definitely on the list of northern words, but they seem to have become pretty widespread relatively recently. Any suggestions?

• scunner (noun) - to take a scunner at someone


• ket(s) (noun) - I'm off to buy ket(s)


• chimble (verb) - that wall is chimbling


• molly (adj) - she's wearing a really molly top


• stotting (adj) - I'm stotting


• gegs (noun) - where did I put my gegs?


• mizzle (noun/verb) - the weather? Oh, it's just mizzling


• ginnel (noun) - take the first left down the ginnel

Probably more as I think of them.

Comments

Are there gazelles in the North?

[tkb.livejournal.com]

"stotting" brings to my mind only faint recollections of a behaviour demonstrated by gazelles(?) -- leaping up and down when they notice a predator. This I probably read about in a Richard Dawkins book (at a guess, The Selfish Gene) as an example of apparently altruistic behaviour which is then shown to be in the selfish interests of some genetic material. I'm guessing that this isn't the meaning you had in mind...

Of the rest, I'd only be able to make wild guesses based on context, and certainly wouldn't use any of them. (A life spent in Hertfordshire, Oxford, and London does little to educate me in the dialects of the north.)

[uitlander]

Oh dear, you made me think of the traditional mating displays of the Geordies in the Bigg Market on a Saturday night.

The female of the species shows off her fine white leather mini-skirt and skimpy top, demonstrating incredible agility by balancing on her 6 inch stilettos and a total inability to feel cold. Meanwhile the males of the species attempt to impress the females with competitve games such as 'who can pee highest up the wall' and 'projectile vomit'.

Oh how I miss Newcastle (not).