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

Re: haar

[triskellian]

I (a Southerner) had 'canny' down as value-neutral and meaning something like astute, just to confuse matters further.

Re: haar

[venta.livejournal.com]

I think that's allowable as well - I think qatsi's school was a bit harsh in their definition. Or else it is just further variation. I'd have gone for the sharp without the mistrustworthy aspects - you can, for example, be canny with money or similar, which is closer to what you're saying.

On a side-note, the phrase "Gan Canny" was used a lot in a some sort of safety campaign when I was little (can't remember what exactly). It translates more or less as "go carefully" :)

Re: haar

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Not the school, just the teacher. A poor Lancashire woman who clearly did not feel quite at home, or had perhaps been accused of being canny by the locals in their welcoming way (see uitlander for character references regarding the friendliness of Geordies).

You're probably right that the definition was a bit harsh; ironically an example of a character that is consistent with both Northern definitions of canny is Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses (though not - originally at any rate - the Devon one).