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

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I know "scunner" only as a noun from various classic 2000AD stories written by Scotsmen, and on the available evidence fairly synonymous with "bastard" but with the advantage of not contravening the Comics Code.

I would have thought "stott" was a verb meaning to bounce or kick around or something - don't Scottish children stott their balls?

"Ginnel" (and "snicket") I know from association with Yorkshire lass Gemma, but wouldn't have otherwise.

The rest of your words, I'm afraid to say, are nonsense ;)

[nevecat.livejournal.com]

mizzle (noun/verb) - the weather? Oh, it's just mizzling
ginnel (noun) - take the first left down the ginnel

***

There last two I don't know but would guess by context/sound of word: mizzle = middling/drizzling?

ginnel = alleyway/path down the back of houses etc? Local words used for this in Richmond seemed to be 'wynd' (pronounced as wind, both ways - as in to wind wool, the wind both blow), for actual named little backstreets (Ryder's Wynd, Greyfriar's Wynd...); and 'snickit', for the shortcut footpaths through housing estates etc.

The rest I'm fairly stumped on...

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

I think I could make a stab at 'mizzling'. The rest are not at all familiar, but I regret I'm a Southern lass born and bred...

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Many a mizzle makes a muzzle; ergo a mizzle is a leather thong just long enough to be tied around a dog's snout.

[spindlemere.livejournal.com]

Mizzle I've heard of (and maybe ginnel - not 100% sure). The rest - no idea.

If you like, I can ask my firm's Token Northerner if she's heard of any of these words (also of the female persuasion, also from Darlington, also called Elizabeth... hang on...)

Stottie

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Stottie has a rather more contemporary meaning at Tao.

:)

[neilh.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what you're talking about, you freak!

[(Anonymous)]

As an East Midlander moving north, I had to learn that "away" meant "come this way with me".
You won't find stotties much further south than the Tees.
They may be winds in Richmond; In Darlngton, it's Post House Wynd with the y as in "sigh" (or in Blow, blow thou winter wind, where it has to rhyme with "kind"). In Yarm (North Riding)it's pronounced Bentley Weend.
O Douglas, Scots author, John Buchan's sister,wrote of a fattish woman "Mrs Jackson stotted forward on her high heels." A "stot" is a (?) Scots word for a steer/bullock.

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.)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Nobody has any excuse for not knowing 'ginnel' since you've explained it in your LJ before.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Clearly none of those words means anything, and you just made them up :)

Minging, that most vile of words, seemed to me to leap into popularity after it became the word of choice for the Big Brother 1 house.

OK, let's try some very, very southern words:
Weirsh - This apple's a bit weirsh. (I don't even know how you spell that, I've only ever heard it)
Whisht - Whisht liddle thing, idn't she?
Furze (-bush)
Mazy - She's mazy.
And I'm sure you can manage oggie.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm from Stoke-on-Trent, and my parents were from there and Cannock (so, Midlands rather than the North). Aside from the whole bread products thing (which I suspect is the most common variation in UK language) some words that spring to mind are

cut - canal
snappin' - a packed lunch
nesh - feels the cold