Dialect and vanishing cobblers

[venta]

Well, I'm disappointed in all of you. Anyone would think I just made words up, or something...

scunner (noun) - to take a scunner at someone

to take an instant, probably irrational, dislike to someone or something. So I could take a scunner at a person, simply be deciding I didn't like the look of them, or a horse might take a scunner at a jump.

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

This is definitely a Darlingtonism. Kets are sweets, ket being a word for general junky stuff. As in "What are you eating that ket for?", said to a person with a Big Mac.

chimble (verb) - that wall is chimbling

I'm less sure of the provenance of this word, and starting to suspect my mother might have made it up. It's basically a combination of "chip" and "crumble", to describe something which is coming to pieces in a crumbly way - like rotting stonework, or a cheap and nasty wine bottle cork.

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

This word was much in currency when I was at junior school, I have no idea if it still gets used. I only remembered when I wanted to use it, and couldn't think of an equivalent :) I guess the closest is probably "dowdy" - molly clothes are unfashionable, probably outdated, and the sort of thing that will get you laughed at by a bunch of malicious schoolgirls.

stotting (adj) - I'm stotting

Very cross - "I'm stotting angry", or just "I'm stotting", means you should be giving me a wide berth :) Maybe it's so angry that you're bouncing off the walls, or something...

I think this is probably Geordie/pitmatic rather than Darlington. And before you ask, pitmatic is what they speak in North Durham, where, once upon a time, there were pits.

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

When jiggery_pokery posted that he knew that gegs were, I was about to comment that this might be because he was the only poster so far to own some... then realised I was completely wrong :)

Gegs are, of course, spectacles. This has obviously made it as far as Teesside to Jiggery_pokery, but I don't know how widespread it is.

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

As a few people guessed, mizzle is a sort of can't-be-arsed wet weather, somewhere between a fret and a drizzle. I've no idea where it comes from.

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

One of the few I had (limited) success with here - and yes, a small alleyway. cf. snicket, gennel, bunnyrun, jitty and snickelway, depending on where you come from. (Any more?)

Oh, and if spindlemere can ask his Darlingtonian colleague for her views, I'd still like to hear them...

On Saturday, I tried to go to the cobbler's in town.

I headed off to the Oxford Snob on Castle Street (aka the road down the right hand side of the Westgate Centre), bag of boots in hand. I'm always a bit unsure of the exact configuration of buildings down that road, so work on the basis that I'll keep walking til I get to the cobbler's.

Around Cafe Liason (the Chinese restaurant, which is incidentally very good), I realise I must have passed it. There aren't any more shops. A quick glance back up the road reveals I haven't. Nor have I passed anything which looks like it might have once been it. Slowly it dawns on me that the big bunch of white boarding, and the demolition contractor's signs may be relevant.

A quick couple of phonecalls, and I've located the Oxford Snob on Gloucester Green. But people shouldn't be allowed to remove buildings in large chunks like that. It confuses the unwary.

But: I find the new booth, round the back of the OFS, and hand over my boots to be heeled. He was sorry, they wouldn't be ready til Monday. Never mind, I say, I won't be able to pick them up til a week Wednesday anyway. I'd be waiting that long ? Could I spare ten minutes ? And he did them while I waited, neatly re-heeled, and some magic black paint to cover up the scratches of the backs of the heels. Small businesses are great.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Some cutting and pasting later. I've only included the first chronological reference for each word. I'm not sure that kets matches your use of the word, ges and chimble, we don't have.

Scunner

Sc. and north.
1. intr. {dag}a. To shrink back with fear, to flinch.
b. To be affected with violent disgust, to feel sick.

1375 BARBOUR Bruce v. 201 (Edin. MS.) Bot thai war skownrand vounder sair Sa fer in Scotland for to fair. Ibid. XVII. 651 Bot thai..skunnyrrit [v.r. scounryt] tharfor na-kyn thing, Bot went stoutly till assalyng.

Ket

Obs. exc. dial.

Raw flesh; carrion; also fig. trash, rubbish.

c1220 Bestiary 438 He bille{edh} one {edh}e foxes fel, Wo so telle{edh} idel spel, And he tire{edh} on his ket Wo so him wi{edh} sinne fet [= feeds].

molly

I. Simple uses.

1. slang. An effeminate man or boy; a male homosexual. Also: a man who performs work typically associated with women, or who concerns himself with women's affairs. Cf. MISS MOLLY n., MOLLYCOT n.

1708 E. WARD London Terræfilius V. 10 He behaves himself more like a Catamite, an Eunuch, or one of those Ridiculous Imitators of the Female Sex, call'd Mollies, than like a Son of Adam.

stot

Sc. and north.

1. intr. To rebound, bounce (from, off); to fall or impinge with a bounce (on, against); to jump, start, spring.

1513 DOUGLAS Æneis X. vi. 96 Dartis sevin Alsammyn thai kest.. Of quham sum dyd, but harm or other deyr, Stot from hys scheild, his hewmet, or hed geyr.

mizzle

Now colloq. and regional (Brit. and N. Amer.).

Very fine misty rain; drizzle.

1490 CAXTON tr. Eneydos xv. 55 And tormented [them] Rygth asperly with Rayne mysell, and grete heyle stones amonge.

gennel, ginnel

dial.

1. = CHANNEL 3a. Obs.

1613 Manch. Ct. Leet Rec. (1885) II. 287 Roberte Charnocke..hath newlie erected a privie, the ffilthe whereof ffalleth into a certen Gynnell or guttr.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks. I wasn't expecting some of them to be in the dictionary.

I think "also fig. trash, rubbish." is not inconsistent with my definition of ket. I'm less sure about molly as defined by the OED, though.

Interesting to see how old most of them are, though.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Of course, they're in the dictionary! We've got all sorts of trash in here!

Although, of course, the OED isn't available to plebs like you. (That said, they're probably all in your OED2 hardcopy).

We've also got ket meaning ‘A matted, hairy fleece of wool’ (as a variation on coat).

Molly, in the sense I've quoted it is actually the direct root of mollycoddle. As in "too be educated in effeminate ways" (my paraphrasing).

And yes, the dates are frequently quite scary, which is why I included 'em :)