Dialect – Words

Fews Glossary M ‘1’

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Dialect ‘M’ 1
 
Machine       any vehicle, or trap etc. ‘Nice machine you’ve got there’
Mad             angry
Made up       pleased, ‘she was made up by the present’
Maggoty-headed    foolish, difficult, obstinate
(Fit) Make    ‘she’s a fit make for him’, suitable companion
Make a move        move, try a stunt, ‘if you make a move, I’ll brain you’
Make           halfpenny
Make forth   pass on, ‘we must make forth to Wee Hughie’s’
Makings       materials, ‘the makings of a man’, ‘.. of a coat’
Make little    disparage, ‘He made little of it but in the end, he was the buyer’
Male            food, (meal) ‘Is he not in for his male yit?’
Mallyvogin    scolding
Maluder        thresh, beat, ‘Give him a good maludering’
Manifest       plain, ‘a manifest lie’
March ditch  boundary ditch
Mark            scratch, impress, ‘If my hands make an errand till yer face, they’ll mark it well for you’, ‘the wee mare can hardly mark the ground, she’s that lame’
Marksman    a person who signs his name by a mark
Marley         speckled, e.g. of hen; also of man’s greying hair
Mate            meat, meal, ‘he’s quare and good at his mate’
Measured     fell, ‘he measured his length on the road’
Melder         a large mixed dish of food
Mell              a wooden mallet for breaking lumps of earth
 

Fews Glossary L ‘3’

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Dialect ‘L’ 3 of 3
 
Loft             upstairs
 
Looby          big, careless, slothful
 
Loodther      to beat
Looks his bit          begs his food, ‘a poor man looking his bit’
Loony          lunatic
Longsome    slow, ‘he’s that longsome, the thing’s never done’
Loose          free, ‘When your father’s loose I’d like a word with him’
Loose-leg     an unattached person, ‘a bachelor has a loose-leg’
Looseness   diarrhoea
Loy              a spade
Lue              lukewarm, of friendship, courting or liquid drinks
Lump it        put up with it, ‘like it or lump it’
Lump           large, ‘great lump of a child’, ‘.. of a horse’, ‘.. of a house’, complimentary expressions
Lying            sick, ‘she’s lying these weeks’
Long-tongued        an indiscreet person
Loose-tongued      same, and a bawdy conversationalist
Lug              ear
 

Fews Glossary L ‘2’

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Dialect ‘L’ 2 of 3
 
Level going            easy-tempered, gentle
Lick                       a toady, to beat, a blow, ‘that’s but a lick and a promise’, careless washing; ‘lick thumbs on that’, make a pledge or promise
Lies near                is close; also of money in the bank, stands in good stead, ‘it lies by me till I need it’
Lift                        to pass the plate in church, stadium; n. the result of the former; misunderstand, ‘I did not lift you there’; steal, ‘he’d lift anything’; ‘when does the funeral lift?’, start; ‘I’ll give you a lift with my toe’, hard kick to raise you up; ‘a dead lift’, weight raised from ground level
Liggety                  long
Lights                    ‘roaring his lights out for nothing at all’
Like                       ‘like I don’t know what!’, comparison difficult
                             ‘what like is the calf?’, is it healthy?; ‘summer like’, hot; ‘winter-like’, cold
Likeness                photograph, ‘he had his likeness tuk’
Limber                   easily breakable
Lines                     Certificate of baptism, marriage, character
Linge                     chastise
Lip                         impertinence, ‘don’t give me your lip’; taste, ‘I haven’t lipped a drink all day’
Lint-hole                flax-hole
Load                      large quantity, ‘he had a full load last night’, got drunk
Load o’ coul’          a bad cold
Lock                      unspecified quantity, ‘a lock of potatoes’, ‘a lock of hens’
 

Fews Glossary: Mix

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Dialect ‘mix’
 
Raghery       red-coloured pony (or girl)
Pallions        flapping pieces of bandages or clothing

High-low      shoe/boot type, half-shoe, half-boot, with a very short top
Nyff-nyaffs   odds and ends, small ornaments
Jook-the-Beetle     little pieces in champ that were not mashed; by extension, a sly person who escapes just punishment
Dah-hoe      a bogey, curse, ‘the dah-hoe is in him’, a hereditary evil
Shire            to pour off and leave only sediment, or leave till sediment settles
Teemer        osier basket used to drain potatoes
Terrible well-lost     gone for ever, won’t be found
 
Expressions:
 
‘You’ve as much need of a woman as ducks need umberellas’
 
Foolish counting in the ‘twenties’
 
‘Wannery two ere ey Dickery Daisy
Hall a boe Crack, a bone fandolairy
Haze come paze
Come merry, come time
Hummily bummily
Twenty-nine!’
 
ED: I remember this one.  There were others.  Does anyone remember them?

Fews Glossary: J

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Dialect ‘J’
 
Jag                 prick
Jamety          an old ejaculation
Jamety Katty         and others.. as above
Jap                 splash on clothes, ‘I’m all japed with mud’
Jig                  dance
Jigged           drunk
Jiggered       exhausted, ‘wrecked’
Join               var.  ‘I’m joined with John’, ‘The crowd joined and we had to run’, attacked
Jog                push
Joggle          to move from side to side
Jouk, duke   to stoop to hide, avoid a blow
Jubus           dubious, suspicious
Jundy            push, also ‘junty’
Juke              to stoop, avoid
 

Fews Glossary: K

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Kak              faeces
Keek            peep, look
Kemped       hurried, careless, ‘kemped work’
Keen            eager, ‘she’d be keen to throw her clothes with his’, she’d like a marriage with him;  ‘She’s keen on Mary’s John’, fancies; very, ‘keen tormented’
Keogh-boy   a smart or amusing young man
Kilt               greviously hurt, ‘he was as near kilt as if he were dead’
Kind             of religious persuasion, ‘he’s not our kind’ , he ‘digs with the wrong foot’
Kindling        dry wood
Kindness      a present, ‘he always brings a wee kindness with him’
Kink             an attack of coughing or laughing
Kennel         kindle, ‘kennel  the fire there, would you?’
Kimeens       tricks
Kitchen        relish, fit product for one’s kitchen, ‘butter to butter is no kitchen’; manage a house, ‘she could kitchen where Mary would only spend’
Kittery         awkward, left-handed, ‘kitter-pawed’, awkward physically, ‘kitter-fisted’, bad fighter, ‘kittery’, fool
Kittle            birth, ‘the cat has kittled’
Kitling           a young cat
Knackery     knavery, trickery
Knee-crooking       poor-spirited, as of a crowd
Knowing       small portion, ‘just a wee knowing. Don’t be filling it up’
                   cunning, ‘he’s too knowing’ ‘a right knowing wee man’
Knur            small

Fews Glossary Y-Z

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Newry Cathedral Parish

Vapour    boast: ’till hear him vapour, ye’d think he owned the townland’

Words   quarrel: ‘we’d words once, but we don’t spake now’
           cross words: ‘We’d words, and now we’re fell out’

Yalla         yellow
Yammer    complain
Yap          complain, gern: ‘quit yapping there!’
               n. ‘he’s nothing but a wee yap’
yerk         pull: ‘he yerked me be the arm’
                     ‘he was yerked into the ditch’
Yoke        car, machine: ‘that’s a quare yoke yer driving’
               Matched: ‘them two’s well-yoked’
Yon          that
Your day   generation: ‘Aye, twas different in your day!’
Yowl         cry, yelp

Fews Glossary: I

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Ill-answered  impertinent
Ill-favoured   physically unattractive
Ill put-on      badly dressed
Ill done        done wrongly
Ill to handle  difficult (of person or beast)
Ill off           in straitened circumstances
Ill tongued    prone to swearing, or verbal abuse
Took it ill      was displeased about
Imparted      scolded: ‘I imparted my mind to her!’
Imperent      impudent
Ins and outs  all: ‘give me the ins and outs of it!’
Insense        to make someone understand
In under       beneath: ‘he fell in under the cart’
In with        on friendly terms: ‘Are ye in with them?’ 

I know these are out of sequence but I’d better record them before I forget.  I’m grateful to my friend Bridie McVeigh for the second one below.

Yer ar*e ‘n parsley  You’re telling whoppers!

Ceillayly: She’s just an aul’ ceillayly  She’s flighty and fickle – always on her ceili

Fews Glossary G

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Gab talk, mouth, ‘he’d deeve ye with his gab’ ‘I’ll swing me han’ across yer gab’
Gabble talk quickly
Gainsome winning
Gait way of going/walking, ‘I’ll alter his gait before I’m through’
Gag joke. ‘you’re a quare gag!’, you are quite the joker
Gale torrent, a gale of words
Galoot  fool
Gallusues trouser braces
Galore abundance, food galore
Gam  fool
Gant  yawn
Gash  gap, ‘The cow made a gash in the hedge’
Gassoon boy
Gather to supperate
Gather collect, as in crowd, also a collection of money, harvest apples, also ‘he gathered himself up and pulled himself together’
Get  a child born out of wedlock
Girl  servant
Girsshe girl
Girn  grin, make screeching noise
Give  threatening verb as in ‘I’ll give it to ye, me boy’
Give in acknowledge, ‘I give in that you’re right’
Giving off scolding, ‘she’s forever giving off’
Gizzard heart, ‘there’s devil a hate o’ feeling in the gizzard of that one’
Glam  snatch
Glower stare
Glut  too much, a glut of rain, a glut of fruit
Go  a quantity, a go of water
Go-between intermediary
Go-by  dismissal, to pass over
Goings-on tricks, happenings
Gomeril fool
Gophen the full of two hands of anything
Grate  disturb
Great  friendly, ‘them two’s great again’
Greatly-shaken unfit, looking ill
No great shakes of little consequence
Greesha ashes of wood or turf
Griskin boiling meat
Grist  gist account ‘that’s the true grist of the story’
Grisset cam
Groun-stone grindstone
Grub  food, dirty, delve or toil:
Head full o’ grubs silly, fanciful
Gruellin’ beating
Gub  mouth, ‘close yer gub’ – be quiet!
Gulch  small, fat ‘a wee gulch of a body’
Gulder roar, ‘he gave a gulder out of him’
Gumption sense
Gunk  disappoint, confuse, astonish ‘he was really gunked!’