History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part Three

Our very own Roving Reporter Dennis revisits the Black Country to find out what's still there and what has changed.

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History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part Three

Postby Dennis » Mon May 28, 2012 1:10 pm

...continued

Talk given in Oldbury on 15 May 2012


Clack: noisy chatter; also disparaging word for throat or tongue (linked to cluck, of a hen?).

A cogwinder: a violent blow, a coal-‘eaver. Also sog: ‘E did go a sog, ‘e did give ‘im a sog(ger) = slap.

Clam: as in Om clammed / clemmed to dyeth = starving, very hungry. Hence ‘e’s a clamgut, a person who is always hungry.

Starved: as in Om starved to dyeth = very cold, from Anglo-Saxon steorfan, to perish cf. German sterben, to die.

To blart: to weep, cry, a variation of bleat, of a sheep, AS blaetan.

Barmpot: silly person, idiot, from barmy (barmy = frothy, perhaps from a yeast mixture in bread and beer-making?).

Donny: give me your donny, child's hand. Danny in South Yorkshire. French?

Eak-lumps: goose pimples, prickly heat.

To feature: to resemble e.g. I was just wondering who he featured. Old French faiture from Latin factura = form.

Ever likely: well, it's ever likely: no wonder, not surprising.

Gain : he's not very gain, not very good, steady, well balanced on his feet cf. Standard English ungainly. Obsolete English gainly = graceful, from ON gegn = straight.

To gather: to fester (accumulate pus), a gathering, a festering spot, boil.

Gawby: stupid person, simpleton; cf mawkin: doh stand there lookin' like a mawkin = stuffed dummy, gormless [ = without gaum, understanding, ON gaumr, attention, heed cf. gumption?], from a scarecrow, from Malkin, diminutive of Matilda, Maud.

Giddy: flighty (of a woman), irresponsible from Anglo-Saxon gidig, possessed by a god, from AS god.

Yed: head

Hodge: stomach, to stuff one's hodge.

Hullock: fat person, you great ‘ullock.

Jed: dead, worried to dyeth. Coalmine Jed Naps (nappers), Dead Heads.

Just now: I'll do it just now = shortly, later on i.e. in the future, as opposed to Standard English where it refers to the past and means a short while ago.

Aer kid: friend (mate) or family member, often brother e.g. worrow, aer kid, yow awright? My father used to refer to his younger brother as aer kid : om tekin' aer kid out.

Backhanded: as in that's a backhanded way of doin' things: opposite to the usual way or direction.

Ligger: liar, from Old Norse liuga. As opposed to: jonnock, it's jonnock, = true, genuine (Norwegian jamn, ON jafn, steady, even)

Lonk: loin, I've got a pain in me lonk.

Lug: a knot in the hair. Cf Swedish lugg, a forelock, fringe.

Monty: pert, bossy, uppity cf mouthy and facy.

Mad’at, mad’eaded: impetuous.

On the mek-(h)aste: grasping, eager to make money.

Mardy: sulky, spoilt, as in marred = spoiled. Almost Standard English, very widely understood.

Mither: to worry, moan, pester, irritate, perhaps linked to Welsh moedrodd, to worry, bother. Cf moither. Almost Standard English, very widely understood.

Middling: unwell, ‘er’s a bit middlin’ today; I'm fair to middling. But in Yorkshire = not so bad!

To munch: to bully, hit. He's a munch, a bully. Also to pail, hit, and to thrape, gave him a good thraping, thrashing, beating. Also to lamp, larrup, leather.

Nesh (or nash, as my mother said in Langley): sensitive to the cold, susceptible to cold weather. Also soft, delicate. Anglo-Saxon hnesce, delicate, weak, sickly, feeble. Cf. Derbyshire, Yorkshire etc. nesh.

Nognyed: noggin, stupid person. Also a sawney, simpleton, originally a disparaging nickname for a Scotsman = Alexander, or perhaps a zany, clown. Also perhaps a sooner, a fool. Also to be yampy and a clarnet and a lommock. The opposite is a sharpshins, quick-witted person or precocious child (quick on the feet, fleet of foot). If you're a clarnet you need to shape up, get ready, prepare, pull yourself together.

Neversweat: never in a hurry, lazy, ‘e’s a neversweat. My mother always said ‘e’s a bit ‘alf soaked, meaning casual in attitude, laidback, lacking in diligence, but NOT half-baked in the sense of stupid. A neversweat might jib at doing something, i.e. do it only grudgingly, grumblingly.

Rawm: to move about restlessly. Also to scrawl (crawl) and scrawm (squirm, clamber). Rile: a person or child who will not stay still, wriggles about.

Rodney: an idler, loafer. The kind of person who slommocks along, shuffles along. Also a Rubin, a mischievous child, or a nurker, scamp, rogue. A bit hard-faced or facy = impudent, bold.

Said: ‘e won't be said, disobedient, won't be told what to do.

Scrat: a mean person (perhaps from scratch penny). Also a shortwick (short week?), a bad payer, debtor. Skinny, miserly. Oi ‘ay got a stiver, broke (Dutch stuiver, very small coin)

Sheed: dow sheed the beer, spill (Anglo-Saxon sceadan, to scatter). Also to skitter, to sprinkle, as in a skittering of rain. Also mizzle, drizzle.

To snape: to snub, to be offensive to, I onny got snaped for me trouble, from Old Norse snaypa, to nip cf. Modern Swedish snäsa.

Swopson: a heavily built woman, perhaps from Swedish skvabb, fat flesh? Can it be said of a man?

Tittle-stomached: squeamish, with an easily upset stomach, late ME tikel, frail.

Trankliments: trappings, accoutrements, personal effects, ornaments, bits and pieces, paraphernalia.

A two-three: a few.

A tup: a ram, male sheep, ‘e’s an old tup, womanizer.

Werrit: to be a werrit and to werrit, worry.

Wozzin, wazzin: throat, get it down thee wazzin, pure Anglo-Saxon survival wasend, throat, gullet, oesophagus, windpipe.

Before we move on to places and objects, let's pause to consider the delights of colourful phrases and expressions in which often the Victorian Black Country seems to live on, some of them richly comical:

It'd fetch tears to a glass eye.

It's enough to mek a pig loff.

‘E’d eat a jed mon out the cut.

‘Er’s as saft as a wairk’us wench.

It's like giving a donkey strawberries.

He's got a mouth like a parish oven.

‘Is ‘at’s like a tomtit on a round o’ beef. NB round of bread = Standard English slice. Also a piece, piecy, slice of bread and butter.

‘E woh be back afore pig-squailin’ time.

To goo all the way round the Wrekin: by a tortuous route, to be longwinded, take too long to come to the point etc.

The back of Bill's mother's = the back of beyond; it ay 'alf black over Bill's mother's. It's a bit puthery: close, sultry cf. Yorkshire puther, pother, a cloud of something unpleasant e.g. smoke .

Well arl goo ter Smerrick [Smethwick]! = surprise; but in Walsall others might say Well arl goo ter Bloxwich!

‘E’s got a (big) bob on 'imself: a mighty high opinion of himself. ‘E’s a bit ikey = haughty.

‘E’s on the box: off work sick (on the parish poor relief box?)

Saft as a bottle o’ pop = yampy, soft-headed.

Spon new, fire new = brand new, completely new (Old Norse span-nyr, chip new, Modern Swedish splitterny, brand new, new as a wood chip )

Air’un’s better ‘an nair’un. Anything is better than nothing at all.

To slip a collier in: to put something in that ought not to be there (from the game of dominoes)

‘Er played lights out: she made a fuss, ‘created’.


© Dennis Wood 2012
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby MarkCDodd » Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:28 pm

You have made me paranoid now because I use a few of those and they must sound completely foreign to my Aussie mates. "Fair to middling" is one I always use and I have never thought abouts its origin. "Saft" is another word I use quite often and I blame my Grandma Ford for that. Everybody and anybody in the world who did something she thought silly was a "saft bugger" . Cogwinder is another I remember using from a very early age when decribing a fight at kinder.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:57 pm

Saft is Standard English soft i.e. foolish, silly, Mark. My Yorkshire mother-in-law would never say saft, only soft, as in don't be so soft, don't talk so soft, which is also Standard English. Interestingly the vowel is a in Modern German, sanft, meaning soft, mild, mellow and Dutch zacht. The Anglo-Saxon was sōfte, but earlier it had been sēfte.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Margarett » Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:18 am

"Just now" , for sometime in the not too distant future, is one I've always used. But when i lived in the East Midlands, 30 odd years ago, it was completely mis-understood. The people I knew there thought it meant "right now"!
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Sat Jun 02, 2012 9:15 am

Yes, it can be a problem, Margarett! There's a similar one with the Yorkshire use of 'while' to mean 'until', which can be misleading if you don't realize what's meant, 'I'll wait while they come' etc.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Margarett » Sat Jun 02, 2012 3:14 pm

Yes, I came across that in the East Midlands too, Dennis.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Sat Jun 02, 2012 3:46 pm

If you want a free browse of the standard work, Margarett, it's online in Google Books, The Linguistic Atlas of England by Harold Orton and others, not every page of course, but enough to satisfy! The maps are wonderful. There are other things I could have said but didn't e.g. our local variant of the garden weed couch grass (Standard English) is switch grass, in some other places called squitch grass.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Sat Jun 02, 2012 7:32 pm

Another couple of additions: the mysterious Old Shaggy is probably similar to Old Nick (the Devil) and Old Harry. I should have mentioned Black Country summat, from somewhat, meaning something. It's there in Chaucer's late 14th-century Canterbury Tales when the Host says: "Squier, come near, if it your wille be, / And say somewhat of love, for certes ye / Conne thereon as much as any man", "Squire, come near if you would, and say something about love, for certainly you know as much about it as any man"
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Margarett » Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:42 pm

Thanks, Dennis. I will have a look at it. I find all this so interesting.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:09 pm

Indeed so, Margarett. Things keep coming to me, like wallop, of course, beer, the proverbial pint of cold fourpenny with which to wet your whistle. There was a wealth of sayings we've lost. Who could easily make sense now of: "You'll eat a peck of dirt before you die"? A peck was an old measure, a quarter of a bushel, used for oats for horses. It was a large amount, so the saying was intended to reassure: you would inevitably eat a lot of dirt in your lifetime, so accidentally swallowing a bit of it now wouldn't kill you!
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby MarkCDodd » Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:46 pm

I have been listening to the oldies today and there were a few I though might be Brummie.

They kept refering to my youngest brother as "Our Kid". I assume as each of us was born the title "Our Kid" was passed on.

The rest of us were then "Our Mark", "Our Wendy", "Our Gary" etc.

One I discussed with my Smetwick cousins a while ago and we never did agree where it came from.

"Never in the reign of a pig's pudding!"

I always thought that was Brummie and meant the same as "when pigs fly!" indicating the chances are remote.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:16 pm

Our kid is said in quite a lot of England to mean a brother, often younger, or another male relative, Mark. It can even be used as a greeting to a friend, how're you doin', our kid?" It's common in Lancashire and also in the North-East (Geordie: "wor kid"), so is not exclusive to Birmingham and the Black Country. There's even a novel by Billy Hopkins called Our Kid set near Manchester in the 1920s, it's on Amazon. I've not heard the "pig's pudding" saying. I imagine, by the way, that our pig's pudding is in Standard English black pudding or blood pudding.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Margarett » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:55 am

My Dad used to say "Never in the reign of pig's pudding."
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby Dennis » Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:27 am

I don't remember it myself, Margaret, but it's on the internet in various forms to express surprise, used in Birmingham and the Black Country: 'Never in a rain of pig's pudding', 'That's never right, in the reign of pigs puddin'.
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Re: History and Language in Oldbury, Worcestershire - Part T

Postby MarkCDodd » Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:30 pm

I remember Grandma Dodd using the pig's reign saying and she was born and bred in Oldbury but moved to Smethwick later in life.
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