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Local & Dialect Words

eburacum said:
Went past Redcar Beacon today on the bus. I wonder what it is supposed to be.
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Shiny?
 
Druk said:
We used to call it Billingham forum?Used to go down there as a treat.
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The first time I saw a public Baths Druk was when I was 4, We would get there early while the water was still calm due to a lack of numbers and activity and just because...

My first impression was amazement - there were these old fellows doing laps and all were breaststroking through the water without a splash, which gave me the impression that these old fellows were not swimming, but flying through heavy air - it's amazing what a child thinks - so to me Druk, going to the Baths WAS a treat. I couldn't get enough of it and in consequence, I learnt to swim at a very early age with a natural over arm stroke.

Another thing about Billingham Baths was the cheaper spectator tickets that people would buy - a very strange howd'youdo to me at the time, but I think that those tickets were for those who'd come to have a shower, rather than observant non-swimmers.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Thanks to no jobs in Stockton, my Grandad moved to Newcastle, where he met my Grandma. Then the Great Depression hit, so they moved down to London. Down his street, he was the only one with a job (because he worked in the oil industry). Then WWII happened.
He didn't get called up because he was already in a dangerous reserved occupation.
Stockton today looks quite nice, probably because all the industry has vanished.
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It was still a bit desperate in the fifties Myth, with pitched gangfights between the Tilery Road Mob and the Swainby Mob in the Rec. I remember being herded out of said recreation area by a young man who carried a length of dowel with a short length of chain attached to the dowel, telling me that it would be a good idea to go home. Now.

We'd be horrified now to hear of this now, but we just accepted it at the time.
 
I was recently reminded of an old word that I had taken entirely for granted until I tried to look it up.
I grew up down the road from a farming family with whom we were very close.

They had a very old farmyard in which was an area where newly harvested crops would be stored before processing or onward transport.
It was called the haggart.

From an etymological discussion on a local board:

"It comes from the Vikings/Norse and means a hay yard - where hay was stored.
Some do spell it haggard but haggart is the correct spelling.
The Norse word is heygarthr."
 
Ascalon said:
I was recently reminded of an old word that I had taken entirely for granted until I tried to look it up.
I grew up down the road from a farming family with whom we were very close.

They had a very old farmyard in which was an area where newly harvested crops would be stored before processing or onward transport.
It was called the haggart.

From an etymological discussion on a local board:

"It comes from the Vikings/Norse and means a hay yard - where hay was stored.
Some do spell it haggard but haggart is the correct spelling.
The Norse word is heygarthr."
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I only know haggard to mean rough/old looking, especially when you're not really that old in reality.

1560s, "wild, unruly" (originally in reference to hawks), from French haggard, probably from Old French faulcon hagard "wild falcon," literally "falcon of the woods," from hagard, hagart, from Middle High German hag "hedge, copse, wood," from Proto-Germanic *hagon, from PIE root *kagh- "to catch, seize;" also "wickerwork, fence" (see hedge (n.)). OED, however, finds this derivation "very doubtful." Sense perhaps reinforced by Low German hager "gaunt, haggard." Sense of "with a haunted and wild expression" first recorded 1690s; that of "careworn" first recorded 1853. Sense influenced by association with hag. Related: Haggardly; haggardness.
 
Floyd1 said:
I only know haggard to mean rough/old looking, especially when you're not really that old in reality.

1560s, "wild, unruly" (originally in reference to hawks), from French haggard, probably from Old French faulcon hagard "wild falcon," literally "falcon of the woods," from hagard, hagart, from Middle High German hag "hedge, copse, wood," from Proto-Germanic *hagon, from PIE root *kagh- "to catch, seize;" also "wickerwork, fence" (see hedge (n.)). OED, however, finds this derivation "very doubtful." Sense perhaps reinforced by Low German hager "gaunt, haggard." Sense of "with a haunted and wild expression" first recorded 1690s; that of "careworn" first recorded 1853. Sense influenced by association with hag. Related: Haggardly; haggardness.
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No, a different word.

As Mr Smithers would say, they are the same but are spelled and pronounced differently. :wink2:

The word is haggart.
 
Dunno if I've mentioned this before. If so, here it is again. :wink2:

Where I live, in a conversation where one needs to refer to a woman of whom both parties disapprove she will be referred to as Flossie.

I was reminded of this recently when a colleague was causing trouble at work. We'd ask each other if Flossie was in, what shift Flossie was on, if anyone'd heard the latest about Flossie and so on.

As a child, should I hear myself referred to as Flossie I'd know I was in trouble. :thought:
 
escargot said:
Dunno if I've mentioned this before. If so, here it is again. :wink2:

Where I live, in a conversation where one needs to refer to a woman of whom both parties disapprove she will be referred to as Flossie.

I was reminded of this recently when a colleague was causing trouble at work. We'd ask each other if Flossie was in, what shift Flossie was on, if anyone'd heard the latest about Flossie and so on.

As a child, should I hear myself referred to as Flossie I'd know I was in trouble. :thought:
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A diminutive of Florence.
I wonder if there was a Florence in the past who was very annoying?
 
I was pondering only last week, why cold weather often makes (British at least) people look 'haggard'?
It doesn't seem to have the same effect on the Scandinavians.

I mean look at A-Ha, they still look about 12.
 
escargot said:
Dunno if I've mentioned this before. If so, here it is again. :wink2:

Where I live, in a conversation where one needs to refer to a woman of whom both parties disapprove she will be referred to as Flossie.

I was reminded of this recently when a colleague was causing trouble at work. We'd ask each other if Flossie was in, what shift Flossie was on, if anyone'd heard the latest about Flossie and so on.

As a child, should I hear myself referred to as Flossie I'd know I was in trouble. :thought:
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Where are you from Escargot?

My Sister was the last of five children - the others are all males. In consequence, Mitty had an attitude and at times would try it out on Mum...foolish child!

Mum's response would be sharp and to the point and was preceded by "I'll tell you something Floss, and it's for free", and would be followed by a right bollocking.

If Mum was in a benign mood, Mitty (Sisters family name) would be referred to as 'Flossy Fussbudget'.

Mum was solid NorthStaffs., had these odd names/words that applied to us all like Grundlefizz, and Thinknottle, and would often drop into dialect, just to confuse us, that was learnt at the knee of Her great Uncles and Grandparents.
 
Mungoman said:
Where are you from Escargot?

My Sister was the last of five children - the others are all males. In consequence, Mitty had an attitude and at times would try it out on Mum...foolish child!

Mum's response would be sharp and to the point and was preceded by "I'll tell you something Floss, and it's for free", and would be followed by a right bollocking.

If Mum was in a benign mood, Mitty (Sisters family name) would be referred to as 'Flossy Fussbudget'.

Mum was solid NorthStaffs., had these odd names/words that applied to us all like Grundlefizz, and Thinknottle, and would often drop into dialect, just to confuse us, that was learnt at the knee of Her great Uncles and Grandparents.
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I was raised in Crewe, where all dialects land eventually. :wink2:
Certainly not far from North Staffs.
 
The "strong r" sound at the end of words may be disappearing across the North of England, a study has found.

Lancaster University (LU) researchers said rhotic speakers, who pronounce "r" sounds in words like car, her and bird, were "becoming a thing of the past" across the region, with one exception.

Dr Danielle Turton said east Lancashire had remained an "island of rhoticity".

However, the study lead said that even there, the "strong r" was in gradual decline among young speakers.

Rhoticity is the term for speaking in an accent where an r is pronounced not only before a vowel, but also before a consonant or at the end of words.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-67832377
 
Floyd1 said:
The "strong r" sound at the end of words may be disappearing across the North of England, a study has found.

Lancaster University (LU) researchers said rhotic speakers, who pronounce "r" sounds in words like car, her and bird, were "becoming a thing of the past" across the region, with one exception.

Dr Danielle Turton said east Lancashire had remained an "island of rhoticity".

However, the study lead said that even there, the "strong r" was in gradual decline among young speakers.

Rhoticity is the term for speaking in an accent where an r is pronounced not only before a vowel, but also before a consonant or at the end of words.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-67832377
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I would say that Canadians are rhotic speakers. We say bird, her, far, car etc as they are spelled. We don't drop our r's.
 
The excellent (& pleasantly-understated) Simon Roper recently refers to the historical erosion of rhoticity within Upper Class English between 1673 and 2023. His wonderful brief examples are really-informative, and I instinctively agree with his thesis that Upper Class English once sounded quite like elements of contemporary American.

I also deeply-appreciate his unselfconscious rendition of contemporary Royal elocution (please listen carefully to his Prince William/Harry phrase versus King Charles: I kind-of nearly knew it, but I needed to be told what I was hearing)


brownmane said:
I would say that Canadians are rhotic speakers
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I think I've asked this before: are you (however) on the slide into suppressing your 'RRr's? I do mean nationally, rather than personally. There's definitely been a reduction in rhoticity across Scotland in recent years (the arguable home of rolling RRrs within the Anglosphere), matched by similar softenings in much of the North of England.

My previous noticing of many younger Scots now defaulting to a strange bridged vowel-sound that replaces the classic Scottish/Canadian clipped 'aboot' (stereotypical phonetic rendition of "about") with a strangulated 'abaH-oôṭ' (or 'the NaH-oô' for 'the noo') remains reiterated. I'm not saying it's universal yet: but it will be in say 15-20yrs
 
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