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Local & Dialect Words

catseye said:
We should adopt a Fortean saying, by which we will all know each other - like a Masonic handshake, only..err...not.

So we could introduce ourselves to strangers by saying 'Hobble-de-hoy, my old spongemaster!' If we get back the greeting 'Soaked, old boy, just soaked!' then we would know ourselves to be in the presence of another member of the forum.

If we get huge side-eye, avoided or, indeed, arrested, then we shall know that the other party is not 'one of us'.
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Brilliant idea old girl!
And, a way to avoid some forum members as well.
Once we'd established that they are one, we can make our excuses and leg it sharpish.
 
escargot said:
To be honest, nearly every new noun you come across (ooer missis) could stand for 'penis'.
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You've reminded me of the following, that I posted a while back on the Something New Every Day: Random & Newly Found Facts, thread (#1418). Yiddish, like English, appears to have an inordinate amount of words which cover this subject:

PETZL are a French company that make mountaineering, climbing and rope access equipment.

Via the glossary to Richard Zimler’s novel, The Warsaw Anagrams – I have just learned that petzl is also Yiddish for a small penis, or a young boy’s penis (possibly derived from putz).

With the qualification that sources are quite sparse, further digging through the internet suggests that it may also mean a dirty penis (possibly from the notion that small boys don’t look after themselves properly, and maybe put things in places they shouldn’t).

I own a Petzl climbing helmet – which, were I to make such a statement to some people, I now realise might indicate to them that I go to work with a small, unwashed penis on my head. (And surely the Petzl Helmets section of their website must be retitled in some regions.)

It gets worse.

The word carabiner (or karabiner) – used to describe a very common climbing accessory - is often shortened to crab (or krab).

I fear now that the effort involved in keeping a straight face should I go into a shop and ask the person behind the counter if they have any Petzl crabs will cause me to rupture something important.
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I still have to suppress the urge to snigger like a thirteen year old if I'm talking to a colleague wearing a Petzl hard hat - which is quite often. I fear I may damage something internally.
 
Spookdaddy said:
Goz wasn't in my lexicon. But you've just reminded me of the ceilings of my old classrooms - many of which were covered in what looked like a very primitive attempt at plaster decoration, but on closer inspection turned out to be an accumulation of small gobbets of toilet roll.

In order to exercise our inner Michelangelo we would chew a ball of toilet paper until it was sodden, apply the result to a bendy ruler and flick it upwards. Nine out of ten times it stuck, dried out, and stayed there - possibly forever.

These were known as 'dobbers'.

Even now, decades later, I will look at a ceiling decorated with ornate plasterwork and hear my inner Molesworth observe, 'Ooh - awesome dobberwork.'
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I understand -- from encountering the expression only second-hand -- that in kids' slang around Derby city, fifty-plus years ago anyway, "dobber" meant a catapult. (I suppose one could use that implement in the same way as the bendy ruler above, for shooting the chewed-loo-paper pellet at the ceiling...)

Beresford said:
Not really in common use now, but to us a dobber was a penis.
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(Meant to put the quotes from both posters together, then make my posting; but it worked out otherwise.)
 
Floyd1 said:
I remember 'nah then' but it was used only by the older 'true' natives and was probably a bit old fashioned even then. Also 'how do' which I'll still say occasionally.

There was a short period around late 80s/early 90's where some people started saying 'surrey' as in ''How are you surrey''. I have no idea what that was all about.
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I've read (as with "dobbers", no first-hand encountering) that in Nottinghamshire dialect a century-plus ago anyway, people were often addressed affectionately, as "sorry" (apparently it comes in works by D.H. Lawrence). Reckoned a corruption of the word "sirrah" -- in olden days, a not outright hostile, but not particularly respectful, term used in addressing a social inferior. Is that maybe also where "surrey" as above -- true North, as opposed to north Midlands -- came from?
 
Squail said:
I've read (as with "dobbers", no first-hand encountering) that in Nottinghamshire dialect a century-plus ago anyway, people were often addressed affectionately, as "sorry" (apparently it comes in works by D.H. Lawrence). Reckoned a corruption of the word "sirrah" -- in olden days, a not outright hostile, but not particularly respectful, term used in addressing a social inferior. Is that maybe also where "surrey" as above -- true North, as opposed to north Midlands -- came from?
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Ah ha, that's interesting, thanks- yes it could well be (this was in North Derbyshire).
 
Squail said:
I've read (as with "dobbers", no first-hand encountering) that in Nottinghamshire dialect a century-plus ago anyway, people were often addressed affectionately, as "sorry" (apparently it comes in works by D.H. Lawrence). Reckoned a corruption of the word "sirrah" -- in olden days, a not outright hostile, but not particularly respectful, term used in addressing a social inferior. Is that maybe also where "surrey" as above -- true North, as opposed to north Midlands -- came from?
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My hometown of Hartlepool has a few different words for things,A Clemmie is a stone as in someone threw a Clemmie at us,Clem can also mean stone as in weight I.e he's put on a few clem since we last saw him.Clarts mean Mud as in wipe the Clart's of your shoes before you come in, also Acky as in your hands are Acky go and wash them My Grandad always called Rats Longtails which is/was probably a generic North-East terminology for them.
 
Floyd1 said:
@brownmane
Re: Shingles;

Here, it's also a viral disease that causes a skin rash.
I think you may call it Herpes Zoster?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles

And groin (not groyne) is the area where your abdomen ends and your legs begin (much to the hilarity of childish young geography pupils).
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Yep. That's the usages I'm familiar with. Also shingles for roofing.
 
Babies head was/is a military description for the canned Steak and Kidney pies found in ration packs. Another common term was "cheese possessed" for the tinned processed cheese found in rations. I once worked for a guy who claimed to have carved replacement buttons for his uniform from the stuff as it goes rock hard after being exposed to air.
 
Eyespy said:
Babies head was/is a military description for the canned Steak and Kidney pies found in ration packs. Another common term was "cheese possessed" for the tinned processed cheese found in rations. I once worked for a guy who claimed to have carved replacement buttons for his uniform from the stuff as it goes rock hard after being exposed to air.
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Cheese, Possessed and Biscuits, Brown: Guaranteed to induce nausea nostalgia in any British serviceman.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Cheese, Possessed and Biscuits, Brown:
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The original Biscuits Brown (aka 'hard tack') were incredibly hard to chew, and although many military diners resorted to converting them into a disgusting gruel via the addition of powdered milk & water, I could never bring myself to extend the horror in that way. I only ever had to consume these during exercises (from the precursors to (and originals of) the 24/48hr 3-man 'rat packs') - I really hate to think what it would've been like eating these for months on end, in a trench.

The dialect word 'scran' was (and still is) used as a generic term in the British & Commonwealth militaries for food of all types: it continues to have some fading currency outwith that select band of sufferers, and is a familiar term amongst older Scots.

That word ended-up being co-opted into becoming an apposite acronym within what could be thought of as a metaphorically-related context (in original circumstances about which I knew rather more than I should: but that, sadly, was during one of my previous life-threads). If you're not already familiar with it, please do have a look (promise never to forget it as a resource) and enjoy: it's rather dear to my heart-

https://www.scran.ac.uk/

Scran hosts over 400,000 amazing, fully-captioned images, sounds and film from over 300 museums, galleries, and archives including the V&A, National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums and The Scotsman to name a few.
 
Ermintruder said:
The dialect word 'scran' was (and still is) used as a generic term in the British & Commonwealth militaries for food of all types: it continues to have some fading currency outwith that select band of sufferers, and is a familiar term amongst older Scots.
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Which has reminded me of another one- snap or snapping.

I think it may arise from the 'snapping' of the lunchbox lid when removing it perhaps?
 
Erinaceus said:
It's a steamed suet pudding. Steak and kidney?
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Sure is. Here is one in all its glory. Used to get Chips, Peas, Gravy and a Babby's Yed from Ocean's Eleven (sadly now closed) in Leigh on my way home from a night out.

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A lad I went to school with was barred from Ocean's for asking for a Donkey's D*ck with Mayonnaise. (Jumbo Sausage).

Ahhh, those were the times...
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