Amble Glossary
|
by R.K. Bailes |
This glossary
features words and phrases which I knew in Amble in the forties and
fifties, when I was young. The list was prepared after an interval of about
60 years so may contain omissions and errors. |
Word Or Phrase |
|
Translation |
Example |
aheight |
a |
on high |
up aheight = up on high |
ahint |
a |
behind |
ahint the bike sheds! |
baaks |
n |
baulks (roosting timber slats in a hen house or cree) |
I was on the baaks = I was frightened |
bagey (pl bageys) |
n |
swede |
|
bairn (pl bairns or bairens) |
n |
baby, child |
wor bairn |
bait |
n |
snack (portable) |
|
beroo |
n |
bureau, a press or davenport |
|
bested |
a |
beaten |
|
bleazer |
n |
blazer, metal plate put in front of a domestic fire to "blaze up " a dying fire. |
|
bogey |
n |
a low flat tipping cart for transporting pikes(of hay) |
|
boiley |
n |
meal for invalids - bread and hot milk |
|
bool |
v |
to bowl |
b a hoop or b an easter egg |
bottle |
n |
a tied bundle of threshed straw (prior to bales and baling machines) |
|
bowley hole |
n |
a small high-level door giving filling access to a coalhouse |
|
box |
n |
toilet |
I was on the box = I was ill! |
bray |
v |
smack; punch |
Aa'l bray ee = I'll punch you! |
breck |
v |
to break |
|
breeks |
n |
trousers |
|
brocken |
a |
broken; see breck |
|
broon |
n |
Brown Ale |
|
broth |
n |
thick, mainly vegetable, soup |
plural noun - eat them up |
bubble |
v |
to cry |
a bubbly bairn, divent bubble |
bubbly-jock |
n |
turkey-cock |
|
bull |
n |
a steam whistle |
|
bullet |
n |
sweet, usually a black bullet, but could be any sweet |
|
buzzem |
n |
besom, a broom made from twigs |
|
byeuts |
n |
boots |
|
caad |
a |
cold |
|
cadge |
v |
to borrow; to sponge on one |
|
cadger |
n |
one who would cadge |
|
canny (1) |
a |
shrewd, cautious, careful |
the bank manager is canny |
canny (2) |
a |
lovely, loveable |
the baby (or the lass-) is canny |
canny (3) |
a |
rather sweet (applied to an old lady or gent) |
He (she ) is canny |
canny (4) |
a |
a lot; much |
a canny few |
canny (5) |
a |
quite well |
I am canny the day (today) = I am in good health |
canny (6) |
a |
very good |
A surprisingly canny drop of beer today |
canny (7) |
a |
gently |
gaa canny = go easily |
canny crack |
n |
a good conversation or a good conversationalist |
|
chuck |
v |
to throw (out) |
|
claggy |
a |
sticky |
claggy bullet - a sticky sweet |
clarts also see glar;clarty |
n |
mud |
You have clarts on your beuts; this way is clarty |
clim |
v |
to climb |
|
clocker |
n |
a broody hen |
|
cloot |
n |
cloth |
a clooty pudding - a pudding boiled in a cloth |
coals (to get your coals put in) |
| to be roundly beaten
|
Sunderland got their coals put in =Newcastle: 6, Sunderland: Nil |
cowp |
v |
to tip |
c. Your creels = turn a sumersault |
craa |
n |
crow |
|
crack |
n |
conversation |
a canny crack |
crastric harn |
n |
Craster Kippers |
Street cry of a fish wife(eg Kipper Lizzie) |
cree |
n |
hen-house or pigeon ducket |
|
creel |
n |
fish basket |
|
crowdie |
n |
a breakfast dish made from oatmeal, mutton fat and boiling water |
|
cuddy |
n |
a (young) horse or donkey |
|
cushet |
n |
wood pigeon |
|
dad |
v |
to strike or punch |
Ah'l dad yer jaa = I will punch you on the chin |
dee |
v |
to do |
Ah dee = I do; Ah dee not = I do not |
divent |
v |
don't |
Ah divent knaa = I don't know |
dort |
n |
dirt |
|
dottle |
n |
the unburned waste from a tobacco pipe; sheeps dung (small) cf glar |
divent drop your dottle on the proggy mat |
ducket ( see cree) |
n |
dovecote; a pigeon loft |
|
duff |
n |
coal dust |
|
dunch |
n |
collision; shoulder charge |
|
dutchman |
n |
a hard case; a fool; a mischievious person (usually a child) |
|
dyke |
n |
a hedge |
|
ee |
a |
you |
ee can gan nee mair= you can go no more |
fadge |
n |
a flat round loaf |
|
fettle |
n |
condition; mood |
What fettle the day? |
fire-back |
n |
a brick shelf behind the fire in a grate containing coal for later burning |
|
for-by |
| as well as |
He had two or three others for-by. |
fother |
n |
fodder ( for horses) |
|
gaa, gan |
v |
go |
gaa canny = go easily |
gallesses |
n |
braces |
|
gannens on
|
n |
proceedings; happenings |
|
ganzey |
n |
pullover |
|
garner |
n |
a barn |
|
gee |
| verbal command for a horse- go right (see heck) |
|
gee, gey |
a |
very |
It is gee caad the day |
geen |
n |
sloes |
|
geordie |
n |
one who lives on Tyneside |
|
getten away; he has g. away |
v |
he has died |
|
gill |
n |
volumetric measure ( was 1/3 pint in Northumberland; school milk!) |
|
gin-gan |
n |
farm building containing a horse and a gin for mechanisation. |
|
girdle; gordle |
n |
gridle plate for cooking scones on a fire |
|
give ower |
v |
stop it! Give over! |
|
glaiked, glaikey |
a |
Idiotic; stupid |
|
glar |
n |
mud; a large lump of sheeps dung ( cf dottle) |
|
gliff |
n |
a fright |
|
glim |
n |
faint light |
|
goozer; goose gog |
n |
gooseberry |
|
gowk |
n |
an apple core |
Give us your gowk |
grape |
n |
a garden fork |
|
guff |
n |
pig |
|
gully |
n |
a large knife; a carving knife |
|
had away |
v |
go on |
|
had on |
v |
hold on; wait a while |
|
hanted |
a |
sheep established on a hill from which they will not wander |
|
hap |
v |
to cover up |
Potatoes are happed (earthed) up in a garden |
hawway |
v |
come on; go on |
|
harn |
n |
herrings |
|
heck |
v |
verbal command to a horse - go left (see gee) |
|
hemel |
n |
A remote three sided roofed cattle shelter with one open side |
This pub smells like a hemel tonight |
hen |
n |
hinny, darling, term of affection (see hinny |
|
het |
a |
hot |
|
hinny |
n |
hen; darling; term of affection (see hen) |
|
hoolet |
n |
owlet |
|
hopper |
n |
an engineless barge with false bottom supplementing the Amble dredger |
|
hoppins |
n |
The fair on the Town Moor in Race Week |
|
howk |
v |
to dig (potatoes) |
|
hoy |
v |
to throw ; to throw out |
Hoy oot! ( cry of boys, seeking money, outside a wedding) |
hunkers |
n |
haunches |
to sit on your hunkers |
hyem |
n |
home |
|
in bye |
n |
in the direction of the coal face |
|
jaa |
n |
jaw |
|
jaak |
n |
jackdaw |
|
jaap |
v |
Easter egg breaking competition by end to end tapping |
|
jowl |
v |
knock on a mine roof for soundness |
|
keep |
n |
feed quality of grass |
search for some keep; the keep is good |
kep |
v |
to catch (a ball) |
|
kern; kern supper |
n |
harvest home celebration |
|
kist |
n |
chest for bedding or valuables |
|
kittle |
v |
to tickle |
My Nancy kittled my fancy...... |
kye; kine |
n |
cows |
|
kyle |
n |
small heap of hay |
|
lass; wor lass |
n |
wife |
wor lass = my wife |
lonnen |
n |
unmade rural road or track |
|
loup;lowp |
v |
to jump over ( a gate or ditch) |
|
louse; lowz |
v |
to unyoke a horse; to end the shift |
|
lug |
n |
ear |
|
mangle |
n |
a machine for dewatering washed clothes |
|
marra; marrow |
n |
workmate or close friend |
|
mazer |
n |
an amazing one |
|
mell |
n |
a large iron-headed hammer |
|
moont |
v |
to mount |
Moont the cuddy = playground game at Dovecote Street school |
muck-midden |
n |
farm muck-heap |
|
nae;nee |
a |
no |
nee mair = no more |
naen; nen |
n |
none |
naen at aal =none at all |
nettie |
n |
a (usually outside) earth closet |
|
nowt |
n |
nothing |
|
oonce |
n |
ounce |
|
oot bye |
n |
away from the coal-face, back to the shaft |
|
ower |
a |
over, too much |
ower the waal = over the wall |
owt |
n |
anything |
owt l' dee = anything will do |
pace eggs |
n |
decorated Easter eggs |
|
pant |
n |
a water trough for animals, usually decorative |
|
penker |
n |
a marble |
|
pike |
n |
a hay cock |
|
ploat |
v |
to pluck (a chicken) |
|
plodge |
v |
to paddle in the water or mud |
|
poke |
n |
bag; sack |
|
pomer |
n |
a VERY large one |
|
poss |
v |
to wash clothes in a tub using a poss-stick ( or dolly) |
|
press |
n |
a large wooden cabinet with drawers and shelves originally for linen |
|
pund |
n |
pound |
|
puther; pooder |
n |
gunpowder |
The puther hoose at Seahouses |
sair |
a |
sorely;severely |
Sair fyeld, Hinney |
sark |
n |
shirt |
|
scadden |
a |
scalden hot |
scadden het |
scotch |
n |
scotch ale |
|
sel; mesel |
n |
self; myself |
|
shart; short |
n |
shirt |
|
singin hinney |
n |
a girdle scone |
|
sskelp |
v |
to smack |
I'll skelp yor arse |
sneck |
n |
the hooked lever of a door latch |
|
spelk |
n |
a splinter] sometimes a very thin person |
|
spoot |
n |
a spout |
|
sport |
n |
sport |
|
sport |
n |
a spurt |
|
spuggy |
n |
a sparrow |
|
steeths |
n |
staithes; wooden structures to elevate coal trucks for ship-loading |
|
starn |
n |
bottom (anatomy) |
I'll yark your starn = I'll smack your bottom |
stook |
n |
sheaves of corn leaned together in the field for wind-drying
|
|
stot |
v |
to bounce (a ball) |
|
stottycake |
n |
a thick lardy cake cooked in a frying pan |
|
syke |
n |
a ditch |
|
tab |
n |
a cigarette |
|
tash |
n |
a moustache |
|
the day |
n |
today |
|
the reccly |
a |
directly |
I'll be there the reccly |
thivel |
n |
wooden spoon |
|
the Toon |
n |
Newcastle upon Tyne |
|
torns |
n |
events; activities; tasks |
Feuls and bairns shouldn't see half-done torns |
trow |
n |
trough |
|
tyehble |
n |
table |
|
varry |
a |
very |
varry caad = very cold |
warned |
v |
to warrant |
Ah warned it will rain again. |
weel |
a |
well (done) |
|
wey |
| well
|
wey no; wey aye |
what cheer |
| a greeting; how are you |
|
whins |
n |
gorse bushes |
|
wor |
a |
our |
wor bairn |
wrang |
a |
wrong; |
I will get wrang = I will be chastised |
yark |
v |
to smack |
I'll yark your starn = I'll smack your bottom |
yoke; yoke up |
v |
to set a horse to work in the shafts; to dress it in its harness |
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© RKBailes 15 June 2013 |