DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Callunna]

That reminds me - did we ever establish who/what Bob Preston was/is in relation to Bob Preston Hill in Barlick? You’d think it was a name but perhaps it’s a corruption of something else (the ancient craft of presting bobbs, perhaps?).

[catgate]

There was a farmer's field behind the house were I spent my childhood and everyone called it `Johnny's Meadow' but I don't recall John being the name of the farmer. I wonder if it had some other meaning or was just used to denote any field close to home?

Perhaps it was due to what was sometimes found there.

[Whyperion]

Twerp , possibly more refined version of Berk ? (look it up as not for polite company ).
Or derived from insult of Turnip Head ? Go and get us a bottle of turps for thinning the paint.

[Stanley]

From memory 'twerp' was an immature goldfish.
Field names: At Marton there was a Harry's Field near Gledstone. Who knows who Harry was, these names entered common usage and stuck, just as fascinating a field as place names. Seek out 'The Living Fields' by Harlan. Published by Cambridge it gives a lot of interesting info about the origin of field names.

[Stanley]

Just used 'having the wool pulled over your eyes'. Now where did that come from?

[Cathy]

Don't know who to thank for this one, details not given.
We've all heard the expression "It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop". One explanation of the origin of this saying relates to candle auctions. In candle auctions in England in the early 1800s a pin would be stuck into the side of a specially-made tallow candle about an inch above its base and the bidding would go on while the candle burned. The winning bid was the last one made before the pin dropped out of the melting wax. It is said that the crowd would fall completely silent at that important moment when the pin was about to drop.

[Stanley]

I have heard that as well Cath.

[Marilyn]

Could "pulling the wool over someone" refer to biblical times.
Was it Cain ( who killed his brother Abel) that skinned an animal and wore it so his blind father would think he was touching his favourite son? Abel had been more hirsute than Cain, hence the animal skin.
( gosh...going back to Sunday School days with THAT one...)

[Belle]

Sounds plausible Cathy, and Maz.

[catgate]

Just used 'having the wool pulled over your eyes'. Now where did that come from?

From believing "twerp" was an immature goldfish. Much of the literature says "pregnant" goldfish.....and thereupon lies the twist.

[Stanley]

I was close Catty...
Maz, I like that theory, sounds plausible to me.

[Tizer]

Every time I hear the name Redknapp and football I think "What a palava". Is palava one of those words adopted from India during the time of the Empire and Raj? Or is it from Italian. Or is it a place in Finalnd?

[Stanley]

Tiz, nothing in Webster but I found this on the net: "It's normally spelt "palaver". According to the Oxford English Dictionary it derives from the Portuguese "palavra" meaning "speech" (cognate with the English word "parable")which meant "talk, parley,discussion", specifically between Portuguese traders and West African natives. So "what a palaver" - "what a load of [pointless] discussion".
I asked Ian this morning if his ears were burning because Doc and I were talking about him on Wednesday. Common usage? Origin?

[Bruff]

Noticed right at the beginning of this thread reference to 'bread rolls' and the different terms for them depending where you are in the country.

I posted a thread years ago called I think 'Of barm cakes, bread rolls and baps', where it was discussed. Just to recap, what got me posting was Barlickers calling a bread roll a 'tea cake', and a bread roll with currents in it a 'current tea cake'. In Sheffield where I lioved for many years, a 'tea cake' is what a Barlicker would call a 'current tea cake', with the Barlicker's 'tea cake' known as a 'bread cake'. But in Barnsley, a few miles up the road from Sheffield, they refer to tea cakes and current tea cakes in exactly the same way as folk from Barlick.

Here on Merseyside, we have the 'nudger'. This is a large 'finger roll'. So you can get your 'sausage nudger' from the caff. I tend to come over all 'Sid James' when I order a nudger. There's also a large flat tea cake called a 'bin lid'.

It's also worth noting that a sandwich is not always something between two slices of 'bread'. When I was living in Leicester, I saw some appetising 'sandwiches' behind the bar and so asked what 'sandwiches' they had. The barman said they didn't have any. Rather aghast, I asked what on earth they were behind him? He said, 'Oh, we have cobs'.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

When I was a student in Liverpool I was warned about the meaning of nudger so that I wouldn't get into trouble! Later, working for Rank Hovis McDougall, I learnt how variable the composition and form of bread products was throughout the UK, let alone globally. When the labs developed new products they had to be tailored to the location.

I note Bruff saying "..they refer to tea cakes and current tea cakes.." and I can't resist asking, "In that case, what do they call expired tea cakes?" [Sorry!]

Talking of bread...As the populations of the Eastern world become more affluent the demand for rice is falling but for wheat is rising. Bread is replacing rice in the staple diet. Meat consumption is increasing and this means that more grain is being used to `make' cows, a much less efficient food source than grain itself. So wheat prices will rise due to both human and animal consumption demands.

[Tripps]

Palaver - "what a load of [pointless] discussion".
I think it comes from the same root as "Parliament"

[catgate]

Palaver - "what a load of [pointless] discussion".
I think it comes from the same root as "Parliament"

Isn't it some sort of Welsh seaweed?

[Bodger]

Bruff in Sheffield did you ever eat a pikelet ?, its like a crumpet but not as thick

[Stanley]

Bodge, never understood pikelets. Bruff, if you're walling a nudger is a big stone.

[Cathy]

We know pikelets as flapjacks ??

[Tizer]

Do folk still use `any road' as an alternative for `anyway', `whatever' (woteva in modern teenage argot). Example: You and a friend are trying to agree a time to meet, and you say "Any road, I'll see you this evening".

[Whyperion]

Wife and her friends from South Yorkshire does , I sometimes understand her , not always though.

[Callunna]

Oh aye! Definitely!
Sometimes I’ll say “Any road up” if I’m feeling verbose.

[Tizer]

I'm glad to hear that, I can hear it said in my head, the same as everybody used to say it when I was a nipper!

[Stanley]

I still use it. Mind you, I am a refuge for archaic phrases!