DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Stanley]

[BillHowcroft]

Stanley used a term I had to Google - Jacob's Join. In Derby we'd probably call this a Fuddle.

Also we call alleyways & ginnels a jitty.

Other terms that vary round the country:
Sandwich bread rolls we call cobs not baps or barmcakes or breadcakes.
And do you mash stew, steep etc your tea - we have brew here.

[BillHowcroft]

Also an interesting piece in the BBC magazine about the dominance of American English:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/201709 ... h-language
I didn't know that Americans hadn't heard of the term fortnight.
I work for an American company and they pay me fortnightly instead of monthly like my previous employers.

[Stanley]

Let's hear it for the pedants! We mash in Barlick Bill.....

[chinatyke]

Let's hear it for the pedants! We mash in Barlick Bill.....

Really? They mash in Derby as well. We brewed in Colne.

[Stanley]

My understanding has always been that mashing tea is putting a small amount of boiling water on the leaves and leaving it to 'mash'. Later when you add the rest of the boiling water it brews and because of the mashing you get a more rounded flavour. Same thing works with ground coffee.....

[Tripps]

I like the word 'cyberchondriacs' for people who self diagnose excessively on the internet.

[Stanley]

It used to be medical dictionaries, see 'Three Men in a Boat'.....

[Bruff]

It’s the old joke about the chap who keeps going to the Dr’s and the Dr says he’s a hypochondriac, to which the chap replies: ‘Oh not that as well!’


‘’Sandwich bread rolls we call cobs not baps or barmcakes or breadcakes’’.

Bill – cobs in Leicester too, where I spent 3 years. There’s a thread on the topic of the different names for bread etc. that I started years ago (probably in the archive).

Here in Merseyside, you have nudgers, a torpedo-shaped roll, and bin-lids, a big flat ‘un. In Barlick I think it’s a teacake for the basic roll, and then current teacake for what a lot of places regard as a teacake. Barnsley is the same interestingly.

Plus, the writer and journalist Mathew Engel has written a book on American English: That’s the Way it Crumbles. If it’s like his other books, it’ll be a hoot and is on my list.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

That's right for Barlick Richard, plain and currant teacakes. I've heard the big flat ones called 'frisbees'. Then there is the whole question of oven bottom and lard cakes..... (That was a good thread, I remember it well!)

[plaques]

Used the term 'panned out' to mean tired and exhausted. This is not quite the same as to 'pan out'. Is this a local usage?

[PanBiker]

Fagged out also.

[Stanley]

My mother came from Dukinfield and she used to say she was 'powfagged'.

[Wendyf]

I found myself thinking about the phrase "wrong footed" this morning, still used occasionally so I probably heard it on the radio. I wonder if it originates from the schooling of horses. If a horse is cantering in a straight line it doesn't matter which leg is leading, but if there is a bend he needs to be "striking off" on the inside leg or he cant bend and loses balance. One of the basic skills of riding is knowing the aids to tell the horse which leg you want him to canter on for an approaching bend or turn. If you get it wrong then he is on the wrong leg or "wrong footed" and out of balance. One of the skills of horse and rider in dressage is the "counter canter" circling on the wrong leg but maintaining balance. Another is the flying change, watch carefully next time you see a show jumper negotiating the twists and turns of a course!
I could be wrong of course.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that - really interesting. I've studied videos of horses gait, and still can't really fathom it. In fact the whole game is a bit of a mystery, but I stick at it.
In racing they call it changing legs and I was aware of it, but thought it just happened by chance during a race. I didn't realise it was so important.

Maybe I should have - I went to Newmarket a few weeks ago to watch some horses being trained. The trainer said that part of the education process was 'weaving' - just at a slow pace constantly changing direction. Not sure if they all do it, but he's one of a kind in many respects.

[Stanley]

Interesting, a whole new field I am ignorant about...... I shall resist the urge to study it in depth!

[plaques]

A friend of mine always made a weekly contribution to sick and poorly horses, mind you he didn't know they were poorly until the race was over. Perhaps they hadn't been trained to move their legs in the right order.

[Wendyf]

Racehorses are a different kettle of fish, not much bending and twisting required!
Having looked it up I'm completely wrong, it's more to do with sport.

[Stanley]

I wonder if Dennis and Sparky know about this.....

[Wendyf]

Dennis does!

[Stanley]

[Tripps]

The phrase 'anti semitic' has been used a great deal recently. interesting to see what the actual definition of semitic is. Seems it's all to do with language, and not race or religion.

semitic - definition

[Stanley]

That's interesting.... I have always associated it with race rather than language....

[Bodger]

I was on another site yesterday related to Hyde Cheshire, there it was "pawming" day, ie. the day you go pawming about, or in other words go for a wander

[Tizer]

The phrase 'anti semitic' has been used a great deal recently. interesting to see what the actual definition of semitic is. Seems it's all to do with language, and not race or religion.

The use of the phrase anti-semitic has always puzzled me when it's used to mean anti-Jew because Arabs are semites too.