DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Cathy]

Heard the word Bumptious today, a good word to describe people who are proud or confident in a loud and rude way that annoys other people.
Most of us would know one or two.

[Stanley]

I was thinking yesterday about another word that seems to have vanished. People having a casual conversation were said to be having a 'cal'. Never seen it written down of course but it was a common description, 'caling on the doorstep'.

[Stanley]

Another descriptive word that seems to have vanished is 'camping'. If you called in for a cup of tea and a gossip with a neighbour you were said to be having a 'camp'. Was this local or more universal?

[Tripps]

Never heard of 'cal', and only heard 'camping' in that context, in parts - not all, of Lancashire.

[PanBiker]

Use cal and caling regularly and also know of camping for the context given.

[Stanley]

'Cal' reminds me of chatting and that takes me to the famous Bairnsfather cartoon of two soldiers in WW1 sat on the roadside picking lice out of the seams in their shirts. The caption was "Chatting by the wayside". 'Chat' is a dialect word for a bug or louse.

[Julie in Norfolk]

My Great Grandma had "calling chums or friends". Not sure about which word she used for the friend part. She was Brierfield born and bred, born in Shed Street and lived at Castle Street for the entire 26 years I knew her. She also used to stand in for her daughter, my grandma, if grandma wanted a day off at the mill. My maternal grandad was my paternal grandma's tackler.

[Tizer]

When my South African mother came to Britain and arrived at my grandma's house she was very puzzled when grandma said "I'm going camping with Mrs Sharples".

[Julie in Norfolk]

The word used for the friends part (as queried above) was pals, so g.grandma Hardacre had calling pals.

[Stanley]

My maternal grandad was my paternal grandma's tackler. That phrase is, in itself, a piece of history Julie. Today's youngsters would think they were playing rugby.
'Fettler' in a foundry, 'tenter' in an engine house and 'firebeater' in the boiler house, all redundant.....

[Julie in Norfolk]

Mother was saying the other day that she wondered when Autumn started, her lot used to call it "backend".

[Stanley]

I still do Julie. I think I heard a news item about changing word usage and 'backend' was mentioned. I always like the American version, 'fall'. Reminds me of leaves and the descent into cold weather.

[Stanley]

I heard a funny mistake this morning. A commentator on R4 this morning was talking about Mar May's campaign. He said that her name was embezzled on the side of the bus. I think he might have meant 'emblazoned'.....

[Stanley]

When I was doing the LTP and interviewing Horace Thornton about his childhood in Carleton he referred to blackberries as 'blackspice'. I have never heard that before and wonder if it was a local name......

[PanBiker]

I have asked Sally who is a Carleton lass, she has a lot of older relatives in the village but has never heard the term, she isn't as old as Horace though.

[Stanley]

I came across what I thought was an interesting bit of language yesterday while re-reading Ashton's 'Iron in the Industrial Revolution'. In early iron smelting there were two furnaces, the Bloomhearth where the ore was reduced by repeated heatings and the 'Strynghearth' at which it was further refined and forged. The man in charge of the Strynghearth was known as the Stryngfellowe and this is the origin of the surname Stringfellow. The man on the bloomhearth was the 'Bloomer'. Also a surname. Essential knowledge!
Come to think this is probably why some loaves are called Bloomers, they are about the same size and shape as as iron 'bloom' and they were porous as well.

[Stanley]

I used to go to school down 'Huntsman's Brow'. I doubt if 'brow' is ever used today. A variation was 'Brew' meaning the same thing.

[chinatyke]

Brow, also pronounced brew, is still used in Ramsbottom and the local area. I used to work on Kay Brow. Brow meant hill in this context.

[Stanley]

Quite common in Stockport. The hill down into Stockport was Travis brow. The only example I know round her was Sawley Brow on the Clitheroe road.

[PanBiker]

Buckhaw Brow the old road out of Settle going North, bypassed now so a bit of a forgotten corner for most travellers.

[Stanley]

I'd forgotten that one Ian. Steepest hill on the main road out to the North. If I was overloaded but could climb that I was OK for the rest of the day! I missed once with a load of asbestos sheets but was saved by a push from one of Pitt and Scott;s Diamond T's, the ones they had on Coatgate Steel. They had a big yellow bumper on the front marked 'KING OF THE ROAD'. It saved my bacon that morning, I must have had over twelve tons on the flat and only 90hp! Those were the days.....

[PanBiker]

I can't help thinking how the power of vehicles has changed. When I first started riding (16 years old on my motorbike), bypass not built so Buck Haw was the only way up to the Lakes. We used to go most weekends as there was usually a dance at the Town Hall. Anyway, even on my motorbike I had to drop a couple of gears to get over the brow, always passing the heavies in the crawler lane. Last time I went that way just for a change my car took the hill all the way in 6th gear without a problem. Buck Haw is a long drag but fairly straight so you can keep the momentum up, still need lower gears on the twisties up Sutton Bank though.

[Stanley]

You never hear 'crawler' gear mentioned these days. I suppose modern gearboxes still have them. The old Bedford TK only had a 4 speed box, just like a car.
Knocking a motor out of gear and coasting used to be called 'Aberdeen Overdrive' or 'Silent Sixth'. The Aberdeen bit originated in the fish wagons run by Charles Alexander of Inverness. His drivers kept their job by beating the fish train down to London and they were buggers for coasting in the days of slow wagons!

[Stanley]

Moh used the word 'sweltering' this morning, you don't often hear that these days.
Rodney Platt commented on my braces yesterday in Town Square. He called them 'galluses'. That used to be common in Barlick but not often heard today.

[Stanley]

I heard a well-known political commentator on BBCR4 this morning describe a policy as 'disingenious'. I think he meant disingenuous. Nice try but no cigar!