The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire by James Jennings (ebooks children's books free .TXT) 📖

as fieldfares disappear at a particular season, the season is over, the bird is flown.

Fil’try. s. Filth; nastiness; rubbish.

Firnd. v. To find.

Firnd. s. Friend.

Fitch, Fitchet. s. A pole-cat. As cross as a fitchet.

Fit’ten, Vit’ten. s. A feint; a pretence.

Flap-jack. s. A fried cake made of batter, apples, &c.; a fritter.

To Flick. v.a. To pull out suddenly with some pointed instrument.

Flick-tooth-comb. s. A comb with coarse teeth for combing the hair.

Flick. s. The membrane loaded with fat, in the bellies of animals: a term used by butchers.

Flook. s. An animal found in the liver of sheep, similar in shape to a flook or flounder.

Flush. adj. Fledged; able to fly: (applied to young birds.)

Fooäse. s. Force. See Vooäse.

To Fooäse. v.a. To force.

Foo’ter. s. [Fr. foutre] A scurvy fellow; a term of contempt.

Foo’ty. adj. Insignificant; paltry; of no account.

For’rel. s. the cover of a book.

Forweend’. adj. Humoursome; difficult to please: (applied to children).

Fout. preterite. of to fight.

French-nut. s. A walnut.

To Frump. v.a. To trump up.

To Frunt. v.a. To affront.

To Fur. v.a. To throw.

Fur’cum. s. The bottom: the whole.

Fur’nis. s. A large vessel or boiler, used for brewing, and other purposes; fixed with bricks and mortar, and surrounded with flues, for the circulation of heat, and exit of smoke.

 

G.

 

Gaern. s. A garden.

Gale. s. An old bull castrated.

Gal’libagger. s. [From gally and beggar] A bug-bear.

Gal’lise. s. The gallows.

Gallid. adj. Frightened.

To Gal’ly. v. a. To frighten.

Gallant’ing, Galligant’ing. part. Wandering about in gaiety and enjoyment: applied chiefly to associations of the sexes.

Gam’bril. s. A crooked piece of wood used by butchers to spread, and by which to suspend the carcase.

Gan’ny-cock. s. A turkey-cock.

Ganny-cock’s Snob. s. The long membranous appendage at the beak, by which the cock-turkey is distinguished.

Gare. s. The iron work for wheels, waggons, &c., is called ire-gare; accoutrements.

Gate-shord. s. A gate-way; a place for a gate.

Gat’fer. s. An old man.

Gaw’cum. s. A simpleton; a gawkey.

Gawl-cup. s. Gold cup.

To Gee. v.n. [g soft] To agree; to go on well together.

To Gee. v.n. [g hard; part, and past tense, gid.] To give. Gee often includes the pronoun, thus, “I’ll gee” means I’ll give you; the gee, and ye for you, combining into gee.

To G’auf. v.n. To go off.

To G’auver. v.n. To go over.

To G’in. v.n. To go in.

To G’on. v.n. To go on.

To G’out. v.n. To go out.

To G’under. v.n. To go under,

To G’up. v.n. To go up.

Gib’bol. s. [g soft] The sprout of an onion of the second year.

Gid. pret. v. Gave.

Gifts. s.pl. The white spots frequently seen on the finger nails.

Gig’letin. adj. Wanton; trifling; applied to the female sex.

Gil’awfer. s. A term applied to all the kinds of flowers termed stocks; and also to a few others: as a Whitsuntide gilawfer, a species of Lychnidea.

Gim’mace. s. A hinge.

Gim’maces. s. pl. When a criminal is gibbeted, or hung in irons or chains, he is said to be hung in Gimmaces, most probably because the apparatus swings about as if on hinges.

Ginnin. s. Beginning.

Girnin. part. Grinning.

Girt. adj. Great.

Gird’l. Contracted from great deal; as, gird’l o’ work; great deal of work.

To Glare. v. a. To glaze earthenware.

Glare. s. The glaze of earthenware.

G’lore. adv. In plenty.

This word, without the apostrophe, Glore, is to be found in Todd’s Johnson, and there defined fat. The true meaning is, I doubt not, as above; fat g’lore, is fat in plenty.

Gold. s. The shrub called sweet-willow or wild myrtle; Myrica gale.

This plant grows only in peat soils; it is abundant in the boggy moors of Somersetshire; it has a powerful and fragrant smell.

Gold-cup. s. A species of crow-foot, or ranunculus, growing plentifully in pastures; ranunculus pratensis.

To Goo. v. n. [_Gwain_, going; gwon, gone.] To go.

Gookoo. s. Cookoo.

Goo’ner. interj. Goodnow!

Good’-Hussey. s. A thread-case.

Goose-cap. s. A silly person.

Graint’ed. adj. Fixed in the grain; difficult to be removed; dirty.

Gram’fer. s. Grandfather.

Gram’mer. s. Grandmother.

To Gree. v. n. To agree.

Gribble. s. A young apple-tree raised from seed.

To Gripe, v. a. To cut into gripes. See GRIPE.

Gripe. s. [from Dutch, groep.] A small drain, or ditch, about a foot deep, and six or eight inches wide.

In English Dictionaries spelled grip.

Griping-line. s. A line to direct the spade in cutting gripes.

Groan’in. s. Parturition; the time at which a woman is in labour.

Ground, s. A field.

Gro’zens. s. pl. The green minute round-leaved plants growing upon the surface of water in ditches; duck’s-meat; the Lens palustris of Ray.

Gruff. s. A mine.

Gruf’fer. Gruf’fier. s. A miner.

To Gud’dle. v. n. To drink much and greedily.

Gud’dler. s. A greedy drinker; one who is fond of liquor.

To Gulch, v. n. To swallow greedily.

Gulch. s. A sudden swallowing.

Gump’tion. s. Contrivance; common sense.

Gum’py. adj. Abounding in protuberances.

Gurds. s. pl. Eructations. [By Fits and gurds.]

Guss. s. A girth.

To Guss. v. a. To girth.

Gwain. part. Going.

Gwon. part. Gone.

 

H.

 

Hack. s. The place whereon bricks newly made are arranged to dry.

To Hain. v. a. To exclude cattle from a field in order that the grass may grow, so that it may be mowed.

Hal’lantide. s. All Saints’ day.

Ham. s. A pasture generally rich, and also unsheltered, applied only to level land.

Hame. sing., Hames. pl. s. Two moveable pieces of wood or iron fastened upon the collar, with suitable appendages for attaching a horse to the shafts. Called sometimes a pair of hames.

Han’dy. adv. Near, adjoining.

Hang-gallise. adj. Deserving the gallows, felonious, vile; as, a hang-gallise fellow.

Hange. s. The heart, liver, lungs, &c., of a pig, calf, or sheep.

Hang’kicher. s. Handkerchief.

Hangles. s. pl. A pair of hangles is the iron crook, &c., composed of teeth, and hung over the fire, to be moved up and down at pleasure for the purpose of cookery, &c.

To Happer. v. n. To crackle; to make repeated smart noises.

To Haps. v. a. To Hasp.

Haps. s. A hasp.

Hard. adj. Full grown. Hard people, adults.

Harm. s. Any contagious or epidemic disease not distinguished by a specific name.

Har’ras. s. Harvest.

Hart. s. A haft; a handle.

Applied to such instruments as knives, awls, etc.

Hathe. s. To be in a hathe, is to be set thick and close like the pustules of the small-pox or other eruptive disease; to be matted closely together.

To Have. v. n. To behave.

Haw. See ho.

Hay-maidens. s. pl. Ground ivy.

Hay’ty-tay’ty, Highty-tity. interj. What’s here! s. [height and tite, weight]. A board or pole, balanced in the middle on some prop, so that two persons, one sitting at each end, may move up and down in turn by striking the ground with the feet. Sometimes called Tayty [See-saw].

In Hay’digees. [g soft] adv. To be in high spirits; to be frolicsome.

Heät s. Pronounced He-at, dissyllable, heat.

Hea’ram-skearam. adj. Wild; romantic.

To Heel, v. a. To hide; to cover. Chaucer, “hele.” Hence, no doubt, the origin of to heal, to cure, as applied to wounds; to cover over.

Heeler, s. One who hides or covers. Hence the very common expression, The healer is as bad as the stealer; that is, the receiver is as bad as the thief.

Heft. s. Weight.

To Hell. v. a. To pour.

Hel’lier. s. A person who lays on the tiles of a roof; a tiler. A Devonshire word.

Helm. s. Wheat straw prepared for thatching.

To Hen. v. a. To throw.

To Hent. v. n. To wither; to become slightly dry.

Herd s. A keeper of cattle.

Hereawa, Hereaway. adv. Hereabout.

Herence. adv. From this place; hence.

Hereright. adv. Directly; in this place.

Het. pron. It. Het o’nt, it will not.

To Het. v. a. To hit, to strike; part. het and hut.

To Hick. v.n. To hop on one leg.

Hick. s. A hop on one leg.

Hick-step and jump. Hop-step and jump. A well known exercise.

To Hike of. v. n. To go away; to go off. Used generally in a bad sense.

Hine. adj. (Hind) Posterior; relating to the back part. Used only in composition, as, a hine quarter.

To Hire tell. v. n. To hear tell; to learn by report; to be told.

Hip’pety-hoppety. adv. In a limping and hobbling manner.

Hirches. s. riches.

Hir’d. v. [i long] heard.

To Him. v. n. [_hirnd_, pret, and part.] To run.

To Hitch, v. n. To become entangled or hooked together; to hitch up, to hang up or be suspended. See the next word.

To Hitch up. v. a. To suspend or attach slightly or temporarily.

The following will exemplify the active meaning of this verb:

Sir Strut, for so the witling throng Oft called him when at school, And hitch’d him up in many a song To sport and ridicule.

Hiz’en. Used for his when not followed by a substantive, as, whose house is that? Hiz’en. [His own].

Hi’zy Pi’zy. A corruption of Nisi Prius, a well known law assize.

To Ho for, To Haw vor. v. a. To provide for; to take care of; to desire; to wish for.

Hob’blers. s. pl. Men employed in towing vessels by a rope on the land.

Hod. s. A sheath or covering; perhaps from hood.

Hog. s. A sheep one year old.

To Hoke. v. a. To wound with horns; to gore.

Hod’medod. adj. Short; squat.

Hollar. adj. Hollow.

To Hollar. v. a. To halloo.

Hollar. s. A halloo.

Hol’lardy. s. A holiday.

Hollardy-day. s. Holy-rood day; the third of May.

Hollabeloo’. s. A noise; confusion; riot.

Hol’men. adj. Made of holm.

Holt. interj. Hold; stop. Holt-a-blow, give over fighting.

Ho’mescreech. s. A bird which builds chiefly in apple-trees; I believe it is the Turdus viscivorus, or missel.

Hon. s. hand.

Honey-suck, Honey-suckle. s. The wodbine.

Honey-suckle. s. Red Clover.

Hoo’say. See WHOSAY.

Hoop. s. A bullfinch.

Hor’nen. adj. Made of horn.

Hornen-book. s. Hornbook.

Horse-stinger. s The dragon-fly.

Hoss. s. horse.

Hoss-plâs s. pl. Horse-plays; rough sports.

Houzen. s. pl. Houses.

Howsomiver. adv. However; howsoever.

Huck’muck. s. A strainer placed before the faucet in the mashing-tub.

Hud. s. A hull, or husk.

Huf. s A hoof.

Huf-cap s. A plant, or rather weed, found in fields, and with difficulty eradicated.

I regret that I cannot identify this plant with any known