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

pron. Those.

The’rence. adv. From that place.

Thereawâ, Thereaway. adv. Thereabout.

Therevor-i-sayt! interj. Therefore I say it!

Thic. pron. That. (Thilk, Chaucer.) [West of the Parret, thecky.]

Tho. adv. Then.

Thornen. adj. Made of thorn; having the quality or nature of thorn.

Thorough. prep. Through.

Thread the Needle, Dird the Needle. s. A play.

“Throwing batches,” cutting up and destroying ant-hills.

Tiff. s. A small draught of liquor.

To tile. v. a. To set a thing in such a situation that it may easily fall.

Til’ty. adj. Testy, soon offended.

Tim’mer. s. Timber; wood.

Tim’mern. adj. Wooden; as a timmern bowl; a wooden bowl.

Tim’mersom. adj. Fearful; needlessly uneasy.

To Tine. v. a. To shut, to close; as, tine the door; shut the door. To inclose; to tine in the moor, is to divide it into several allotments. To light, to kindle; as, to tine the candle, is to light the candle.

QUARLES uses this verb:

“What is my soul the better to be tin’d With holy fire?”

Emblem XII.

To Tip. v. a. To turn or raise on one side.

Tip. s. A draught of liquor. Hence the word tipple, because the cup must be tipped when you drink.

To Tite. v. a. To weigh.

Tite. s. Weight. The tite of a pin, the weight of a pin.

Todo’. s. A bustle; a confusion.

To Toll. v. a. To entice; to allure.

Toor. s. The toe.

Tosty. s. See TEESTY-TOSTY.

Tote. s. The whole. This word is commonly used for intensity, as the whol tote, from totus, Latin.

To Tot’tle. v. n. To walk in a tottering manner, like a child.

Touse. s. A blow on some part of the head.

Towards. prep., is, in Somersetshire, invariably pronounced as a dissyllable, with the accent on the last: to-ward’s. Our polite pronunciation, tordz, is clearly a corruption.

Tramp. s. A walk; a journey. To Tramp. v. n. and Tramper. s. will be found in Johnson, where also this word ought to be.

To Trapes, v. n. To go to and fro in the dirt.

Trapes, s. A slattern.

Trim. v. a. To beat.

Trub’agully. s. A short dirty, ragged fellow, accustomed to perform the most menial offices.

To Truckle, v. a. and v. n. To roll.

Truckle. s. A globular or circular piece of wood or iron, placed under another body, in order to move it readily from place. A Truckle-bed, is a small bed placed upon truckles, so that it may be readily moved about.

These are the primary and the common meanings in the West, of To truckle, v. Truckle, s. and Truckle-bed.

Tun. s. A chimney.

Tun’negar. s. A Funnel.

Turf. s. pl. Turves. Peat cut into pieces and dried for fuel.

Tur’mit. s. A turnip.

Tur’ney. s. An attorney. Turn-string, s. A string made of twisted gut, much used in spinning. See WORRA.

To Tus’sle. v. n. To straggle with; to contend.

Tut. s. A hassock.

Tut-work. s. Work done by the piece or contract; not work by the clay.

Tuth’er. pron. The other.

Tuth’eram. } pron. The others Tuth ermy. /

Tut’ty. s. A flower; a nosegay.

‘Tword’n. It was not.

To Twick. v. a. To twist or jerk suddenly.

Twick. s. A sudden twist or jerk.

Twi’ly. adj. Restless; wearisome.

Twi’ripe. adj. Imperfectly ripe.

 

U.

 

Unk’et. adj. Dreary, dismal, lonely.

To Unray’. v. a. To undress.

To Untang’, v. a. To untie.

To Up. v. a. To arise.

Up’pin stock. g. A horse-block. See LIGHTING-STOCK.

Upsi’des. adv. On an equal or superior footing. To be upsides with a person, is to do something which shall be equivalent to, or of greater importance or value than what has been done by such person to us.

Utch’y. pron. I. This word is not used in the Western or Eastern, but only in the Southern parts of the County of Somerset. It is, manifestly, a corrupt pronunciation of Ich, or Ichè, pronounced as two syllables, the Anglo-Saxon word for I. What shall utchy do? What shall I do.

I think Chaucer sometimes uses iche as a dissyllable; vide his Poems passim. Ch’am, is I am, that is, ich am; ch’ill, is I will, ich will. See Shakespeare’s King Lear, Act IV., Scene IV. What is very remarkable, and which confirms me greatly in the opinion which I here state, upon examining the first folio edition of Shakespeare, at the London Institution, I find that ch is printed, in one instance, with a mark of elision before it thus, ‘ch, a proof that the i in iche was sometimes dropped in a common and rapid pronunciation. In short, this mark of elision ought always so to have been printed, which would, most probably, have prevented the conjectures which have been hazarded upon the origin of the mean-of such words chudd, chill, and cham. It is singular enough that Shakespeare has the ch for iche I, and Ise for I, within the distance of a few lines in the passage above alluded to, in King Lear. But, perhaps, not more singular than that in Somersetshire may, at the present time, be heard for the pronoun I, Utchy, or iché, and Ise. In the Western parts of Somersetshire, as well as in Devonshire, Ise is now used very generally for I. The Germans of the present day pronounce, I understand, their ich sometimes as it is pronounced in the West, Ise, which is the sound we give to frozen water, ice. See Miss Ham’s letter, towards the conclusion of this work.

 

V.

 

[The V is often substituted for f, as vor, for, veo, few, &c.]

 

Vage, Vaze. s. A voyage; but more commonly applied to the distance employed to increase the intensity of motion or action from a given point.

To Vang. v. a. To receive; to earn.

Varden. s. Farthing.

Vare. s. A species of weasel.

To Vare. v. n. To bring forth young: applied to pigs and some other animals.

Var’miut. s. A vermin.

Vaught. part. Fetched.

Vur vaught, And dear abought.

(i.e.) Far-fetched, and dear bought.

 

Vawth. s. A bank of dung or earth prepared for manure.

To Vay. v. n. To succeed; to turn out well; to go. This word is, most probably, derived from vais, part of the French verb aller, to go.

It don’t vay; it does not go on well. To Vaze. v. n. To move about a room, or a house, so as to agitate the air.

Veel’vare. s. A fieldfare.

Veel. s. A field; corn land unenclosed.

To Veel. v. To feel.

Yeel’d. part. Felt.

Vell. s. The salted stomach of a calf used for making cheese; a membrane.

Veö. adj. Few, little.

Ver’di, Ver’dit. s. Opinion.

To Ves’sy. v. n. When two or more persons read verses alternately, they are said to vessy.

Ves’ter. s. A pin or wire to point out the letters to children to read; a fescue.

Viër. s. Fire. Some of our old writers make this word of two syllables: “Fy-er.”

Vin’e. v. Find.

Vine. adj. Fine.

Vin’ned. adj. Mouldy; humoursome; affected.

Vist, Vice. s. [i long.] The Fist.

Vitious. adj. Spiteful; revengeful.

Vitten. s. See Fitten.

Vit’ty. adv. Properly, aptly.

Vlare. v. n. To burn wildly; to flare.

Vleër. s. A flea.

Vlan’nin. s. Flannel.

Vleng’d. part. Flung.

Vloth’er. s. Incoherent talk; nonsense.

Voc’ating. part. Going about from place to place in an idle manner. From voco, Latin. The verb to voc’ate, to go about from place to place in an idle manner, is also occasionally used.

Voke. s. Folk.

To Vol’ly. v. a. To follow.

Vol’lier. s. Something which follows; a follower.

Vooäth. adv. Forth; out. To goo vooäth, is to go out.

To Vooäse. v. a. To force.

Vorad. adv. adj. Forward.

Vor’n. pron. For him.

Voreright. adj. Blunt; candidly rude.

Voun. Found.

Vouse. adj. Strong, nervous, forward.

Vroäst. s. Frost.

To Vug. v. a. To strike with the elbow.

Vug. s. A thrust or blow with the elbow.

Vur. adv. Far.

Vur’der. adv. Farther.

Vurdest. adv. Farthest.

Vur’vooäth. adv. Far-forth.

Vust. adj. First.

 

W.

 

To Wal’lup. v. a. To beat. Walnut. s. The double large walnut. The ordinary walnuts are called French nuts_.

To Wam’mel, To Wamble. v. n. To move to and fro in an irregular and awkward manner; to move out of a regular course or motion.

Applied chiefly to mechanical operations.

War. interj. Beware! take care! War-whing! Take care of yourself.

War. v. This is used for the preterite of the verb to be, in almost all the persons, as I war, he war, we war, &c.

To Ward. v. n. To wade.

To Warnt. To Warnd. a. To warrant.

Wash-dish, s. The bird called wagtail.

To Wayzalt. v. n. [To weigh salt.] To play at the game of wayzaltin. See the next article.

Wayzaltin. s. A game, or exercise, in which two persons stand back to back, with their arms interlaced, and lift each other up alternately.

Weepy. adj. Abounding with springs; moist.

Well-apaid. adj. Appeased; satisfied.

Well-at-ease, Well-at-eased. adj. Hearty. healthy.

Wetshod. adj. Wet in the feet.

Wev’et. s. A spider’s.web.

To Whack. v. a. To beat with violence.

Whack. s. A loud blow.

Whatsomiver. pron. Whatsoever.

Whaur. adv. Where.

To Whec’ker. v. n. To laugh in a low vulgar manner; to neigh.

Where. adv. Whether.

Wherewi’. s. Property, estate; money.

Whim. s. Home.

Whing. s. Wing.

Whipper-snapper. adj. Active, nimble, sharp.

Whipswhile. s. A short time; the time between the strokes of a whip.

Whir’ra. See WORRA.

Whister-twister. s. A smart blow on the side of the head.

To Whiv’er. v. n. To hover.

Whiz’bird. s. A term of reproach.

To Whop. v.a. To strike with heavy blows.

Whop. s. A heavy blow.

Who’say, or Hoosay. s. A wandering report; an observation of no weight.

Whot. adj. Hot.

Whun. adv. When.

Wi’. With ye.

Wid’ver. s. A widower.

Willy. s. A term applied to baskets of various sizes, but generally to those holding about a bushel. So called from their being made commonly of willow: sometimes called also willy-basket.

To Wim. v. a. To winnow. Wim-sheet, Wimmin-sheet. s. A sheet upon which corn is winnowed.

Wimmin-dust. s. Chaff.

Win’dor. s. A window.

Wine. s. Wind.

With’er. pron. Other.

With’erguess. adj. Different.

With’y-wine. s. The plant bindweed: convolvulus.

Witt. adj. Fit.

With’erwise. adj. Otherwise.

Wock. s. Oak.

Wocks. s. pl. The cards called clubs; most probably from having the shape of an oak leaf: oaks.

Wont. s. A Mole.

Wont-heave, s. A mole-hill.

Wont-snap, s. A mole-trap.

Wont-wriggle, s. The sinuous path