Displaying items by tag: Wiltshire Dialect

Introduction

Our Wiltshire labouring and tradesmen ancestors would have used local dialect words in their speech. Some letters were interchangeable such as V & F: P & B: S & Z and so on. Even today, many of us who were born and live in Wiltshire still use a number of Wiltshire dialect words and expressions in our speech. Sometimes, these have become mixed up with those from other counties which may have come down to us from our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who migrated to Wiltshire.

Words quoted here have not been checked but are reliant upon those submiiting them, therefore they may not have been used county wide but very local in nature.

It is hoped that the following interpretations of Wiltshire place names and dialect words may be of assistance to those researching their Wiltshire forebears. Many have been extracted from a number of reference books including those listed below and other from memory. If you know of any missing from this list and deserve a mention then e-mail the Website Manager with details.

Dictionary of Archaic Words by JO Halliwell (1850, reprint Bracken Books 1989)

The English Dialect Dictionary by J Wright (6 vols) Both of the above are in most major reference and local history libraries.

The Local Historians' Encyclopaedia by J Richardson (3rd ed Phillimore 2003)

The Local Historian's Glossary of Words and Terms by Joy Bristow (Countryside Books 2001)

The Place Names of Wiltshire. Vol XVI (Cambridge UP 1970)

Wiltshire Words: A Glossary of Words used in the County of Wiltshire (1894- republished 1991)

 Place Names

- see pronunciation in italics
Aldbourne - Auborn
Berwick Bassett - Berrick (as in Derrick)
Bicknoll in Broad Hinton - Bynoll
Bremhill - Bremell
Bromham - Brumum
Burderop - Burdrop
Charlcott - Chawcot
Cherhill - Cherill
Fisherton Anger - Fisherton Ainjer
Mildenhall - Mynoll as in mine, see Bicknoll
Poulshot - Powshot
Salisbury - often referred to as Sarum or New Sarum
Sutton Veny - Venny

Wiltshire Dialect Words

Anneal (nealded) - heated oven
Arse over tip, pitchfalling - to fall headlong
Badge(r) - a corn dealer, so called because he was licensed to deal and wore a badge
Bargain - small landed property or holding e.g. house, garden, land
Batters - embankment
Belluziz - bellows for lighting a fire
Belly Button - navel, as opposed to Billy Buttons meaning a dimwit, fool, also term for woodlouse
Bide - to stay, keep still - 'bide here with me'
Billy Buttons - a dimwit, fool, also a term for woodlice
Blind-house - local lock up with no windows
Brack - to crack, break, fracture - can also mean feeling sick
Brave - good health
Brown - a brown day, a gloomy day
Budgy - moody, sulky
Bulragging - nagging, haranguing Bunt - nudge, shove up, push
Buttery - pantry
Butty - a workmate
Cack-handed - left handed, clumsy
CaddIe - trouble, confusion, disorder as in 'I'm all in a caddIe'
Call - 'no call to be so rude'
Chooky pig - woodlouse
Comical - funny tempered, not well also see Queer Count - to expect or think as in 'don't count on it', 'don't expect it'
Crowdy - apple turnover, apple crowdy
Cubby-hole - warm place, a snug corner
Dab - as in 'a dab hand' - an expert
Daps - plimsolls
Dadacky - ricketty or unsafe.
Dewpond - a constructed pond on the Downs not fed by a spring, river or stream but which depended on mist, dew and rain to fill it (the parish of Imber had dewponds)
Dicky - weakly, ill health in people, in plants
Dimmet (dimpsy) - dusk, twilight-time
Dodder, dudder, duther - bewilder, deafen with noise
Dozey - sleepy, stupid
Drag - a harrow
Drane - drangway, drung - a narrow passage between houses
Dribs and drabs - bits and pieces/odds and ends, in tatters
Drowner - man who attended to the hatches by maintaining the water supply
Dry as a gix - a gix is a dried nettle stem.
Dryth/druth - very dry, a drought
Duckstone - a game played with stones
Dummel, domel, dumble - stupid, dull, foolish Dung pot-a dung cart
Dunny, dunnikin - an earth closet
Emmet - an ant
Faggot - woman/girl of bad character
Fardingale - quarter of an acre
Favour - to resemble in features
Flump - to fall heavily
Fogger - a man servant, groom, labourer ;-- man who took cows their fodder morning and evening - a corruption of 'fodder'
Frame - skeleton
Frickle/Fuggle - to potter about/fidget/worry
Fuckling/friggling - tiresome, something which involves much attention to detail
Gaapus/gawpus - a fool, stupid person
Galley-bagger/galley-crow - a scarecrow
Gammer - woodlouse
Gapps/Grapsey - gape or stare
Gibbles (pronounced as 'jibbles')/Chipples - Spring onions
Gill - low four wheeled timber carriage
Glory-hole - place/cupboard for rubbish/ odds & ends Goggles - a disease in sheep
Gooding Day - St Thomas' Day -21 December
Goosegog - gooseberry
Gossiping - christening;- Gossips - godparents Grizzle - complain, grumble, whine, cry
Griggle -small apple
Hacker/hagger - tremble as with the cold
Gurt as in 'gurt big 'un' meaning 'great big one
Half-baked - dimwitted, stupid
Hallantide - All Saints' Day - 1 November
Handin' post - a signpost
Hanglers/pot hangels - pothooks
Helyer - a tiler
Hike - to hook or catch Hilp wine - sloe wine
Hodmandod/hodmedod - short and clumsy
Hollardy day - Holy Rood Day - 3 May
Home to be called - to have banns of marriage published
Hookland/Hitchland - portion of the best land in a common field
Hooset, Heusset, Wooset - Skimmington ride (public disapproval of marital infidelities - rough justice)
Horse's leg - a bassoon
Hudgy - clumsy, thick
Hurdle footed - club footed
Hurkle - to crowd together
In-a-most - almost
Jack and his team/Dick and his team - the Great Bear/the Plough
Jarl - quarrel
Jaw-bit - labourers' elevenses (also see Nammet)
Jibbets - small bits and pieces
Jobbet - small load
Jonnick - honest/fair
Junk-a solid piece - hunk/hunch - bread & cheese, a lump of wood or coal
Junket - a treat, out on a spree
Kiver - a cooler (used in brewing)
Lannock - long narrow piece of land
Lear/leer - very cold/extremely hungry/starving
Leaser - gleaner
Licket - all in pieces
Lollop(er) - to loll about: lazy lout
Loppity - to feel weak or out of sorts
Lot-meads - common meadows divided into equal sized pieces
Lug - land measure (pole or perch) in Wiltshire can be 3 lengths - 15, 18 or 16 & 1/2 ft (statute perch)
Lummekin - ungainly, heavy, clumsy
Main - good, excellent
Marlbro' handed - awkward, clumsy
Mere - boundary line/bank of turf as a boundary
Mere stone - boundary stone
Middling - ailing or tolerable as in 'I be fair to middling'
Mistpond - see Dewpond
Mommet/mommick - scarecrow
Mooned up - spoilt, coddled
Mop - Statute fair for hiring servants - held in several Wiltshire towns eg. Chippenham, Marlborough, Wootton Bassett.
Moral - likeness
Mucker - miserly person (in other counties this can mean a pal, workmate, friend)
Mump/mump about - sulky
Nammet, nummet;- Nunchin/nunchin bag - noon meat, lunch, midday snack. Lunch, lunch bag
Nanny fudging - nonsence
Narration - fuss, commotion - 'what a narration about nothing'
Naumpey - weak, foolish minded person
Next akin to nothing - very little
Nine holes - children's' game
Nineter - regular scamp/worthless/skinflint
Ninny hammer - foolish, silly person
Nuthen - nothing
Out-axed - when banns were called for the third and last time
Pantony - pantry
Peck - pickaxe, also a measure of weight
Peel - a lacemaking pillow
Pegged it - to run well fast
Pelt - in a passion or a rage
Pigged, picked, picky - a sickly looking person
Pitch - steep place
Pitchin - paving with large flat stones 'pitching' with small uneven stones set on edge (usually on a steep or slippery slope)
Plim - to swell out
Pot-walloper - someone possessing house with a 'pot-well' (fireplace) for cooking. In Wootton Bassett pot-wallopers had voting rights
Pucksey - quagmire (dirty, messy, muddy)
Purler - to have a heavy fall -'her went a right purter'
Put about - to worry, fret
Quar(r) - stonequarryman
Quean - a woman
Queer - not well, also see Comical
Quidly or Quiddle - a fussy person
Quilt - to swallow
Plock - alog of firewood, just large enough to fit into the grate.
Rag-mag - ragged beggar (male/female)
Rannel - extremely hungry
Raves/Reaves - waggon rails
Rawmouse - bat
Rawney/Rowney - thin person or thin poor and uneven as in manufactured cloth
Reeve - to draw up as in 'her skirts is all reeved up', wrinkle
Remlet - remnant
Revel - parish/village festival also as in Club Feast
Rick/wrick - to twist or wrench - as in a turned ankle
Rhine (pronounced reen) - water course
Rough - feeling unwell; to sleep outdoors - 'sleeping rough'
Roughband/rough music - see Housset
Scaut - to strain, push, to carry a heavy load
Scram - awkward, scrammy handed (left handed)
Shandy - a row about nothing in particular
Shard - a gap or hole in a hedge, generally large enough for a child to crawl through.
ShitsacklShock-shack Day - King Charles' day - 29 May when children carried shitsack (springs of young oak or ash) in the morning and powder-monkey or Even-ash leaves in the afternoon.
Shot of/shut of - to rid oneself of a thing
Shrammed - cold - perished with cold -cold to your very bones
Scag/skag/skeg - ragged tear in clothes - to scag on something.
Skiffley - showery
Skillin(g) - pent house/outhouse/cowshed
Slammock/Slummock - slatternly woman Slewed - the worse for drink
Smart - a second swarm of bees
Somewhen - sometime
Spreeved - sore skin, hands and legs, caused by cold weather.
Teg - sheep
Tegman - shepherd - teg was a Wiltshire name for sheep
Tallet, tallot - hayloft over a stable
Tasker - casual labourer
Teart - very cold, sore as in a small sore cut on a finger, a graze
Tranter - a haulier
Trumpery - rubbish, cheap and tawdry; weeds left in cultivated ground
Tuffin/tuffin hay - late hay made from the rough grass left by cattle
Tump/tumpy - hillock, hillocky - uneven
Tun - chimney or chimney top; to pour liquid through a 'tun-dish' into a barrel
Turn/torn - spinning wheel
Unbelieving - disobedient (as with naughty children) Up-along - a little way up the road (as in 'down-along' - down the street) Upping-stock - horse block
Vag - to reap with a broad reap hook (vagging hook)
Vamplets - gaiters
Want-catcher/cont catcher - mole catcher
Whipland - land measured out by the whip's length when ploughed
Whissgig - to have a bit of fun, to lark about Wisp, wish, west - a stye in the eye
Yardland - Quarter of an acre (a quarter of an acre was a landyard wide)
Yer/Yertiz - here/here it is or your.
Yuckle - Woodpecker
Zammy - a simpleton