Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group / Word Lists /
CUMBERLAND 1880
This list is drawn from Alexander C.Gibson's The Folk-Speech of Cumberland (London 1880). Entries relevant to North East dialect are selected from the glossary on pp.163-208.
addle
aiblins
aneuf - enough
aslew
back end
bain
bairn
batt
beel - bellow like a bull
beild - shelter
ben...but - inner part of a house...outer part
bink - bench
black-kites - brambles
blate - bashful
bleeze
blether
blythe -
bowk - to retch
brae - bank, brow
brant
brat
burn
cabbish-skrunt - cabbage-stalk
canny
cantly - heppy
carle...carlin - man...woman
chafts
chiel - young man
clash - gossip
clemm'd - starved
crack - chat, boast
crouse - bumptious
daft
darrak - day's work
dodder - to tremble
doff...don - put off...put on
douce - respectable
dow - can, is able; doucht [pret.] - could
dowly
dree - long and dreary
drook - to drench
drouthy - thirsty
fash [noun/vb] - trouble, annoy
feal - comfortable
feck - a good quantity
feckless
flay - to frighten
fratch - to quarrel
gar
gear - wealth
ged - pike
gezline - goslin
ghem - game
gledge - to look slily
glent - to gleam
gliff - a glimpse
glime - to look sideways
glower - to stare
glump - to sulk
gorbie - unfledged bird
gowk - cuckoo, fool
gowl - to howl
greet - to weep
hag - to hack
hag-worm - viper
hap - to cover
havver - oats, oaten
heeze - to hoist
hirple - to limp
hork - to burrow
howk - to excavate
jannic - fair, honest (as Lancs.)
jook - to duck
keal - broth, cabbage
keek - to peep
ken - to know
kit - small tub
laik - to play
laikins - toys
lait - to seek
lal - little
lap - to wrap
lave - the rest
lippen to - trust
lish - active
lonning - lane
loot - to sttop
lowe
lowp - to leap
lugs
lum - chimney
maddle, maffle - to talk or act silly
maiz't, maizelt - stupified
mak - a make
maunder - to think, talk or act dreamily
mell - to meddle
mense - propriety
messan - any small dog
mowdie, wmodie-warp - mole
mud (long 'u') - pret. of must
nab - promontory
neb - nose
no'but
nowte
owmer - shadow: lig down i' t'oomer
paddock - frog
parlish - remarkable
pash - to beat down
pawkie - sly
pubble -plump
puzzen
ratch - to ransack
rowp - an auction
rowth - abundance
sackless - silly
sark - shirt (for man or woman)
scraffle - to scramble
sec- such
shinny
skrike - to shriek
slape
slipe - to slip away
smittal - infectious
sneck - a latch
snod - smooth, neat
snowk: snowkin' like pigs at a sew
spang-hew - to fling, project e.g. a frog
speel
speir - to enquire
storre - dust
stound - an ache, pang
taggelt - a scamp
ya, yan - one
taistrel - a wastrel
teem - to empty
tew - to harass, fatigue
theek - thatch
thur - these
thole
threep - to argue insistingly
tip - a tup, a ram
toozle - to roughen
top-sark - rough woollen over-shirt
toyte - to totter
whang - thong
whick - alive
whins - furze, gorse
whuddering - shuddering
win - to get
worchet - orchard
yammer - to rattle on
yewl - to weep
yad - a mare
yowl - to howl