OLD LANCASHIRE DIALECT WORDS AND THEIR ORIGINS

Please note that I am no longer building websites or blogging. I have left the information below online in case anyone finds it interesting or useful.

Anyone interested in using my data for their academic work is welcome to, with the appropriate accreditation and link to this page (Gardner, H. 2005).

One final note: I get a lot of emails saying that some of the words or meanings I collected are ‘wrong’. In fact, every word and its meaning was collected directly from a speaker of the Lancashire dialect, and I’m sure there is a lot of variation even between local villages. The word you grew up with is no less valid than the slightly different word spoken by the person a few miles down the road.

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This work was undertaken in 2003 and 2004 for my BA (Hons) in Linguistics. I went on to do a Masters Degree in Linguistics and currently work for the University of Manchester on a research project in the Linguistics department.

I have always been interested in etymology, the study of words and their historical development.
The old, rural Lancashire dialect has always particularly interested me, as I grew up listening to my grandfather (Henry Cross Gardner, a farmer who lived in Catforth, Lancashire. This work was and is dedicated to him.) speak it. I was always aware that he used words and spoke in ways that I often didn’t understand, and when I began to study linguistics (after he had passed away) I started to think about it more.
Additionally, my inner-historian has always loved anything to do with the history of England, particularly the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, and I have also briefly studied Anglo-Saxon literature, grammar and culture.
It isn’t too much of a surprise, then, that for my undergraduate dissertation I chose to investigate the rural dialect words found in Lancashire, many of which are derived from Old English and Old Norse words.
I conducted a dialectal survey of 31 participants (most of whom my dad very kindly put me in touch with), the majority being of my grandfather’s generation, using phrases to elicit a series of words. I chose an agricultural theme as this is where most of the words exist. There have of course been dialect surveys conducted in the past, but there hadn’t been one for some time at this point. I wanted to do some up to date research on which words were still in use, and hoped to find some rare words that perhaps hadn’t been recorded.

After conducting the survey, I spent a long time researching the etymologies. I used online dictionaries of Old English and Old Norse, looked in previous dialect surveys as well as modern dictionaries of various languages, particularly Norwegian. This was fun. So much fun. When you are researching the origins of a word- a word that perhaps nobody has previously researched- and after days of trawling literature and dictionaries, you have your eureka moment…it’s brilliant. That this word can be traced back over 1000 years, and came from another country, how it has changed over the centuries, and the influences that have helped shape the word into what it is today…it’s like unearthing a little bit of history, living history that has lain unnoticed for a long time.

I don’t want to publish my entire dissertation, as first of all, it’s long, and full of information that you could probably find anywhere else on the internet, or in a library; for example, the history of the Fylde, some information on English etymology in general and a literature review of previous work. So, I have included a small bit on place name etymologies, just because I find it interesting, and then the dialect words I collected. You’ll notice some of them are just English slang, or standard words. Many are not. Some are REALLY cool. Oh, and the other reason I haven’t published the entire dissertation is because really, I think everyone is a little embarrassed by their academic work as an undergraduate.

A quick relevant bit of info: The Scandinavians who settled in Lancashire were Irish-Norse, migrated from Dublin, who had lived in Ireland long enough to have adopted Irish elements into their culture.

Notes: ON= Old Norse, OE= Old English, SE= Standard English, ME= Middle English

SOME NOTES ON LANCASTRIAN PLACE NAMES

Some geographical features of Old Norse origin are; ‘beck’ (brook); ‘Breck’, ‘brack’ or ‘brick’ (slope); ‘Slack’ (a shallow valley); ‘Thwaite’ (a clearing or paddock). These words are found in places of the Fylde such as Norbreck, Warbreck, Larbreck, David’s Slack (Blackpool) and Bassenthwaite. Other geographical names of Old Norse origin show how ill-drained and marshy the land used be. For example, ‘carr’ (ON kjarr) means wet land, often with scrub on it, and can be found in names such as Carr Hill and Carr Lane (both Kirkham). ‘Holme’ (ON holmr) means low lying land, but which is raised above the surrounding land, and was often used to build farms on.
‘Gate’ (ON gata) means ‘road’, but since the old meaning is no longer understood, extra, unnecessary words are added. For example, Crookgate Lane (Rawcliffe), which literally translates as ‘Crook road Lane’, and Waterygate Lane (Great Eccleston), which translates as ‘Watery road Lane’.
Names of places that end in ‘ham’ or ‘ton’ are of Anglo-Saxon origin, for example Freckleton (either OE Frecla, a personal name, or OE frecel, ‘wicked or dangerous’) and Warton (OE weard plus ton, ‘guard house’). There are also examples of place names which are of both Old English and Old Norse origin, for example Kirkham, which consists of ‘Kirk’ (ON kirke ‘church’) and ‘ham’ (OE, ‘village’). Kirkham was originally Anglo-Saxon Circeham, and was either partially changed by the Norse, i.e. Kirkham, or fully changed, i.e. Kirkheim. The latter contains a rare suffix, so all likelihood points to the case of the former.

THE DIALECT WORDS AND THEIR ETYMOLOGIES

Note: I have highlighted words I thought were of particular etymological interest, in bold. I have left the etymology section blank for cases where it is simply a dialectal pronunciation of an SE word, or regular English slang. The survey was mostly written (as well as some recorded), so I have spelled the words as they were spelled by the participants.

This was only my undergraduate research, and while I was thorough, I am very open to the fact that I might not be right on some of these etymologies, so feel free to offer alternative explanations, and to offer etymologies for those which I could not. Also if you would like to use my data for anything, please feel free to, although it would be nice to be cited, and contacted (I’d be interested in your work, no doubt!).

A side note: I conducted an interview with a man who discussed the social traditions of the Fylde, such as dances, and story-telling. He explained that story-telling was a social tradition, and certain people were called upon at social gatherings to tell stories as a form of entertainment. The stories were lengthy, and always had humour and a moral streak. The story-teller always had a captivating style and was genuinely entertaining. The man also described how, in the Fylde, few of the villages have centres; they consist of farms, which are spaced apart from each other, this independence being a characteristic of the rural Fylde. Each family had their own space away from their neighbours, not in an antisocial way, but rather as a way of having dignified independence.

This isn’t the only time I have encountered a dialectal lexicon that has been around for centuries experiencing a rapid decline. I think about how these words will have been spoken for hundreds of years, up to the point of my Grandad and his generation, and now two generations later, the majority of the words are lost in everyday speech.

If you are a speaker of this dialect, or know someone who is, and have any words you’d like to add to my collection, please email me, as I’d love to document more.

WORD	WORDS ELICITED	ETYMOLOGY, WHERE KNOWN
Cows	coos, cows, sucklers, beasts, beyasts, beas, cattle, stock
Pig sty/pen	pig sty, piggery, pig crewe, pig oyle, hole	‘Crewe’ is from the ON kro. ‘Oyle’ is a common pronunciation of ‘hole’ in the dialect.
Place to keep chickens	hen cabin, coop, roost, ark, hen house, night ark, chuck oil	‘Oyle’ is a common pronunciation of ‘hole’ in the dialect.
Place where cattle are kept for fattening	lowse box, lewse box, shippon, byre, barn, beef shed, pen, fattening shed, box	‘Lewse’- OE hleo (shelter and warm)
Trough, for cattle	trough, ring-feeder, manger, piggin, crib, rack, bucket
Cess pit/septic tank	drain, lagoon, slurry pit/tank, tank oyle, midden tank, down the group, septic tank	‘Midden’- Thought to be from the ON myki-dynga (cow dung + dung) which became mydding in ME.
Cow dung	muck, shit, shite, cow pat, slurry, manure	ON myki (cow dung)
What you clean up dung with	muckfork, shovel, scraper, slurry tanker, tractor, fork	ON myki (cow dung)
What you sweep up dung with	brush, scraper, auto-scraper system, causa (on paved yard)
Wooden hammer	mallett, mell, gavel
Dig	delve, dig	OE delfa. Although it is an SE word, SE speakers would not use the word in this context.
Weeding	weeding, lowking, githering, scowping, crooking, hawing	In Modern Norwegian, luke means ‘to weed’. This indicates the possibility of the dialect word ‘lowking’ (weeding) being of Old Norse origin
Carving knife	carving knife, cleaver, knife, carver, whittle	‘Whittle’ is from SE, as in the verb ‘to whittle something down’, but only exists as a noun in the dialect,
Spitting/drizzling (rain)	smizzling, drizzling, showery, spitting, damping, damp, mizzling
To physically strain	thrutch, wrench, stretch, retch, shape thissen, give it some, pull, grunt, exercise
Tangled	taffled, knotted, twisted, bird’s nest, fast, snagged, cottered, longerted/longarted
Donkey	moke, donkey, Jenny/Jock, mule, ass, nurkey, newwy
Potatoes	potatoes, spuds, tatties, praytas/praters/pratas, chats, tayties
Watering	degging, watering/wattering, irrigating, spraying, hosing	ON doegva, ‘to sprinkle’
Wet through	soaked to the skin, soaked, drenched, witchett, sodden, weet
Houses	houses, dwelling
Bridge	brig, bridge, plank platt, plat	‘Brig’- ON briggja
Sparrows	spadgers, spaddies
Too fat	brosen/brossen, chubby, tubby, overweight, plump, boiler, boated, obese, heafty
Hay stack	hay-moo, moo/mow, hay-rick, rick, stack	‘Moo’ derives from the OE muga , and ‘rick’ from OE hreac.  From Orton and Wright 1974, and from my interviewee for further clarification, it is clear that rather than being alternative words for the same concept, ‘moo’ and ‘rick’ are terms describing two different types of hay-stack. A ‘moo’ is a hay-stack which is inside a barn, and a ‘rick’ is a round hay-stack which is outside in a field.
Attic/loft	garretts/garrett, attic, skaffets, loft
Worried/worrying	moidered, moidering, worriting, fretting, bothered, stressed	‘Worrit’, meaning ‘to worry’, was a Standard English word used commonly in the nineteenth century, and can be found in the works of Charles Dickens.
Rabbit	rabbit, rappet, rabbat
Hare	hare, neddy
No	nay, nope, no	ON nei
Yes	aye, ok, yeah, yep
Ditch/dyke	dyke
Badger	brock, badger	The word ‘brock’ meaning badger, is from the Old Irish broc. This is likely to have been brought to the North West along with other Irish borrowings by the Norwegians.
Beak	bill, beak, neb	OE nebb
Stream	beck, brook, stream, sike	‘Beck’- ON bekkr. ‘Sike’- possible Norse origin, as siki means ‘stream’ in modern Icelandic
Puddles	puddles, pools, dubs
Fleas	fleas, lops, bugs	‘Lops’- ON hioppa. ‘Loppe’ is ‘flea’ in modern Danish and Norwegian.
Ants	pissmowers, pissmires, ants	ON maurr means ‘ant’, and ‘pisse’ means ‘urine’ in modern Scandinavian languages as well as in English slang
Mole	mowdy, moidie, mole, mowdywarp	Very likely ON origin, as modern Norwegian for ‘mole’ is muldvarp
Door latch	sneck, catch, latch, lock, bolt, bar, handle
Anything	owt/ought
Nothing	nowt/nought	OE nawiht
Prong on gardening fork	tine, grain, spike, splice	‘Tine’- OE tind, ‘Grain’- ON grein
Fork with two prongs	pike fork, pitch fork, hay fork, reiching fork
Grassland for grazing cattle	field, pasture/paster, meadow, croft, ley
Sheep dung	droppings, triddlings/triddles/tiddles, muck, buttons, muck-buttons, currants, pellets	ON myki (cow dung)
Raised parts in ploughed field	furrows, ridges, riggs, headland, ream, ploughed earth
Young cow/bull	stirk, calf, yearling, steer, heifer, bullock	‘Stirk’-OE stirc, ‘steer’-OE steor.
Young calf	calf/colf/caulf/cofe/cove, suckler/suckling/sucky, whye, baby calf, stirk	‘Stirk’-OE stirc. ‘Whye’ is from ON kviga
Male mature pig	booer, boar, stag
Female mature pig	soo, sow, gilt	ON gyltr
Toilet	petty, privvy, loo , bog, lav/lavatory, shithouse, closet, rest room	‘Privvy’ is archaic English slang for ‘toilet’
Cup of tea	brew, cup of tay
Wood across a dyke	platt, plank platt, brig, stile, footbridge	‘Brig’- ON briggja
Me and you/us	me and thee, thee and me, us, me and you, us two
A fool	a fool, noddy, charlie, dumbo
Time when work stops	knocking off time, neet, night, bait time, clocking off, rest, baggin time, going home time, leisure time	‘Bait’- ON beit (food)
Snack between meals	baggin, snack, a bite and a brewing
Corona	haze, shadow, dust haze, circle, ring, bore, halo, fairy ring
Mud	clags, clart, mud, muck, slutch, clay, shit	‘Muck’- ON myki (cow dung)
Money	money, brass
Something	Something, summat	Thought to be an abbreviated form of ‘somewhat’, OE sum plus hwæt.
Boys/girls	lads/lasses (or lassies), boys/girls
Earned (his living)	earned, addled, med/made
Anvil	anvil, forge	Forge is from SE, i.e. to forge metal, but only exists as a noun in the dialect
Busy	busy, thronged, pown	‘Thronged’ (busy) is from the ON throngr, meaning ‘pressed to do something’. The SE word ‘throng’ means ‘a tightly packed crowd’; it seems likely that the standard word and the dialect word have the same origins, but the dialect word has remained semantically closer to the ON
Hearse	borne, bier/bear, hearse/hurst	It is quite likely that these variations are of ON origin, as the modern Norwegian word for ‘hearse’ is bare, pronounced ‘bore’
Scared/frightened/afraid	frickened, frightened, afraid, scayrt, feart, frit
Smack/spank	smack, spank, tan, larrup, belt, wallop, thrash, bray, skelp
Scream/cry	bawk, cry, scream, skrike, yell, bawl, whimper, howl	‘Skrike’ is exactly the same in modern Norwegian, and comes from the ON skraekja, meaning to scream or cry out in anguish. It is closely related to ‘shriek’
Stupid/foolish/a fool	oaf, dolt, crackers, gormless, a clown, funny, daft, goffy, thick, silly billy, twerp, molly, puddled, idiot, round the bend
Between	between, in, in-between, betwixt, atwixt	OE betwixt
Have/have got	getten, gotten, gitten, have, have got	The words ‘getten’, ‘gitten’ and ‘gotten’ preserve an old ‘–en’ form which no longer exists in SE for the word ‘got’. ‘Gotten’ does still exist, however, in American English.
I am	I am, me, misell
She is	oo/hoo is, she is, her is	‘Hoo’ is from the OE 3rd person pronoun heo (the ‘h’ is usually dropped by dialect speakers).
They are	they are, them ‘uns is, them are
You are	you are, thou are, thou art, thee, you, yourself	‘Thou’ and ‘thee’ and ‘art’ are archaic English
Wash	wash, wesh, shower, bathe, ‘ave a swill
Himself	hissen, hissel, himself
A bit/a little	a bit, a little, a drop, a touch, a splain, a smidgen, a mickle, a mite	‘Mickle’- ON mikill
See/look	See, look, ken, sken, watch	‘Sken’ (to look) is certainly of ON origin, as modern Swedish sken and modern Norwegian skinne mean ‘to glare’, ‘to look’ or ‘to peer
Maggots	maggots, mawks	‘Mawks’, has the same origin as SE ‘maggots’; ON maðkr
Spoilt/throws tantrums	spoiled, mard, soft, naughty, mollycoddled, brat, pampered
Eyes	een, eyes	‘Een’ preserves the Old English plural form ‘-en’ which exists in SE in the forms ‘oxen’ and ‘children’.
Eaten	eaten, etten
Right/other (way round)	reet, right, other, tother/tuther
Going on about (something)	harping, prattling, ranting, bragging, boasting, rattling, rabbiting, braggarting
Shoes	shoon, shoes, boots, boits, wellies/wellingtons, clogs	‘Shoon’ preserves the Old English plural form ‘-en’ which exists in SE in the forms ‘oxen’ and ‘children’.
Cows crying out or making noises	bawking (spoken data)
Crying/Sheep making noises	blarted (spoken data)
Ploughing	plooin (spoken data)
Where the ash drops in a fireplace	esshoil (spoken data)	‘Oyle’ is a common pronunciation of ‘hole’ in the dialect, therefore ‘ash-hole’
To run chains across a field in spring, to loosen the surface	scarify (spoken data)
To mock sombody	skit (spoken data)
Must	mun (spoken data)	ON munu
In the process of	agate (spoken data)
Old	owd (spoken data)
Hold	howd (spoken data)
Death	deeoth (spoken data)
Break	brek (spoken data)
On a lean	kecked (e.g. the fence was kecked) (spoken data)	ON keikr (bent backwards)
Maybe, perhaps	happen (e.g. happen I will, happen I won’t), marry (e.g. aye, marry) (spoken data)	‘Happen’ is not to be confused with the SE verb ‘happen’. It is from the ON happ, which means ‘chance’ or ‘good luck’. The verb ‘happen’, and ‘perhaps’ and ‘happy’ also come from ON happ, but appeared much later (fourteenth century) than the original expression, which still exists in the dialect. ‘Marry’ is an archaic English word, used frequently in the works of Shakespeare
Ask	aks (spoken data)
A surprising defeat	capped (e.g. I was capped by him) (spoken data)
Wrong	wrong (spoken data)
Left-handed	cack-handed (spoken data)	ON keikr (bent backwards), or OE cac from Latin (excrement)
A lot	a deeol (spoken data)
Good, of its kind	gradely (spoken data)	ON greiðliga
Food	bait (spoken data)
Move around, particularly to move house	flit (spoken data)

REFERENCES

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Hoad, T.S. (ed.) 1986 ‘A Concise Dictionary of English Etymology’. Oxford at the
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Orton, H. & W.J. Halliday 1963 ‘Survey of English Dialects: The Six Northern Counties and the Isle of Man’.  E.J. Arnold & Son Limited Leeds.
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www.howlingdog.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lancashire/lancs_dialect.htm