Edward Hunt's Forest of Dean Miscellany
Mystery, History and Natural History
Zurree! : Forest Talk
work in progress...
This vocabulary is a mixture of local dialect, Celtic, old mining terms etc...
a’n’t | have not |
agwain | going |
agyun | again |
aim | think, suppose, reckon: ‘I d’aim’ |
aisne | small wood |
alf-oaf | fool |
allus | always |
arle | alder |
astn’t | hast not |
avore | before |
awld | old |
bait | food |
bannut | walnut |
bin | been |
bist | to be: I be, ‘thee bist’ , art or are you |
bistn’t | are you not |
botcher | small salmon |
bottle – no bottle | no good |
boughton | purchased as opposed to home made: ‘a boughten cake’ |
boy-chap | youth, young man |
breadtime | usually midmorning meal |
bruks | brooks |
butt, butty | friend (from Butty system: Butty mann who employed mate) |
buzz | bus, omnibus |
bwoys | boys |
byuns | beans |
byunt | are not, am not |
byut | beat |
cawn’t | cannot |
charcoal boards | fitted to wagon to hold charcoal which is bulky but light in weight |
chops | teet or choppers, mouth |
chunt | no, it is not |
chup | cheap |
chupper | cheaper |
churn | underground cavity |
clacketin | chattering |
clane | clean |
clouted | hit hard |
Coleford collar | scarf, muffler |
comp | candle |
cord | unit of volume of cut timber |
cordwood | wood for stacking |
cosn’t | cannot |
couldst | could |
cratur | creature, person in derogatory sense |
crease | jacket or box of rock |
cyawpsin’ | too talkative, loquacious |
dip | deep |
dipple | pit entered down steep incline |
douse, dout | put out (a fire) |
dree | three |
dussent | do not |
dust | do |
ellum | elm |
ettles | nettles |
eye | island – as in Eye between the |
feythur | father |
fitcher | ferret (‘stink like a fitcher’). |
flump | fall down |
fust | first |
gale | birthright, holding |
meend | |
purlieu | (pearly, purlu, Durla Barn, Dursley Cross (Baty p.8) |
Sallowvallets | salh = willows, fœllet = clump of felled trees |
scowle | Cavity, hole (open to surface) “Scowle” seems to be derived from the Welsh “ysgil” signifying a recess |
vern | helpmate (trainee Free Miner) |
vit | feet |
wik | week |
withies | a long flexible twig, as that of an osier (?) |
wum | home |
yalla | yellow |
yud | head |
yunt | aren’t or isn’t |
yup, yups | heap, heaps |
yut | eat, yet |
zart | sort |
zarve | serve |
zed | said |
zid | saw |
zin | seen |
zot | sat |
zum | some |
zummat | something |
zurree! | sirrah! Anglo-Saxon form of address |
