Edward Hunt's Forest of Dean Miscellany
Fact, Fiction and Fantasy
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, against |
| aim | think, suppose, reckon: ‘I d’aim’, expect |
| ain | haven’t |
| aisne | small wood |
| alf-oaf | fool |
| allus | always |
| ar | or |
| arle | alder |
| astn’t | hast not |
| avore | before |
| awld | old |
| bait | food |
| bannut | walnut |
| bathered out | exhausted, tired |
| bellock | bellow, shout, cry |
| bile | boil |
| billyo | a great deal, quickly |
| bin | been |
| bist | to be: I be, ‘thee bist’ , art or are you |
| bistn’t | are you not |
| black lead | graphite, pencil |
| 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 |
| brevetting | wandering about |
| browst | twigs |
| 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 |
| clate off | clear off |
| clouted | hit hard |
| Coleford collar | scarf, muffler |
| comp | candle |
| const | canst, the archaic form of the auxiliary verb ‘can’ |
| cooch, coochy | snuggle (a cooch is also a dog kennel) |
| coopies | an infantile word for fowls |
| cord | unit of volume of cut timber |
| cordwood | wood for stacking |
| cosn’t | cannot, used with pronouns thee and thou |
| costn’t | can’t |
| couldst | could |
| coustn’t | could not |
| cratur | creature, person in derogatory sense |
| crease | jacket or box of rock |
| crimes | an expression of astonishment |
| cun | can |
| cyawpsin’ | too talkative, loquacious |
| daaze | euphemistic word for damn |
| daddecky / daddocky | partly rotten |
| daggled | exhausted, tired |
| dald | euphemistic word for damn |
| dap | bounce |
| dappy | bouncy |
| dekko | look |
| dip | deep |
| dipple | pit entered down steep incline |
| doan | don’t |
| doings | an unspecified object, a whatsit |
| douse, dout | put out (a fire) |
| dree | three |
| droo | through |
| drow | throw |
| duss | from the verb ‘to do’; I do, thee duss |
| dussent | do not |
| dust | do |
| dyud | dead |
| dyuth | death |
| elba | elbow |
| elder blo’ | elder blossom |
| ellum | elm |
| ellum blo’ | elder blossom |
| ern | either |
| ettles | nettles |
| ex | ask |
| exed | asked |
| exin’ | asking |
| eye | island – as in Eye between the |
| feow | few |
| fer | for |
| feythur | father |
| fitcher | ferret (‘stink like a fitcher’). |
| flump | fall down |
| fower | four |
| frail | a small canvas bag |
| fust | first |
| gale | birthright, holding |
| gammy | imperfect |
| gaust | gorse |
| gawpin’ | gaping |
| gid | gave |
| gidst | gave it |
| gurt | great, big |
| gwain | going |
| gyule | sneer |
| hain | To enclose, as when part of a |
| hast | have you |
| hommocks, hummocks | Legs, shins |
| ignorant | |
| | end |
| izzelf | himself |
| jadder | liar |
| jasper | wasp |
| jip | pain – ‘it didn’t half give me some jip’. |
| ketch | catch |
| kip | keep |
| kipe, kuype | large basket for chaff. |
| knaw | know |
| knit up | draw up (hands by rheumatism) |
| lave | leave |
| lomber | climb awkwardly |
| lug pole | pole for shaking down cider apples or perry pears. |
| mane | mean |
| martal | mortal |
| meend | large area of waste |
| mezelf | myself |
| mommuck | a mess |
| mon | man |
| moot | to root as pigs do |
| mullockin’ | lazing |
| muntle | stupid person |
| muv | move |
| muvin | moving |
| nar | nor |
| nellie | stick to hold candle and with a pointed end to push into coal face |
| nern | none, neither, no one |
| nesh | tender, soft, delicate, not hardy, ‘you be got nesh’. |
| nigh | near, nearly |
| nithered | cold, frozen |
| nogman | stupid person, fool |
| nurped | the result of being ‘nesh’ |
| nuthin’ | nothing |
| ockerd | awkward |
| oik | lift, throw |
| oiked | lifted |
| olt | hold |
| on us | of us |
| on y’ | of you |
| on’n | of him, of it |
| on’t | of it |
| ood | wood |
| oont | mole |
| oot | will you, ‘do that, oot!’ |
| ootn’t | won’t you |
| oss | horse |
| ouja | an unspecified object |
| oultn’t | will not |
| owd | hold |
| owld, ow’ | old, often used in an affectionate way |
| phizog | face |
| pig squeal, squeal | cider |
| pill | stream running into |
| pizunuss | poisonous |
| plaze | please |
| pooer | poor |
| purlieu | (pearly, purlu, Durla Barn, Dursley Cross (Baty p.8) |
| putcheons, putchers, putts | cone shaped baskets used to catch salmon, putts being larger than putchers |
| putt | put |
| quat, quatty | squat, crouch, sit |
| quist | wood pigeon |
| quomp | to stop, to put pay to |
| rade | read |
| radin | reading |
| rale | real |
| rasty | rancid (of bacon); nasty (of person). He’s getting rasty. |
| rinnuck | small pig in litter |
| ronk | rank, sexy, crafty |
| Sallowvallets | salh = willows, fœllet = clump of felled trees |
| sawney | soft, daft |
| scowle | Cavity, hole (open to surface) “Scowle” seems to be derived from the Welsh “ysgil” signifying a recess |
| sh’ink | should think |
| shawin’ | showing |
| shep, ship | sheep |
| ship badger | one who runs sheep in the |
| shuck | shook |
| sknaw | short for theesknaw, you know |
| smirkin’ | smiled falsely |
| smot | to throw, threw, placed, to hit, to break |
| smot up | dirty, as to be smot up with dirt |
| socked | hit very hard |
| spitter | spade |
| sprack | lively |
| spwile yups | spoil heaps |
| spwilin | spoiling |
| squap | to tread or lean unevenly |
| squit, squitter | nonsense (bull squitter, bull dung – hence ‘bull’ elsewhere). |
| squittered | gambolled, rushed haphazardly |
| strames | streams |
| strit | street |
| stunnem | a particularly strong cider once popular in th |
| sturt | startle |
| stwun | stone |
| summat, stun | something |
| surrey | form of address (from sirrah?). See zurree. |
| swallad | swallowed |
| swate | sweet |
| swelp my bob | an exclamation |
| tanglefoot | cider |
| tater | potatoe |
| tats | |
| tawld | told |
| teart | sharply painful |
| teel | to stack or set |
| theesknaw | you know |
| therzelves | themselves |
| theze | this |
| thic | that, that one, thiccy |
| thou’lt | thou wilt (you will) |
| thouse | thou dost (you do) |
| thouse | you have |
| tissucking | irritating (pertaining to a cough) |
| tith | teeth |
| trated | treated |
| tripe hound | silly person, a cur |
| tudjamler | tadpole, small fish |
| tuffut | turf |
| tump | small hill, sometimes heap |
| tush | pull. tug |
| tushin’ | carrying |
| twunt | it won’t |
| tyunt | it isn’t |
| ull | will |
| underd | hundred |
| undud | hundred |
| vark | fork |
| varm | form |
| veel | feel |
| vella | fellow |
| ver, vur | far |
| vern | helpmate (trainee Free Miner) |
| vetch | fetch |
| vire | fire |
| vit | feet, fit |
| vlat | flat |
| vling | fling |
| vlyin’ | flying |
| volla, voller | follow |
| vor’n | for him |
| vorrud, vorud | forward, forehead |
| vram | from |
| vull | full |
| vust | first |
| vut | foot |
| vyarn | fern |
| vyow | few |
| wapper | wasp |
| wast | were |
| watty-handed | cack-handed, clumsy |
| wayter | water |
| wazzle | tangle |
| wesh | wash |
| weshed | washed |
| wi | with |
| wi’n | with him |
| wiffle | stink |
| wik | week |
| winder | window |
| withies | a long flexible twig, as that of an osier (?) |
| witter | throw |
| woy | way |
| wum | home |
| wun’, wunt | won’t |
| wurrut | worry |
| wuss | worse |
| wuth | worth |
| yalla | yellow |
| youer | your |
| yud | head |
| yun, yunt | aren’t or isn’t |
| yup, yups | heap, heaps, many, much |
| yut | eat, eaten, yet |
| zart | sort |
| zarve | serve |
| zed | said |
| zid | saw |
| zin | seen |
| zot | sat |
| zum | some |
| zummat | something |
| zurree!, zurry | sirrah! Anglo-Saxon form of address |