Cornish Dialect

[treeve]

Strange. Queer, crazy. ‘Daft bugger, must ave gone a bit strange’
Strat. To abort.
Stroath. To walk quickly ; to hurry.
Stroath.”A regular stroath for work.”A quick worker.
Stroil. Couch grass.
Stroll. A confused mass of rubbish.
Strollop. A slattern, an untidy person.
Strop. A cord, a piece of string.
Strove. To argue obstinately.”He strove me down."
Strub. To rob a bird's nest; to glean apples after the crop has been removed.
St. Tibb's Eve. An imaginary time.”I'll do un St. Tibb's Eve, neither before nor after.
Stuan. A blow.
Stub. To dig up stumps or roots of trees, etc.
Stub. A stump.
Studdle. The stall-post for cattle.
Stuggy. Thick-set, short and stout.
Sturridge. Uproar, confusion.
Sturt, Start. Progress, gain.
Suant. Even, smooth ; to spread evenly.
Suchy-meat. A pudding made of small entrails, blood,barley, etc.
Sue. To go dry from milk.”The cow is gone to sue."
Sumptnen. Men who work at sinking mine shafts.
Sunbeam. The gossamer.
Sure 'nough. Certainly, truly.
Survey. An auction.
Swabstick. A mining implement for cleaning a hole, etc.
Swaise. To wave or swing the hands.
Swaising. Swinging the arms.
Swap. The gadfly.
Sweeled. Singed.”He hailed off like a sweeled cat."
Swogger. To swagger, to boast ; a scolding.
Swinging. Large, heavy.

 

[treeve]

Tabs. Dried cowdung used as manure.
Table-board. A large kitchen table.
Tack, Tackle. To harness.
Tack. To slap or stroke with the open hand.
Taffle. To entangle.
Tail-corn. Small, withered grain.
Take. Worry, fuss.”A pretty take."
Taken on the ground hop. To be taken by surprise; at a disadvantage.
Talfat. A garret, an open bedroom.
Tamlin. A miner's tool.
Tamping. Materials used to compress the explosive used in blasting rock, etc.
Tamping-iron. An implement, stick, etc. (should be of hard wood or copper), used for ramming the tamping into the holes drilled for blasting.
Tang. An unpleasant taste.
Tantrums. Anger, rage, ill-temper.
Tap. To sole a boot or shoe ; the sole of a boot or shoe.
Tarry. To struggle to get free.
Tatchy. Teasy, irritable.
Tatie-rattle. A stew.
Team. To dip up.
Team. To lade from one vessel to another.
Tear. A rage, fuss, storm.
Teel. To plant, to till, to set.
Teeled. Buried, planted.
Teen. To light.
Temper. Moisture in the soil.
Tend. To wait on others; to supply.
Tescan. A small bundle of corn gathered by reapers.
Thicky-there. That one.
The out of it. The end, the finish.
Thoft. Thought.
Thrashel. A flail.
Thumbinds. Straw ropes used as leggings. So named from being twisted and first coiled round the thumb.
Thunder and lightning. Bread and cream and treacle.

Thurl. Thin, hollow, lean.
Thurt-eyed. Cross-eyed. Athwart
Tidden. Tender, sensitive.
Tiddly-wink, Kiddly-wink. A beer-shop.
Tiff. To drink from a bottle.
Tiffed. Vexed, sullen.
Tifiings. Short ends of cotton, or very small shreds left from sewing ; separate fibres of cloth.
Tigga, Tegga. To touch ; also a game.
Tight. Drunk.
Timmersome. Fearful, nervous.
Timbering-hill. The staircase. ‘Wooden Hill’
Tinged-up. Hung up, tied up.
Tingler. A bell.
Tinners. Miners.

Titivate. To put in order, to smarten.
Toad-in-the-hole. A piece of fat meat (or sausage) baked with a crust round it.
Toit. Off-handed, proud, stiff.
Tom-holla. A rowdy person.
Tom-toddy. A tadpole.
Tom-taylor. The”daddy-longlegs." Crane Fly.
Tongue. To scold, to abuse.
Tongue-pad. A chatterbox.
Top-dress. To manure on the surface of the land.
Top-dressing. Surface manure.
Tor. Light turfy soil
Totalish. Silly, imbecile. ‘Gone totalling if you ask me’
Touble. A double-pointed pickaxe.
Touch-pipe. A short interval for rest in the midst of work.
Towan. A sandy hillock or dune.
Town, Townplace. A farmyard.
Towse. Fuss, uproar.”Pop and towse."
Towser. A coarse apron.
Trapse. To walk.
Trapsing. Wandering about, gadding.
Travish. To wander over, to walk aimlessly
Treag, Trig. Small shell-fish, such as limpets, periwinkles, etc.”Trig”in Cornish is”ebbing of the sea."
Troach. To hawk goods.
Troach. To tread under foot, to trample.
Troytown. Disorder, confusion.

Truff. Trout.
Trug. To jog along.
Trug. A hard worker.”A good trug."
Tub. A species of gurnard.
Tubban. A clod of earth, turf, etc.
Tucker. A lace frill or collar.
Tucking. An operation in seining, by which the net is gradually drawn together.
Tucking Drawing up the surface of wool in a Mill
Tuck-net. The net used in tucking.
Tummals. A quantity. Often applied to the quantity of straw in a crop of corn
Tunaggle. The fastener of a gate.
Tuntree. The pole of an ox cart.
Turmut. A turnip. ‘Gotta have turmut in a pasty, othewrwise tidn a pasty.’
Tut. A hassock, a footstool.
Tut-Work. Piece-work.
Twadden. It was not.
Twick. A sharp pull or jerk, to snatch.
Twingle. To wriggle, to squirm.
Two-handed-fellow. A clumsy workman. [Cack ‘anded]

 

[treeve]

Ugly. Cross, poor-tempered, wicked. ‘For no reason she turned ugly on me’
Uncle. A term used in addressing any old man—not necessarily a relative.
Unbeknown. Not known, not acquainted.
Underground Cappen. An overseer (captain) of the work being done underground in mines.
Underheed. Private, underhand.
Unream. To skim cream from milk.
Uprise. To church women.
Upscud. To spill, to upset.
Urge. To retch.
Uzzle. The”Adam's apple”in the throat ; the windpipe.

Vally. Value.
Varying. Sheet lightning ; St. Elmo's fire.
Vean. Little.”Cheel vean,”i.e.”little child.”(Often used as a term of endearment.)
Vear. Barren, unfruitful.
Vear, Veer. A sucking pig, a young pig.
Vermut. Vermin.
Veor. Great.
Vestry. The smiling of sleeping infants.”In the vestries."
Vinid. Green mould, mouldy.
Visgey. A sort of pickaxe.
Voidry. A work- or clothes-basket, a voider.
Voore. A furrow made by a plough.
Voyer. The head land round a field.
Vugg. Holes in a mineral vein in which valuable specimens are often found.
Vurden. A farthing. (money, in pre-decimal days there were 960 of these to the paper pound. When viewed in the RPI would carry the same purchasing power as £2 today)

Waiter. A tea tray.
Wallage. A bundle.
Want. A mole.
Want-hill A mole-hill.
Waps. The gadfly.
Warra. A pulley.
Way. Reason.”The way I called was to stop you.''
Wazygoose. for frightening birds from fruit trees, a”whiz-about." Or bullroarer.
Ween. To chirp or cry plaintively.
Wees. Small gentry, people of great pretensions and little qualifications.
Weggas. The bindweed.
Werraking. Swinging a thing clumsily.
Werratting. Annoying, teasing, worrying.
Wheal. A mine.
Whilk. A stye.
Whiff. To fish with lines towing after the boat.
Whirl. The hip joint.
Whistercuff. A blow, a box on the ear.
Whitear. The gristle in meat.
White witch. A fortune-teller, a quack ; also a poortempered person.
Whitneck. A stoat, a weasel.”Screech like a whitneck."
Whiz. To throw quickly ; a blow.
Whizabout. A whirligig.
Widdle. To wriggle, to squirm.
Wiff. A cape.
Wiffle-headed. Thoughtless.”Our boy Bill, wiffleheaded and prodigal like, 'e would have two shirts."

Wildfire. The erysipelas (St. Anthony's fire).”Spread like wildfire." Skin infection.
Winding. Winnowing.
Windle. A windlass.”Windle of the pump."
Windspur. The roof at the gable of a house.
Windy. To winnow.
Winky-eye. A game played by hitting rotten eggs with a stick whilst blindfolded.
Winnard. The redwing.
Winnick. To cheat, to take in, to deceive.
Wisht. Melancholy, sad ; to look ill.
Wod. A blow.
Wog. To walk with a heavy, rolling motion.
Wonders. Frost bites, or stinging sensations caused by cold in the fingers.
Wood-tin. Tin ore, strongly resembling wood.
Wrinkle. The periwinkle.

Yaffer. Heifer.
Yaffle. A loose armful ; to pull about. Like the Green Woodpecker, opportunist, have a go.
Yam. To eat greedily.
Yellow-janders. The jaundice.
Yewe. A farming implement, a dung fork.
Yuck. A yoke.; pigs had frames of wood, called yokes, fixed round their necks to prevent their climbing fences. ‘Breachy pigs’

 

[treeve]

So there you are. How many of you still use any of these? I know that I got some funny looks on site when using 'winsper' (Windspur) and other terms. Another St Just use is that 'oven' is pronounced almost like Oaf'n. Are there any Cornish dialect words that you can add?
Some of the list of words originate in a form of Old English, some very old.

 

[Halfhidden]

Can't see "dreckly" treeve.

 

[treeve]

Tha's colloquial, but I'll look into uh dreckly ::6:

 

[Halfhidden]

Yes it is colloquial, pretty taties

 

[treeve]

It is a common tendency carried from the Sumerian Bowl, through the Mediterranean and via Spain to Cornwall. To say what is meant sincerely that 'I promise to do that for you' without placing any obligations as to exact time taken. The Indian SubContinent is filled with honest well meaning people who wish to serve and to do the very best that they can. They wish to please and to be helpful. It is the same in Egypt, in Greece [Sure I will do it, when I finish this cigar], in Spain it is Manana (there really is no hurry, the gate will be there tomorrow, so what if the hinge is squeaky), and arriving in Cornwall, entirely all the immediacy has oozed out into the sand. I intend to do that for you, because it really matters to me, but I am not sure when I can do it, it depends on so many things, I am so busy, but I promise I will not forget you, and don't nag me because all the enthusiasm will just go and you will really upset me. In other words 'Dreckly'

 

[treeve]

In case thee were a bit fuddled by un all, when ee da see 'train oil', tid'n no fancy stuff drained off from some steam engine. Tis an oil got from pressin pilchards, and ee da burn proper ansom.
It was sold from large pitchers, carried by young maidens, and sold into anyone's jar, to be used for house lamps.