Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect

• F.

• Fakket, a faggot.
• Fall, autumn; to fall down is vall.
• Faÿ (5, 1) to speed, succeed.
• Feäst (1, 4), a village wake or festival; festa.
• Flag, a water plant.
• Flinders, flying pieces of a body smashed; "Hit it all to flinders."
• Flounce, a flying fall as into water.
• Flout, a flinging, or blow of one.
• Flush, fledged.
• Footy, unhandily little.

• G.

• Gally, to frighten, fray.
• Gee, jee, to go, fit, speed.
• Giddygander, the meadow orchis.
• Gil'cup, gilt cup, the buttercup.
• Girt, great.
• Glēne (2), to smile sneeringly.
• Glutch, to swallow.
• Gnang, to mock one with jaw waggings, and noisy sounds.
• Gnot, a gnat.
• Goo, go.
• Goocoo flower, Cardamine pratensis.
• Goodnow, goodn'er, good neighbour; my good friend; "No, no; not I, goodnow;" "No, no; not I, my good friend."
• Goolden chain, the laburnum.
• Gout, an underground gutter.
• Grægle, Greygle, the wild hyacinth, Hyacinthus nonscriptus.
• Gramfer, grandfather.
• Ground-ash, an ash stick that springs from the ground, and so is tough; "Ground the pick," to put the stem of it on the ground, to raise a pitch of hay.
• Gwoad (8, 4), a goad.

• J.

• Jack-o'-lent, a man-like scarecrow.
  • The true Jack-o'-lent was, as we learn from Taylor, the water poet, a ragged, lean-like figure which went as a token of Lent, in olden times, in Lent processions.
• Jist, just.
• Jut, to nudge or jog quickly.

• K.

• Kag, a keg.
• Kapple cow, a cow with a white muzzle.
• Kern, to grow into fruit.
• Ketch, Katch, to thicken or harden from thinness, as melted fat.
• Kecks, Kex, a stem of the hemlock or cowparsley.
• Keys, (2), the seed vessels of the sycamore.
• Kid, a pod, as of the pea.
• Kittyboots, low uplaced boots, a little more than ancle high.
• Knap, a hillock, a head, or knob, (2.) a knob-like bud, as of the potatoe. "The teäties be out in knap."

• M.

• Maesh (2), Mesh, (Blackmore) moss, also a hole or run of a hare, fox, or other wild animal.
• Mammet, an image, scarecrow.
• Marrels, Merrels, The game of nine men's morris.
• Mawn, mān, (5) a kind of basket.
• Meäden (1, 4), stinking chamomile.
• Ment (2), to imitate, be like.
• Mēsh, (2) moss.
• Mid, might.
• Miff, a slight feud, a tiff.
• Min (2), observe. You must know.
• Mither ho, come hither. A call to a horse on the road.
• Moot, the bottom and roots of a felled tree.
• More, a root, taproot.
• Muggy, misty, damp (weather).

• O.

• O', of.
• O'm (2), of em, them.
• O'n (2), of him.
• O's (2), of us.
• Orts, leavings of hay put out in little heaps in the fields for the cows.
• Over-right, opposite.
• Oves, eaves.

• P.

• Paladore, a traditional name of Shaftesbury, the British Caer Paladr,
  • said by British history to have been founded by Rhun Paladr-bras, 'Rhun of the stout spear.'
• Pank, pant.
• Par, to shut up close; confine.
• Parrick, a small enclosed field; a paddock—but paddock was an old word for a toad or frog.
• Pa'sels, parcels. See Haÿmeäkèn.
• Peärt (1, 4), pert; lively.
• Peaze, Peeze (2), to ooze.
• Peewit, the lapwing.
• Pitch. See Haÿmeäkèn.
• Plesh, (2) Plush (a hedge), to lay it.
  • To cut the stems half off and peg them down on the bank where they sprout upward.
    To plush, shear, and trim a hedge are sundry handlings of it.
• Plim, to swell up.
• Plock, a hard block of wood.
• Plow, a waggon, often so called.
  • The plough or plow for ploughing is the Zull.
• Plounce, a strong plunge.
• Pluffy, plump.
• Pont, to hit a fish or fruit, so as to bring on a rotting.
• Pooks. See Haÿmeäkèn.
• Popple, a pebble.
• Praïse (5, 1), prize, to put forth or tell to others a pain or ailing.
  • "I had a risèn on my eärm, but I didden praïse it," say anything about it.
• Pummy, pomice.
  • ps for sp in clasp, claps; hasp, haps; wasp, waps.

• R.

• R, at the head of a word, is strongly breathed, as Hr in Anglo-Saxon, as Hhrong, the rong of a ladder.
  • R is given in Dorset by a rolling of the tongue back under the roof.
  • For or, as an ending sometimes given before a free breathing, or h, try ow,—hollor, hollow.
  • R before s, st, and th often goes out, as bu'st, burst; ve'ss, verse; be'th, birth; cu'st, curst; fwo'ce, force; me'th, mirth.
• Raft, to rouse, excite.
• Rake, to reek.
• Ram, Rammish, rank of smell.
• Rammil, raw milk (cheese), of unskimmed milk.
• Ramsclaws, the creeping crowfoot. Ranunculus repens.
• Randy, a merry uproar or meeting.
• Rangle, to range or reach about.
• Rathe, early; whence rather.
• Ratch, to stretch.
• Readship, criterion, counsel.
• Reämes, (1, 3), skeleton, frame.
• Reän (1, 4), to reach in greedily in eating.
• Reäves, a frame of little rongs on the side of a waggon.
• Reed (2), wheat hulm drawn for thatching.
• Reely, to dance a reel.
• Reem, to stretch, broaden.
• Rick, a stack.
• Rig, to climb about.
• Rivel, shrivel; to wrinkle up.
• Robin Hood, The Red campion.
• Roller (6, 4). See Haÿmeäkèn.
  • A Roller was also a little roll of wool from the card of a woolcomber.
• Rottlepenny, the yellow rattle. Rhinanthus Crista-galli.
• Rouet, a rough tuft of grass.

• T.

• th is soft (as th in thee), as a heading of these words:—thatch, thief, thik, thimble, thin, think, thumb.
• Tack, a shelf on a wall.
• Taffle, to tangle, as grass or corn beaten down by storms.
• Taït, to play at see-saw.
• Tamy (3, 1), tammy (5, 1), tough, that may be drawn out in strings, as rich toasted cheese.
• Teäve, (1, 3), to reach about strongly as in work or a struggle.
• Teery, Tewly, weak of growth.
• Tewly, weakly.
• Theäse, this or these.
• Theasum (1, 4), these.
• Tidden (tidn), it is not.
• Tilty, touchy, irritable.
• Timmersome, restless.
• Tine, to kindle, also to fence in ground.
• Tistytosty, a toss ball of cowslip blooms.
• To-year, this year (as to-day.)
• Tranter, a common carrier.
• Trendel, a shallow tub.
• Tump, a little mound.
• Tun, the top of the chimney above the roof ridge.
• Tut (work), piecework.
• Tutty, a nosegay.
• Tweil, (4, 1) toil.
• Twite, to twit reproach.

• U.

• Unheal, uncover, unroof.

• V.

• v is taken for f as the heading of some purely English words, as vall, fall, vind, find.
• Veag, Vēg (2), a strong fit of anger.
• Vern, fern.
• Ve'se, vess, a verse.
• Vinny cheese, cheese with fen or blue-mould.
• Vitty, nice in appearance.
• Vlanker, a flake of fire.
• Vlee, fly.
• Vo'k, folk.
• Vooty, unhandily little.
• Vuz, Vuzzen, furze, gorse.

• Y.

• Yop, yelp.

• Z.

• z for s as a heading of some, not all, pure Saxon words, nor [or?] for s of inbrought foreign words.
• Zand, sand.
• Zennit, Zennight, seven night; "This day zennit."
• Zew, azew, milkless.
• Zoo, so.
• Zive, a scythe.
• Zull a plough to plough ground.
• Zwath, a swath.

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