There are thousands of old Dorset dialect words that have fallen out of use. From homble to slommock to twanketen and drawlatchet, here are some of our favourites - and why we say grockle instead of emmet.
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Annan? Say that again? A word you'd need if you were dunch.
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Dunch: a bit deaf, hard of hearing
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Joppety-joppety: nerves.
From "jaup", a Dorset dialect word meaning the breaking of a wave, or to splash or spatter with water. According to Susie Dent's book How to Talk like a Local, joppety-joppety is the sound reduplicated to indicate spurts of panic.
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Miff: a quarrel, a coolness between friends. The alternative tiff is the one that's most used today, but we rather like miff, which is of course where the phrase "I'm a bit miffed." comes from.
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God Almighty's Cow: the ladybird. No, we don't know why either.
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Homble: a duck
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Horridge (or whorage): a house of bad characters
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Slommock: a slatternly woman
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Torrididdle: out of one's mind
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Emmet: ant
The Cornish call their tourists emmets. The word used in the rest of the West Country, grockle, is believed to come from a comic strip which originated in the 1920s comic the Rover before moving to the Dandy. Jimmy and his Grockle was about a boy and his pet dragon. Research seems to suggest that the word grockle was adopted for summer vistors by workers at a Torquay hotel, where a scriptwriter picked it up for his film The System, from where it was transferred into more mainstream use. If you know better, let us know!
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Ramshacklum: good for nothing
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Twanketen: melancholy
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Undercreepen: sly.
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wopsy: wasp.
From the Dorset habit of transposing the "s" sound, so also ax for ask and claps for clasp.
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Yop: to talk rapidly
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Dewbit: first breakfast. Dorset dialect has more words for meals than hobbits do. Dewbit means the first meal of the day, although not breakfast, which is bigger and later.
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Nuncheon, cruncheon, nummit and crummit: four more words for meals.
Dorset farm workers were said to have dewbit, breakfast, nuncheon, cruncheon, lunch, nammet, crammet and supper. But nammet - food eaten in the fields between meals, possibly from noon-meat - and nuncheon may well have been two words for the same thing (also cruncheon and crammet) so it's not as bad as it sounds.
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Boris-noris: to go on recklessly without thought to risk or decency
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Drawlatcheten: lazy. A drawlatchet is a person who walks slowly and lazily, so quite a good word to apply to your four year old when you'd like them to get a move on. Affectionately, of course.
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Bibber: shiver
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Airmouse: The bat.
- Dumbledore: The bumblebee.
J K Rowling chose the word for her Hogwarts headmaster because of Dumbledore's love of music: she imagined him walking around "humming to himself a lot".
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Lippy: Wet and rainy, often stormy. So Harry's probably saying to Dumbledore: "It's a bit lippy out, sir, can't we apparate back to your study?" Or something.
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Overclap: eg clouds overclosing the earth.
So, "will it freeze tonight? Depends on the overclap."
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Ballywrag: To scold or accuse in foul language.
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Loplolly: A lazy, or idle person.
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Gally: To scare. So you may also see a gally-crow in the fields of Dorset.
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Zummerwold (summer-mould): Freckles on the face, brought out by the sun.
Find out more here, here and here.
What's your favourite old Dorset word or phrase?
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