Yorkshire Words of the Week

I WAS often referred to as a “giddy kipper” if I was being silly as a child, or I was asked to “stop acting the goat”.

My grandpa, who was from Morley, taught me this tongue twister. I have never heard anyone else say it.

“Esau Wood had a woodsaw that would saw wood like no other woodsaw would saw wood but what would Esau Wood say if he saw a woodsaw that would saw wood like his woodsaw would saw wood?”

From Jennifer Barron, Swinton, Rotherham.

My parents used a few words not already covered and written phonetically: “skerrick” – a small amount of something such as meat or butter); “rammel” – bric-a-brac – my toy box contents were described as rammel.

“Puther” – a choking cloud of smoke (probably from pother, meaning a din, fuss?) If we children wanted to know what was for tea, mum would say “three runs round’t table and a bite o’t sneck” (meaning wait and see).

From Pat Kellett, Aspin Oval, Knaresbrough.

I WAS interested in Joy Neal’s use of the word “thail”. I was brought up in Bradford and we always said “thoil” – “Ah can’t thoil it”, referring to something in a shop which we wouldn’t think of spending the money on. “Hummer” was a word we often used – and I still do – “to play hummer”. “Well, Ah’ll go to hummer”. Another common word was “mullock” – something badly managed. “Tha’s med a reight mullock on it – it’s all of a mullock”.

From: John Fall, Bedale.

Regarding the recent reference to “demic” potatoes, a “demic” was a diseased potato which showed up as a brown discolouration caused by blight and made them unfit to eat, although pigs loved them. The “sippit” was a multi-pronged fork for shovelling potatoes. Early ones were solid across the front, later ones had knobs on each prong to save weight. Another “oyle” for Geoff Atkinson’s list is the good old, “glory oyle” of yore. A man who worked for my father, and who liked his “yal” as he called it, always asked for a pint of water to start his nightly drinking, because as he put it, “fust yan gans down that fast, a nivver tastes it!”

From: Peter Broomfield, Boggart Hill Drive, Seacroft, Leeds.

I USED to work on the railway. If a train needed attention from the fitters it was always referred to as a “demick”.