List of Cornish dialect words

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Cornish dialect of English and Cornish words - some of these terms are obsolete, but some are in current use.^[1][2]

• Aglets - Hawthorn berries
• Backalong - in former times
• Berrin - funeral
• Better fit - it would be better if...
• Bobber lip - bruised and swollen lip
• Browse - Undergrowth
• Bulhorns - snails
• Bully - large pebble
• Buster - someone full of fun and mischief
• Buzza - large salting pot. Also found in phrase "dafter than a buzza"
• Cakey - soft, feeble minded
• Catchpit - a place in the home where everything is dropped
• Caunse - Paved way
• Chacking - thirsty
• Chacks - cheeks
• Cheel - Child especially girl "a boy or a cheel"
• Chirks - Remnants of fire, embers. "Chirk" burrows where used coal was found near mines.
• Clip - sharp in speaking, curt, having taken offence
• Cloam - Crockery, Pottery, Earthenware.
• Crib - a mid-morning break for a snack (see below also)
• Crowst - a mid-morning break for a snack
• Cundard - a drain
• Dag - Short Choper or Axe (Miner's dag). Also in phrase "Face like a dag"
• Dishwasher - water-wagtail
• Dreckley - soon, but not necessarily immediately - like "manana" - but less urgent
• Durns - Door frame
• Eeval - Farmer's fork implement
• Emmet - ant or more recently crowds of tourists
• Figgy-hobbin - lump of dough, cooked with a handful of raisins
• Fizzogg - Face
• Flam-new - brand new
• Fly, Flies - Hands of a dial or clock
• Fitty - proper, properly
• Gad - a pick, especailly a miner's
• Giss on! - don't talk rubbish!
• Grammersow - woodlouse
• Grushans - Dregs, especially in bottoms of tea cup.
• Gwidgee-gwee - a blister, often caused by a misdirected hammer blow
• Kiddlywink - unlicensed beer shop
• Knockers - Spirits that dwell underground
• Launder - guttering, originally a trough in tin mining
• Larrups - rags, shreds, bits
• Louster - to work hard
• Lowance out - to set limits financially
• Maid - girl, girl-friend
• Mazed - mad, angry
• Milky-dashels - leaves and roots of dandelions
• Mind - to remember
• Minching - Skiving "Minching off school"
• Murrian - (Cornish) ant or more recently a tourist. (Mainly W.Cornwall)
• Oggy - Pasty
• Padgypaw - a Newt
• Party - a Young Woman
• Pisky - pixie
• Pilth - Small balls found in over rubbed cotton
• Planching/Planchen - a wooden or planked floor
• Proper - satisfactory
• Roar - weep loudly#
• Rumped (up) - Huddled up, usually from the cold. Phrase "rumped up like a winnard"
• Scat - to hit or break "Scat abroad = Smashed up"
• Slock - to entice or tempt "slock 'un 'round"
• Spence - Larder in house "Crowded = House full, spence full"
• Spriggans - Spirits
• Squall - to cry
• Squallass - crybaby
• Steeved - frozen
• Stuggy - Broad & Sturdy (of a person's build)
• Teasy - bad-tempered
• Wasson - What's going on
• Wisht - weak, faint, pale ie: "You're looking wisht today"
• Wilky (Quilkin) - a Frog
• Urts - whortleberries, bilberries
• Zackley - exactly
• Zam-zoodled - half cooked or over cooked

[edit] See also

• Cornish language

[edit] References

1. ^ A Glossary of the Cornish Dialect - K. C. Phillipps 1993 - ISBN 0907018912
2. ^ Cornish dialect dictionary

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