a-

From Middle English a-, a variant form of y-, from Old English ġe-, from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with”).

I have a-gone.

I have a-seen a bird.

(Devon) Used to form the past participle of a verb.


teen

en-verb

teen (third-person singular simple present teens, present participle teening, simple past and past participle teened)

teens (present singular third-person)
teening (participle present)
teened (participle past)
teened (past)

From Middle English tenen, tinen, from Old English tȳnan (“to fence, inclose, shut, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *tūnijan, from Proto-West Germanic *tūn, from Proto-Germanic *tūną (“fence, enclosure”). Doublet of tine. Cognate with Dutch tuinen, German zäunen. Related to English town.

der

Hie tho' off […] or th' dur may be teen'd.

It is still heard in Devon , especially by older dialect speakers, in such expressions as “I'an't a-teen'd my eyes all night”; “Teen the door, will ' e?”

1919, Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, page 75:

She whimpered and whined about it till, in self-defence, I rose up and teened the candle and got into my breeches.

1924, Eden Phillpotts, Redcliff, page 244:

(transitive, obsolete or dialectal, Devon) To close, to shut; to enclose, to hedge or fence in.


pope

Jamaican Creole: puop

Tok Pisin: pop

→ Hindi: पोप (pop)

→ Urdu: پوپ (pop)

From Middle English pope, popa, from Old English pāpa, from Vulgar Latin papa (title for priests and bishops, esp. and by 8th c. only the bishop of Rome), from early Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs, title for priests and bishops, especially by 3rd c. the bishop of Alexandria), from late Ancient Greek πάπας (pápas, title for priests and bishops, in the sense of spiritual father), from πάππας (páppas, “papa, daddy”).

Alca genus; 6 species, including the razorbill, the penguin, the pope, and others.

1759, “Linnæus's Systema Naturæ”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, page 456:

The Pope: This is a very singular bird; it is about the size of our widgeon, or somewhat larger, but is not quite so large as the duck: the head is large and rounded; the eyes are small, and stand forward on the head, and lower down than in the generality of birds [...]

1773, John Hill, “Alca”, in A General Natural History, volume 3, page 442:

"About a hundred yards further North" says Troutbeck, "is a 'subterraneous' cavern called the Pope's Hole, about fifty fathoms under the ground, into which the sea flows, so called from a sort of bird which roosts in it by night, about ninety feet high above the level of the water."!! [...] It derives its name from its being a place of shelter to some puffins, vulgo "popes".

1822, George Woodley, A view of the present state of the Scilly Islands, pages 264–5:

The Norsemen catch great numbers of these popes, parrots, or lunder, as they are variously named, and train dogs to go into the holes where the puffin has its nest, lying in it with feet in the air.

1864, Charles Issac Elton, Norway: The Road and the Fell, page 94:

I was informed by a fisherman that there were now hundreds of gannets in the channel off Plymouth, and that he had also met with some puffins (which he called "popes")

1874, J. Van Voorst, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 3904:

Fratercula arctica
Fratercula arctica#Translingual

(UK regional, Cumberland, Cornwall, Devon, Scotland) The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica).


wold

en-adj

wold (comparative wolder, superlative woldest)

wolder (comparative)
woldest (superlative)

"[A] girt wind had a-blowed the wold tree auver, so that his head were in the water."

1873, Elijah Kellogg, Sowed by the Wind: Or, The Poor Boy's Fortune, Boston: Lee and Shepard, page 19:

"I've got a wold silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too; but, Lord, what's a graven seal?"

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 7:

(archaic, dialect, West Country, Dorset, Devon) Old.


hedge

From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.

doublet

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

(UK, West Country, chiefly Devon and Cornwall) A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.

valli

mound of earth, used as a fence between any two portions of land


gribble

The study also reveals that Wigan likely calls excess batter bits ‘Scraps’ or ‘Bits’, compared to the south west and east of the UK who are more likely to order ‘Gribbles’ or ‘Scrumps’.

[2020 September 4, Ben Butler, “REVEALED: UK’s brutal verdict on these Wigan chip-shop favourites”, in Wigan Today:

Margaret also played her part in filling our hungry mouths by working at the local fish and chip shop in the village and by bringing home all the leftovers which we devoured ravenously—gribbles, the odd faggot etc. etc.—delicious.

2023, Sheila M. Hutchings, Humble Beginnings, →ISBN:

Went to a Chippy as a Kid.
Me "do you have Pigs Feet?"
Lass Behind Counter "Yes I do".
Me "Well give us a bag of GRIBBLES then Porky!!!"

2023 August 17, Pssstu2021, “What does everyone call these from the chippy?”, in Reddit, r/CasualUK:

(UK, Devon, in the plural) A piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.


dimpsey

She sat telling with the old Jane a good two hours, for 'twas getting dimpsey when she started up hill to Grange, and that she took easy as she was getting a bit stoutish, and it made her bad to hurry.

1896, Gratiana Longworth Knocker, “Of the Evil Doings of Nance Darvel”, in The Witch of Withyford, page 11:

If we two poor wayfarers could have sat quietly beside each other and chatted in 'e dimpsey light, it would not have been a bit bad, but there was something eternally doing.

1910, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Mary Findlater, Jane Findlater, Allan McAulay, chapter VI, in The Affair at the Inn:

There was the river: woodland paths skirting in the evening a world of silver and grey, across which bats sketched zigzag flights. Very nice in the dimpsey light, but stuffy in the daytime.

1915, Sir Lewis Anselm da Costa Ritchie, “An Off-Shore Wind”, in A Tall Ship:

(UK, West Country, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset) The time in the evening just before dusk.


mun

tha wut spudlee out the Yemors, and screedle over mun

1746, Exmoor Courtship, published 1879, page 50:

The English Dialect Dictionary
w:The English Dialect Dictionary

(UK, dialect, Devon, Somerset, obsolete) them


ageest

en-adj

ageest (comparative more ageest, superlative most ageest)

more ageest (comparative)
most ageest (superlative)

From Middle English ageasten. Used at the turn of the 19th century.

(obsolete, West Country, Devon) afraid, astonished


akether

Possibly from the phrase “ah,” quoth he. First appears in the 1867 work Jim an' Nell.

"Us wur betwitting Bob to-day,
Vor gieing all es things away,
Begummers, us wur cort,
Akether, 'bin ma kit's ago,
I can't work w'e'r I wull or no,
I'll maunch an' drink vor nort.'

1867, William Frederick Rock, Jim and Nell: a dramatic poem in the dialect of North Devon, page 20:

Then she walked away, not even stopping to listen to the servant's fearless denunciation of her as "a chittering, raving, rixy, louching, haggaging moil, an nor a bent th' worserer nar hot sh' art ter be, th' wapper-eed deave-nort. Giggling akether!" shrieked the old woman, wild with resentment […]

1876, Oliver Madox Brown, chapter 1, in The Dwale Bluth, volume 1, pages 57–58:

(UK, West Country, Devon, obsolete) quoth he.


bating

bating (comparative more bating, superlative most bating)

more bating (comparative)
most bating (superlative)

(Cornwall, Devon, dialect) Of the moon, when it is waning.


vag

Localities where vags were cut are sometimes so named: e.g. Vag(s) Hill (Row Brook, Double Dart); Vag Hill (Glaze Brook, Avon).

1983, Eric Hemery, High Dartmoor, Land and People, →ISBN, page 91:

They had not driven their ponies over the Unit Land; she had probably cut a vag from the Unit Land but this was done only in the presence of witnesses to determine whether those objecting were vigilant to stop any exercise of this right, and only on one occasion.

1984 October 5, A. A. (Commons Commissioner) Baden Fuller, “Course of proceedings”, in In the Matter of Gidleigh Common, Gidleigh, West Devon District, Devon, page 5:

I first grazed ponies on Padley in 1932 and my ponies are grazing there still. I take bracken for the garden, rushes to cover my potato clam, bean sticks for the garden and I expect I am one of the few who still cut vags (peat) on common land for fuel.

1985 January 21, A. A. (Commons Commissioner) Baden Fuller, quoting Thomas Hutchings, “4 Nattadon Road/28 Meldon Road”, in In the Matter of Chagford Common, Meldon Common, Nattadon Common, Padley Common, Weekbrook Down, Week Down, Steniel Down, and Jurston Green all in Chagford, West Devon District, Devon^(http://www.acraew.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/Devon/CHAGFORD%20COMMON%20MELDON%20COMMON%20NATTADON%20COMMON%20PADLEY%20COMMON%20WEEKBROOK%20DOWN%20WEEK%20DOWN%20STENIEL%20DOWN%20AND%20JURSTON%20GREEN%20-%20CHAGFORD%20-%20WEST%20DEVON%20DISTRICT%20NO.CL.173(2).pdf), page 14:

(UK, dated, dialect, Devon) Turf used as fuel.


vag

en-verb

vag (third-person singular simple present vags, present participle vagging, simple past and past participle vagged)

vags (present singular third-person)
vagging (participle present)
vagged (participle past)
vagged (past)

Düee 'old up yer frock, an' not let 'n vag along like that; tha bottom aw'n 'll be tiffled out, and covered wi' mucks.

1892, Sarah Hewett, The Peasant Speech of Devon, page 140:

(UK, archaic, dialect, Devon) To drag; to trail on the ground.

(UK, archaic, dialect, Devon) To bend; to give; to yield.

Smoke immediately vagged about in the parlour chimney.

(UK, dated, dialect, Devon) To flap; to blow in the wind.


tacker

(Australia, Devon, Cornwall, colloquial) A young child, especially a boy.


floppydock

Digitalis purpurea
Digitalis purpurea#Translingual

(UK, Devon) The foxglove Digitalis purpurea.


mang

From Middle English mang, mangis, imang, emang, variants of Middle English on mang, in mange, from Old English on ġemang. More at among.


mang

mang (third-person singular simple present mangs, present participle manging, simple past and past participle manged)

mangs (present singular third-person)
manging (participle present)
manged (participle past)
manged (past)

From Middle English mangen, mængen, from Old English mængan, variant of mengan, menċġan (“to mix; mingle”). More at meng, ming.

It's all manged up together.

Hagegy Bess; wi' zich, I reckon,
Ha now delight'h vor mang.

1867, William Frederick Rock, Jim and Nell, page 25:


round robin

/ˌɹaʊnd ˈɹɒbɪn/

From round (adjective) + robin. Sense 1 (“senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around”) is connected with the word round, while sense 2 (“senses relating to people, animals, or plants”) is connected with some English regional senses of the word robin where it is used in the names of various fish and plants which are not related to the red-breasted bird. However, apart from the alliteration, it is not clear why the two words came to be linked together in compounds. It is possible that the term was first used to refer to sense 1.13.1 (“consecrated host”) which appears to be the earliest attested sense, and then extended to other senses either having the sense of round or robin.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a corruption of French ruban rond (literally “round ribbon”), referring to the practice in 17th-century France of signing on ribbons which were then attached to petitions of grievances in a circular manner: see sense 1.1. However, this etymology does not explain the senses of the term unrelated to a signed document.

der

(also attributive) Senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around.


wisht

en-adj

wisht (comparative wishter, superlative wishtest)

wishter (comparative)
wishtest (superlative)

“'Tweer wisht days for me, Mister Jan. I be such a poor lass in brains, an' I could awnly think of trouble 'cause I loved 'e so true. 'Tedn' like the same plaace when you'm away. Then I thot you'd gone right back to Lunnon, an' I judged my heart 'ud break for 'e, I did.”

(West Country, Cornwall, Devon) Sickly, weak.


brandis

These stones are then placed, as the country people have it, “brandis-wise” ; that is, in the form of a brandis, the name by which the triangular stands on which the kettles are set on the hearth are called.

1887, William Crossing, The Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor, Exeter: James G Commin, page 95:

(archaic, Devon, Cornwall) A triangular fire stand.


gurts

(UK, dialect, West Country, Devon, dated) groats; hulled grain


winnard

(Cornwall, Devon, obsolete) The redwing.


hepper

(archaic, Devon) A young salmon; a parr.


arrish

(archaic, Devon) Alternative form of earsh


white-pot

Old Violet was a worthy colored woman who kept a goody shop, where school children could buy journey or johnny cake, white pot, or poor man's custard, and candy

1905, Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, Newport: Our Social Capital:

(UK, Devon, dialect) A kind of food made of milk or cream, eggs, sugar, bread, etc., baked in a pot.


hog's pudding

en-noun

hog's pudding (countable and uncountable, plural hogs' puddings)

(UK, Cornwall, Devon) A kind of spicy sausage containing suet, bread, oatmeal, or barley.


May game

‘Ah, my deare Lord! what sight is this?’ quoth she, / ‘What May-game hath misfortune made of you?’

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(now chiefly Somerset, Devon, Cornwall) An object of ridicule; a laughingstock.


oggy

I was given them by a delightful Cornish lady who was quite taken with me and used to make the most delicious tiddy oggy pasties.

2004, Keith Heller, The Woman Who Knew Gandhi, page 81:

Miners ate oggies down the Cornish mines, and one of Henry VIII's wives wrote a letter mentioning Cornish pasties[…]

2012, Max Cryer, Curious English Words and Phrases, page 257:

(UK, dialect, Cornwall, Devon) A Cornish pasty.


dairous

en-adj

dairous (comparative more dairous, superlative most dairous)

more dairous (comparative)
most dairous (superlative)

“Jim, we'll jist ha' a dash-an-darras.” “No, Voord, 't'll mak' en auver dairous, I want ha' Nelly dered.”

1867, Jim and Nell: a dramatic poem in the dialect of North Devon

(UK, archaic, dialectal, Devon) bold; daring


zive

Thoo whun the Club-men wor zo thick, Esput my zive upon a Stick, And about eswent among 'um ; And by my Troth esdid suppose That they were honester than those That now do zwear they'll hang 'um.

1731, A Collection of Loyal Songs Written Against the Rump Parliament, Between the Years 1639 and 1661, page 187:

I knaw'd tud be zo vour or vive months ago / when I handled the rip-hook and zive.

1872, Agrikler, A Mouse's Zupper, in Poems humorous and philosophical, by Outis, with which are included Rhymes in the West of England Dialect by Agrikler (published in 1875)

Or in the dae, a-vleeren droo The leafy trees, the huosse gookoo Da zing to mowers that da zet Their zives on end, an' stan' to whet.

1928, The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs: for the Open Air, page 169:

(West Country, Somerset, Devon) Alternative form of scythe.


zowerswopped

zowerswopped (comparative more zowerswopped, superlative most zowerswopped)

more zowerswopped (comparative)
most zowerswopped (superlative)

A dialectal form of sour-sapped (literally “being sour or foul-tempered to the core or marrow”).

"Did he understand you?" said Campbell. "O yes, for he called out to his men in Dutchified French, and looked at me zowerswopped enough.[…]"

1834, John Brent, chapter XIX, in Leitch Ritchie, editor, The Sea-Wolf. A Romance of “The Free Traders.” (The Library of Romance; XI), London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 185:

I'm even more zowerswopped because I don't know for sure yet if I'm heavy-footed.

1993, Susan Kelz Sperling, Lost Words of Love, New York, N.Y.: C. Potter, →ISBN, page 50:

Who hasn't felt zowerswopped to find one's mailbox pragged with junk mail?

1993 April 27, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.: Gannett Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page C1:

(West Country, Exmoor) Synonym of bad-tempered.


wisht as a winnard

(West Country, Cornwall, Devon, simile) Sickly, weak.


hedgy-boar

Aw loar! the owld gipsies what do live 'pon hedgyboors and that soort of mait, was more betterer off then we wor was regaard to livin'.

c. 1860, John Tabois Tregellas, “California”, in Cornish Tales, page 67:

He sought where grew, in aspect lew, / The skedgwith and the scow, / And he routed the sleepy hedgy-boar, / And the lively padgypaow.

1895, Joseph Thomas, “The Quest of the Gwidgy-gwee”, in Randigal Rhymes, page 15:

Billy was a forthy fellow, prickly as a hedgyboar.

2011, Amitav Ghosh, River of Smoke (Ibis Trilogy; 2):

(Devon and Cornwall, now rare) A hedgehog.


nimpingang

(UK, dialect, Devon, archaic) A whitlow.


vinnied

vinnied (comparative more vinnied, superlative most vinnied)

more vinnied (comparative)
most vinnied (superlative)

(UK, Devon, dialect, obsolete) mildewed or sour


Dreckly

en-adv

Dreckly (comparative more Dreckly, superlative most Dreckly)

more Dreckly (comparative)
most Dreckly (superlative)

Local/dialectal phonetic spelling of direct + -ly.

"You know, pretty quick, soon — dreckly!" She said in frustration

1999, Janice Tate, Ken Tate, Good Old Days Remembers the Little Country Schoolhouse, page 45:

I'll be over there dreckly ' '; which could mean in the next hour or two , or "I'll be down in a bit". It's a real Cornish thing.

2006, Simon Elmes, Talking for Britain: A Journey Through the Voices of a Nation, page 13:

(Cornwall, Devon, US) Soon; next; when it becomes convenient.

(Cornwall, Devon, Humorous) No time soon.


dreckly

dreckly (comparative more dreckly, superlative most dreckly)

more dreckly (comparative)
most dreckly (superlative)


whistness

[O]thers fancied — the natives notably — that there was some "whistness," or witchcraft, in the business; it might be, as they thought, the work of Dick Down, the old huntsman who was eaten by the Hayne hounds, and whose ghost was known to haunt the covers round the park.

1883, Edward William L. Davies, 'A memoir of the Rev. John Russell, and his out-of-door life (page 159)

Other more learned derivations have been suggested, but the whole place is steeped in “whistness” for on the open hillside above the oak copse runs the ancient Lych way, that ghostly Path of the Dead […]

1982, Ruth St. Leger-Gordon, The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor, page 26:

(Devon, obsolete) Witchcraft; supernatural dealings.


tiddy oggy

In fact, we shared many a hot tiddy oggy as we sat and talked about all my inner struggles, as well as the many overwhelming challenges I regularly faced.

2012, Tricia Bennett, The Trouble With Polly Brown, page 486:

(UK, dialect, Cornwall, Devon) Synonym of oggy (“a Cornish pasty”)


fittily

fittily (comparative more fittily, superlative most fittily)

more fittily (comparative)
most fittily (superlative)


gallitrap

(folklore, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset) Grass growing in a circle that possesses the magical power of compelling anyone standing within it to confess their wrongdoings.

(folklore, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset) A magical circle of grass believed to have been created by pixies, that causes any mortal stepping into it to believe they are continuing to walk forward when they are actually walking in a circle.


dimmit

en-noun

dimmit (countable and uncountable, plural dimmits)

“ My Billy is out with his boat in the bay.
To snare the bright herring for me,
And I, with my arms, in the dimmit of day,
Will snare the bold son of the sea.”

1858, Edward Capern, “Kitty Lile; or, Mazed Kate of Clovelly”, in Ballads and Songs, London: W. Kent & Co., page 132:

The following account of the same custom, as practised at Bideford, North Devon, has been communicated to me by J. G. Cooper, Esq., of that town “ The custom appears to have been immediately at the end of the day when the reapers had completed their cutting, usually in the twilight of the autumn evening (‘ in the dimmit ’ : Devonice), for the whole party to gather in a circle, […]

1867 August 5, L. Gidley, “A Harvest Custom in Devonshire”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume IV, number 186, page 215:

If you choose to carry the girl about in your cart, to Polworthy an' back, 'tis no account o' mine ; nor if you're a mind to waste your time in the dimmit (twilight), hangin' round Gridge's cottage, as I do hear ; but you won't drag me into it, and that's final.

1888, G. B. Stuart, “Poppy”, in Charles W. Wood, editor, The Argosy, Summer edition, volume XLV, London, page 81:

‘Punch 'll mind the door, and bark if any one comes nigh. Then in the dimmits’ (twilight) ‘you can go.’

1893, Sabine Baring-Gould, “In the Smoke” (chapter VIII), in Mrs. Curgenven of Curgenven, volume III, Methuen & Co., page 93:

When she left the Hall she went by the lower path across the park, not by the church and the sea. It was the gloaming of a November afternoon—the " dimmits," as we call it in Cornwall—and "gloaming," as you know, at that time means almost the dark.

1894, W. J. Knox Little, chapter VI, in The Waif from the Waves, London: Chapman & Hall, page 53:

'Twas getting on vor the dimmits, and I hitched up the mare and went vore tii the back entrance. As I passed the kitchen winder I seed Albertina sitting there all alone, because 'er master and missus was well-to-do, and sat in the parlour evenings ; and I zim tü go all of a treemor like.

1896 June 5, Mary Hartier, “An Evening with Hodge”, in The English Illustrated Magazine, number 153, page 259:

And now, as the evenings were so light, she would have time to walk, perhaps, even so far as Quarry Point, and still get back before the dusk—the ‘dimmits’ as Sarah called it—came.

1950 February 5, Doreen Idle, chapter 11, in The Last Knot, London: Hodder & Stoughton, page 137:

(UK dialectal, Devon, Cornwall, West Country) Alternative form of dimmet (Twilight; dusk; crepusculum)