West Country Dialects - Additional Selected Vocabulary

Additional Selected Vocabulary

Some of these terms are obsolete, but some are in current use.

• "Acker" (North Somerset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight) – friend
• "Alaska" (North Somerset) – I will ask her
• "Allernbatch" (Devon) – old sore
• "Alright me ansum" (Cornwall & Devon) – How are you, my friend?
• "Alright me babber" (Somerset) – Similar to "Alright me ansum".
• "Alright my luvver" (just as with the phrase "alright mate", when said by a person from the West Country, it has no carnal connotations, it is merely a greeting. Commonly used across the West Country)
• "Anywhen" (Hampshire, Isle of Wight) – At any time
• "Appen" (Devon) – Perhaps, possibly
• "Arable" (Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight) – (from "horrible"), often used for a road surface, as in "Thic road be arable"
• "Bad Lot" (Nth Somerset) – e.g. "They'm a bad lot, mind"
• "bauy, bay, bey" (Exeter) – boy
• "Beached Whale" (Cornwall) – many meanings, most commonly used to mean a gurt grockle
• "Benny" (Bristol) – to lose your temper (from a character in Crossroads)
• "Billy Baker" (Yeovil) – woodlouse
• "Boris" (Exeter) – daddy longlegs
• "Cheerzen/Cheers'en" (Somerset, Bristol) – Thank you (from "Cheers, then")
• "Chinny reckon" (North Somerset) – I do not believe you in the slightest (from older West Country English ich ne reckon 'I don't reckon/calculate')
• "Chine" (Isle of Wight) – steep wooded valley
• "Chuggy pig" (North Somerset) – woodlouse
• "Chump" (North Somerset) – log (for the fire)
• "Chuting" (North Somerset) – (pronounced "shooting") guttering
• "Comical" (North Somerset, Isle of Wight) – peculiar, e.g. "'e were proper comical"
• "Combe" (Devon, Isle of Wight) (pronounced 'coombe') – steep wooded valley
• "Coombe" (Devon, North Somerset, Dorset) – steep wooded valley. Combe/Coombe is the second most common placename element in Devon and is equivalent to the Welsh "cwm".
• "Coupie or Croupie" (North Somerset, Dorset, Isle of Wight & Bristol) – crouch, as in the phrase "coupie down"
• "Crowst" (Cornwall) – a picnic lunch, crib
• "Cuzzel" (Cornwall) – soft
• "Daddy granfer" (North Somerset) – woodlouse
• "Daps" (Bristol, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire) – sportshoes (plimsolls or trainers) (also used widely in South Wales)
• "Diddykai, Diddycoy, Diddy" (Isle of Wight, Hampshire) – Gypsy, Traveller
• "Dimpsy" (Devon) – describing the state of twilight as in "it's getting a bit dimpsy"
• "Dreckley" (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset & Isle of Wight) – soon, like "mañana", but less urgent (from "directly" once in common English usage for "straight away") "I be wiv 'ee dreckley"
• "Drive" (Bristol, Somerset & Wiltshire) – any driver of a taxi or bus. The usual gesture when disembarking from a bus is "cheers drive"
• "Emmet" (Cornwall and North Somerset) – tourist or visitor (derogatory)
• "Et" (North Somerset) – that, e.g. "Giss et peak" (Give me that pitchfork)
• "Gallybagger" (Isle of Wight) – Scarecrow
• "Geddon" alt; "geddy on" (Crediton, Devon) – Get on, e.g. "geddon chap!" enthusiastic encouragement or delight
• "Gert Lush" (Bristol} – very good
• "Gleanie" (North Somerset) – guinea fowl
• "Gockey" (Cornwall) – idiot
• "Gramersow" (Cornwall) – woodlouse
• "Grockle" (Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight) – tourist, visitor or gypsy (derogatory)
• "Grockle Shell" (Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight) – caravan or motor home (derogatory)
• "Gurt" (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, South Glos and the Isle of Wight) big or great, used to express a large size often as extra emphasis "That's a gurt big tractor!".
• "Haling" (North Somerset) – coughing
• "(H)ang'about (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight) – "Wait" or "Pause" but often exclaimed when a sudden thought occurs.
• "Hark at he" (Hampshire, Isle of Wight)(pronounced "'ark a' 'ee") – "listen to him"
• "Headlights" (Cornwall) light-headedness, giddiness
• "Hilts and gilts" (North Somerset) – female and male piglets, respectively.
• "Hinkypunk" – Will o' the wisp
• "Huppenstop" (North Somerset) – raised stone platform where milk churns are left for collection — no longer used but many still exist outside farms.
• "Ideal" (Bristol) – idea. In Bristol there is a propensity for local speakers to add an "l" to words ending with "a"
• "In any case"
• "Janner" (Devon, esp. Plymouth) – a term with various meanings, normally associated with Devon. An old term for someone who makes their living off of the sea. Plymothians are often generally referred to as Janners, and supporters of the city's football team Plymouth Argyle are sometimes also referred to thus. In Wiltshire, a similar word ' jidder ' is used — possible relation to 'gypsy'.
• "Janny Reckon" (Cornwall and Devon) – Derived from "Chinny Reckon" and "Janner", and is often used in response to a wildly exaggerated fisherman's tale.
• "Jasper" – a Devon word for wasp.
• "Keendle teening" (Cornwall) – candle lighting
• "Kimberlin" (Portland) – someone from Weymouth or further away — not a Portlander
• "Love", "My Love", "Luvver" – terms of endearment. Even used by heterosexual men to one another.
• "Ling" (Cornwall)— to throw Ling 'ee 'ere – Throw it here
• "Madderdo'ee" (Cornwall) – Does it matter?
• "Maid",(devon,exeter) girl
• "Maggoty" (Dorset) – fanciful
• "Mackey" (Bristol) – massive or large, often to benefit
• "Mang" (Devon) – to mix
• "Nipper" (Isle of Wight) – a young boy, also a term of endearment between heterosexual men used in the same way as 'mate'.
• "Now we're farming" (Somerset) – Term to describe when something is proceeding nicely or as planned.
• "Old butt" (Gloucestershire, Forest of Dean) friend
• "Ooh Arr" (Devon) – multiple meanings, including "Oh Yes". Popularised by the Wurzels, this phrase has become stereotypical, and is used often to mock speakers of West Country dialects. In the modern day "Ooh Ah" is commonly used as the correct phrase though mostly avoided due to stereotypes.
• "Ort/Ought Nort/Nought" (Devon) – Something / Nothing "I a'en got ought for'ee"="I have nothing for you" "'Er did'n give I nought" "He gave me nothing"
• "Overner" (Isle of Wight) – not from the Island, a mainland person. Extremely common usage
• "Parcel of ol' Crams" (Devon) – a phrase by which the natives sum up and dismiss things (a) they cannot comprehend, (b) do not believe, (c) have no patience with, or (d) may be entertained by but unwilling to praise.
• "Piggy widden" (Cornwall) – phrase used to calm babies
• "Plimmed, -ing up" (North Somerset) – swollen, swelling
• "Poached, -ing up" (North Somerset but also recently heard on The Archers) – cutting up, of a field, as in "the ground's poaching up ,we'll have to bring the cattle indoors for the winter".
• "Proper job" – (Devon, Cornwall, West Dorset, Somerset, Isle of Wight) Something done well
• "Pummy" (Dorset) – Apple pumace from the cider-wring (either from "pumace" or French "pomme" meaning apple)
• "Scag" (North Somerset) – to tear or catch (“I've scagged me jeans on thacky barbed wire. I've scagged me 'ook up 'round down 'by Swyre 'ed”)
• "Scrage" – a scratch or scrape usually on a limb BBC Voices Project
• "Slit pigs" (North Somerset) – male piglets that have been castrated
• "Smooth" (Bristol & Somerset) – to stroke (e.g. cat or dog)
• "Somewhen" (Isle of Wight) – At some time (still very commonly used)(compare German; irgendwann)
• "Sprieve" (Wiltshire) – Dry after a bath, shower or swim by evaporation.
• "Spuddler" (Devon) – Somebody attempting to stir up trouble. e.g. "That's not true, you spuddlin' bugger!"
• "Thic" (North Somerset) – that — said knowingly, i.e. to be make dialect deliberately stronger. E.g. "Get in thic bed!"
• "Thic/Thac/They Thiccy/Thaccy/They" (Devon) – This, that, those. e.g. "Put'n in thic yer box" "Put it in this box here". "Whad'v'ee done wi' thaccy pile o'dashels?" "What have you done with that pile of thistles"
• "Wambling" (Dorset) – wandering, aimless (see A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy)
• "wuzzer"/"wazzin" (Exeter) – Was she?/Was he?
• "Where's it to?" – Where is it? (Devon,"Dorchester, where's it to? It's in Dorset.")
• "Young'un" any young person "'Ow be young un?" or "where bist goin' youngun?"
• "Zat" (Devon) – soft

Some dialect words now appear mainly, or solely, in place names, such as "batch" (North Somerset, = hill but more commonly applied to Coalmine spoil heaps e.g. Camerton batch, Farrington batch, Braysdown batch), "tyning", "hoe" (a bay). These are not to be confused with fossilised Brythonic or Cornish language terms, for example, "-coombe" is quite a common suffix in West Country place names (not so much in Cornwall), and means a "valley".