by Barbara Butler
Many of the words still common in Suffolk are old English words. Probably every county has kept some of the words which have fallen out of common use. We have listed some of those used in Suffolk, collected from many sources.
Allen Unenclosed land for sheep, word used mostly nearer the coast.
Alley Marble (as in the game of marbles).
Apple John or flap jack
Sugared apples, baked in a square of thin pastry, the opposite corners flapped or turned over. Similar is Bottle-bird, only it is rolled up. As sure as God made little apples. It is certain.
Bang Suffolk Cheese, made of several times skimmed milk. Trip, Wonmil and Thump are other names for it. It is so hard has been said to be fit for gate latches or wheels for wheelbarrows.
Barnabee Ladybird.
Bever Snack of farm workers. There are also ‘leveners, noonins, nunshens, bevers and foorzes, together with ‘whets, baits, snaps, snacks and snatches, relieved by Lowans (beer).
Biddy Old woman, widow. Also ‘goody’ – goodwife.
Blabber Can’t keep a secret.
Bloodfallen Chilblains
Bonx to beat batter for puddings.
Bor friend or peer, ’mate’.
Cack-handed clumsy, doing things the hard way.
Chesn’t Chestnut, pronounced without the first ‘t’ and without the ‘u’. The ‘t’ did not appear in the English spelling until after 1700. Suffolk kept to the old way. The county’s cart horse is either described as a ‘Chesnut’ or a ‘Sorrel’ describing a bright chestnut otherwise they are not Suffolk Punches. Our pub names reflect this.
Clout hidded Dull, stupid.
Cowd-chill. Ill with a temperature.
Crack A blow – ‘I’ll crack on ter yew an yew dunt ‘have. Crack on gew ahid quick.
Crotchet, crotchety. Cross, irritable, also ‘Things goo crotchet withus roight now.
Cupla three more than two
Dasht An oath as in ‘Oil be dashed if I dew’
Dawdle Idling.
Dawdler Slattern.
Dawzey Sleepy.
Duzzy woop Silly fewl.
Dicky-Diver Periwinkle.
Divl Digger. Church goer.
Dreckly As soon as I can.
On the Drag Going to be late.
Fair Look like as in ‘Fair te rain’.
Gip Oil give er gip ana clip round th’ear.
Gob Mouth
Going home ‘That’s gorn’ hum – meaning wearing out.
Grunsbre. Grundisburgh. Also Hunst’n - Hunstanton.
Grut great
Grut lummox clumsy or silly
Hickle make shift as in ‘Tis a sore little to hickle on with.
Jiggered Well I’m jiggered – I am surprised
Larfed her hid orf. Laughed heartily.
Lollop Doing things very lazily
Long purples purple loosestrife
On the huh Not straight
On – Of What are you a doin’ of, or on?
yew oroite gal? Are you alright, woman? Emphasis on the ‘oi’
Pip Ill, as in ‘Yul git the pip d’you set thayar. (Give me the) Pip Make me fed up.
Pooties snail shells. Also Hodmedods poor man’s Escargot.
Pork Cheese or Brawn
Savoury mould made from pigs head.
Rum peculiar
Rigmarole Long winded story.
Scrab from scrabble, to scrape about, origin Dutch Schrabben, to scrape’
Shambles from old English sceamul (pronounced shamell) meaning stool or table as used in a butchers shop. During the Middle Ages a street occupied by a single trade. The mess from butchers became known as ‘shambles’ and it came to mean general mess or chaos.
Shew showed (demonstrated)
Snouty Nosey
Spinny Copse
Squit rubbish - or diarrhoea!
Struttles Sticklebacks
Sop – soppy Swampy, wet. Swampy as in ‘Soppen wet’ or a dish made with bread and milk or water. Slop or sloppy are similar. Soppy or drippy also means not very clever, or behaving foolishly.
Spinny A small, longish piece of land overgrown with brushwood for game. May be from ‘Spinet’ meaning small wood.
Squit Silly talk as in ‘Loodole squit’.
Tater trap Mouth.
Teejus Tedious.
Thassa rum un, or rum do
That is peculiar.
That dunt matters It does not matter.
Tickety Boo Everything is fine.
Truck An ancient word meaning the transit of carriages or travellers over a road handed down perhaps from the days when these words meant the exchange of bartered goods rather than cash. ‘Oi’l hev new truck with ‘un’ meaning ‘I’ll not do business with him.
Whooly very
Woebegone Deeply unhappy.
Woebetide ‘un He should be careful.
Woodlens Woodlands, the description of High Suffolk north of the turnpike road to Yarmouth, favourable to growing trees. The word was better known in the ‘Sanlins’, that part of Suffolk between the Rivers Orwell and Alde, or coastal country, where the soil is light and sandy, poorly wooded. The native woodlens folk did not care for the name. Witnesham is mostly Sanlins.
Woolgathering Absent minded.
Wurrygut Always worrying.
Can you translate this rhyme, told to me by my godmother 60 years ago?
‘Thole dun deow set on a bow,
N’if sheent gorn she set theya now.’
Drag the mouse over the space below to see the translation.
The old brown pigeon sat on a bough
And if she isn’t gone she sits there now.
‘ East Anglian Rag-bag’ by Mary Norwak - East Anglian Magazine 1979, and others.