Glossary of Dorset dialect words

These are some words which are unique to the Dorset dialect, spoken in Dorset in the West Country of England.

Word	Meaning
A
A-cothed	Disease
A-drawen	Drawing, for example "He be a-drawen a picture."
A-feard	Afraid (Dorset motto, "Who's a-feard?")
Agean	Against, for example "'e be runnin' agean thac strong wind."
Aggy	The act of collecting eggs[1]
Aïght	Eight
Ailen	illness, ailing (verb or noun)[1]
Air vlees	Flies that seldom land for hovering in the air
Aish or Aishy	Ash tree
Aish-a-twiddick	Ash twig
A-lassen	Lest
Alik'	Like
All's	All this
Amper	Pustules "I be all out in an amper!"
Aller	The alder tree
Allum	All of them
Anby	At a near time, by and by
Annan?	An interjectional exclamation. "What did you say?"
Anewst, or Aniste	At nearest
Anigh	Near, close by[1]
Ankly	The ankle[1]
Any-when	At any time[1]
Archet	Orchard[1]
Arn	A contraction of "e'er a one"
Ash candles	The seed vessels of the ash tree
Asker	Water newt
A-strout	Stretched out[1]
A-stooded	Stood (as a waggon) immovably in the ground
A-stoggd	Having your feet stuck in either clay or dirt
At	To play at, to have at
Athirt	Across
Auverlook	Overlook, bewitch, look on with the evil eye
Avore	Before[1]
A-vroze	Frozen[1]
Awaked	Awake
Ax	To ask[1]
Axen	Ashes[1]
Ayer	Air[1]
A-zet	Set or planted
A-zew	1) To be dry of milk; no longer giving suck "The cow's a-zew" 2) To sew a pond, to drain or draw it dry.
B
Backhouse	Outhouse[1]
Backside	backyard or rear of property[1]
Bad	Synonym for ill
B'aint	be not
Ballyrag	To scold[1]
Bandon	Abandonment
Bandy	A stick used for beating dung out of the way, usually long and sturdy with a bent end[1]
Bandylags	Crooked/bowed legs
Bankrout	Bankrupt
Bantling	Child
Barken	Barley[2]
Barry	Borrow[2]
Batch	Hillock[2]
Battenbuoard	A tool for tamping thatch on a roof[2]
Baven	A faggot of untrimmed branches[2]
Beas'	Beast, usually refers to cattle[2]
Beatplough	A tool used for cutting turf[2]
Becall	To deride
Bedraggled angels	Wet sheep
Beens	Because, possible contraction of 'being as'[2]
Bee-pot	Beehive[2]
Beknown	Known about
Bennits	The bent tips of grasses and similar[2]
Ben't	Wasn't
Bibber	Shiver with cold[2]
Bide	Dwell[2]
Biddle	Beetle[2]
Bird-kippy	To keep birds from the corn[2]
Bissen	Bist not, Art not
Bit-an'-drap	A bite to eat and a drink[2]
Bit-an'-crimp	Every last scrap of something[2]
Biver	To shake or quiver with cold or fear
Black Bards	Rooks (or 'storytellers')
Black-bob	Cockroach
Blatch	Black or sooty[2]
Blather	An uproar[2]
Bleare	To cry outload and fretful like a child
Blether	To bleat or blare much; to talk noisily
Blood beads	Berries
Bloody Warriors	Wallflowers
Blooth	Blossom[2]
Bottom	Steadfast[2]
Braims	Membranes
Brake	A thicket
Brembles	Brambles
Brinton or Braton	Bold, audacious[3]
Brockle	Broken[3]
Bruckly or Brickley	Brittle[3]
Brushen	Huge/giant
Budget	A leather pouch for a whetstone[3]
Bull-head	Tadpole
Bumbye	By-and-by[3]
Bundle	To bound quickly
Bunker	Rabbit
Button-crawler	Woodlouse
Bwoneyard	Graveyard/churchyard
C
Caddie	An uproar or carry-on[3]
Caddle	Muddle[3]
Cag	Cloy/clog
Cag-mag	Rotten meat
Cammish	Awkward
Car	Carry or move: to car hay is to stack hay[3]
Carner	Corner
Cas'n	Can'st not
Cast	Prematurely born
Cazelty weather	Extremely bad weather (casualty weather)[3]
Chalky	Ghostly
Chammer	Chamber, bedroom, room
Charken, charked	Burn (to charcoal), burned
Chattermag	Magpie
Chawly-whist	Ashamed
Chaw	Chew[3]
Cheese-late	A floor for drying cheese[3]
Chetlens	The entrails of any edible animal
Chilver or Chilver hog	A yearling ewe lamb
Chimley	Chimney[3]
Chop	Sell, barter or exchange[3]
Chump	A log of wood[3]
Clavy	Mantelpiece[3]
Clinker	Icicle[4]
Clitty	Stringy and sticky, tangled in clods or lumps
Clodgy	Dumplike, close
Clot	Lump, clod
Clutchéd	Clutched
Cockle	Tangle[4]
Codgloves	Hedger's gloves, with a bad for all the fingers together
Comely or Come	To be ripe. Inviting
Conk-load	Nose-full
Conzum-ed	Consumed
Cowheart	Coward
Cowlease	An uncut field, meadow[4]
Cradlehood	Early stages of childhood, infancy, still in the cradle[4]
Crate	Womb
Creezey	Silky
Crewel	Cowslip
Cricket	A low stool or chair for a child[4]
Crims	Cold-shivers, creeping of flesh
Croodle	To rock, to coo. To make little crowings
Croopy	To sink one's body, bending down the thighs behind the legs
Crousty	Grumpy, in a bad mood[4]
Culver	Wood pigeon
Curdles	Hair curls[4]
Cuty	Wren
D
Dabster	Someone who is skilled in something, an expert[4]
Dadder	To confuse or bewilder[4]
Dander	Vex, anger[4]
Darkling bird	Blackbird
Daw	Jackdaw
Death-biddle	Deathwatch beetle
De-da	Simple, foolish, slow-witted
Devil's bird	Magpie
Dewbit	A bite to eat taken first thing in the morning before breakfast[4]
Didden	Did not
Dorring	Mocking
Doughbiaked	Feeble-minded[5]
Dout	Put out a flame or fire, "Dout the candle" for example[5]
Downdashious	Audacious[5]
Drashel	The strip of wood or concrete at the bottom of a doorway, the threshold[5]
Draty	Draught, draughty, full of draughts of air
Drawlatcheten	Idle, lazy[5]
Drinky	Having consumed too much alcohol, inebriated[5]
Dread-fulled	Full of dread
Dread gates	School gates
Drean	To drawl in speaking
Dree	Three
Drisk	A fine, wind-driven mist
Drownsy	Drowned
Drush	Thrush
Duckish	Dark, gloomy[5]
Drong	Squeeze or compress[5]
Drongway	A narrow passage or alley; Most commonly a narrow footpath between two fenced fields[5]
Dumbledore	Bumblebee[5]
Dummet	Dusk
Dungy	Downcast, dull
Dunnick	Sparrow
E
'e	He
Eacor	Acorn
Eet	Yet[5]
Effets	Newts[5]
Egg-tree	Ovary
Elebm	Eleven
Em	Them
Emmets	Ants[5]
En	Him
Engripement	Grievance
'enself	Himself
'es	His
'e's	He is
Eth, ethly	Earth, earthly
Ethed	Buried
Ether-hunger	The hunger for earth, sometimes felt by persons approaching death
Evemen	Evening[5]
F
Faddle	To pack or bundle together[6]
Fantod	Fuss[6]
Farterous	Father-like
Feasen	Faces
Fess	Pleased with, proud[6]
Fevrell	February
Fleeceful	As much as fills a fleece
Fleecy	Fleece; drunk, drunken
Flummocks	To scare or frighten[6]
Footling	Something worthless, beneath contempt[6]
Footy	Insignificant, small, trivial[6]
Fowel	The placenta of a cow
Freen	Free from
Frith	Thin twigs that have broken off from trees and bushes, historically used to make brushes; brushwood[6]
Frog-hopper	Grasshopper
Furby	Foul or sticky matter, as that on a tongue in sickness
G
Gake	To stare open-mouthed, gawk, gape[6]
Gallycrow	Scarecrow[6]
Gannywedge	A wide yawn or to spread apart[6]
Gap	Mouth
Gapmouth	Nightjar
Gawl, Gawly	An opening, an empty place, a bare patch; empty hollow
Gi'e	To give, to yield
Gilcup or Giltcup	A small, yellow flower of the family Ranunculaceae, common in meadows and pasture; buttercup[6]
Girding	Taunting
Girt	Large, great[6]
Glene	To joke with[7]
Glory hole	Vagina
Glow	Stare or watch with fixed, open eyes
Glutch	To swallow[7]
Gnang	To mock by half-clear sounds, wagging the jaw with a grin
God's stinking tree	Elder
Goocoo	Cuckoo
Goocoo pint	Wild arum, snakeshead, Arum maculatum
Goocoo's bread	Wood sorrel
Goocoo spettle or Spume	Cuckoo spit, a white froth secreted by insects
Grab	Crab apple tree
Gramf'er	Grandfather
Gramm'er	Grandmother
Grave	To bury
Greygole	A small, blue woodland flower of the hyacinth family; Bluebell[7]
Gribble	A young crab tree or blackthorm
Grotten	A sleep-slade, a run or pasture for sheep
Growed	Grew
Gurrel	Girl
Gwain	Going[7]
Gwains-on	Rowdy behaviour (goings-on)[7]
H
Hag-ridden	A nightmare attributed to a supernatural presence of a witch or hag, by whom one is ridden to sleep
Halterpath	A path for a horse and rider; Bridleway[7]
Handy	Thereabouts, an approximation, "Ees 6' or somewhere 'andy" for example[7]
Hangen house	A shed under the continuation of the roof of the house
Han'pat	Nearby, close at hand[7]
Harled	Tangled
Hassen	Hast not
Hatch	A small gate[7]
Heabm	Heaven
Heal or Healéd	To cover over[7]
Hedlen	Headlong[7]
Heissen	A prediction of evil
Hetful	Hot
Heth	Hearth
Hethcropper	A horse or pony bred on a heath[7]
Hidy-buck	Children's game, hide-n-seek[7]
Ho	To be anxious or to show caution[8]
Hoar-stone	Standing stone or ancient boundary stone
Hobble	A field-shed for cattle
Hobby Horse	Woodlouse[8]
Hogget	A yearling sheep of either sex, the meat of a hogget
Hogget shears	Sheep shears
Hold wi'	Side with
Holm	Holly
Holrod	Cowslip
Holway	Hollow lane
Homhle	A duck[8]
Honey-zuck	A climbing plant of the family Caprifoliaceae; honeysuckle[8]
Honking	Inhale deeply
Hook	To gore with the horns
Hoss-stinger or Ho's adder	Dragonfly[8]
Hummock	Cow
Hustle	To moan, spoken of the wind
Hwome	Home
I
Ice-candles	Icicles[8]
Inneath	Behind, inside
Inon	Onion[8]
Inwards	Innards
J
Joppety-joppety	Anxious, nervous trepidation[8]
K
Keech	To clear a riverbank of weeds[8]
Kit	Friend or family, kin[8]
Knog	Knob
L
Lag	Leg
Lagwood	The larger cut-off branches and twigs of a tree
Laminger	One who has become lame
Lamploo	A game of tag in which those caught join hands with the pursuer/s to form a chain[9][10]
Lear	An ailing in sheep
Leaze	Field
Leery	Hungry[9]
Lerret	A traditional, double-ended boat with a flat bottom and high sternposts, which can be launched from a steep bank or beach [9][11]
Let	A stopping or interruption
Limber	Skinny, slim, slender[9]
Limner	Painter and decorator[9]
Lip	Basket[9]
Lippen	Wet weather, rainy, sometimes also referred to as lippy[9]
Lisome	Cheery, happy[9]
Litter	Confusion[9]
Litty	Of light and easy bodily motion
Loneleft	Left alone
Long tail	Pheasant
Lovesome	Lovely, loving
Lowsen	To listen
Lure	A disease of sheep; an ulcer in the cleft of the foot
Lwonesomness	Lonesomeness
M
Magot	An impulse or whim[9]
Maggoty	Very drunk
Main	Strength, power[9]
Mampus	A crowd[9]
Mandy	Saucy
Mare's tail	Equisetum arvense (horsetail)
Mazzerdy	Knotty
Meeces	Mice
Mesh	Moss[9]
Midin'	Might not, may not
Milchi	Milk, milky pale
Milk flower	Snowdrop
Mingdom	A stinking, dirty or unpleasant kingdom
Mommet	A guy, an effigy
Moud or Moule	Field mouse[12]
Mus'n	Must not
Mwope	Bullfinch
N
Nammet	A light lunch of meat[12]
Near	Parsimonious, miserly[12]
Nearen	Nearby
Nesh, Neshen	Tender
Nesseltripe	The weakest or last born
Nether-ethed	Buried
Netherwise	Viewed from below
Nicky	Kindling[12]
Nippy	Peckish[12]
Nirrup	Donkey[12]
No-but	Nothing but
Noowhen	At no time
Not	Flowerbed[12]
Nuncheon	A noon-time meal, luncheon[12]
Nuts	Joy; testicles
O
Oone	One
Orf	A viral form of pustular dermatitis found in sheep, and communicable to humans
Out ov ban	Instantly, at once[12]
Over-right	Opposite[12]
Over-watch	Baby-sit
Owl, owling	To owl about, to ramble by night
P
Pank	To pant
Parlour-sky	Attic, loft
Parrick	A piece of fenced off land, a paddock[12]
Peart	Healthy, vibrant, full of life[13]
Pecker	Green woodpecker
Peck upon	Dominate[13]
Pelt	A rage, to feel angry[13]
Peze, peaze	To ooze out
Piaviours	Flagstones[13]
Piggyback, a pig a back, a pack a back	To carry a child on one's back with their arms around your neck and their legs around your waist.
Piss-a-bed	Dandelion
Pisty poll	To carry a child on one's shoulders with their legs around your neck and their arms around your forehead.
Pleck	A small enclosure
'plexion	Complexion
Pock-fretten	Pock-marked from acne
Poll	Head
Popples	Pebbles[13]
Prog	Food[13]
Purl	Curl, swirl, frill; or an abbreviation of pur lamb
Pur lamb	A castrated ram lamb
Puxy	A miry or boggy place
Pwope	A bunchy thing, an effigy, a doll, a puppet
Q
Quartere'il, Quaterevil	A disease of sheep, a corruption of the blood
Quine	The corner of a wall[13]
Quob	Quiver, shake[13]
R
Rafty	Rancid
Rake	To reek
Rale	Walk[13]
Rammish	Strong smelling, rank
Ramshacklum	Useless[13]
Rangle	To reach about like a trailing or climbing plant
Rap	Swap, barter or exchange[13]
Rathe	Early[13]
Reames	The frame or ligaments of a thing, skeleton
Rean	Consume food quickly and greedily[14]
Reaphook	A curved blade for cutting grasses; Sickle[14]
Reapy	Reap
Red-bread	Vagina
Reddick	Small garden bird with a red breast, commonly known as a robin (Erithacus rubecula)[14]
Red rag	Tongue
Reeve	Unravel[14]
Riblets	Little ribs
Roasting tomb	Stove
Rod	Penis
Rottletrap	Rickety[14]
Ruddle	A red earth by which they mark they mark sheep
Rudger or Rig	An uncastrated horse
Rum	Queer
Rumstick	Queer, a queer man
S
Sar	To serve or feed animals
Sarch	To search
Satepoll	A foolish or silly person[14]
Scaly	Mean, stingy[14]
Sclerevil	Hardened and evil
Scote	To shoot along very fast
Scram	Screwy-grown
Scratch, scratching	To write, writing; to carve
Screak, screaking	To creak loudly
Scriddick, scrid	A small scrap or shred
Scrip	Shepherd's coat
Scroff	Small bits of dead wood
Scroop, scrooping	The low sound of one hard body scraping against another
Scrounch, Scrunch	To crunch strongly
Seem an I	Seems to me
Shabby mothers	Ewes
Shade	Spirit, ghost
Shatten	Shall not
Sheep nuts	Coarse mix pellets, sheep food
Shim	a she/him
Shockle	To shake about lightly
Shoo	A cry to fray away owls
Shram	A screwing up or out of the body and limbs from keen cold
Sify	To catch the breath in sighing; to sob
Sives	Chives or garlic[14][15]
Skeat, skeating	A looseness of the bowels
Sloey spears	The sharp spines on the branches of the sloe or blackthorn
Slommock(en)	A slatternly, thick-set, stocky, short, dirty woman
Smame	To smear
Smeech	A cloud of dust[16]
Smirchéd	Tarnished
Smoor	To smear
Snabble	To snap up quickly; To eat quickly or greedily[16]
Snake's-head	Arum maculatum
So't	Soft
Soldier's tears	Mullein, a tall, stiff flowered, woolly plant
Somen	Someone
Somewhen	At some time
Soonere	Ghost
Span-new	Clean and shiny, like new[16]
Spawl, spawly	A splinter flown off, as from wood or stone; splintered
Sprak	Spry, lively[16]
Speare	Thin, lanky
Spet	To spit
Spiles	The beard of barley
Spotter	(Great or lesser) Spotted Woodpecker
Spume	Come, semen
Squitters	Diarrhoea in cattle
Stare	Starling
Stiver	To stiffen up much as an angry dogs hairs
Stumpy	To walk with short stamoing steps
Sweethearts	Goose grass
Sweven	A dream
T
Taffle	To tangle, as grass or corn beaten down by weather
Tarble	Tolerable
Tardle	To tangle
Teake to	To reach forth to a man or thing with a ready good will
Teare	Eager and bold as flies on food
Tet	Teat
Tewly	Small and weakly
Theave	A three-year-old sheep
Theosom	These
Thick as inkle weavers	Close in friendship, from inkle, a kind of tape for a very narrow loom at which the weavers sat close side by side
Thieves	Fairies
Thik	That
Thirtover	Perverse
Thumbles	Thumbs
Tidd'n	'tis not
Tilty	Grumpy, irritable, ill-tempered[16]
Tinklebobs	Icicles[16]
Torrididdle	A state of bewilderment or confusion[16]
Toyear	This year; as in today, tomorrow etc.[16]
Trapes, Trapesèn	A woman who tramps about bodly
Tree-tears	Leaves
Tuen	Tune
Tup	A ram; (of a ram) to copulate with a ewe
Twanketen	Sad, melancholic[16]
T'wards	Towards
'twere	It were
Twiddick	A small twig
Twink	Chaffinch
Twoad	Toad
Twoad's meat	Toadstools
U
Undercreepen	Devious, sly, underhand[17]
Unheal	To uncover
Unray	To undress
Upsmitten	Dust or liquid sprayed or blown upawrds
Upsydown	Upside down, overturned[17]
V
Vall	To fall
Vang	To earn[17]
Veag	Wrath, a high heat of anger (Anglo-Saxon faegth)
Veäre	Weasel
Veäry	Fairy
Veäry ring	Fairy ring, a ring of fungi
Veäry tale	Fairy tale
Vess'y	To versey, to read verses by turns
Vilthy	Filthy
Vinny	Veiny or mouldy, like the Dorset cheese, Blue-vinny[17]
Vitty	Neat and proper[17]
Vive	Five
Vlee	Fly
Vlesh vlee	A blowfly, a flesh fly
Vlit	Flit
Vlittermouse	Bat
Vloat	Float
Vlutterbie	Butterfly
Vog	Fog
Vokket	To go about here and there
Voley	Vole
Vom	Vomit
Vorehearing	Premonition, forewarning
Vore-right	Going forward without regard to consequences or seemliness
Voretold	Foretold
Vorewarn	Forewarned
Voul	Foul
Vower, vowr, vow'r	Four
Vuzzen	Fir trees
W
Wagwanton	Quaking grass
Want	Mole
Want-heave	Mole hill
Want-heave slave	A mole
Ware	Pond[17]
Waxen crundels	Swollen tonsils
Weave	To rock backwards and forwards in pain
Welshnut	Walnut[17]
Werret	To concern or worry[18]
Wether	A castrated male lamb
Wevvet	Cobweb
Wevvet queens	Spiders
Wheel-bird	Nightjar
Whinnick	To whine softly or slightly
Whiver	To hover, to quiver
Winker	Eyeball
Woak	Oak
Woodculver	Wood pigeon or ringdove
Woone	One
Wont	Mole, small burrowing mammal of the family Talpidae[18]
Woppen	Big, heavy[18]
Wopsy or Wops	Wasp[18]
Wordle	World[18]
Wurse	Devil, arch-fiend
Y
Yakker	Acorn[18]
Yer	Your
Yer tiz	Here it is, yes it is
Yis	Earthworm[18]
Yoller	Yellow
Yollerheads	Daffodils
Yoller roses	Primroses
Yop	Speak rapidly, jabber[18]
Z
Zeale or Zack	Sack[18]
Zebm	Seven
Zedgemocks	Tufts of sedge grass
Zet up	To anger, infuriate[18]
Zing	Sing
Zive	Scythe
Zix	Six
Zounds	Sounds
Zummat	Something[18]
Zwail	Swagger[18]
Zweal	To scorch
Zweat	Sweat
Zween, zweemy	A feeling of swinging around in the head

Asker

Archet

Bally-rag

Bee-pots

Biddle in a barken field

Bit 'n' drap

A girt clavy

Clinkers or tinklebobs

Cowlease

Drongway

Dumbledore

Emmet

Faddle of firewood

Gallycrows

Gilcups

Greygoles

Homhle

Hoss-stinger

A mampus in Yetminster

A pisty-poll

Popples

A Reddick

Sives

A smeech

Welshnuts

Wonthills

Yakkers

See also

• Dorset dialect