Thanks, Anglo...so "skinny" had been folk-processed to "skinty," but it's good to know I had the meaning and derivation right.

[Thread creep alert] Speaking of folk processing, the words in the DT for Poverty Knock seem to be a bit worse for wear. There's an interesting thread about the song here, that indicates it was written by a Yorkshire weaver named Tom Daniel. (I'd always thought it was by Cyril Tawney!) The words in the thread may be close to the original (and they include a verse I never learned), though there are some differences from the way I learned it from Mary Benson in Portland, Oregon. Here's Mary's version, which I think flows a little better:

POVERTY KNOCK
by Tom Daniel

Up every morning at five
It's a wonder that we stays alive
A-weary and yawnin', we're up before dawnin'
And back to that dreary old drive

CHORUS
Poverty, poverty knock
Me loom it is sayin' all day
Poverty, poverty knock
The gaffer's too skinny to pay
Poverty, poverty knock
With always one eye on the clock
I know I can guttle when I hear me shuttle
Go poverty, poverty knock

Oh, dear, we're going to be late
And the gaffer he stands at the gate
Our wages he'll dock it
We'll be out of pocket
We'll have to get grub on the slate

CHORUS

Sometimes a shuttle flies out
And gives some poor woman a clout
While she lies there bleedin'
There's nobody heedin'
And no one to carry her out

CHORUS

The tuner should see to me loom
But we'll never get him to come
He's always too busy
A-courtin' our Lizzie
And he always sits on his bum

CHORUS

Our Lizzie's so easily led
And we think that he takes her to bed
She used to be skinny
Now look at her pinny
I think it's high time they were wed

CHORUS


Aloha,
Mark

PS, I've always assumed "guttle" meant "eat" -- is that right?