BS: Odd, rare words

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 03:20 PM

Thanks a million Gutcher - much appreciated
Then there are the dirty ones of course
I was feeling unwell at work once and was told I was "the colour of boiled shite"
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Gutcher
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 02:00 PM

When the hames were put on the collar they were joined at the top, when not on and not connected at the top they somewhat resembled a flail and to be belted by them as in the song would be like having a thrashing from a flail, very painfull.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Gutcher
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 01:47 PM

Before retiring to bed we would cover the peat fire with the ash of burnt peat--this was called smooring the fire--a few blasts of the hand bellows in the morning brought the fire alight, perpetual fire.
Something like the Muirton kail {soup} which was proved, in court, by a farmworker to be seven years old.

When someone has the hames put on them{a figure of speech} they are dissuaded from some {usually bad} action.

The hames were, as Jim says, a part of the horse harness, they being the parts that projected above the collar like two horns.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 12:52 PM

A very bad word which is unfortunately nowhere near rare enough is "albeit." I will never use that piece of pretentious nonsense. Let's make it as rare as possible so that it may fit into this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 12:32 PM

In the UK a rasher of bacon is exactly the same thing as a slice.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 12:25 PM

A rasher is a large amount of bacon that can become many slices, or the amount of presliced bacon in a packet.
Eschew obfuscation! Ubiquitous.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 12:11 PM

I'd never heard the Scots word "smoor" until my wife Pat used it - lovely word
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 11:01 AM

A word I don't hear often but find rather beautiful is 'threnody'.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 09:53 AM

Oblisokollix (well, it's ancient Greek but English hasn't come up with its own word for it in 1500 years).

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:37 AM

Interesting the "nesh" one now I ask mum. I've tended to use it as more generally "wimpy" but Pip (Shropshire) would take more of the specific lack of resistance to the cold meaning.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:27 AM

A word I remember from childhood is charabanc (pronounced 'sharrabang') - a carriage or bus with bench seats from the early days of coach outings.

Another word that has become rarer is 'skein', now that such knitting wool as can be found in shops comes ready rolled into balls. Wool used to be sold in skeins, necessitating the sociable activity of winding it into balls, with one person holding the wool on outstretched hands while another person wound it (though it was perfectly possible to do it on your own if necessary).

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:16 AM

"Hames" in Irish Traveller parlance refers to part of a horse's harness
In Sullivan John" for instance,
"When my brother James got the belt of a hames"
In Ireland, it means to make an awful mess of something
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:14 AM

OK, again only encountered in crosswords but how about a pantechnicon.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jos
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:13 AM

A rasher is a slice, surely. Nothing more complicated and certainly not rare or unusual in my experience. However, on reflection, I would expect ham to be cut into slices, not rashers. Maybe 'rasher' is just used for uncooked bacon.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:11 AM

My uncle had a mahogany cabinet, which to all intents and purposes looked like a bedside cabinet but a bit taller. He called it a 'purdonium' which I realised in later life was the correct name for a coal cabinet, That explained why his cabinet had a metal box inside which pulled out at an angle. Love the word 'Purdonium'

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:09 AM

Saw this in a crossword this morning ' commination ' I had to resort to a dictionary.

Didn't know that one Dave but I often refer to a dictionary. Probably the most used app on my phone and tablet is the Chambers dictionary app. I can also cheat with that one as it will solve anagrams and fill in the blanks for known letters when I get really stuck.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Iains
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 07:04 AM

I heard nesh in Gloucestershire with the meaning weak and susceptible to cold, as in 'I feel a bit nesh this morning'

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:47 AM

Mmm. puzzling rather than jarring. What do others use, a "slice" of bacon?

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:44 AM

"Nesh: was common usage around the Lancaster, Garstang and Preston areas when I was there many years ago. "Cold" was its meaning there - "Bye, it's nobbut a bit nesh this mornin'".

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:40 AM

Word usage certainly varies area by area. We always referred to "a rasher of bacon" so it jars a bit when you come across something like this:

'If you are well read, or you know someone who traveled forward from the 16th century, you may be familiar with the term "rasher of bacon," but wonder exactly what it refers to. Is this a big hunk of fatback, or what?'

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:34 AM

"I've often wondered - is "making a hames" of something common outside Ireland"

I think word usage varies from area to area. My parents are Shropshire and Norwich and a large part of life on the N Wales coast... That's not an expression I can remember hearing in use where I've been.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:29 AM

Musing on 'defenestration'

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Iains
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:18 AM

yoke seems to have a specific meaning in Ireland as a general term for a “thing”, an implement, a contrivance.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 06:07 AM

"I'd not call "nesh" as in a bit feeble that unusual in home usage."
Thanks for that Jon

I've often wondered - is "making a hames" of something common outside Ireland
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:53 AM

Saw this in a crossword this morning ' commination ' I had to resort to a dictionary.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:32 AM

Sesquipedalian, ultracrepidarian and gongoozler appeal to me, and I managed to get them all into a song (for better or worse).

Leave Me Alone

There's an explanation on the linked song lyric page.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:32 AM

Not odd but crossword words, etui, ennui, or maybe espy and I’m sure there area few other “e-” or “be-” ones...

I'd not call "nesh" as in a bit feeble that unusual in home usage.

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:19 AM

My mother used the word "nesh" constantly
I only ever encountered it elsewhere once, in a Mrs Gaskell Novel
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Odd, rare words
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 05:17 AM

Spanghew is one of my favourites. (Merriem-Webster: to throw violently into the air; especially : to throw (a frog) into the air from the end of a stick)

A word that seems unnecessarily specific.

More here.

Subject: BS: Odd, rare words
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jun 18 - 04:43 AM

I've always been fascinated by words, their origins, meanings and usages, and some words - for no particular reasons - I find oddly curious. I'm sure you'll have your own personal oddities, but one that I find persistently odd is "tracklement".

The OED defines a tracklement as a jelly eaten with meat [British, rare], and I always thought it has a Victorian or Georgian feel to it. Imagine my surprise to find the word was coined around 1950 by a food writer called Dorothy Hartley, though it may have been based on a much earlier word like "tranchiment" that was in use in Northern and Central England.

There's actually an English firm called Tracklements that sells things like sticky fig relish, old-fashioned picallili, hot garlic and other "charcuteriments".

Got an odd word for the thread?