Pet Words,

[jeff wharton]

Listening to Susie with her word definitions has got me thinking of our own pet words we might use.I have been using a particular word for many years,but I don,t know if it is a proper word.I have never seen it written down,but this is how I would spell it.Scorrick.My own definition is a very small quantity.e.g.If someone asks me how much sugar I take in my tea I automaticly say "two and a scorrick".If it isn,t a real word it should be.It is a bit like when a bad set of letters come out on Countdown and a desperate contestant makes up a word that sounds probable but is not in the dictionary.I have heard Susie say"hard luck it,s not in but it sounds like it should be".
I would like to know if any of you out there have any pet words you use that might not exist in a dictionary.

[Ross M]

When I was a baby I used to call apples "mappin" and money "meesh"!

[Ben Hunter]

I also use 'scerrick' (though not 'scorrick') when describing small quantities, especially when talking about sugar for tea. I picked it up off my Dad, and had until now never heard anyone else say it.

[David Gunn]

I also use 'scerrick' (though not 'scorrick') when describing small quantities, especially when talking about sugar for tea. I picked it up off my Dad, and had until now never heard anyone else say it.

Do your Dad & Jeff come from the same part of the country? There are many local words like this.
My favourite, from my Mum having been brought up in Sussex, is TWITTON, a passageway between 2 (parallel) streets. Apparently nearly every county has a different word for this.
I once asked everyone at work if they knew what a twitton is, only one knew, who was brought up in Sussex, and she said "Oh yes, I used to have to go down the twitton to catch the bus to school".

[Naomi Laddiman]

Do your Dad & Jeff come from the same part of the country? There are many local words like this.
My favourite, from my Mum having been brought up in Sussex, is TWITTON, a passageway between 2 (parallel) streets. Apparently nearly every county has a different word for this.
I once asked everyone at work if they knew what a twitton is, only one knew, who was brought up in Sussex, and she said "Oh yes, I used to have to go down the twitton to catch the bus to school".

I think it's spelt TWITTEN not TWITTON, and I'd never heard of it before moving to Sussex, but it's a very common word down here. It took me a while to figure out what people were talking about! I can't remember having a specific word for it in Shropshire.

[Phil Reynolds]

A popular epithet when I was in school in mid-Wales in the 1970s was "dreg", presumably a back-formation from dregs meaning sediment or scum. (You sometime hear "dregs" used figuratively in expressions such as "the dregs of society", so it makes a kind of sense to refer to an individual as a dreg.) It was commonly used in much the same way as chav is today - as a derogatory term for someone perceived to be of lower social standing - and also between friends to express mild abuse ("Don't stand there with your mouth open, you look a right dreg").

Because I heard it nearly every school day throughout my early and mid teens, I assumed it was in common parlance everywhere. It was quite a shock when I moved away to go to uni and realised that nobody else used it.

[Ben Hunter]

A popular epithet when I was in school in mid-Wales in the 1970s was "dreg", presumably a back-formation from dregs meaning sediment or scum. (You sometime hear "dregs" used figuratively in expressions such as "the dregs of society", so it makes a kind of sense to refer to an individual as a dreg.) It was commonly used in much the same way as chav is today - as a derogatory term for someone perceived to be of lower social standing - and also between friends to express mild abuse ("Don't stand there with your mouth open, you look a right dreg").

Because I heard it nearly every school day throughout my early and mid teens, I assumed it was in common parlance everywhere. It was quite a shock when I moved away to go to uni and realised that nobody else used it.

I say "dreg ends" to describe the bits in the bottom of a cup of tea that some people throw away. Funny how all my pet words relate to cups of tea.

[Matt Morrison]

A popular epithet when I was in school in mid-Wales in the 1970s was "dreg". It was commonly used in much the same way as chav is today

Back home in Dorset/Wiltshire we used to call a chav a "cacker" (amongst others).

[David Gunn]

I think it's spelt TWITTEN not TWITTON, and I'd never heard of it before moving to Sussex, but it's a very common word down here. It took me a while to figure out what people were talking about! I can't remember having a specific word for it in Shropshire.

You're right, Naomi, I did wonder whether I should be using -ON or -EN, but I couldn't find it in the dictionary.
I've just found it in Chambers, which defines it as "a narrow lane between 2 walls or hedges". Glad to hear that it's still in use.

[Phil Reynolds]

What about all the different regional words for a (usually) circular bread item, split and filled to make a snack? Back home in mid-Wales we called them rolls, but my relatives in Swansea called them baps. When I moved to the West Midlands I had to get used to calling them batches - but half an hour's drive up the M69 to Leicester and it's called a cob. Are there any more?

[Matt Morrison]

What about all the different regional words for a (usually) circular bread item, split and filled to make a snack? Back home in mid-Wales we called them rolls, but my relatives in Swansea called them baps. When I moved to the West Midlands I had to get used to calling them batches - but half an hour's drive up the M69 to Leicester and it's called a cob. Are there any more?

Bun too I guess. Though I call them rolls myself.

[Kirk Bevins]

And in Yorkshire it's a bloody bread cake. A bread cake?! I was asked in a fish and chip shop if I wanted a bread cake with my fish? I had no idea what she meant - I think she thought I was loopy!

[Chris Corby]

My pet word is 'Rover'

[jeff wharton]

I also use 'scerrick' (though not 'scorrick') when describing small quantities, especially when talking about sugar for tea. I picked it up off my Dad, and had until now never heard anyone else say it.

Do your Dad & Jeff come from the same part of the country? There are many local words like this.
My favourite, from my Mum having been brought up in Sussex, is TWITTON, a passageway between 2 (parallel) streets. Apparently nearly every county has a different word for this.
I once asked everyone at work if they knew what a twitton is, only one knew, who was brought up in Sussex, and she said "Oh yes, I used to have to go down the twitton to catch the bus to school".

Don,t know where Ben is from but I hail from South West Lancashire.St.Helens.The way Ben spells it makes it appear Scottish to me for some reason.It could be a northern dialect word which is pronounced differently in Towns which are only a few miles apart.
In St.Helens the twitton word would have been an entry,in Leicester a jitty,and I think I have also heard gunnell as another description for a passageway between two streets.It has never failed to amaze me how accents can change over a very short distance.People from Wigan,ten miles from St.Helens have a completly different accent.Then ten miles to the west Liverpool is different again.So I suppose it could be the same with certain words.I often wonder how long it will be before regional accents dissappear and we all speak the same way.That will be a sad day.

[jeff wharton]

What about all the different regional words for a (usually) circular bread item, split and filled to make a snack? Back home in mid-Wales we called them rolls, but my relatives in Swansea called them baps. When I moved to the West Midlands I had to get used to calling them batches - but half an hour's drive up the M69 to Leicester and it's called a cob. Are there any more?

I can confirm the cob name in Leicester.The Lancashire name for the round bread roll is a Barm Cake.

[David Roe]

In East Lancashire (roughly Colne to Accrington, possibly Blackburn too) it's called a teacake. Which causes confusion when I ask for a teacake anywhere else - I get offered something with currants in.

Our "twitten" is a "ginnel".

[Edit - would you believe I put 'currents' in my teacake!!!]

[Lucy Gowers]

There's a nice collection of dialect terms for alleyways here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/results/35-1.shtml

[Phil Reynolds]

Our "twitten" is a "ginnel".

Ginnel (or one of its variant spellings) has gained wider national familiarity through the expression used to describe a bandy-legged person: "Couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel."