New (Old) Words
Listed here are forgotten and newly acquired words discovered while reading
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by, G. B. Edwards.
We are reading The Book of Ebenezer Le Page in celebration of G. B. Edwards's birthday: July 8, 1899 “In the twinkling of an eye a veil is lifted; and you see with other eyes and hear with other ears and are given another understanding.” - G. B. Edwards
PATOIS: the dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country
ReplyDeleteGREFFE: the civil and land registry office of Guernsey
ReplyDeleteDOLLOP: a shapeless mass or blob of something, especially soft food
ReplyDeleteMITCHING; playing truant or hookey
ReplyDeleteVAINGLORIOUS: excessively proud of oneself or one's achievements; overly vain
ReplyDeleteGELIGNITE: a high explosive made from a gel of nitroglycerine and nitrocellulose in a base of wood pulp and sodium or potassium nitrate, used particularly for rock blasting
ReplyDeleteSABOT: a shoe made of a single block of wood hollowed out
ReplyDeleteFURZE: very spiny and dense evergreen shrub with fragrant golden-yellow flowers; common throughout western Europe.
ReplyDeleteSPRAWLS: stone chips or splinters
ReplyDeleteCHANCRE: cancre, large edible crab
ReplyDeleteORMER: the sea-ear, an abalone- like shellfish unique to the islands.
ReplyDeleteABALONE: a large mollusk of the genus Haliotis, having a bowl like shell bearing a row of respiratory holes, the flesh of which is used for food and the shell for ornament and as a source of mother-of-pearl.
ReplyDeleteECRIVAIN: scrivener, notary public
ReplyDeletePIED-DU-CAUCHE: PIED DE CHAUSSE: stocking-foot for hiding money
ReplyDeleteSCOOP: a sun-bonnet with a projecting brim over the face.
ReplyDeleteSCHEMOZZLE: a state of chaos and confusion; a muddle.
ReplyDeleteFICHE LE CAN: FICHE LE CAMP: clear out, buzz off
ReplyDeletePLANCHETTE: fortune-telling board
ReplyDeleteCOCK-A-HOOP: extremely and obviously pleased, especially about a triumph or success.
ReplyDeleteDIDO: perform mischievous tricks or deeds.
ReplyDeleteMUSEAU: literally 'snout', in slang face or mug.
ReplyDeleteSINGLET: a collarless men's undergarment for the upper part of the body.
ReplyDeleteVERGEE: land measurement, just over one third of an acre
ReplyDeleteWHARRO: a greeting , from 'what ho'
ReplyDeletePURAIN: PURIN, liquid manure
ReplyDeleteLANCE-JACK: Lance-Corporal, a junior NCO having one chevron. This was an appointment and not a rank.
ReplyDeleteMURATTI: the MURATTI Vase, a Channel Island football cup
ReplyDeleteCRAPAUD: toad, a nickname for Jerseymen. Those of Sark were 'crows': of Guernsey, 'donkeys'
ReplyDeleteVRAIC: wrack, seaweed used both as manure and as fuel. The island's previous staple industry of stone-quarrying began to give way to the present one of producing early vegetables and flowers in the 1880s. Guernsey soil is not naturally fertile, thence the importance of vraicing, collecting shoreline seaweed. Ancient and complex laws still govern the right of vraic.
ReplyDeleteGACHE: a kind of bread in which yeast and fruit are used with flour, butter, milk and sugar kneaded together
ReplyDeleteTUPPENCE: variant form of twopence.
ReplyDeleteMUFTI: slang for "civilian attire"
ReplyDeleteANTIMACASSAR: a piece of cloth put over the back of a chair to protect it from grease and dirt or as an ornament.
ReplyDeleteGALLIVANT: go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.
ReplyDeleteWANGLE: manage to obtain (something) by persuading or cleverly manipulating someone.
ReplyDeleteTITIVATE: make small enhancing alterations to (something).
ReplyDeleteGENTEEL: polite, refined, or respectable, often in an affected or ostentatious way.
ReplyDeleteAITCH: the letter H
ReplyDeleteSCALLYWAG: a person who behaves badly but in an amusingly mischievous rather than harmful way; a rascal.
ReplyDeleteHOUSEY-HOUSEY: Lotto or bingo, especially when played for money.
ReplyDeleteBILLYO: all hell
ReplyDeletePUTTEE: a long strip of cloth wound spirally around the leg from ankle to knee for protection and support.
ReplyDelete