Another way of puttin’ it would be, ‘Yer a bit crabbit the day, aren’t ye?’ – meaning tetchy, grumpy, awkward, or argumentative. Ye might also be described as a bit ‘carnaptious’ – contrary. If yer a woman ye certainly wouldn’t want to be labelled a ‘targe’ – an angry, overbearing, difficult woman – ‘She’s a real targe, that one!’ If yer over fond of yer food ye might be described as ‘a right greedy gorb.’ Neither would you want to be known as ‘sleekit’ – sly, underhand, deceitful. The poet, Rabbie Burns, once described a mouse as a ‘wee sleekit, cowrin’, tim’rous beastie.’
We’ve got a right few words to describe dirt – such as ‘glar’, ‘stoor’, ‘gunk’ and ‘clabber’. ‘A’m up to me uxters in glar’ – meaning I’m up to my armpits in muck. Glar has a sticky porridge-like consistency. ‘Stoor’ is similar – ‘Yer making’ yer dinner into a right stoor, so ye are!’ ‘Clabber’ is any sort of dirt or mud – ‘Ye can’t make out yer number plate for all the clabber on it.’
W.F. Marshall – known as ‘the bard of Tyrone’ is well known for his poem, ‘Livin’ in Drumlister’, which begins: ‘A’m livin’ in Drumlister, hey, and A’m clabber to the knee.’ You can also use ‘clabber’ as a verb: ‘He was a wee bit cheeky to me, so I clabbered him one.’ ‘Gunk’ is another word meaning grime, dirt, or grease – ‘I can’t see for all the gunk in me eye.’ ‘Gunk’ can also mean taken aback, or disappointed – ‘He took a quare gunk when he saw what’d happened to his new car!’ Or, ‘When he heard what it was gonna cost, he was rightly gunked!
We were out for a walk the o’rr day and I noticed a sheep that wasn’t too steady on its feet – we’d say it was just ‘herplin’ along.’ That reminded me of another great phrase – often used by my mother – ‘Ach, yer a pochle, so ye are!’ meaning yer makin’ a pig’s lug out of somethin’, or yer ‘just pochlin’ about’ – ‘footerin’ about’, instead of gettin’ on wi’ it.
She would sometimes talk about ‘puttin’ up a bit of a hoardin’’ – which was like a temporary fence, blocking a hole in a hedge, or it could also be a big sign by the side of the road with advertising on it. She’d talk about havin’ to ‘get up at the scraik a’ dawn every mornin’’ – scraik meaning screech, in this case – referring to the ‘dawn chorus’. I see that phrase, ‘scraik a’ dawn’, is also used by local author, Maurice Leitch, in his book, ‘The Eggman’s Apprentice’.
My mother would talk about a ‘wind that would clean corn’ – meaning a cold wind that went right through ye. Or she would send me to ‘haig a wheen a’ sticks’ to light the fire – haig meaning to hack, or chop. A similar word would be ‘blatther’ – ‘give the door a good blather, there.’ We’re quite good at inserting a ‘th’ sound into words – like butther, for instance. Or ‘clatther’ – meaning a collection of something – ‘My mother kept a clatther a’ hens.’
The same word can also mean to hit something – ‘He gave the knocker a right clatther, so he did’. Another great word for the same thing is ‘blarge’ – ‘Don’t knock, just blarge on in, like!’ Or, ‘He gave a right blarge on the horn.’ It can also mean over indulgence – ‘He had right oul’ blarge a drink on him last night.’
Another one is ‘banther’ – meaning talk, as in, ‘We had a wee bit of a banther’. Of course, you wouldn’t want to be known as a ‘blether’ – someone who talks too much, or who talks nonsense, as in: ‘What are ye blethering’ on about?’ You could also say, ‘He’s a bit of a gab,’ or, ‘She has the gift of the gab, that one!’ ‘Craythur’ is another great word, meaning creature – ‘Ach, the poor craythur does’nae hae the sense he was born wi’.’
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