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The language of the Potteries .. or     "Ar ter toke crate"

North Staffordshire Dialect - Words and Phrases

 

[A-C]  [D-G]  [H-L]  [M-Q]  [R-T]  [U-Y]

a a many people, a many times, a many years; "a" superfluous
abear "can't abear him" = don't like him
afeared afraid
afore before
aint is not
aks ask
all along of you it's all through you, you are the cause of it
all but nearly
alley alabaster marble for games
All me eye and Betty Martin Mihi et beati Martini
Auger's Bonk Alsagers bank (place name)
An is not used before a vowel - aspirate substituted:
"a Hegg";  "a Happle"
An' all as well as; "He said that an' all";  "He did an' all"
And "Try and do it"; old writers meant "Try if you can do it"
Angry inflamed wound
An' then a threat,  as in "You do it an' then!"
Arint around
Aside beside
Arm-ache paying insurance of someone who is a long time dying
As "It was him as did it" = "it was he who (that) did it"
As'n Aston (place name)
At after after

 

Babbie babe
Bad unwell
Bag "dark as a bag"
"got the bag" = "got the sack" = discharged
Ball "Cost kick a bo againt a wo an' then 'it it wi' thi yed till it bosses?" =  "Can you kick a ball aginst a wall and then hit it with your head until it bursts?"
Bally belly
Bank
Bonk		 hill, farm, potworks, money bank, bet
Barmy on the crumpet not all there
Barrowtle barrow-full
Beaked up cover with mud
Bear "can't bear him"  =  "don't like him"
Belong the owner is said to belong to a property instead of saying the property belongs to him;  a Feudal relic.
Bi happens perhaps
Bi leddit "by our Lady"; the Virgin Mary
Bin yer "how bin yer"   =  "how are you"
Bin the present tense of the verb 'to be'
Blab
Blobbed		 to blurt out
Blanket fair bed
Blather empty talk.
Blither empty mind - as in "blithering fool"
Blue vein "got a blue vein down his back"  =  idle
Bo Ball
Boggert a bogy, a ghost
Boke to balk,  to hinder
Booden Boothen   (a place name)
Bosco mouth,  "I'll hit you on the bosco" (perhaps from Spanish?)
Boss a hassock,   a floor cushion
Bost to burst,   "bost a 'bo"   =  "burst a ball"
bos'en - used in the Biddulph area
Botch,  bodge bad work
Box Harry to do as you like
Brass money
Brass knocker on a pig-sty door e.g.   a gold ring on a dirty hand
Brattle, brittle don't feel very well
Brazzle very hard, as in "hard as brazzle"; brazzle is iron pyrites nodules found with Black Band Ironstone.
Breakstuff breakfast
Bresses breasts
Brid bird
Brok broke
Brush Dick Brush,  "Fat as Dick Brush," Burslem man who sold brushes.
Brushy Beardmore, Stoke man who sold brushes.
Bucketle bucket full
Bugger from the French bougre,   a blackguard
Buggert done up
Bullyed tadpole
Bun bound, constipated
Bunk to run away,  to skive "bunk off school"
Butterfingers awkward in handling
Button "a button short"  =  not all there
Buzzed late for work - used in the Biddulph area
By fore Dieu By God
By Jove! astonishment

 

Cac dung,  privy  (from Old English)
Cache a turn-over party; from the French cacher,  to hide
Cade  or Kade a spoiled child
Cadge  or Kadge to beg
Call reason or cause,  as in "you've no call to say that"
Caming complaining,  discontented
Can I May I; when permission is asked  from Old English
Canna cannot
Canst, const, cost, con yer can you?
Castle Newcastle   (place name)
Censioner linesman or referee in game of Prison Bars
Channock turnip
Chelp cheek, impudence
Chewing the fat grumbling
Childer, childen children
Chimdy chimney
Chin cough whooping cough
Chink to laugh in a suppressed manner
Chuck throw
Chuck i' th' 'ole game of marbles
Chunner, chunter to grumble
Clean bart money no money  - used in the Biddulph area
Clemmed short of food
Clip to hug - young people clip,  elders embrace
Clod on the clod,  at the place;
thick on the clod,  populous
Clog again new lease of life
Clomb past tense of climb
Clothes horse clothes maid
Cluttered littered
Cod to pull a person's leg
Codge bad workmanship
Cod placer head placer of pottery for the ovens
Colly Wesson contrary,  askew
Comen arrived,  as in    "have they comen yet?" 
Comical Dick changeable,  doesn't know his own mind
Cork cinder coke
Cosna can't you,   you can't
Coss curse
Cratch the rack over the manger - from the French creche, a cradle.
"good cratched 'un" - good appetite
Crogs, no peys the marble is shifted without forfeit
Crusses crusts (on bread)
Cunny-fogle cunning deceit
Cut canal
Cuther putting heads together for scandal or gossip

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