{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/prwe/prwe304.htm","path":"neu/eng/prwe/prwe304.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe304.htm","text":"PECULIAR WORDS AND PHRASES [a]\n\"THE people in the west,\" writes a correspondent, \"have I adopted many words from the Danish invaders.\" Tradition assures us that the sea-rovers of the North frequently landed at Witsand Bay, burned and pillaged the villages of Escols and Mayon, sometimes took off the women, but never made a settlement. Certain red-haired families are often referred to as Danes and the dark-haired people will not marry with \"a red-haired Dane.' He continues :-- \"If you were in Buryan Church town this evening, you might probably hear Betty Trenoweth say, 'I 'll take off my touser [toute serve], and run up to Janey Angwins to cousey [causer] a spell; there's a lot of boys gone in there, so there'll be a grand courant [de courir], I expect.' In a short time Betty may come back disappointed, saying, ' 'Twas a mere cow's courant after all, cheld vean--all hammer and tongs.'\"\nThe touser is a large apron or wrapper to come quite round and keep the under garments clean. By a courant with the boys, they mean a game of running romps. It is not at all uncommon in other parts of the country to hear the people say, \"It was a fine courant,\" \"We 'ye had a good courant,\" when they intend to express the enjoyment of some pleasure party. These are, however, probably more nearly allied to Norman-French.\nThere are some proverbial expressions peculiar to the west :-\n\"Sow barley in dree, and wheat in pul.\" [b]\n\"To make an old nail good, right it on wood.\"\n \" Fill the sack, then it cars stand.\"\n The last meaning that neither man nor beast can work on an empty stomach.\nThe following are a few of less common expressions, presenting remarkable words :-\n'Tis not bezibd--It is not allotted me.\nHe will never scrip it--He will never escape it.\nHe is nothing pridy--He is not handsome.\nGive her dule--Give her some comfort or consolation.\nHark to his lidden--Listen to his word or talk.\n- It was twenty or some--It was about twenty.\nThe wind brings the pilme--The wind raises the dust.\nHow thick the brusse lies--How thick the dust lies.\nHe is throyting--He is cutting chips from sticks.\nHe came of a good havage--He belongs to a good or respectable family.\nHame--a straw collar with wooden collar-trees, to which are fastened the rope traces.\nScalpions (buckthorn, or rather buckhorn)--salt dried fish, usually the whiting.\n\"Eating fair maids, or fermades--(fumadoes) --[pilcbards], and drinking mahogany [gin and treacle].\"\n[a] See Appendix EE.\n[b] In vul. - meaning in mud.","title":"Popular Romances of the West of England: Popular Superstitions: Peculiar Words and Phrases","type":"page"}