Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license.
Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat.
We can research this topic together.
This article may require cleanup to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. The specific problem is: the article is chock full of folk etymologies (although some have since been replaced with their correct etymologies) as well as nonstandard spellings of words that have well-known standardised spellings. Please help improve this article if you can. (February 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This article may require cleanup to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. The specific problem is: N.B. applying standardised spellings to dialect words is ill advised; generally they are better spelled more or less as they are pronounced. Please help improve this article if you can. (May 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
This is a select list of Cornish dialect words in English—while some of these terms are obsolete others remain in use. Many Cornish dialect words have their origins in the Cornish language and others belong to the West Saxon group of dialects which includes West Country English: consequently words listed may not be exclusive to Cornwall.
Agone – ago; as in 'a week agone' (mid and east Cornwall)
Airymouse - a bat
Ake – a groove made on the stone of a killick (Mousehole, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languageak, meaning 'a slit', or 'a cleft')
All-overish – slightly out of sorts, nervous
Allycumpooster - all right (Camborne, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languageoll yn kompoester, meaning 'all in order')
Ancient - to describe someone who is a real character, "he's an ancient man".
Anker - a small barrel (mining term, ultimately from Medieval Latinanceria perhaps influenced by Cornish languagekeryn, meaning 'open barrel' or 'tub'. Compare Danish anker )
Ansome - lovely (from "handsome"); Me ansome ("my handsome") (familiar way to address a man)
Anvon - a hard stone on which large stones are broken (mining term, from Cornish languageanwen, meaning 'anvil'))
Areah, Arear, Aree faa - an exclamation of surprise (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagerevedh, meaning 'strange', 'astounding', or 'a wonder')
Arish (also written arrish, ersh, aish, airish, errish, hayrish and herrish) - arable field (from Middle English *ersch, from Old English ersc , perhaps influenced by Cornish languagearys)
Arish mow – a stack of sheaves (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagearys)
Are 'em – aren't they
Awn – a cove / haven
Aye? – I beg your pardon?; Yes? What was that?
Ayes (pronounced, 'ace') – yes (see also: "Ess", below). Perhaps from Old Norse ei ("forever") + Old English sī(e) ("may it be"), like "yes" (which is from Middle English yes, yis, which is from Old English ġēse, ġīse, ġȳse, *ġīese , equivalent to ġēa + sī ). Alternatively, a modification of "aye" based on "yes". Further, possibly a conflation of any (or all) of the previous, and "ess", which may represent a dialectal form of "yes".
B
The ruins of Poldice mine, GwennapBal maidens at work, showing traditional dress
Backalong – in former times
Backsyfore – the wrong side first (also found in Devon)
Bal – a mine (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish language, related to palas, meaning 'to dig')
Bal maiden – a woman working at a mine, at smashing ore &c.
Ball – a pest, used figuratively (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languageball meaning 'a pest', or 'the plague')
Bamfer – to worry, harass, or torment
Bamfoozle – deceive, confuse, especially by trickery
Bannal – the broom plant (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebanal, short for banadhel, meaning 'broom')
Barker – a whetstone
Begrumpled – displeased, affronted
Belong – 1. live or work – "where do 'ee belong to" 2. denotes habit or custom – "she belong to go shopping Fridays"
Belving – load roaring/bellowing especially by a cow (similar to Bolving of stags on Exmoor)
Browjans – small fragments (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebrywsyon, or brywjyon, meaning 'crumbs', 'fragments')
Browse – undergrowth
Browse – pulped bait (Mount's Bay, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebryws, meaning 'crumbled material', or bros, 'thick broth')
Broze – a blaze, a great heat (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebros, meaning 'extremely hot')
Brummal Mow – an arish mow of domed form (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebern moel, meaning 'bald stack')
Bruyans, Brewions – crumbs, fragments (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebrywyon)
Bucca – an imp, hobgoblin, scarecrow (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebocka)
Buddy – a cluster, a clump (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebodas, meaning 'bunched', or boden, meaning 'a bunch', or 'a grouping', related to the Bretonbodad and boden)
Buffon – a bruise (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagebothenn, meaning 'a swelling')
Buldering – threatening, thundery, sultry (of weather or the sky)
Bunny (also written as "bunney" and "bonie") - a bunch of ore, an unusual concentration of ore (From Middle English bony, boni , from Old French bugne, buigne , from Old Frankish *bungjo , from Proto-Germanic *bungô, *bunkô . Usage perhaps influenced by Cornish languagebennigys, meaning 'blessed')
Burn – a load, as much turf, furze, etc., as one can carry; of hake or pollack, twenty-one fish. (in use after the year 1800, either from Cornish languagebern, meaning 'a stack', 'a heap', or a variation of bourn ("limit"))
Burrow – heap of (usually) mining related waste, but sometimes used simply to mean "pile"
Buster – someone full of fun and mischief. (Originally a variant of "burster", but later influenced (and reanalysed) separately by/as "bust" + -er. The combining form of the term has appeared from the early 20th century but been especially prolific since the 1940s, owing to its appearance as military slang).
Buzgut – a great eater or drinker ("buz" being derived from the Cornish for "food")
Buzza, Bussa – large salting pot or bread-bin, (still in use, from Cornish languageboos seth, meaning 'food jar', or related to Bretonboñs, a hogshead barrel) also found in phrase "dafter than a buzza" very daft
B'y – boy, (second person singular) like sir
C
Cabby – sticky, dirty, muddy
Cabester, Cobesta – the part of a fishing tackle connecting the hook with the lead (Mousehole, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekabester, meaning 'a halter', 'noose' or 'loop')
Cabobble – to mystify, puzzle or confuse
Caboolen, Cabooly-stone – a holed stone, tied to a rope, and used to drive pilchards or mackerel back from the opening of a seine (Mount's Bay, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekabolen, meaning 'a stirrer', 'a mixer')
Cack – filth (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekawgh, meaning 'excrement')
Caggle, Gaggle – to cover in filth (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekagla, meaning 'void excrement', 'spatter with filth)
Cakey – soft, feeble minded (from 'put in with the cakes and taken out with the buns' - half baked)
Callan – a hard layer on the face of a rock (St Just, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekales, meaning 'hard', or kall, 'tungstate of iron')
Canker – a harbour crab (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekanker, meaning 'a crab')
Cannikeeper – a spider crab (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekanker)
Canter – a frame for a fishing-line, originally a peg was used (Newlyn, Mousehole, Sennen, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagekenter, meaning 'a nail')
Captain – the manager of a mine or similar enterprise
Chea chaunter, Cheechonter – stop your chatter! (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languageti tewelder, meaning 'swear silence')
Cheel – child especially girl "a boy or a cheel"
Cheldern – children
Chewidden Thursday – a miners' festival (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagedy' Yow gwynn, with Late Cornish gwydn, meaning 'white Thursday')
Chill – lamp
Chilth – chilliness of the atmosphere
Chimley – chimney
Chirks – remnants of fire, embers; "chirk" burrows where used coal was found near mines (from Cornish languagetowargh, via Late Cornish chowark, meaning 'peat or turf for burning')
Chopper - someone from Redruth, usually how a Camborne native would describe someone from Redruth
Chuggypig – woodlouse
Churchtown – the settlement where the parish church is located
Clacky – sticky and chewy food
Clidgy – sticky, muddy
Clim (up) – climb (everywhere except west of Camborne and Helston)
A coffen stile at Tremedda Farm
Clip – sharp in speaking, curt, having taken offence
Coffen stile – a coffen (or coffin) stile is a type of stile consisting of rectangular bars of granite laid side by side with gaps between (usually to stop livestock from straying)
Condiddle, Kindiddle – to entice, take away clandestinely
Confloption – flurry or confusion)
Coose – to hunt or chase game out of woodland/covert, from the Cornish word for woodland 'koes'. I.e. a command given to encourage a hunting dog "coose him out then dog!".
Cornish diamonds – quartz
Corrosy – an old grudge handed down from father to son; an annoyance
Cousin Jack – a Cornish emigrant miner; "Cousin Jacks" is a nickname for the overseas Cornish, thought to derive from the practice of Cornishmen asking if job vacancies could be filled by their cousin named Jack in Cornwall.
Cramble – to walk with difficulty
Crease – children's truce term (west Cornwall) (from the Cornish word for "peace")
Crib – a mid-morning break for a snack (see below also)
Croust (or Crowst) – a mid-morning break for a snack (usually west Cornwall) (from Cornish languagecroust)
Cummas 'zon – come on, hurry up
Cundard – a drain
Cuss – curse
Cutting of it up – speaking in a fake posh accent
D
Daft – silly
Dag – short hatchet or axe (miner's dag); also in phrase "Face like a dag"; sheep tailings
Dappered – dirty / covered in mud
Dashel – thistle
Denner – dinner, evening meal
Devoner – someone from Devon (used in a derogatory sense)
"Dreckly" on souvenir clocks in CornwallWenford Dries
Didikoy – gypsy (mid and east Cornwall)
Didnus – Didn't we
Dilley – wheeled play trolley made from wood and pram wheels
Dishwasher – water-wagtail
Do – auxiliary verb – "the pasties mother do make" or even "that's what we d' do"
Dobeck – somebody stupid ("great dobeck")
Dram – swath
Drang – narrow passage or lane
Drash – thresh; "drasher" = thresher
Dreckley / Dreckly – at some point in the future; soon, but not immediately; like "mañana", but less urgent
Dreckzel – threshold of a doorway
Dry (china clay) – a dry is where the sludge gets processed (e.g. Wenford Dries)
Dryth – drying power, "There's no dryth in the wind today"
Dummity – low light level, overcast
Durns – door frame
Dwam – a swoon, faint or sudden feeling of faintness
E
'e – contraction of "he" but used in place of "it"
Easy – slightly simple mentally
Ee – contraction of thee
Eeval – farmer's fork implement
Emmet – ant or more recently tourist (mildly derogatory); four-legged emmet (mid-Cornwall) - newt
Ellen – a slate that has fallen from a roof (St. Ives)
'er – she (East Cornwall)
Ess – yes (see also, "Ayes", above)
Ess coss – yes of course
Ewe (cat) – she cat (mid and west Cornwall)
Exactly – as in "'e edn exactly", meaning he is not right mentally
F
Gorse-covered hillside
Fains – children's truce term (east Cornwall)
Fall – autumn, Fall (south of a line from Mount's Bay to Launceston)
Ferns – bracken "the hounds lost the fox in the ferns"
Figgy hobbin – lump of dough, cooked with a handful of raisins (raisins being "figs" and figs "broad raisins")
Fossick – to search for something by rummaging, to prospect for minerals (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagefeusik, meaning 'lucky' or 'fortunate')
Fradge – repair
Fuggan – pastry dinner-cake
Furze, furzy – gorse, covered with gorse, as in the local saying at Stratton "Stratton was a market town when Bude was just a furzy down", meaning Stratton was long established when Bude was just gorse-covered downland. (A similar saying is current at Saltash about Plymouth.)
G
A miner's pickBal maidens wearing gooks, 1890
Gad – a pick, especially a miner's pick; this kind of pick is a small pointed chisel used with a hammer, e.g. a hammer and gad
Gashly – terrible, dismal, hideous (a form of ghastly)
Gawky – stupid; from the Cornish language "gocki" (stupid)
Gazooly, Gazol – gazoolying / gazoling means "to be constantly uttering laments"
Geeking – gaping
Geddon – good show / well done (cf. get on!)
Girt licker – very large object, as in "That fish you caught is a girt licker"
Giss on! – don't talk rubbish!
Glance – bounce (describing a ball) (mid and east Cornwall)
Gossan – (in mining) a term for the loose mixture of quartz, iron oxide and other minerals often found on the "back" of a lode; decomposed rock
Grammersow – woodlouse
Granfer – grandfather
Griglans – heather
Grisly, Grizzly – a grating used to catch and throw out large stones from the sluices (still in use in mining industry worldwide, from Cornish languagegrysla, meaning 'to grin', 'to show one's teeth')
Grushans, Groushans – dregs, especially in bottom of tea cup
Guag, Gwag – emptiness, hollow space in a mine (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagegwag, meaning 'empty')
Gug – a coastal feature/cave, esp. North Cornwall; e.g St Illickswell Gug
Gunnis – an underground excavation left where a lode has been worked out
Gurgoe – warren
Gwidgee-gwee – a blister, often caused by a misdirected hammer blow
H
A mounting block at St BuryanThe Huer's Hut overlooking Newquay Bay
Holing – working, mining (from Cornish languagehwel, meaning 'a mine working') used in phrase "holing in guag", meaning mining somewhere that has already been mined.
Huer – a lookout on land assisting fishermen by shouted directions
J
Dolly Pentreath (a fish jowster), in an engraved portrait published in 1781
Jacker – Cornish man, mainly used by non-Cornish to refer to Cornish, especially used around the dockyards
Jackteeth / Jawteeth – molars; "jackteeth" is used in the north east, "jawteeth" in the southeast and mid Cornwall, but "grinders" in the west.
Redders – (adjective) feeling physically hot, either from the weather or from exertion
Right on – an informal way of saying goodbye, or response to greeting "Alright then?"
Roar – weep loudly
Ronkle – to fester, be inflamed
Rumped (up) – huddled up, usually from the cold; phrase "rumped up like a winnard"
S
Sandsow (pron. zanzow) – woodlouse
Scat – to hit or break "scat abroad = smashed up" (e.g. "mind and not scat abroad the cloam"); musical beat ('e's two scats behind); "bal scat" is a disused mine (from Cornish languagescattra). Also financial ruin "he went scat/his business went scat".
Scaw – elder tree
Sclum, Sklum – to scratch as a cat, or like a cat
Scovy, Scawvey, Skovey – uneven in colour, blotched, streaky, mottled or smeary
Screech – to cry loudly
Scrink, Skrink – to wrinkle, screw up (e.g. of half-closed eyes)
Scroach – scorch
Scrowl – to grill over the fire on an iron plate (e.g. scrowled pilchards)
Shag - friend, mate
Shalligonaked – flimsy, light or scanty (of clothing)
Shippen – farm building for livestock. From Middle English schipne, Middle English schepne, schüpene, from Old English scypen (“cow-shed, stall, shippen”), from Proto-Germanic *skupīnō (“stall”), diminutive of *skup- (“shed, barn”). Related to shop.
Swale – to burn (moorland vegetation) to bring on new growth
T
Tacker – small child, toddler
Teal – to till, cultivate (e.g. 'tealing teddies'; according to folklore Good Friday is the best day in the year to do this)
Teasy – bad-tempered as in 'teasy as a fitcher' or a childhood tantrum may be explained as the child being 'tired and teasy' (from Cornish languagetesek)
To – at; e.g. ""over to Cury" (at of Cury) Also "Where is it?" could be phrased as "Where's he/her/it to?" and "Where's that" as "Where's that to" (compare usage in the Bristolian dialect).
Town Crow – a term used by Port Isaacers to describe Padstonians, (see also the counter-term Yarnigoat).
Towser – a piece of material worn by agricultural workers and tied around the waist to protect the front of trousers, often made from a hessian potato sack
Toze – distentangle, pull asunder
Trade – stuff of doubtful value: "that shop, 'e's full of old trade"
Tuppence-ha'penny – a bit of a simpleton / not the full shilling, i.e. "she's a bit Tuppence-Ha'penny"
Turmut – turnip; or commonly swede (a Cornish pasty is often made of "turmut, 'tates and mate" i.e. swede, potato and meat)
Tuss – a rude name for an obnoxious person.
U
Ummin – dirty, filthy. As in 'the bleddy floor is ummin'.
Un – him/her (used in place of "it" accusative)
Upcountry – a generalised geographical term meaning anywhere which is in England, except for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. (Also, "up the line" or "upward")
Urts – whortleberries, bilberries
Us two / We two – As in 'there are just we two'; "Us two" is used only in north east Cornwall and "we two" in the rest of Cornwall.
Want – a mole (rhymes with pant). Want hill – a mole hill
Wasson – what's going on?
We be – as in 'Oh yes, we be!'; used in most of mid and east Cornwall, whereas "we are" is used in the far west.
Wheal – often incorrectly attributed to meaning a mine, but actually means a place of work; the names of most Cornish mines are prefixed with Wheal, such as Wheal Jane and Wheal Butson.
Withy-garden – area of coppiced willows cultivated by fishermen for pot making
Wisht – hard-done-by, weak, faint, pale, sad; e.g. "You're looking wisht today" see Winnard above for the saying "as wisht as a winnard"
Wo / ho – stop (when calling horses) ("ho" between a line from Crantock to St Austell and a line from Hayle to the Helford River; "way" in the northeast)
Y
Yarnigoat – term used by Padstonians to describe Port Isaacers. Due to the exposure of Port Isaac to the weather, the fishermen often could not put to sea and would instead congregate on the Platt to converse / tell yarns (See also, Town Crow)
You / yo – as an emphatic end to a sentence, e.g. "Who's that, you?"; "Drag in the cheeld, you! and don't 'ee lev un go foorth till 'ee 's gone"
Zawn – a fissure in a cliff (used as a word and also as a place-name element, in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagesawen, or saven, meaning a cleft or gully) These fissures are known to geologists as littoral chasms.
Zether – gannet
Zew – to work alongside a lode, before breaking it down (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagesewen,, meaning prosperous, successful)
Zuggans – the essence of anything (in use after the year 1800, from Cornish languagesugen,, meaning juice, sap, syrup, essence)
Little attempt has been made to record the districts where most of these words have been used except in a few cases of East, Mid, or West Cornwall, e.g. crib; crowst.
^ Nance, Robert Morton (1923). Glossary of Celtic Words in Cornish Dialect. Falmouth: Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.
Jupp, James (2001), The Australian People: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people, and their origins (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 229, ISBN978-0-521-80789-0
Crystal, David (2015). The Disappearing Dictionary. London: Macmillan; p. 48
Iona Opie, Peter Opie (1959) The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. Oxford: Clarendon Press; map on p. 149
The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.) has "Food, provisions, light meal, etc." (dialectal) as one of the meanings of "crib" giving several examples including quotations from M. A. Courtney's Glossary (1880) and Rowse's Cornish Childhood (1942).
In An Gerlyver Meur 'croust' is given as meaning 'picnic lunch, meal taken to work, snack', and says it is attested in Origo Mundi, line 1901 (written in the 14th century). It also says it comes from Middle English 'crouste', which in turn came from Old French 'crouste'. So it appears that the word was indeed a loan from Middle English but it was in use as part of the Cornish language long before the language died out, and seems to have entered the Anglo-Cornish dialect from the Cornish language.
Crystal, David (2015). The Disappearing Dictionary. London: Macmillan; p. 122
Crystal, David (2015). The Disappearing Dictionary. London: Macmillan; p. 123
^ Marren, Peter & Birkhead, Mike (1996) Postcards from the Country: living memories of the British countryside, London: BBC Books ISBN978-05-63371-57-1; p. 55
Hamilton Jenkin (1934); p. 59
Borlase, William (1758) Natural History of Cornwall ... Oxford: printed for the author; by W. Jackson: sold by W. Sandby, at the Ship in Fleet-Street London; and the booksellers of Oxford; reissued by E & W Books, London, 1970; p. 89
Hamilton Jenkin (1934); p. 102
Crystal, David (2015). The Disappearing Dictionary. London: Macmillan; p. 126
Greenoak, Francesca (1979). "Redwing". All the Birds of the Air - The Names Lore and Literature of British Birds. London: Andre Deutsch. pp. 253–254. ISBN0233970371.
Woollett, Lisa (2013) Sea and Shore Cornwall. Looe: Zart Books in association with Eden Project; p. 144
Further reading
Dyer, Peter (2005) Tintagel: a portrait of a parish. : Cambridge Books ISBN0-9550097-0-7 (includes transcriptions of interviews with local dialect speakers)
Nance, R. Morton A Guide to Cornish Place-names; with a list of words contained in them; 3rd ed. : Federation of Old Cornwall Societies,
North, David J. & Sharpe, Adam A Word-geography of Cornwall. Redruth: Institute of Cornish Studies, 1980 (includes word-maps of Cornish words)
Pool, P. A. S. (1969) An Introduction to Cornish Place Names. Penzance: the author
.jpg){kind=link}