Abide. Cannot abide a thing is, not able to suffer or put up with it.

Addle. Attle is a term used in mining, and signifies the rejected and useless rubbish. Hence an addled egg is an egg unfit for use.

Aft, now only used as a sea term, but anciently with degrees of comparison, as "after, aftest."

Agate, open-mouthed attention; hearkening with eagerness. "He was all agate," eager to hear what was said.

Alare, a short time ago: in common use.

Anan. A Shakespearean expression formerly used by the Dorset rustics when they wished to have a repetition of what had been said; but no one now uses it.

Backalong, homeward.

Ballyrag, to scold.

Banging-gert, very large.

Barken, an enclosed place, as a rick-barken, a rick-yard. In Sussex a yard or enclosure near a house is called a "barton," from barley; and tun, an enclosure.

Barm, yeast.

Bayte, to beat, or thrash.

"A wumman,

A spenyel,

And a walnut-tree,

The oftener yu bayte 'em

Better they'll be."

Blare, to shout loudly.

"Chillern pick up words as pigeons pease,

And blare them again as God shall please."

Brath, the ancient Cornish name for a mastiff dog. Perhaps this accounts for the common expression, "a broth of a boy," meaning "a stout dog of a boy"—a sturdy fellow.

Buck, that peculiar infection which in summer sometimes gets into a dairy and spoils the cream and butter; a sign of gross negligence and want of skill, and not easily to be eradicated.

Bumpkin, a common term for a clumsy, uncouth man. But whence the word?—for it is also applied to a part of a ship where the foretack is fastened down. The word bump means a protuberance, a prominence: to bump against a thing is a local term for striking oneself clumsily against it.

Butt, a straw beehive.

"A butt of bees in May

Is worth a guinea any day;

A butt of bees in June

Is worth a silver spoon;

A butt of bees in July

Isn't worth a fly."

Chitter, thin, folded up. It is applied to a thin and furrowed face, by way of ridicule. Such a one is said to be "chitter-faced." The long and folded milts or testes of some fishes are called "chitterlins," as were the frills at the bosom of shirts when they were so worn. The entrails of a pig cleaned and boiled are common food in Wiltshire, and the dish is called "chitterlings."

Churer, an occasional workman. Char, to do household work in the absence of a domestic servant as a charwoman. In Dorset they say "one good choor deserves another," instead of one good turn, etc.

Click-handed, left-handed.

Cloam, common earthenware.

Clush, to lie down close to the ground, to stoop low down.

Clusty, close and heavy; particularly applied to bread not well fermented, and therefore closely set. Also applied to a potato that is not mealy.

Coccabelles, icicles.

Condididdle, to filch away, to convey anything away by trickery.

Craking, complaining.

"I, Anthony James Pye Molley,

Can burn, take, sink, and destroy;

There's only one thing I can't do, on my life!

And that is, to stop the craking tongue of my wife."

Crummy, fat, corpulent. "A fine crummy old fellow."

Daddick, rotten wood.

Dew-bit, breakfast.

Dout, to extinguish.

Downargle, to argue in an overbearing manner.

Drattle you! A corruption of the irreverent oath, "God throttle you."

Dubbin o' drenk, a pot of ale.

Durns, door-posts.

Ebbet, the common lizard, commonly called the "eft," which may be a corruption of this word. The word eft signifies speedy or quick.

Escaped. A person is said to be just escaped when his understanding is only just enough to warrant his being free from constraint of the tutelage of his friends.

Ether or Edder, a hedge; also the twisted wands with which a "stake hedge" is made. They have a rhyme in Dorset on the durability of a "stake ether":

"An elder stake and black-thorn ether

Will make a hedge to last for ever."

Fags! or, Aw Fegs! An interjection. Indeed! Truly!

Fenigy, to run away secretly, or so slip off as to deceive expectation; deceitfully to fail in a promise. It is most frequently applied to cases where a man has shown appearances of courtship to a woman, and then has left her without any apparent reason, and without any open quarrel.

Fess, proud, vain. "Lukee her agot a new bonnet. Why, her's as fess as a paycock." Mrs Durbeyfield uses this word in Hardy's Tess.

Flaymerry, a merry-making, or what is now vulgarly called "a spree," but with an innocent meaning, an excursion for amusement.

Gabbern. Gloomy, comfortless rooms and houses are "gabbern."

Galley-bagger, a person fond of gadding about.

Gallied, scared. Jonathan Kail the farm-hand at Talbothay's uses this word (see Hardy's Tess).

Gallyvanting, going from home.

"Then for these flagons of silver fine,

Even they shall have no praise of mine;

For when my lord or lady be going to dine,

He sends them out to be filled with wine,

But his man goes gallyvanting away,

Because they are precious, and fine, and gay;

But if the wine had been order'd in a leather bottel,

The man would have come back, and all been well."

Gigglet, a merry young girl, one who shows her folly by a disposition to grin and laugh for no cause. It is used as a term of slight and contempt, and commonly to a young girl. Gigglet-market, a hiring-place for servants. From time immemorial, to within the last sixty years, on Lady Day young girls in Dorset and Devon were accustomed to stand in the market-place awaiting a chance of being hired as servants.

Gu-ku, cuckoo.

"The gu-ku is a merry bird,

She sings as she flies;

She brings us good tidings,

She tells us no lies.

She sucks little birds' eggs

To make her voice clear;

And when she sings 'gu-ku'

The summer is near."

Hadge, hedge.

"Love thy neighbour—but dawnt pull down thy hadge."

Holt, hold.

"When you are an anvil, holt you still,

When you are a hammer, strike your fill."

Hozeburd, a person of bad character. "Jack Dollop, a 'hore's bird of a fellow," is the hero of a story related by Dairyman Crick in Hardy's Tess.

Klip, a sudden smart blow, but not a heavy one. It is most usually applied to a "klip under the ear." Of late the word klipper is grown into use to describe a smart-sailing vessel, one that sails very swiftly, with some distant reference to the same idea.

Knap, prominent. It is sometimes applied to the prominent part of a hill; but it is more frequently used as significant of the form of a person's knees when they are distorted towards each other, and which some people have chosen to term knock-kneed.

Lasher, a large thing, of any sort. The meaning sought to be conveyed appears to be that this thing beats or excels every other. The opinion that any object which excels another is able to beat, lash or inflict violence on that other is a strange but not uncommon vulgar one.

Lof, unwilling.

"Dawntee be like old Solomon Wise—

'Lof tu go tu beyd

And lof to rise.'

Cuz then you'll soon be

'Out tu elbaws,

Out tu toes,

Out ov money,

An out ov cloase.'"

Main, very. I remember once hearing a Dorset thatcher say:

"I be main fammled. I be so hungry I could welly eat the barn tiles."

Mommet, a scarecrow. See Tess of the D'Urbervilles: "Had it anything to do with father's making such a mommet of himself in thik carriage?"

Nitch, a bundle of reed, straw or wood. "He's got a nitch"—he is drunk.

Peg, pig. "Tez time tu watch out when you're getting all you want. Fattening pegs ain't 'ardly in luck!"

At a tithe dinner a farmer in giving the Royal toast said:

"The King, God bless him! May he be plaized to send us more pegs and less parsons."

Stubberds, delicious apples.

"Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess?"

"Yes."

"All like ours?"

"I don't know; but I think so. They sometimes seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most of them splendid and sound—a few blighted."

"Which do we live on—a splendid one or a blighted one?"

"A blighted one." (See Thomas Hardy's Tess.)

Stugged, stuck in the mud.

"He that will not merry be

With a pretty girl by the fire,

I wish he was a-top o' Dartmoor

A-stugged in the mire."

Squab pie, a pie in favour in Devon and Dorset:

"Mutton, onions, apples and dough

Make a good pie as any I know."

Ingredients.—3 lb. mutton or pork cutlets, 6 large apples sliced, 2 large onions, ¼ lb. salt fat bacon cut small, 2 oz. castor sugar, ½ pint of mutton broth, pepper and salt to taste. Place these in layers in a deep pie-dish, cover with rich paste and bake for an hour and a half, or place the whole in a crock and stew an hour and a half. Serve piping hot. I have seen clotted cream served and eaten with this "delicacy."

Squab, the youngest or weakest pig of the litter. The London costermonger speaks of the youngest member of his family as the "squab."

Withwind, the wild convolvulus.

Withy, the willow-tree. They say in Wiltshire, in reference to the very rapid growth of the willow, that "a withy tree will buy a horse before an oak will buy a bridle and saddle." The willow will often grow twelve feet in a season.

Wizzened, shrivelled, withered: as "a wizzened apple," "a wizzened-faced woman."

Wosbird. A term of reproach, the meaning of which appears to be unknown to those who use it. It is evidently a corruption of whore's-bird.