Sunday, May 10, 2009

Word of the Week (May 10 - 16): lawnya vawnya

lawnya vawnya

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

lawnya vawnya* n also lawnya. Cp JOYCE 283 launa-vaula; DINNEEN lán: l[án] an mhála 'the full of the bag.' A good time at a dance or party; plenty to eat.1968 DILLON 147 We had lawnya vawnya last night. P 245-79 Lawnya—having a grand old time.

May all the mothers get one!

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

Word of the Week, May 3-9: tangler

tangler
Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

tangler n Cp OED ~ (c1520); EDD 7 'thriftless, slatternly person.' A clumsy, disorganized person (P 148-62).
P 108-74 He's a proper tangler. Why, he'd tangle up the Lord himself! C 75-15 ~ A person who, no matter what he went at, he fooled it up. He couldn't do anything right.
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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Word of the Week: April 26 - April 30: cambriola

cambriola

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

cambriola n also cambrioll. Short-lived name in the seventeenth century for the southern part of the Avalon Peninsula.

[1620] 1626 [VAUGHAN] The Golden Fleece [map facing sig. a 1] Cambriola. 1626 ibid [a 1] Cambrioll Colchos, out of the Southermost Part of the Iland, commonly called the Newfoundland.

1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 74 [Vaughan's] settlement was called Cambriol, and was on that part of the south coast, now named Little Britain, and was expressly planned on such a scale as to make agricultural pursuits and the fishery mutually depend upon each other.

1971 SEARY 61 Names first recorded by Mason [include] Cambriola—Little Wales or Little Britain, as that part of the south coast of the Peninsula was known ... as late as 1842.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.

Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Word of the Week (April 19-25): gaff

Word of the Week: April 19 - April 25

gaff

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

gaff n also gaft. Cp OED ~ sb1 1 b (1656-), DAE 2 (1832-), EDD sb1 2 for sense 1; DC Nfld (1883-) for sense 2; OED sb1 5 ~ hook (1844-) for comb in sense 3.

1 A type of boat-hook with a (usu short) wooden handle, used for various fisheries purposes; HAND-GAFF.

1745 OSBORNE 822 [They] drew [porpoises] aboard, with the help of the other sailors, which, with iron hooks, which they call Gaffes, tied at the end of a long pole, pulled them up.

1819 ANSPACH 429 If [the cod] is of large size, it is seized, as soon as raised to the surface of the water, with a gaff or large hook fixed to the end of a pole.

1832 MCGREGOR i, 227 The cod ... is lifted into the boat ... by a strong iron hook fixed on the end of a short pole, called a gaft.

1911 LINDSAY 50 Each man carried a spruce pole, on the end of which was a sort of boat hook called a 'gaff.'

1967 Bk of Nfld iv, 246 And then there was a gaff; that is a stick with a hook in one end of it. It is used to pull fish in over the boat with. C 67-14 When a man who is a member of the Society of United Fishermen is buried, a gaff is broken in two pieces and placed in the grave. The gaff is used (as well as to pick up fish) also for guiding a boat into the wharf or reaching things almost out of reach. M 68-7 Gaft. Used on board a punt to pick up the buoys or the salmon nets. There are gafts of all sizes; some handles are short while others are long. There is a hook fastened to the end of the stick with some service around it.

1971 NOSEWORTHY 203 ~ A stick placed in the side of a dory and used to guide the hauling of trawls.

2 A stout pole, 5-8 feet (1.5-2.4 m) long with an iron hook and spike fastened to one end, used to assist a sealer on the ice and to kill seals; BAT n.

1842 JUKES i, 260 Every man prepared his'gaff,' by firmly fastening a spiked hook like a boat-hook, with strong line, to the head of a stout pole, about six or eight feet long.

1873 Maritime Mo i, 254 He carries ... a stick six or eight feet long, which is called a 'gaff,' and serves as a bat or club to strike the seal on the nose, where it is vulnerable, and also as an ice-pole in leaping from 'pan' to 'pan,' as well as for dragging the skin and fat of the seal over the fields and hummocks of ice, to the side of the vessel. To answer these purposes, the gaff is armed with an iron hook at one end and bound with iron.

[1884] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 35 For the purpose of preventing competition and anticipating the arrival and active participation of others in the fruits of the ice-fields, kill as they go with a blow of a gaff, taking no heed to collect and pan and mark their spoil...

[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 25 ~ small stick used by the seal hunter for killing or stunning the seals, usually Dogwood or spruce.

1906 DUNCAN 134 Billy's father led me down to the landing-stage, put a gaff in my hand, and warned me to be careful—warned me particularly not to take a step without sounding the ice ahead with my gaff.

1916 MURPHY 28 The men had to use a sealing gaff to beat off the dog.

1924 ENGLAND 54 An' de odders'll haul ye out wid dey gaves [gaffs]—if ye don't get too far away from de gang.

1927 DOYLE (ed) 39 "Hunting Seals": With bat and gaff and 'panning staff' / Surmounted with a flag, sir; / Away we go on the great iceflow, / And we never care to lag, sir. T 43-64 If the ice was in, you'd walk off from the land, an' you'd have your gaff with you and your sealing rope, and probably you get the chance to kill one, two, or three or four.

1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 53 We'd have a gaff you know, with a hook into her. The gaff was long enough to take you from one pan [of ice] to another, about seven or eight feet in length.

3 In designations of various parts and uses of 'gaffs' in senses 1, 2 above: ~ head, ~ hook, -point, ~ stem, ~ stick, ~ work.

1892 Christmas Review 11 Fires were blazing in the forges; sharp and clear rang out the sound of anvils, re-echoing to the stroke of the sturdy smith as he fashioned the iron 'gaff-heads' for the impatient sealing captains.

[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 141 I caught one [salmon] with a gaff-hook.

1924 ENGLAND 304 At the critical moment the gaff hook tore through the seal's fat and hide, and away his sealship surged with a mighty splash, leaving the man empty handed and agape. Ibid 87 An' you, there, don't putt y'r gaff p'int down! Remember, arr hole in a skin, aft o' the fippers, is ten cents out o' y'r pocket.

1905 CHAFE 6 The procuring of timber from the woods, building vessels, repairing those already in use, building punts, procuring firewood, gaffstems, bats, pokers, oars and other material left nobody with an excuse for being idle.

1924 ENGLAND 44 Some fell to work seizing cruel points on gaff sticks with a kind of tarred cord known as 'spun yarn.' Ibid 239 The season is over when many of the young can be taken. They have gone, either into the fleet's reeking holds or into the Atlantic. Gaff-work recedes; Winchesters come to the fore.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.http://rattlingbooks.com

Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Word of the Week: April 12 - April 18: daddle

Word of the Week: April 12 - April 18

daddle

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

daddle n also dattle*. Cp OED ~ sb dial 'the hand' (1785-). The hind flipper or paw of a seal; SCUTTER (1955 ENGLISH 33).
1929 Nat Geog July, p. 125 [He] then cuts off the hinder daddles (back flippers). T 104-64 We would play with the dattles or scutters [as] we used to call [them].

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Word of the Week: April 5 - April 11 : Silver Thaw (aka glitter)

silver thaw

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

silver thaw n OED silver sb 21 ~ thaw (Nfld: 1860-); DC Atlantic Prov, B C 1, 2 (Nfld: 1770-; 1842-); SMYTH 626 'term for ice falling in large flakes from the sails and rigging, consequent on a frost followed suddenly by a thaw.' See also GLITTER, SILVER FROST.

1 A condition of the weather in which freezing rain deposits a coating of ice on exposed objects; the gradual deposit of ice on countryside, trees, etc, during a freezing rain.

[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 73 There was a silver thaw in the morning, and it rained freely; very mild weather all the rest of the day. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xv ~ When it rains and freezes at the same time.

[1822] 1928 CORMACK 83 While in this situation a silver thaw sometimes comes on, and the incrustation of the surface becomes too thick.

1893 Trade Review Christmas No 13 There is a tradition that our ancestors, who flocked to this country in such numbers in the beginning of the century, were induced to emigrate by the prospect of becoming immensely rich in a short time, by simply gathering money after a 'silver thaw.' It is very probable that this witticism originated in the humorous imagination of some droll Irishman when describing the country to his newly-arrived and uninitiated fellow-countrymen.

1897 J A Folklore x, 206 Glitter [is] used on the west coast to denote that peculiar phenomenon known generally through the northern part of America as 'a silver thaw'; that is, when fine rain failing meets near the earth a colder stratum of air and becomes congealed, forming a covering of ice upon every object.

1949 Evening Telegram 26 Feb, p. 3 Last night's silver thaw created slippery conditions and havoc in the pedestrian ranks this morning as early walkers skidded, slithered and went up-ended on their way to work. T 368/9-67 An' we had the silver thaw for a week from the first day we arrived.

2 The coating of ice deposited on exposed objects by freezing rain; in some contexts overlapping with sense 1.

1836 [WIX]1 20 The country at this time presented an appearance quite different from that produced by the vegetation when affected by a moistness of the atmosphere which is afterwards operated upon by sudden frosts, and is improperly denominated here, a silver thaw.

1840 GOSSE 21 In Newfoundland it is by no means rare, where it is known by the name of 'silver thaw.' It is caused by rain descending when the stratum of air nearest the earth is below the temperature of 32, and consequently freezing the instant it touches any object; the ice accumulates with every drop, until a thick transparent coating is formed.

1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 338 Another phenomenon, seldom seen in Canada, is the silver thaw, as it is called in Newfoundland. Rain in heavy torrents in February, accompanied by a low state of the thermometer near the earth, causes a regular deposition of ice round all the branches and twigs of the plants and trees.

1846 TOCQUE 101 'Silver thaw'. . is produced by a shower of rain falling during a frost, and freezing the instant it comes in contact with any object.

[1894 BURKE] 21 'Don't be picking up the scattered ones [shillings found among the silver thaw],' cried one of them [hard cases]; 'wait till you get on Water Street, in the thick of them.'

1903 HOWLEY 55 ~ This is the name given by Newfoundlanders to that brilliant ice-garment with which the trees, houses, bushes, etc., are clothed when the Spring showers are frozen in the act of falling.

1919 GRENFELL1 201 Wind and t' weight of t' silver thaw.

1939 DULEY 30 It had rained in the night, frozen lightly in the morning, leaving a magical silver thaw. Enchanted, dazzling, glittering, the village stood covered in a cellophane coating of ice. C 68-16 [He] used to tell me the following story. When the first Irish immigrants came to Newfoundland they came expecting to find silver growing on trees... When they came however the silver on the trees was nothing more than silver thaw, an ice coating which covers the trees when the temperature suddenly falls on a country-side which is covered with a dense fog.

1970 Evening Telegram 11 May, p. 3 A mild winter it was here on the east coast with next to no snow but a lot of glitter and silver thaw around March.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

We also post the word of the week on our sister facebook group each week where we post the word to the group's members each week.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland and first released each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program the Weekend Arts Magazine with Angela Antle.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Word of the Week (March 28 - April 5): plim

plim v Cp EDD ~ v2 'to swell out' esp s w cties.

1 To expand or swell from absorption of liquid.

1920 WALDO 160 A man who ate hard bread and drank water said 'it plimmed up inside and nearly killed me.' T 75/7-64 He fulled an oval boiler with rice, cover on the stove, and it began to plim. T 194/5-65 We had a half bag of bread down there. He was plimmed so tight as he could plim. P 148-65 During the thaw, a gravel road is soft. It plims up, then goes down.

1979 POCIUS 36 One woman described how she boiled a particular brin bag with coarse mesh to make the strands 'plim right together' in order to use it for a mat.

2 Of a boat, cask or barrel, to absorb water so as to become watertight.

[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 25 A vessel's or boat's planks when [they are] drawn apart by heat [are] then put in the water to plim or swell and close up.

1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 151 When a boat is not 'plymmed,' it leaks in all its seams.

1937 DEVINE 37 ~ To make a barrel or keg tight by filling it with water or standing it in running water to soak. P 99-69 The boat plimmed up as soon as she went in the water.

1981 Evening Telegram 4 July, p. 18 He left [his boat in the pond] for a few days to 'plim up'. . prior to a fishing trip.

Dictionary of Newfoundland English Supplement

plim v

1 [1900] 1989 Nfld Qtly lxxxv (2), 27 Previously, between the two layers of boards, some bags of hard bread were dumped. When water touched the bread it 'plimmed'--swelled up. Soon a most satisfactory watertight job was achieved.

1984 POWELL 124-5 There was no way that any animal could eat [the mouldy and fousty hay]. It was still plimming and bursting the wire that tied it.

2 1988 Evening Telegram 2 June, p. 13 We pour the Stockholm tar over frayed or shredded hemp to make what all seagoing people refer to as oakum, which is used with a special chisel to caulk the seams between a boat's planks. Then, when the boat is launched into the water, the planks swell or 'plim' against the oakum and the boat can become as watertight as a bottle.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

Word of the Week (March 22-28): vamp

Word of the Week: March 22 - 28

vamp

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

vamp n Cp OED ~ sb1 1 'part of hose or stockings which covers foot and ankle' now dial (1225-); EDD sb1 1 Co for sense 1.

1 A short, thick woollen oversock, worn in boots to prevent chafing or around the house as a slipper.

[1811] 1818 BUCHAN 4 Snow shoes, buskins, vamps, cuffs.

1884 STEARNS 166 [Vamps] are simply cloth-like slippers, and much resemble a stocking cut off just above the instep with the edges bound or sewed over and over with worsted, and a central flap an inch or two long from the middle of the front edge, in which is made a loop and by which the pair are looped and fastened, the one to the other, when they are hung up to dry.

[1886] LLOYD 55 [Sealskin boots and moccasins] are worn with two pair of thick swanskin vamps.

1937 DEVINE 55 ~s. Outer stockings. T 210-65 You'd make [the boots] a couple of sizes too large for your foot, and then you'd get on some vamps. Sometimes they'd have skin vamp, and then a woollen one inside, beside the sock.

1975 GUY 60 Vamps came next. Hand-knit from the self-same material these socks came to just above the knobs of the ankles and were worn over the first two sets of hose.

1977 RUSSELL 68 I was sittin' by myself in the kitchen this night about nine o'clock, with my boots off, a pair of woolen vamps hauled on over my socks, and with my feet up on the pan of the stove smokin' my pipe. 2 The bottom of a sock.

1872 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 1 He stood 6 feet 4 inches in his stocking vamps.

1955 ENGLISH 37 ~ The sole of a stocking.

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Sunday, March 15, 2009

Word of the Week (March 15 - 21) sheila

sheila n also sheelagh, sheiler. H HALPFRT 'Ireland, Sheila and Newfoundland,' in Ireland and Nfld (1977),147-72; W HONE Every-Day Book (1827) ii, 194-5: Sheelah, -'s day; see BRUSH and PATRICK'S BRUSH for sense 2.

1 In folk legend, the wife, sister, housekeeper or acquaintance of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland.

1819 ANSPACH 473 It is hardly in the power of any priest in the world to hinder an Irishman from getting gloriously drunk, if he is so inclined, on the whole of the 17th of March, as well as the next day in honour of Sheelagh, Saint Patrick's wife.

1829 Newfoundlander 26 Mar, pp. 2-3 Members of Benevolent Irish Society had dinner on March 17th. The company continued to retire, successively, until six o'clock on Sheelah's morning, at which hour, we understand, a few of the campaigners might have been seen, as usual, piously and patriotically employed in 'drowning the shamrock.'
1901 Christmas Bells 13 [The crew brought] her safe into the harbour of Placentia, after a thrilling experience, having been driven by the celebrated storm of Sheelah's Day to Indian Harbour, and just getting to anchorage before the veer of the wind to the northwest. C 68-20 Sheila's day is the day after St Patrick's Day, the eighteenth of March. C 73-98 Patty walks the shores around and Sheila follows in a long white gown... Sheila's gown apparently is a blanket of snow.

2 Comb sheila's blush*, ~ brush; also sheila: fierce storm and heavy snowfall about the eighteenth of March; LINER; see also PATRICK'S BATCH, ~ BROOM, ~ BRUSH.

1923 CHAFE 21 About St Patrick's Day [the sealers] start, most of them waiting until after Sheilah's brush or the equinoxial gale has passed.

1924 ENGLAND 124 Perhaps the most memorable of those occasions was on the night of 'Sheila's Brush,' which is to say the 18th of March. Newfoundland has two 'brushes,' Patrick's and Sheila's; that is to say, storms supposed to be connected with the birthday of St Patrick and that of his wife... The word 'brush' is not always used, however; you will hear Newfoundlanders say: 'We have our Sheila dis time o' year.'

1957 Evening Telegram 20 Oct In the days when 600 fishing vessel crews put out their gear around the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and when 400 of them went to the ice, the sailors, fishermen and sealers all looked for. . .'Sheila's brush' about the time the sun crossed the Equator coming towards us.

1966 FARIS 48 These storms are termed 'St Patrick's Storms' until St Patrick's Day in March. The much less violent storms after that are called 'Sheila's Blush.'

1969 Daily News 12 Mar, p. 1 Don't worry, it's only Sheilagh's Brush. Nothing to worry about, that is. It doesn't mean another long extension of winter. C 69-2 When I was growing up and we didn't have a storm on or before Paddy's Day (called around home 'Patrick and Sheila') someone was sure to say 'Ha boy, we got it coming yet.'

1982 Evening Telegram 3 Apr, p. 33 You seem glad to be alive even if you have to wait for Sheila's Brush before we can safely say summer is just around the corner.

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Sunday, March 8, 2009

Word of the Week (March 8 - 14) curwibble

Word of the Week March 8-14

curwibble

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

curwibble n JOYCE 244 curwhibbles, etc; Kilkenny Lexicon ~ v. A sudden lurch; unsteady or teetering motion.
1937 DEVINE 17 ~ Unsteady or fantastic motions (of man or beast), such as those caused by too many glasses. \'He was cuttin\' the curwibbles alright.\' P 178-72 ~ a sudden change of direction.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland and first released each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program the Weekend Arts Magazine with Angela Antle.