Sunday, March 30, 2008

Word of the Week (March 30 - April 5) dotard

Word of the Week (March 30 - April 5)

dotard n also daughter, doater, doter, etc

dotard n also daughter, doater, doter, etc [phonetics unavailable]. O Sup2 ~ 3 (Nfld: 1884); DC doter (Nfld: 1771, 1963). Common seal, esp in its second or third year (Phoca vitulina); BAY SEAL, HARBOUR ~ , RANGER.

Also attrib. [1766] 1971 BANKS 393 Incolis Harbour seal or Dotard.
[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 30 After breakfast I went up the river again; looked at the traps; got a tub of fine sand; and killed a doater with my rifle. 1792 ibid Gloss i, x Doater. An old, common seal.

[1802] 1916 MURPHY 2 The seals upon this coast are of many species, they are classed and distinguished by names only to be found in the Newfoundland nomenclature, and only understood by the Newfoundland naturalists, Tars [ed emend: Jars], Doaters and Gunswoils and many others brew upon the rocks, in the summer season, and may be called natives.

1873 CARROLL 10 The native seal never leaves the island. When three years old they are called dotards.

1895 GRENFELL 173 When one year old the bay seal is called a 'jar seal,' and its skin is poor; in the second year it is a 'doter' and becoming speckled, in the third year, it is a 'ranger,' and is then very beautiful, being checkered silver and black all over.

1911 HUTCHINSON 111 Those [seals] that we see in the Exploits River are what they locally call 'dotter' seals—I cannot be responsible for the spelling—and look very much like the common seal about our own coasts.
1924 ENGLAND 103 Once in a while a 'jar' seal is sighted, and even a 'daughter,' as the dotard is called.

1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 253 Doater point ... the northern extremity of Alcock island. T 391/2-67 We killed one one time, me an' another feller—a doter, you know, a bay seal, we'll say. M 71-44 The seal skins used to be in great demand, the doter skins (the old seal).

1976 Evening Telegram 18 Mar, p. 6 He made reference to the appearance of seals in the Exploits estuary and the Humber River many years ago... This is a different species known as the dotar seal. They are still found in our rivers and lakes.

1977 Inuit Land Use 128 In early or mid-June, ranger and grey seals migrate north to shallow areas near rocky shores, where they haul out to bask in the sun or hide from hunters among the rocks. Old rangers (dotters) are especially clever at concealing themselves. Unlike other seals, rangers breed late (mid-June) and moult late (mid-August).

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister REDEFiNE iT facebook group.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Bedlamer sighting: The Journal of Edward Wix, Newfoundland Missionary

from Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal, Edward Wix, pgs 22-23

...A wolf had been shot in this neighbourhood a short time before my visit. Also a large species of fish, called the horse-mackarel, resembling that fish in every particular, but ten feet in length, had been killed here last summer, by a girl with a " pew," or fork used for throwing fish from the boats on to the "stages." This horse-mackarel, I learned afterwards, is not uncommon in other parts of the island. Several old Bedlamer seals had been already killed here, which, with the sea-birds which were now very numerous, supplied the inhabitants with very acceptable provisions after the scarcity of a long unbroken winter.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Bedlamer sighting: Department of Fisheries and Oceans

from the DFO website:

Each year, beginning in early April, harp seals moult. Adult males and immatures, called "bedlamers", moult first, followed by adult females...The term "bedlamer" comes from the Basque and Breton settlers who took up residence along the Strait of Belle Isle in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were fascinated by the unusual curiosity of the young seals and called them Betes de la mer (Animals of the Sea). English fishermen corrupted this phrase into the term "bedlamer".

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bedlamer Sighting: A Blog from a ketch named Bedlamer sailing to Newfoundland


Hi, I'm Kier, son of Stephen and Gwendolyn Knudsen the proprietors of The Dark Tickle Company. My wife Anastasia and I have been living in Portland Oregon for the past six years. She as a cardiac nurse, and me as an Aerospace Engineer. We both share strong ties to home so presented with an opportunity to work in the family business, we sold our house, packed up our things, and U-Hauled it back to Newfoundland. After stuffing our worldly belongings in the old family store and spending Christmas with family, we headed off to Riviera Beach, Florida. There we met our 36 foot ketch 'Bedlamer' (formerly 'Gala II') which we shipped from Olympia, Washington. Our intent is to sail her home and arrive in our hometown sometime in September. 3700 nautical miles. This is our story....

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bedlamer Sighting: Bedlamer Head, Eastport


View a topographic map
showing the location of Bedlamer Head in Eastport, Newfoundland and discover an online tool for cruising the world by topo sheet.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Word of the Week (March 23-29): bedlamer

Word of the Week (March 23-29)

bedlamer

Entry from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

bedlamer n also beddamer, bedlemer, bedlimmer, bellamer [phonetics unavailable].
Cp OED ~ 'lunatic' (1675, 1753); EDD bedlam sb1 1 'troublesome person or animal', EDD ~ 1 'Bedlam-beggar' (1742); DC ~ Nfld (1773-) for sense 1; EDD ~ 2 (Nfld: 1898) for sense 2.

1 An immature seal, esp a harp seal, approaching breeding age; also attrib. [1766] 1971 BANKS 145 The Bedlamer Quite dusky without any mark they themselves tell you that the Bedlamer is the young harp.

[1774] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 35-6 We hauled some nets ... and a couple of bedlamers.

[1802] 1916 MURPHY 2-3 Our dependence rests wholly upon Harps and Bedlamers, which are driven by winds and ice from the northeast seas.

1842 JUKES i, 310 When twelve months old the males [harp-seals] are still scarcely to be distinguished from the females, and during that season they are called 'bedlamers.'

1867 SMYTH 93 ~ Young Labrador seals, which set up a dismal cry when they cannot escape their pursuers—and go madly after each other in the sea.

1905 MURPHY 21 "Seal Hunting Song": Old 'bedlamers' we often take, / Their 'pelts' being quite as good, sir, / As any 'swoil' in yield of oil / Be he 'dog harp' or 'hood,' sir.

1923 CHAFE 9 [In migrating] the Harps keep comparatively near the Shore and the Hoods a few miles off. The giddy bedlamers alone break the rules of the road.

1933 GREENE 74 These young Bedlamer seals appear to be free of the strict herd-control that comes with later days. They seem to be allowed to swim, and fish, and herd by themselves, and indeed to live as they choose; whereas some kind of an almost military discipline seems to exist amongst the adult members of these seal communities.

1937 DEVINE 9 ~ A two-year old harp seal, said to be corrupted from the French Bete de la mer, (Beast of the sea). T 80/4--64 This year they're a bellamer, small bellamer, and the next year they're a big bellamer. What we calls a turner seal is tumin' from a bellamer to a harp.

1978 Decks Awash vii (1) [p. ii] ~ a juvenile harp seal from about 1 to 5 years of age which has a spotted coat. 2 A youth approaching manhood, esp in comb ~ boy; MANEEN.

1896 J A Folklore ix, 34 Bedlamer ... is applied rather contemptuously to young fellows between 16 and 20. 1940 SCAMMELL 8 "The Six Horse-Power Coaker": 'Twas coming on night, with the seas feather white, / When up to us rowed a small skiff, / And a bedlamer boy with a cast in his eye, / Kindly offered to give us a lift.

1959 SAMSON vii He, as a 'bedlammer' boy, entertained the notion of going to St John's. T 191-65 There would be always a crowd of bedlamer boys, and when the older people 'd be inside havin' their tea, the young fellers 'd be outside.

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit the original REDEFiNE iT Facebook Group where we explore tangents on the Word of the Week.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Penquin sighting: Audubon's Great Auk



Illustration and notes from John James Audubon (1785-1851)


Family XLIV. ALCINAE. AUKS.


GENUS II. ALCA, Linn. AUK.


"...When I was in Labrador, many of the fishermen assured me that the "Penguin," as they name this bird, breeds on a low rocky island to the south-east of Newfoundland, where they destroy great numbers of the young for bait; but as this intelligence came to me when the season was too far advanced, I had no opportunity of ascertaining its accuracy. ..."


Read the rest of Audubon's notes on the original penquin.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Monty Python sketch:

Penguins

TV Announcer:
That was episode two of "The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots", adapted radio by Bernard Hollowood and Brian London. And now, Radio 4 will explode.

Music
(The radio explodes
Two old women are sitting on the couch listening to the radio when it explodes. One looks at the other.)

First Old Women (Graham Chapman):We'll have to watch the telly then.

Second Old Women (John Cleese):Yes.

First Old Women:Well, what's on the television then?

Second Old Women: It looks like a penguin.
(On the TV set there is indeed a penguin. It sits contentedly looking at them in a stuffed sort of way. There is nothing on the screen.)

First Old Women:No, no, no, I didn't mean what was on the television set, I meant what programme?

Second Old Women:Oh.

(The Second Old Women goes to the TV, switches it on and returns to her chair. The set takes a long time to warm up and produce a picture. During this pause the following conversation takes place.)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Penquin sighting: wikipedia

Etymology of the word Penquin
according to Wikipedia

The word Penguin is thought by some to derive from the Welsh words pen (head) and gwyn (white),[10] applied to the Great Auk, which had white spots in front of its eyes (although its head was black), or from an island off Newfoundland known as Pengwyn, due to a large white rock. (In the latter case, the name may also have come from Breton.) This theory is supported by the fact that penguins look remarkably like Great Auks in general shape.

It is also possible that penguin comes from the Latin pinguis, “fat”. This is supported by the fact that the corresponding words in most other languages (e.g., French pingouin, German Pinguin) have i instead of e as the first vowel.[10] However, a Welsh 'i' is often sound-shifted to an 'e' in the English language.

Another theory states that the word is an alteration of “pen-wing”, with reference to the rudimentary wings of both Great Auks and penguins, but there is no evidence for this.[10]

Monday, March 17, 2008

Penquin sighting: The Great Auk , an encyclopedia entry


The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), the largest and only flightless AUK, is extinct. All auks are expert divers which swim underwater using their wings, but the great auk had flipperlike wings, too short for flight. It was the original penguin (true penguins are unrelated birds native to the Southern Hemisphere), and the largest recent member of the family Alcidae, probably weighing 5500-8000 g and stretching 65 cm long.
Great auks bred in large colonies at a few offshore islands in low arctic and boreal waters of the North Atlantic, from the Bird Rocks in the Gulf of St Lawrence to northern Britain. In winter, birds ranged offshore from southern Greenland to southern Spain and Florida. They were especially numerous on the Grand Banks. The main food was probably fish.
The great auk laid a single, large egg on bare rock and the breeding cycle was completed in about 7 weeks. Their pattern of incubation and chick-rearing may have resembled that of the RAZORBILL, their closest living relative.

The great auk was destroyed by humans. Flightless, and colonial when breeding, it was heavily exploited by early explorers for fresh food, by fishermen for bait and, in the late 1700s, by commercial hunters for feathers. The largest and best-documented colony, on FUNK ISLAND, Nfld, had been destroyed by about 1800. The last known breeding pair was collected (3 June 1844) on Eldey Rock off southwestern Iceland.

Author D.N. NETTLESHIP

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Word of the Week (March 16-22): penquin

Word of the Week (March 16-22)

penquin

Entry from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

penguin n also pinwing OED ~ 1 (Nfld: 1578-); DAE (1674-); DC (Nfld: 1578-). For a summary discussion of the obscure origin, see the OED note and W B LOCKWOOD Zeits für Ang und Amer xvii (1969), 262-4. A large, flightless bird once living in large numbers on Funk Island, extinct since the nineteenth century (Pinguinus impennis); attrib in coastal names; GREAT AUK.

[1536] 1600 HAKLUYT iii, 130 They came to part of the West Indies about Cape Briton, shaping their course thence Northeastwardes, untill they came to the Island of Penguin, which is very full of rockes and stones, whereon they went and found it full of great foules white and gray, as big as geese, and they saw infinite numbers of their egges. They drave a great number of the foules into their boats vpon their sayles.

[1578] 1935 Richard Hakluyt (Parkhurst's letter:] 131-2 There are ... many other kind of birdes store, too long to write, especially at one Island named Penguin, where wee may drive them on a planke into our ship as many as shall lade her. These birds are also called Penguins, and cannot flie, there is more meate in one of these then in a goose.

[1583] 1940 Gilbert's Voyages Enterprises ii, 398 [Hayes' narrative] We had sight of an Iland named Penguin, of a foule there breeding in abundance, almost incredible, which cannot flie, their wings not able to carry their body, being very large ... which the French men use to take without difficulty upon that Iland, and to barrell them up with salt. 1613 Willoughby Papers 1/24 [They] wear gone all abroad acoastinge all the [islands] for Eeggs and birds agaynst the [winter] which in one Iland [to] the northwards the may fill [the boats] with penn gwynes.

1620 WHITBOURNE 9 These Penguins are as bigge as Geese, and flye not, for they have but a little short wing.

[1663) 1963 YONGE ~ 5 Here are also strange coloured gulls, penguins; a bird with a great bill and no wings but such as goslings have. They can not fly, but when pursued, take their yong on their back.

[1766] 1971 BANKS 119 A number of Birds are about the ship which the seamen call Penguins. [1785] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 55 A boat came in from Funk Island laden with birds, chiefly penguins.

[1822] 1928 CORMACK 8 Penguins, once numerous on this coast, may be considered as now extirpated, for none have been seen for many years past.

1870 Can Naturalist v, 411-12 Almost the sole object of my visiting the island was to collect further information [about] this bird,—which is called 'Pinwing' by the settlers, and not Penguin, as Audubon informs us... [I was informed] 'a living pinwing was caught by one Captain Stirling about twelve years ago.'

1913 HOWLEY 10 Owing to its peculiar flipper-like wings, with short thick pinfeathers thereon, it was called the Penguin (pin or pen-wing).

1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 233 Penguin islands ... south-south-westward of Cape La Hune, are a group of numerous islands and rocks.


Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELISH iT.


N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit the original REDEFiNE iT facebook group from whence this blog of tangents sprang!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Maggoty sighting in Vikings of the Ice by George Allen England

George Allen England's glossary in the back of his Vikings of the Ice includes the following entry for maggoty:

Maggoty. Drunk.

Friday, March 14, 2008

"Maggoty" sighting: Maggoty Corpse

Buried under six feet of snow? Pining for the flowers of spring? Check out "Torture Garden," a song by metal band Maggoty Corpse on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZyoGGvZga0


or visit the band's website on Encyclopaedia Mettalum. Yes, we're serious. And so are they: deadly.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

"Maggoty" sighting: Maggoty Pumpkin Soup

Looking for that extra protein? Try this recipe for Maggoty Pumpkin Soup:

This spicy pumpkin soup, a puree of hearty potatoes, sweet pumpkin puree, savory chicken broth and orzo, is guaranteed to spice up your next Halloween party.

Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp. (30 mL) butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 cups (1 liter) peeled, cubed, raw pumpkin
  • 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 4 cups (1 liter) chicken broth (homemade or canned)
  • 1/2 cup (125 mL) uncooked orzo pasta
  • 1/2 tsp. (2 mL) salt
Follow this link for complete cooking instructions.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

"Maggoty" sighting: The Maggoty Brats

The Maggoty Brats: Quebec City Folkabilly

As I recall it ages ago... the band first started off with only Vincy Brat on guitar and Mad Doc. Ratboy on the drums. The plan was playing celtic polkas and airs on wich we use to gargarise our stomachs more than a few times in the irish pubs we loved so much. All they had was barely instruments, capt. Jack's basement and an awful lot of booze. Dave joined in at about that time. They tried some singers, which were mostly bad or heavily non-available. Vince heard in between branches that an old friend he knew was getting a long life vacation from the mental institution that very week.

From the band's website.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Word of the Week at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English (March 8 - 14): maggoty

Word of the Week (March 8 - 14)
here and at our REDEFiNE iT facebook group

maggoty

Entry from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

maggoty a Cp OED ~ a 1 'full of maggots' (1727-). Of cod-fish, improperly cured and infested with the larvae of blow-flies; spoiled, unsavoury; freq in names of small coves where fish are landed and offal discarded. [1773] 1971 SEARY 241 Maggotty Cove (Lane 1773).

[1810] 1971 ANSPACH 25 ~ When the smallest quantity of fresh or rain water is suffered to lodge in any part of the fish ... or when the splitter has left too many joints of the bone, so that any quantity of blood has remained, or where there is too great a quantity of fish in the water horse ... the flies will gather about it, and leave on it fly-blows, which will [soon turn] into maggots.

1905 DUNCAN 125-6 'Way down on Pigeon Pond Island, / When daddy comes home from swilin', (Maggoty fish hung up in the air, / Fried in maggoty butter)!

1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 106 [At Hickmans harbour] Maggotty cove indents the southern shore of the arm... A large stream discharges into this cove.

1955 DOYLE (ed) 30 "I'se the B'y": I don't want your maggoty fish, / That's no good for winter.

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELISH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

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Rattling Books is a Canadian audiobook publisher based in Newfoundland and Labrador. REDEFiNE iT was inspired by producing the audio edition of Merrybegot by Mary Dalton (performed by Anita Best with Patrick Boyle on trumpet and flugelhorn) which celebrates Newfoundland speech and also gets joy from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Zooming in on The Grey Islands by John Steffler

The Grey Islands.
A place with no more livyers.
The Grey Islands.
A book by John Steffler.

Check out The Grey Islands and any other part of Newfoundland close up by map or satellite on this handy site:

http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/canada/map/m799330/grey_islands.html


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The unabridged audio edition of The Grey Islands by John Steffler (narrated by John Steffler, Frank Holden, Janis Spence, Deidre Gillard-Rowlings and Darryl Hopkins) is available from rattlingbooks.com

Thursday, March 6, 2008

"Livyer" sighting: Des Walsh's Biography

The Livyere

from the Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage page on poet Des Walsh:

His poetry first appeared in Harold Horwood’s Voices Underground in 1972, and his first solo work, Milk of Unicorns, was published in 1974. He continued to pursue his craft while working as an editor and researcher, including assistant editor with Breakwater Books, poetry editor of
The Livyere, editor of Arts in Formation, and copy editor with the Publications and Information section of the Provincial Department of Natural Resources. His research included Peter Newman’s An Illustrated History of the Canadian Establishment. The 2001 and 2003 Playwright in Residence at the Playwright's Workshop in Montreal and at Memorial University's Grenfell College in Corner Brook, respectively, Walsh currently divides his time between New Bonaventure, Trinity Bay and St. John's.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

"Livyer" sighting: Lure of the Labrador Wild

Steve was a characteristic livyere, shiftless and ambitionless. He lived a few miles down the inlet with his widowed mother and his younger brothers and sisters. For a week he would work hard and conscientiously to support the family, and then take a month's rest. We had happened upon him in one of his resting periods, but as soon as Hubbard had pinned him down to an agreement he put in an immediate plea for money.

"I'se huntin' grub, sir," he begged. "I has t' hunt grub all th' time, sir. Could 'un spare a dollar t' buy grub, sir?"

Read the full text here.

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Rattling Books' unabridged audio edition of Dillon Wallace's Lure of the Labrador Wild is narrated by Jody Richardson.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

St. John's livyer Joel Thomas Hynes honoured with the Lawrence Jackson Award

St. John's livyer, Joel Thomas Hynes is the 2008 recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Lawrence Jackson Award.

Administered at arms length by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, the Lawrence Jackson Award is a legacy created by the family of the late Lawrence Jackson.

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The unabridged audio edition of Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes is published by Rattling Books. Narrated by Joel Thomas Hynes, Jonny Harris and Sherry White.

Monday, March 3, 2008

"Livyer" sighting: Livyer's Lot, a museum in Boat Harbour West

Livyer’s Lot

...The museum itself is housed in a restored house which was constructed in 1911 on Port Elizabeth Island in Placentia Bay and was transported to nearby Red Harbour during the area’s 1969 resettlement program. It was later moved to its current location and was restored to represent the lifestyles of 1900-1950 western Placentia Bay communities.

Location: 1 km south of the Boat Harbour Junction along the Burin Peninsula Highway, Route 210

To read the rest of the information visit this page.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

"livyer" sighting: LIVYERS WORLD by Robin McGrath





The year is 2150. Ninety percent of the world's population has been wiped out. Civilization has evolved to accommodate various cultures. In Newfoundland, a 'livyer' culture dominates. The population is a quarter of what it was and spread out over a greater area in small 'tiltons' - communities of people who live in the bush but travel out to the coast to trade. Viddy, the protagonist, has to learn to function in this new society, which takes pride in its mixed Inuit/Newfoundland heritage.
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Robin McGrath is also the author of the novel Donovan's Station narrated by Janis Spence and Coasting Trade: a Performance for Three Voices, narrated (in order of appearance) by Robert Joy, Rick Boland and Anita Best. Both are available in audio from Rattling Books.

Word of the Week (March 1 - March 7): livyer n also liver, livere, liveyer, liveyere, livier

Word of the Week (March 1 - March 7)
Here and at our sister REDEFiNE iT facebook group.

livyer

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

livyer n also liver, livere, liveyer, liveyere, livierlivyer n also liver, livere, liveyer, liveyere, livier [phonetics unavailable]. Cp DAE liver 'inhabitant, resident' (1678-1850), EDD liver sb1 1 'dweller' s w cties: var livier Do So D, livyer D; O Sup2 liveyere (Nfld: 1863-); DC liveyere Nfld 2 (1946-) for sense 1, 1 (1905-) for sense 2. See OED -ier. Cp LOVYER, MILLIER, SHOREYER.

1 A permanent settler of coastal Newfoundland (as opposed to migratory fisherman from England). 1745 CAREW 30 Bampfylde ... this Trip visited St John's, Torbay, Kitty-Vitty Harbour and Bay Bulls, very industriously remarking their Situations and Anchorage, and making himself fully acquainted with the Names, Circumstances and Characters of all the Inhabitants and Livers of any Account therein. [1759] 1895 PROWSE 295-6 The men mentioned in the margin [are] to repair to work on the said church from the date hereof to the 4th day of November next, as it appears that they are livers in this place and have not subscribed towards the building of the same. 1850 [FEILD] 27 The whole settlement [of Burnt Islands, S W coast] has sprung up within ten years, and now there are nearly one hundred 'livers' or settled inhabitants. 1863 MORETON 34 Livier. An inhabitant or liver. One who lives in any place. It is said of any uninhabited place that there are no liviers in it. 1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 15 July On our way from Ship Cove to Patrick's Cove by water we passed Gooseberry, where a few liviers reside. 1895 PROWSE 279 Some of the first 'liviers,' in Old Newfoundland parlance, had by this time built their huts and fishing stages as far north as Twillingate. 1932 BARBOUR 17 I also allowed for the possibility of our drifting to land on some island where no 'liviers' (small communities of original settlers) would be. 1937 DEVINE 31 Livier. An inhabitant. Originally, it was probably applied to settlers in a new or unfrequented place, but it has come to apply to population generally. 1949 DULEY 13 It was definitely laid down that local labour must be used in ordinary construction. The fisherman knew he could beach his boat and take a rest from the sea. The 'livvyer' understood construction. Was he not a natural Jack-of-all-trades, accustomed to entering the virgin forest to cut wood for his house. his boat, his oars? T 70/1-641 I often said to myself it'd make a wonderful place for livyers. T 54/62-64 It was a forsaken place over on the other side o' the harbour here. I mean, there was no liviers or no nothing there. T 272/31-662 An' there was no bridges, no roads an' no livyers, an' that man walked from Bonne Bay to Flowers Cove. 1975 BUTLER 80 [In the early days at Buffett] with a homemade table and stools for seats, those livvers would be as proud of their homes as wealthy people would be of a mansion.

2 A settler on the coast of Labrador (as opposed to migratory summer fisherman from Newfoundland). Also attrib. 1895 J A Folklore viii, 36 Liveyers. A name applied by the Newfoundland fishermen to those who permanently reside on the Labrador coast, in contrast with those who came there during summer. It seems simply the word livers, but curiously altered in the pronunciation. [1906] GRENFELL 146 They once more dropped me over the rail that I might visit a tiny, out-of-the world settlement of liveyeres (or residents) of Labrador. 1908 TOWNSEND 15-0 The permanent inhabitants of the Labrador coast, the 'liveyers,' are about three thousand in number, while between twenty and thirty thousand fishermen spend the short summer there. [1918-19] GORDON 5-6 The true Labradorman, or 'Livyere,' as he is called, is a mixture of white and dark. British servants, sailors, carpenters, coopers, tinsmiths, or shipwrights, who came out in the employ of trading companies of a century ago, these were the progenitors of the Labrador race. 1940 MACKAY (ed) 79 There are three classes of fishermen [in Labrador fishery]: the liviers, who live the year round on the Labrador; the stationers, who come to the Labrador each season as passengers on the coastal steamers or on the schooners. and return to Newfoundland in the autumn; and the floaters, who come from Newfoundland as members of crews of fishing vessels, and who operate with the vessel throughout the season. 1950 PARKER 15 Over 3,000 'Liviers' are now in residence along this coast between Hamilton Inlet and Blanc Sablon at the Quebec border. Most of these came from Newfoundland although a number of Channel Islanders settled directly along the north shore of the straits of Belle Isle. 1953 Nfld Fish Develop Report 20 While almost 90 per cent of the floater crews and about 70 per cent of the stationer crews fish for cod only 60 per cent of the livyer crews fish for both salmon and cod. T 141/64-652 An' everybody had a suggestion which way they'd go, 'cause I mean there was livyers somewhere. 1970 Daily News 2 June, p. 9 The Dingo will discharge supplies to fishermen in White Bay and ports along the Labrador coast. These fishermen are 'liviers.' 1973 GOUDIE 37 There were no liveyers around that part of the bay.

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELISH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

Each Sunday morning the new Word of the Week is announced on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine. They invite you to call in with comments to them as well.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Gommel Sighting: Jonny Harris may play the fool but he's no gommel


Jonny Harris of the of the Dance Party of Newfoundland moonlights as a Trichologist

An actor always needs something to fall back on and while Jonny Harris may play the fool he's no gommel. No sir, he's got it all figured out.When not on the stage Jonny is a director of the Belgravia Centre and although not a trichologist, has spent much of his time over the past 4 years studying hair loss and scalp problems, the treatments available, and the issues surrounding the hair loss industry.

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********************When not tackling the world's hair loss problems Jonny Harris is a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Dance Party of Newfoundland. For Rattling Books he was one of the narrators (along with the author Joel Thomas Hynes and Sherry White) of Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes.You can download Firebug a Short Fiction Single from Down to the Dirt featuring Jonny Harris from rattlingbooks.com