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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 1, 2009

Word of the Week: March 1 - 7: upalong

Word of the Week: March 1 - 7

upalong

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
upalong av Cp EDD up 2 (3) upalong (a) 'a little way up the street or road' Ha IW Do So D Co, ADD ~ Mass for sense 1; EDD 2 (3) (b) [to the east of a county] Ha for sense 3.

1 Away from a person or locality; to or on the mainland of Canada or the United States.

1919 GRENFELLI 226 So Trader Bourne ... put to sea one fine afternoon in late November, his vessel loaded with good things for his necessitous friends 'up along.'

1931 BYRNES 45 [on Regatta Day] all roads led to the 'pond' and the crowds from 'up along,' 'down along,' and 'in along' on 'shanks mare' or lolling luxuriously in a closed carriage from the 'stand' left dull care behind.

T 70-641 And they pulled ashore right up, and enquired from all the boats up along.

T 169/212-651 Don't suppose we'll ever meet again and you be going upalong now, and we down here.

1970 Evening Telegram 11 May, p. 3 They say there are from 8,000 to 10,000 taking off upalong each year.
C 71-106 If we visited neighbours who lived some distance from us, we said we were cruising upalong.

1976 Daily News 2 Nov, p. 2 Local management is not in charge, he says, and 'someone upalong is directing the scene.'

1976 MURPHY 114 I like to think that in his early days going to this school, Mike, a 'Down-Along,' as east enders were called, often met and conversed with (or perhaps fought with) that boy from 'Upalong,' Johnny Dwyer from the Cross Roads (also born in St John's in 1845) who later became professional heavyweight boxing champion of [America].

1980 Evening Telegram 4 Oct, p. 6 I don't see why our Brian [Peckford] is getting so upset with the boys upalong just because he doesn't think it's a good idea to give our oil away.

2 Hence, upalong n: resident farther inland, or one to the south in a settlement.

1931 BYRNES 120 Who can forget the traditional 'scraps' between the 'upalongs' and 'down-alongs'? Heaven help the unfortunate youth found alone in the other fellow's territory.

1976 MURPHY 32 But the clashes between the 'Down-Alongs,' the boys of the East End, and the 'Up-Alongs,' the boys of the West End, that were in being in the sixties, seventies and eighties were reminders of the old faction fight days.

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.

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.