backward - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
backward (s) adj Shy, diffident. [oed backward adj B6a ‘turning or hanging back from activity; disinclined to advance or make advances; reluctant, loath, chary, shy, bashful’ 1599→]
Ulst.:
1738 Ray Letter Ye kend aways whare to find me, whom ye know was never backward to assist ye upon aw occasions.
1919 MacGill Glenmornan 39 He’s never been backwards in sendin’ some money home to his own people.
1920 Doyle Ballygullion 111 But Mrs Magorrian is a quiet wee woman, an’ wi’ all the crowd there, an’ him callin’ her madam, she was too backward to get up out av the corner she was in.
1936 White Mrs Murphy 68 He had nobody to give him a hand, poor chap, and he was always terrible backward.
1942 Bangor Words 3 = shy or modest: ‘She’s a bit backward with strangers’.
U.S.:
1859 Bartlett Americanisms 18 = sometimes used in the West for bashful, unwilling to appear in company, on the same principle as ‘forward’ in correct language means the very contrary.
1969 GSMNP-38:95 They’d tell you right at once what they believed. They wasn’t a bit backward about talking.
1999 Montgomery File A lot of mountain people are kind of backward, but I don’t care to talk to nobody.
« back suggan | (the) bad man »
Purchase From Ulster to America
The second, revised edition of Michael Montgomery’s From Ulster to America is now available here:
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (Europe)
From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English (North America)
