fleech - 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.
fleech, fleetch vb To coax by flattery, cajole, entreat. Hence n A wheedling or fawning person. [origin uncertain; oed fleech vb 2 ‘to beguile, cajole, coax, wheedle; to entice’ 1375→, Scottish and northern dialect; dost fleche vb 1 ‘to coax, cajole’ c1400→; dare fleech vb ‘to coax, wheedle, flatter’ South Atlantic]
Ulst.:
1753 Scotch Poems 369 Some think themsel’s ayont your reach, / And fae will neither fear nor fleetch.
c1800 Thomson (in 1992 Scott and Robinson Samuel Thomson 105) When fleechin winna do, ye’ll even / Attempt to frighten them to heaven!
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 38 fleech = to coax or supplicate in a fawning way.
c1910 Byers Glossary: fleech = to entice by flattery, to beseech, entreat, importune; to cajole or persuade by words: ‘A fleeched at him tae A wus tired’.
1923 Lutton Montiaghisms 20 fleech = to flatter, wheedle, fawn; a person who does so.
1953 Traynor Donegal Glossary 105 fleech = to entreat, coax, supplicate: implies flattery: ‘I fleeched him not to touch it’.
U.S.:
1910 Cobb Early English 7 ‘She scooped me’, meaning she had got the better of him, run away from him, scampered off at the last moment. ‘And’, he said, ‘she could fleech you, young man’.
1938 FWP Ocean Highway 189 ‘Fleech’ means to flatter, not a complimentary term since the native is sparing with his praise.
1952 Wilson Folk Speech NC 540 fleech = to flatter.
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)
