Letter B - Glossary of words in ‘The Northern Cottage and other poems’ by George Dugall
Author: George Dugall
Date: 1824
Source: ‘Glossary’ — an appendix with notes to The Northern Cottage and other poems; written partly in the Dialect of the North of Ireland by George Dugall (Londonderry: William McCorkell, 1824)
Comments: George Dugall (c.1790-1855) lived most of his life at Portlough near Newtowncunningham in Donegal. His book of poems The Northern Cottage and other poems; written partly in the Dialect of the North of Ireland (sixteen of which were written in what he describes sometimes as ‘braid Scotch’ and sometimes as the ‘dialect of the North of Ireland’), also contains an extensive and separately compiled ‘Glossary’ of Ulster-Scots words. George Dugall describes this Glossary as “a tolerably correct analogical specimen of the language … worthy of the unprejudiced and philanthropic eye of research, [hoping that] the acute and erudite philologer will not despise the simple data”. Indeed Dugall’s poems (see Ulster-Scots Poetry 1800-1899) were “cast”, he says, in the scene of “that part of the North of Ireland” where the dialect “bears a strong affinity to that of Scotland”. His poems are even richer in Ulster-Scots vocabulary than the Glossary indicates, and so citations from his poetry have also been excerpted for the Academy’s Historical Dictionary (see Dictionary).
Doc. ref. no.: USLS/TB/Hist/1800-1899/009-b
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Ba’, a ball
Bairn, a child
Bairntime
Baith, both
Bane, bone
Bang, to beat
Barefitted, barefooted
Batch, a parcel
Batts, botts
Baul’, bold
Bawk, a cross beam in roofing
Baws’nt, having a white stripe on the face
Beet, to add more fuel
Befa’, to befall
Behint or behin’, behind
Beld, bald
Belyve, after a while
Beuk, book
Big, to build
Biggin, building, a house or shed
Bigg’d, built
Bill, bull
Bing, a heap of grain, potatoes, &c.
Birk, to scourge
Bizz, to buzz
Blate, bashful
Blatherie, trash
Blaud, a broad flat piece
Blaw, blow, boast
Blawin-horn, matter of boast
Bleer’d, having sore eyes
Bleeze, to blaze
Blether, to talk nonsense; a bladder
Blink, a moment; a transient glance
Blinker, a cock blind of one eye
Bluid, blood
Bock, to vomit
Bonnock, a very large oat-cake
Boortree, alder
Botch, to spoil in making; any thing spoiled
Bother, to tease; trouble
Bouse, to drink
Bowt, bended; crooked
Brae, brow of a hill; high bank
Braid, broad
Braik, a mallet for bruising flax
Brak, broke
Braken, fern
Branks, a wooden curb
Brash, a sudden fit
Brat, a rag; a coarse cloth
Brattle, a clap of thunder
Braw, brave; fine
Brawlie, very well; heartily
Breeks, breeches
Brie, broth
Brig, a bridge
Brock, a badger
Brogue, a clumsy shoe
Brust, burst
Bught, a pen for sheep
Bum-clock, the large flying beetle
Burn, a small river
Busk, to dress; to deck
Butt, a small wooden vessel; a narrow deep tub
Byke, a heap; a croud, &c.
Byre, a cow-house
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