Letter S - 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-s
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Sae, so
Saft, soft
Sair, to serve; sore
Sairly, sorely
Sang, a song
Sark, a shirt
Saugh, the willow
Saul, the soul
Saunt, a saint
Saut, salt; to salt
Saw, to sow
Scaud, to scauld
Scaur, to scare
Scon, a cake; a small bannock
Sconner, a loathing; to loathe
Scraigh, to scream
Screed, to grate; a grating sound
Sen’, to send
Servan’, a servant
Shaird, a thin substance
Shaver, an eccentric fellow
Sheen, shoes
Sheugh, a ditch or drain
Shill, shrill; to shell oats, &c.
Shillin, shelled oats
Shouther, the shoulder
Sic, such
Sicker, steady
Simmer, summer
Sin, son
Skaith, damage
Skelp, to whip or strike; a stroke
Skiegh, wild, coy
Skink, to pour alternately from one vessel into another; to mix
Skirl, to screech
Sklint, to slant
Skybal, a worthless wretch
Slae, sloe
Slap, an opening into a field
Slee, sly
Sleekit, glossy, insinuating
Sma’, small, fine (opposed to coarse
Smeer, to smother
Smiddy, the smith’s forge
Snash, abusive language
Snaw, snow
Snaw-bree, melted snow
Sneck, latch of a door
Sned, to cut small branches off at the stem
Snell, keen, sharply cold
Snick, to cut
Snoke, to snuff or scent
Snool, a spiritless drudge
Sonsie, lucky
Soom, to swim; head of cattle
Sother, solder; to solder
Sough, a breezy sound
Souple, swift, flexible; the stick of a flail which beats out the grain
Sowens, flummery
Sowp, a spoonful
Spae, to foretel
Spae-man, a male fortune-teller
Spae-wife, a female fortune-teller
Spate, a torrent
Spaul, a limb, to rend asunder
Speel, to climb
Spleughan, a leathern purse
Sprickled, speckled
Sprit, a kind of rush
Spunk, a spark of fire
Squeel, to squall, to screech
Stacher, to totter, to stagger
Stan’, to stand
Stane, stone
Stap, to stop, to thrust
Startle, to run wild
Staw, stall; to surfeit
Steek, to shut
Steel, a stool, bottom of a stack
Steeve, to cram
Sten, to caper, to jump
Stey, steep
Stibbles, stubbles
Stirk, a year old calf
Stook, a shock of twelve sheaves
Stoup, a wooden can for water
Stour, flying dust
Stoyte, to dodge easily
Strae, straw
Straik, to stroke
Straught, straight
Striddle, to straddle
Stroan, to spout; a small jet of water, &c.
Studdy, an anvil
Swall, to swell
Swap, to exchange; barter
Sweer, unwilling
Swinge, to beat or switch
Swirl, a spiral curve
Swither, hestitation; to hesitate
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