Letter P - 1892 Mid-Antrim Glossary
Author: ‘F.L.’ (William James Knowles)
Date: 1892
Source: Nine lists of local (mid-Antrim) words and sayings, with notes, published in the Ballymena Observer between April and August 1892. See 1892 Ballymena Observer (Mid-Antrim) Word Lists for original articles (USLS/TB/Hist/1800-1899/012).
Comments: This serialised ‘glossary’ was compiled in response to a letter published in the Ballymena Observer, 19 February, 1892, from P W Joyce, whose book, English as we Speak it in Ireland, was in preparation. Dr. Joyce was appealing throughout Ireland for help in amassing a record of Irish Dialect, including words of Scotch origin. The first response from the readers of the Ballymena Observer was a significant glossary of local words by ‘F.L.’ on April 8. This word list began with an appeal for other readers to “add to it and throw light on meanings which they will see are rather obscure to me”. Further word lists introduced by ‘F.L.’ then appeared on April 22; April 29; May 6; May 27; June 17; July 1; and August 18. The identity of F.L. as William James Knowles, MRIA (1832–1927), a distinguished antiquarian from Cullybackey, was confirmed by Joyce when English as we Speak it in Ireland was published in 1910. Numerous entries sourced from this ‘Ballymena Observer’ glossary were also published in the English Dialect Dictionary (1898) and the Scottish National Dictionary (1929–1946). A complete A–Z ‘merged’ glossary has been created from these entries, and appears as the ‘1892 Mid-Antrim Glossary’ in this website.
Doc. ref. no.: USLS/TB/Hist/1800-1899/013-p
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Pang – to fill so that nothing more can be put in; as, The bag’s panged fu’ an’ it’ll no’ houl anither taste.
Parritch – porridge.
Paverin – wasting time.
Pawky – cunning, deceptive.
Pech – to puff so as to make a sound. You pech when “oot o’ breath” from working hard.
Peery – a sort of top which boys would spin with cord.
Peesweet – the lapwing.
Pelt – the skin; as, The naked pelt.
Pernickity – short in the temper, not easily pleased.
Pickers – articles of pig’s skin attached to a weaver’s slays which drive the shuttle.
Piggin – a wooden vessel larger than a noggin.
Pike – a stack of hay containing several ricks.
Pilch – a short fat person.
Pinches – being hard up for money; as, A hae suffered a good dale o’ pinches an’ poverty.
Piney Rose – the peony.
Pinglin – gathering together the smallest sums; as, It wus wi’ guid pinglin’ an’ savin’ A got the price o’ that wee pig.
Piot – the magpie.
Pipe Stapple – the stalactite-like objects which hang down from the eaves of houses in the time of snow, We have the expression, As frush as a pipe stapple.
Pirn – the bobbin on which the weft is wound for the weaver.
Pishmool – a pismire, an ant.
Plat – a space in a field marked off by furrows on each side containing three or four ridges.
Platter – a good broad piece; as, a platter o’ fadge.
Pleasement – satisfaction. A’ll try an’ dae it tae your pleasement.
Ploutin, Ploitin – bubbling up in boiling.
Pluckstick – the wooden handle held in the weaver’s hand by pulling the pickers when driving the shuttle from side to side of the web.
Pook – to pluck the hair; a schoolboy would say, Sir, for pookin.
Portule – crying; as, A’ll mak’ you sing portule wi’ wrang side o’ yer lip oot.
Pow – the hair of the head; as, Your tathery pow.
Proddle – to poke repeatedly. One who pokes too much will be told to quit his proddling, or that he will proddle the fire out.
Puddock – a frog.
Puddock-Stool – a mushroom.
Puke – to vomit. Applied also to a conceited and vain person; as, You’re a puke.
Puny – used in a different sense than the English word. Means having a delicate stomach which is not able to retain many kinds of ordinary food.
Pushlagh – a horse dropping.
Put – to accompany; as, John put James part of the way home.
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