Letter Q - Glossary of Words in the Counties of Antrim and Down
Author: William Hugh Patterson, MRIA
Date: 1880
Source: A Glossary of Words and Phrases used in Antrim and Down (London: Trübner & Co., for the English Dialect Society)
Comments: In the introduction to his Glossary of Words and Phrases used in Antrim and Down, William Hugh Patterson provided an historical account of the Scottish settlement of east Ulster from 1607. From these origins he observed that the words and phrases of the local population ‘will be found in the main to be of Scottish origin, and many of them have already found a place in Jamieson’s dictionary’. He acknowledged difficulty in spelling many words ‘because I only had them as sounded’. William Hugh Patterson (1835-1918) was the son of a famous naturalist, Robert Patterson, whose book on Birds frequenting Belfast Lough was also published in 1880. Many of the local names for birds in the glossary were sourced from his father. As he was also a collector of phrases and proverbs, Patterson’s glossary remains a unique record of Ulster-Scots in the 19th century.
Doc. ref. no.: USLS/TB/Hist/1800-1899/006-q
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Quaa, Quah, sb. a marsh; a quagmire, or shaking bog.
Quait, adj. quiet.
Quaker. ‘You’re not a quaker?’ said in bargaining to persons who will not abate the price they have asked.
Quakin’ esp, sb. a kind of poplar with trembling leaves.
Quality, sb. gentry.
Quare, Queer, adj. very ‘quare an’ nice’ = very nice.
Quarter cleft, sb. a crazy person.
Quern, sb. the old hand-mill, consisting of two stones.
Quey, or Quy, sb. a female calf.
Quickens, sb. pl. couch grass. Same as Scutch grass.
Quicks, sb. pl. young thorn plants for setting.
Quo’ he, v. said he. This with ‘quo’ she, quo’ I,’ are in very general use.
Quut, Quet, v. quit. ‘Quut yer cloddin’,’ i.e. stop throwing stones.
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