bak (-ah-) - Hamely Tongue
Source: The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim
Author: James Fenton
Comments: ‘The Hamely Tongue’ has been widely acclaimed as the authoritative record of contemporary (surviving) Ulster-Scots in its heartland of County Antrim where James Fenton faithfully recorded his dictionary items among a network of other native speakers over a 30-year period. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from ‘Part One’ of the fourth edition of 2014 and includes over 3000 word entries. The book preliminaries, supplementary word lists and end matter have been excluded.
bak (-ah-) ~ back; (in ploughing) two opening furrows laid back-to-back. a wake mine an a strong bak (see wake). bak an fort now and then. rin bak an fort make regular and frequent journeys to and from. bakban the supporting chain going over a horse’s strar and attached to the shafts of the cart, etc. bak-calver a cow calving late in the year. bak-chat impertinent remarks made in response to an order or chastisement (also bak-ja; bak-snash - see snash). bak-dorr-traik, bak-dorr-trot (see traik, dorr). bak-en the hind part (esp. of a beast, cart, lorry, etc.); the latter part of a season (esp. Autumn). bak-fa the outlet of a lade, the flow not going into the mill-dam or heid-race. bakhan adj. underhand (a bakhan trick). adv. in an underhand way (His owl durty wie o daein things bakhan). bakkins the verbal or physical support of others (He’s a big fella whun he haes plenty o bakkins). bak-return a porch built round the back door of a house (often with the outer door at right-angles to the house). bakside the buttocks. bakstane a large retangular stone forming the back of an open fireplace (A,Br,G,L). bakways adv. backwards. haesnae a’ his bak teeth (of a young or immature person - Br). luckin bak (see luck). tae yer bak (available) to wear (An noo haesnae a rag tae his bak, an nae wunther). (Also loc. beck.)
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