dirt (dh-) - 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.
dirt (dh-) ~ dirt; excrement. clean dirt physical (as opposed to moral or infectious) dirt (in pointed response to a critical comment: Ay, well, if there’s oany dirt in oor hoose it’s clean dirt; of traces of soil on lettuce, etc.: It’ll naw dae ye a button o hairm, it’s clean dirt). dirty baste a slovenly, filthy, immoral or treacherous man. dirty best one’s absolute utmost (perh., but not necessarily, including the use of dirty tricks: did his dirty best tae get me secked). dirty thing a treacherous, devious, etc. character trait (There’s a rail dirty thing in him, an he didnae get that aff a bush). dirty tongue a furred tongue. owl dirty tak offensive talk of a sexual nature. dirty v. excrete (esp. as in: He’s jaist dirtyin himsel in case he daesnae get the job); soil with excrement. (Also durt.)
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The fourth, expanded edition of James Fenton’s seminal work is now available as a Kindle ebook and can be downloaded from Amazon stores:
The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim (ebook)
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