tail - 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.
tail ~ fig. a slatternly and disreputable woman (What he sees in thon owl tail bates me). tail-light rear light (of a bicycle, car, etc). tail o the eye corner of the eye (notished it ooty the tail o mae eye). tail-race the channel taking the water away from a water-driven mill (cf. heid-race). tail-slip (former) local term (and mistaken diagnosis) for posterior paralysis in cows. (Note: This paralysis is in fact caused by pressure on or damage to the crural nerve at a difficult calving, one symptom being flaccidity of the tail, which appears disjointed at the head. The diagnosis was ‘tail-slip’; the ‘remedy’ was to cut deeply into the tail, pack the wound with a mixture of goose dung, gunpowder (or saltpetre) and garlic, and bandage tightly (the theory being that constant irritation would encourage the animal to rise). This, of course, had no effect whatever on the paralysis, but as the nerve began to recover the cow would begin to make slight movements of the hindquarters: a ‘sure’ sign that the ‘remedy’ was beginning to work.) (Also loc. tel.)
Purchase the Hamely Tongue
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)
The Hamely Tongue: A Personal Record of Ulster-Scots in County Antrim (paperback)
