dae - 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.
dae ~ do; swindle (wud dae ye tae the hilt); recover, survive (A doot he’s naw gan tae dae). dae a line wae go steady with. dae be, etc. (see be). daeless incapable of firm decision or action; vague and incompetent; thriftless (also al say an nae dae). daen did; done; exhausted (A cannae dae anither turn, for A’m daen); worn out with use or age (The owl man’s clean daen). daenae don’t (when asking a question: daen’t). (Also loc. dinnae, din’t.) dae naethin wae effect no change or improvement in (Ye could dae naethin wae the same spulpin. Also mak naethin o). dae oanythin on harm or wrong in any way (esp. as in Did A dae oanythin on ye, the wie ye’r stiein ooty mae road?). daesnae doesn’t (when asking a question: daesn’t). dae wae tolerate, put up with (A cannae dae wae this enless fechtin); agree with (Liver daesnae dae wae me. Someway they jaist couldnae dae wae ither). hae little tae dae be petty, smallminded, etc. (the phrase little tae dae expresses contempt for a mean, petty action — e.g. reporting a trivial offence to the authorities). niver daen always at (Ye’r niver daen scartin at yersel). (Also loc. deh.)
