myooly-heels - 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.
myooly-heels ~ heels infected with chilblains. (G) (Note: A ‘cure’ is obtained by the sufferer going barefoot at night to the house of a neighbour — presumably one he dislikes — and kicking his heels against the door as he repeats: ‘Me an mae myooly-heels/Tak you that!’ The infection is transferred from the fleeing caller to the person who opens the door.) [as mools]
