thra - 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.
thra ~ v. be awkward or intractable; be given to hair-splitting (Ye niver sa his match for twustin an thra’in). n. lit. and metaph. a twist, a snag (There’s a thra in the raip. There’ll be a thra in it somewhur); a wrangle; a disagreement (Wae thon twa it’s yin thra efter the ither). heids an thras (see heid). thra-hook (see hook). thran (of a person, a task, etc.) awkward (He’s as thran as a donkey. It’s yin thran job). thranness contrariness; recalcitrance. thra the neck wring the neck. [Sc. thraw to throw (CSD)]
