Thursday, 30 November 2017

"Sneap"

To "sneap" someone is to snub them; to feel "sneaped" is to feel that you've been badly treated in some way.  The word was often used by my grandmother after family gatherings, when she felt that she had not been given the proper respect, usually by a younger, female family member.

The word seems to originate from the Middle English word "snaipen", which can mean "to injure".  It can also mean "to blast with cold" - similar to the phrase "to give someone the cold shoulder".

Monday, 27 November 2017

"Senatucked"

If my grandmother had been sitting for  long time, when she got up she might groan and say that she had got "senatucked".  It meant to get stiff through staying in one position for too long.

I have no real idea where this word comes from, or even whether the above spelling is anywhere near "correct".  Of course, since many dialect words don't appear in any dictionary and may never be seen written down, their spelling may not be fixed at all.

If you search the internet for the word "senatucked" you'll get only about 10 hits.  One of them suggests that "senatucked" derives from "Senectus", the Roman deity of old age.  From "Senectus" comes the noun "senectūte", also meaning old age.  The word "senectus" was sometimes used on death certificates to indicate the cause of death as old age.

"Duck"

The most famous of all Potteries words must be "duck".  Roughly equivalent to "dear", it's used to address both men ...