Meak, didle and crome
...another skill, uh, when we used to clean the dykes out all by hand with the old meak and the old didle and crome – that's all lugging...
Agriculture and traditional industry, such as mining, once provided the English language with a rich stock of dialect vocabulary. Farming, for instance, is by its nature dictated by the local landscape and agricultural practice differs accordingly across the country. Until relatively recently, local breeds of livestock and traditional farm practices spawned their own localised vocabulary, while hand-held implements for manual labour were generally locally made and thus given different names in different parts of the country. Due to the widespread mechanisation of farms and automation of heavy industry, many of these words are now no longer as widely used, as either the objects to which they refer have become obsolete or the practice has become an anachronism. Like the implements themselves, the words have become collectors' items or museum pieces, but there remains a small number of people working in traditional industries or in rural communities, for whom these words remain part of daily vocabulary.
OED entry
meak: Eng. regional (chiefly E. Anglian) implement with a long handle and crooked iron or blade used to pull up or cut down peas, bracken, reeds, etc. Also noted in Survey of English Dialects (SED) fieldwork in Garboldisham, Norfolk.
didle: (local) sharp triangular spade, used for clearing out ditches. English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) cites usage in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and also noted in SED fieldwork in Gooderstone, Norfolk.
crome: (local) hook or crook; esp. a stick with a hook at the end of it to draw weeds out of ditches. EDD cites usage in Norfolk and Essex and noted in SED fieldwork in several sites across East Anglia.
Peevers
...but what, what do you remember playing as a child – as a child – hmm – eh, skipping ropes – oh yes – eh, peevers.
Traditional children‘s games and songs are a rich source of lexical variety, as the playground is full of young speakers who spend a great deal of time together and therefore develop a common vocabulary. These groups often perpetuate the names and phrases used in games passed down several generations. Even the simplest game of chase has a number of different names according to where you are in the UK – it, tig, tag or tiggy. ‘Truce terms’ – the practice of saying a word or phrase while crossing your fingers to indicate you are briefly withdrawing from a game – also have a number of regional alternatives including barley, scribs, fainites, pax, skinchies, cross keys and full stop.
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