List of Cornish dialect words

This is a select list of Cornish dialect words in English--some of these terms are obsolete, but some are in current use. Many Cornish dialect words have their origins in the Cornish language while others belong to the West Saxon group of dialects. The words listed are in some cases not exclusive to Cornwall and may be found in use in other western counties.

Table of contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z • See also • References

A

• Addled - empty, cracked or broken
• Aglets - hawthorn berries
• Alt - cliff (a place-name element)
• Ar'm - are 'em/aren't they
• Ay? - I beg your pardon?

B

• Backalong - in former times
• Bal - mine
• Bal maiden - a woman working at a mine
• Bar - (a place-name element) top
• Bean - (a place-name element) little ("vean" when second element)
• Berrin - funeral (burying)
• Better fit - it would be better if...
• Bleddy - Used as the English would use 'bloody' as an emphasising adjective in an exclamation.
• Bobber lip - bruised and swollen lip
• Bos - (a place-name element) homestead (older form also: bod)
• Boughten - bought (i.e. food from a shop rather than home-made)
• Brae or Brer - quite a lot
• Brea - (a place-name element) hill (pronounced "bray"; in Bray Down spelled thus)
• Bron - (a place-name element) hill
• Browse - undergrowth
• Bulhorns - snails
• Bully - large pebble
• Burd - (second person singular) bud as in "buddy".
• Burrow - heap of (usually) mining related waste, but sometimes used simply to mean "pile"
• Buster - someone full of fun and mischief
• Buzza - large salting pot, also found in phrase "dafter than a buzza" very daft
• B'y - boy, (second person singular) like sir

C

• Caer - (a place-name element) stronghold or enclosure
• Cakey - soft, feeble minded (from 'put in with the cakes and taken out with the buns' - half baked)
• Carn - (a place-name element) heap of stones
• Catchpit - a place in the home where everything is dropped
• Caunse - paved way
• Chacking - thirsty
• Chacks - cheeks
• Cheel - child especially girl "a boy or a cheel"
• Cheldern - children
• Chirks - remnants of fire, embers; "chirk" burrows where used coal was found near mines
• Chy - (a place-name element) house
• Clacky - sticky and chewy food
• Clip - sharp in speaking, curt, having taken offence
• Cloam - crockery, pottery, earthenware
• Cloam oven - earthenware built-in oven
• Cos - (a place-name element) wood (also sometimes: quite, from old Cornish form coit)
• Crease - children's truce term (west Cornwall) (from the Cornish word for "peace")
• Crib - a mid-morning break for a snack (see below also)
• Croust (or Crowst) - a mid-morning break for a snack (usually west Cornwall)
• Cummas 'zon - come on, hurry up
• Cundard - a drain

D

• Dag - short hatchet or axe (miner's dag); also in phrase "Face like a dag"
• Denner - dinner, evening meal
• Dinas - (a place-name element) hill fort
• Dishwasher - water-wagtail
• Dobeck - somebody stupid ("great dobeck")
• Dreckley / Dreckly - at some point in the future; soon, but not immediately; like "mañana", but less urgent (derives from English "directly" but differs in meaning)
• Dreckzel- threshold of a doorway
• Du - (a place-name element) black
• Durns - door frame
• Dummity - Low light level,overcast.

E

• 'e - contraction of "he" but used in place of "it"
• Ee - contraction of thee
• Eeval - farmer's fork implement
• Emmet - ant or more recently tourist (mildly derogatory)
• Enys - (a place-name element) island
• Ess - yes

F

• Fains - children's truce term (east Cornwall)
• Figgy hobbin - lump of dough, cooked with a handful of raisins (raisins being "figs" and figs "broad raisins")
• Fitty - proper, properly
• Fizzogg - face
• Flam-new - brand new
• Fly, Flies - hands of a dial or clock
• Fradge - repair

G

• Gad - a pick, especially a miner's
• Gelly - (a place-name element) copse
• Giss on! - don't talk rubbish!
• gossan - decomposed rock
• Grammersow - woodlouse
• Greeb - (a place-name element) crest
• Grushans - dregs, especially in bottom of tea cup
• Gwidgee-gwee - a blister, often caused by a misdirected hammer blow

H

• Hayle - (a place-name element) (saltwater) estuary
• Heller - child who plays their parents up
• Henting - raining hard ("ee's henting out there")

J

• Jowse - shake or rattle

K

• kibbal
• Kiddlywink - unlicensed beer shop
• Knockers - Spirits that dwell underground

L

• Lan - (a place-name element) enclosure or monastic enclosure (in place-names usually the site of an early Christian cell though the meaning in Cornish is "enclosure")
• Larrups - rags, shreds, bits
• Launder - guttering, originally a trough in tin mining
• Lawn - a field
• Laze - (a place-name element) green
• Linhay - lean-to (of a building)
• Louster - to work hard
• Lowance out - to set limits financially (from "allowance")

M

• Made/meh'dy/Meh'd - mate
• Maen - (a place-name element) stone ("vaen" when second element e.g. kistvaen)
• Maid - girl, girl-friend (see also Bal maiden)
• Maund - large basket
• Mazed - mad, angry
• Me 'ansum - friendly form of address
• Meor - (a place-name element) great
• Milky-dashel - milk thistle
• Mind - remember
• Minching - skiving "minching off school"
• Mowhay - barn, hay store, stackyard
• Murrian - (Cornish) ant or more recently a tourist (mainly west Cornwall) (cp. Emmet)

N

• Nans - (a place-name element) valley
• Nip - narrow path or short steep rise

O

• Oggy - pasty
• Oss - horse

P

• Padgypaw - a newt
• Pard - friend ("partner")
• Party - a young woman
• Pen - (a place-name element) headland or top
• Piggy widden - the runt of the litter
• Pilth - small balls found in over-rubbed cotton
• Pisky - pixie
• Planching/Planchen - a wooden or planked floor
• Pol - (a place-name element) pool or inlet
• Porth - (a place-name element) cove or bay
• Praze - (a place-name element) meadow or common
• Proper - satisfactory; "proper job"

Q

• Quilkin - frog (Cornish language word)
• Quin - (a place-name element) white

R

• Red - (a place-name element) ford
• Right on - an informal way of saying goodbye
• Roar - weep loudly
• Ros - (a place-name element) moor or heath (or peninsula, "Roseland")
• Ruan - (a place-name element) river
• Rumped (up) - huddled up, usually from the cold; phrase "rumped up like a winnard"

S

Swaling

• Sans - (a place-name element) holy (as in "Pensans", Penzance)
• Scat - to hit or break "scat abroad = smashed up"; musical beat ('e's two scats behind)
• Screech - to cry loudly
• Shippon - farm building for livestock (derived from 'sheep' 'pen')
• Shram - chill (as in "Shrammed as a winnard")
• Slab - a Cornish range
• Slock - to coax, entice or tempt "slock 'un 'round"
• Some - very, extremely ('e d' look some wisht, 'tis some hot today)
• Sowpig - woodlouse
• Spence - larder in house; "crowded = House full, spence full"
• Splatt - patch of grass
• Spriggan - spirit
• Squall - to cry
• Squallass, squallyass - crybaby
• Stagged - muddy
• Steeved - frozen
• Stripped up - dressed appropriately
• Stuggy - broad and sturdy (of a person's build)
• Swale - to burn (moorland vegetation) to bring on new growth

T

• Teasy - bad-tempered
• Teddy / tiddy - potato
• Tob - a piece of turf
• Tol - (a place-name element) hole
• Towan - sandhill or dune
• Tre - (a place-name element) house or settlement (properly a farmstead)

U

• Ummin - dirty, filthy. As in 'the bleddy floor is ummin'.
• Un - him/her (used in place of "it" accusative)
• Upcountry - a generalised geographical term meaning anywhere which is in England, except for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
• Urts - whortleberries, bilberries

V

• Vau - (a place-name element) cave
• Vellan - villain
• vug - rock cavity

W

• Wasson - what's going on?
• Wheal - (a place-name element) mine or shaft
• Winnard - falcon
• Wisht - hard-done-by, weak, faint, pale; e.g. "You're looking wisht today"
• Wilky (Quilkin) - a frog

Z

• Zackley - exactly
• Zam-zoodled - half cooked or over cooked
• Zawn - (a place-name element) chasm

See also

• Cornish language
• Old Cornish units of measurement

References

• Richards, Mark (1974) Walking the North Cornwall Coastal Footpath. Gloucester: Thornhill Press ISBN 0 904110 12 5; p. 129 (source for the entries with "(a place-name element)")