REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English

Word of the Week (May 10 - 16): lawnya vawnya

2009-05-10T12:12:00.000-02:30

lawnya vawnya

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

lawnya vawnya* n also lawnya. Cp JOYCE 283 launa-vaula; DINNEEN lán: l[án] an mhála 'the full of the bag.' A good time at a dance or party; plenty to eat.1968 DILLON 147 We had lawnya vawnya last night. P 245-79 Lawnya—having a grand old time.

May all the mothers get one!

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.

Word of the Week, May 3-9: tangler

2009-05-04T21:07:00.003-02:30

tangler

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

tangler n Cp OED ~ (c1520); EDD 7 'thriftless, slatternly person.' A clumsy, disorganized person (P 148-62).
P 108-74 He's a proper tangler. Why, he'd tangle up the Lord himself! C 75-15 ~ A person who, no matter what he went at, he fooled it up. He couldn't do anything right.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.

Word of the Week: April 26 - April 30: cambriola

2009-05-01T09:56:00.002-02:30

cambriola

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

cambriola n also cambrioll. Short-lived name in the seventeenth century for the southern part of the Avalon Peninsula.

[1620] 1626 [VAUGHAN] The Golden Fleece [map facing sig. a 1] Cambriola. 1626 ibid [a 1] Cambrioll Colchos, out of the Southermost Part of the Iland, commonly called the Newfoundland.

1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 74 [Vaughan's] settlement was called Cambriol, and was on that part of the south coast, now named Little Britain, and was expressly planned on such a scale as to make agricultural pursuits and the fishery mutually depend upon each other.

1971 SEARY 61 Names first recorded by Mason [include] Cambriola—Little Wales or Little Britain, as that part of the south coast of the Peninsula was known ... as late as 1842.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.

Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Word of the Week (April 19-25): gaff

2009-04-19T16:25:00.002-02:30

Word of the Week: April 19 - April 25

gaff

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

gaff n also gaft. Cp OED ~ sb1 1 b (1656-), DAE 2 (1832-), EDD sb1 2 for sense 1; DC Nfld (1883-) for sense 2; OED sb1 5 ~ hook (1844-) for comb in sense 3.

1 A type of boat-hook with a (usu short) wooden handle, used for various fisheries purposes; HAND-GAFF.

1745 OSBORNE 822 [They] drew [porpoises] aboard, with the help of the other sailors, which, with iron hooks, which they call Gaffes, tied at the end of a long pole, pulled them up.

1819 ANSPACH 429 If [the cod] is of large size, it is seized, as soon as raised to the surface of the water, with a gaff or large hook fixed to the end of a pole.

1832 MCGREGOR i, 227 The cod ... is lifted into the boat ... by a strong iron hook fixed on the end of a short pole, called a gaft.

1911 LINDSAY 50 Each man carried a spruce pole, on the end of which was a sort of boat hook called a 'gaff.'

1967 Bk of Nfld iv, 246 And then there was a gaff; that is a stick with a hook in one end of it. It is used to pull fish in over the boat with. C 67-14 When a man who is a member of the Society of United Fishermen is buried, a gaff is broken in two pieces and placed in the grave. The gaff is used (as well as to pick up fish) also for guiding a boat into the wharf or reaching things almost out of reach. M 68-7 Gaft. Used on board a punt to pick up the buoys or the salmon nets. There are gafts of all sizes; some handles are short while others are long. There is a hook fastened to the end of the stick with some service around it.

1971 NOSEWORTHY 203 ~ A stick placed in the side of a dory and used to guide the hauling of trawls.

2 A stout pole, 5-8 feet (1.5-2.4 m) long with an iron hook and spike fastened to one end, used to assist a sealer on the ice and to kill seals; BAT n.

1842 JUKES i, 260 Every man prepared his'gaff,' by firmly fastening a spiked hook like a boat-hook, with strong line, to the head of a stout pole, about six or eight feet long.

1873 Maritime Mo i, 254 He carries ... a stick six or eight feet long, which is called a 'gaff,' and serves as a bat or club to strike the seal on the nose, where it is vulnerable, and also as an ice-pole in leaping from 'pan' to 'pan,' as well as for dragging the skin and fat of the seal over the fields and hummocks of ice, to the side of the vessel. To answer these purposes, the gaff is armed with an iron hook at one end and bound with iron.

[1884] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 35 For the purpose of preventing competition and anticipating the arrival and active participation of others in the fruits of the ice-fields, kill as they go with a blow of a gaff, taking no heed to collect and pan and mark their spoil...

[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 25 ~ small stick used by the seal hunter for killing or stunning the seals, usually Dogwood or spruce.

1906 DUNCAN 134 Billy's father led me down to the landing-stage, put a gaff in my hand, and warned me to be careful—warned me particularly not to take a step without sounding the ice ahead with my gaff.

1916 MURPHY 28 The men had to use a sealing gaff to beat off the dog.

1924 ENGLAND 54 An' de odders'll haul ye out wid dey gaves [gaffs]—if ye don't get too far away from de gang.

1927 DOYLE (ed) 39 "Hunting Seals": With bat and gaff and 'panning staff' / Surmounted with a flag, sir; / Away we go on the great iceflow, / And we never care to lag, sir. T 43-64 If the ice was in, you'd walk off from the land, an' you'd have your gaff with you and your sealing rope, and probably you get the chance to kill one, two, or three or four.

1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 53 We'd have a gaff you know, with a hook into her. The gaff was long enough to take you from one pan [of ice] to another, about seven or eight feet in length.

3 In designations of various parts and uses of 'gaffs' in senses 1, 2 above: ~ head, ~ hook, -point, ~ stem, ~ stick, ~ work.

1892 Christmas Review 11 Fires were blazing in the forges; sharp and clear rang out the sound of anvils, re-echoing to the stroke of the sturdy smith as he fashioned the iron 'gaff-heads' for the impatient sealing captains.

[1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 141 I caught one [salmon] with a gaff-hook.

1924 ENGLAND 304 At the critical moment the gaff hook tore through the seal's fat and hide, and away his sealship surged with a mighty splash, leaving the man empty handed and agape. Ibid 87 An' you, there, don't putt y'r gaff p'int down! Remember, arr hole in a skin, aft o' the fippers, is ten cents out o' y'r pocket.

1905 CHAFE 6 The procuring of timber from the woods, building vessels, repairing those already in use, building punts, procuring firewood, gaffstems, bats, pokers, oars and other material left nobody with an excuse for being idle.

1924 ENGLAND 44 Some fell to work seizing cruel points on gaff sticks with a kind of tarred cord known as 'spun yarn.' Ibid 239 The season is over when many of the young can be taken. They have gone, either into the fleet's reeking holds or into the Atlantic. Gaff-work recedes; Winchesters come to the fore.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.http://rattlingbooks.com

Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Word of the Week: April 12 - April 18: daddle

2009-04-12T10:15:00.000-02:30

Word of the Week: April 12 - April 18

daddle

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

daddle n also dattle*. Cp OED ~ sb dial 'the hand' (1785-). The hind flipper or paw of a seal; SCUTTER (1955 ENGLISH 33).
1929 Nat Geog July, p. 125 [He] then cuts off the hinder daddles (back flippers). T 104-64 We would play with the dattles or scutters [as] we used to call [them].

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland.
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Each Sunday morning Rattling Books joins Angela Antle on the CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine to release and chat about the word of the week.

Word of the Week: April 5 - April 11 : Silver Thaw (aka glitter)

2009-04-05T14:26:00.003-02:30

silver thaw

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

silver thaw n OED silver sb 21 ~ thaw (Nfld: 1860-); DC Atlantic Prov, B C 1, 2 (Nfld: 1770-; 1842-); SMYTH 626 'term for ice falling in large flakes from the sails and rigging, consequent on a frost followed suddenly by a thaw.' See also GLITTER, SILVER FROST.

1 A condition of the weather in which freezing rain deposits a coating of ice on exposed objects; the gradual deposit of ice on countryside, trees, etc, during a freezing rain.

[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 73 There was a silver thaw in the morning, and it rained freely; very mild weather all the rest of the day. 1792 ibid Gloss i, xv ~ When it rains and freezes at the same time.

[1822] 1928 CORMACK 83 While in this situation a silver thaw sometimes comes on, and the incrustation of the surface becomes too thick.

1893 Trade Review Christmas No 13 There is a tradition that our ancestors, who flocked to this country in such numbers in the beginning of the century, were induced to emigrate by the prospect of becoming immensely rich in a short time, by simply gathering money after a 'silver thaw.' It is very probable that this witticism originated in the humorous imagination of some droll Irishman when describing the country to his newly-arrived and uninitiated fellow-countrymen.

1897 J A Folklore x, 206 Glitter [is] used on the west coast to denote that peculiar phenomenon known generally through the northern part of America as 'a silver thaw'; that is, when fine rain failing meets near the earth a colder stratum of air and becomes congealed, forming a covering of ice upon every object.

1949 Evening Telegram 26 Feb, p. 3 Last night's silver thaw created slippery conditions and havoc in the pedestrian ranks this morning as early walkers skidded, slithered and went up-ended on their way to work. T 368/9-67 An' we had the silver thaw for a week from the first day we arrived.

2 The coating of ice deposited on exposed objects by freezing rain; in some contexts overlapping with sense 1.

1836 [WIX]1 20 The country at this time presented an appearance quite different from that produced by the vegetation when affected by a moistness of the atmosphere which is afterwards operated upon by sudden frosts, and is improperly denominated here, a silver thaw.

1840 GOSSE 21 In Newfoundland it is by no means rare, where it is known by the name of 'silver thaw.' It is caused by rain descending when the stratum of air nearest the earth is below the temperature of 32, and consequently freezing the instant it touches any object; the ice accumulates with every drop, until a thick transparent coating is formed.

1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 338 Another phenomenon, seldom seen in Canada, is the silver thaw, as it is called in Newfoundland. Rain in heavy torrents in February, accompanied by a low state of the thermometer near the earth, causes a regular deposition of ice round all the branches and twigs of the plants and trees.

1846 TOCQUE 101 'Silver thaw'. . is produced by a shower of rain falling during a frost, and freezing the instant it comes in contact with any object.

[1894 BURKE] 21 'Don't be picking up the scattered ones [shillings found among the silver thaw],' cried one of them [hard cases]; 'wait till you get on Water Street, in the thick of them.'

1903 HOWLEY 55 ~ This is the name given by Newfoundlanders to that brilliant ice-garment with which the trees, houses, bushes, etc., are clothed when the Spring showers are frozen in the act of falling.

1919 GRENFELL1 201 Wind and t' weight of t' silver thaw.

1939 DULEY 30 It had rained in the night, frozen lightly in the morning, leaving a magical silver thaw. Enchanted, dazzling, glittering, the village stood covered in a cellophane coating of ice. C 68-16 [He] used to tell me the following story. When the first Irish immigrants came to Newfoundland they came expecting to find silver growing on trees... When they came however the silver on the trees was nothing more than silver thaw, an ice coating which covers the trees when the temperature suddenly falls on a country-side which is covered with a dense fog.

1970 Evening Telegram 11 May, p. 3 A mild winter it was here on the east coast with next to no snow but a lot of glitter and silver thaw around March.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

We also post the word of the week on our sister facebook group each week where we post the word to the group's members each week.

The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland and first released each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program the Weekend Arts Magazine with Angela Antle.

Word of the Week (March 28 - April 5): plim

2009-03-29T10:56:00.004-02:30

plim v Cp EDD ~ v2 'to swell out' esp s w cties.

1 To expand or swell from absorption of liquid.

1920 WALDO 160 A man who ate hard bread and drank water said 'it plimmed up inside and nearly killed me.' T 75/7-64 He fulled an oval boiler with rice, cover on the stove, and it began to plim. T 194/5-65 We had a half bag of bread down there. He was plimmed so tight as he could plim. P 148-65 During the thaw, a gravel road is soft. It plims up, then goes down.

1979 POCIUS 36 One woman described how she boiled a particular brin bag with coarse mesh to make the strands 'plim right together' in order to use it for a mat.

2 Of a boat, cask or barrel, to absorb water so as to become watertight.

[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 25 A vessel's or boat's planks when [they are] drawn apart by heat [are] then put in the water to plim or swell and close up.

1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 151 When a boat is not 'plymmed,' it leaks in all its seams.

1937 DEVINE 37 ~ To make a barrel or keg tight by filling it with water or standing it in running water to soak. P 99-69 The boat plimmed up as soon as she went in the water.

1981 Evening Telegram 4 July, p. 18 He left [his boat in the pond] for a few days to 'plim up'. . prior to a fishing trip.

Dictionary of Newfoundland English Supplement

plim v

1 [1900] 1989 Nfld Qtly lxxxv (2), 27 Previously, between the two layers of boards, some bags of hard bread were dumped. When water touched the bread it 'plimmed'--swelled up. Soon a most satisfactory watertight job was achieved.

1984 POWELL 124-5 There was no way that any animal could eat [the mouldy and fousty hay]. It was still plimming and bursting the wire that tied it.

2 1988 Evening Telegram 2 June, p. 13 We pour the Stockholm tar over frayed or shredded hemp to make what all seagoing people refer to as oakum, which is used with a special chisel to caulk the seams between a boat's planks. Then, when the boat is launched into the water, the planks swell or 'plim' against the oakum and the boat can become as watertight as a bottle.

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Word of the Week (March 22-28): vamp

2009-03-22T08:45:00.002-02:30

Word of the Week: March 22 - 28

vamp

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

vamp n Cp OED ~ sb1 1 'part of hose or stockings which covers foot and ankle' now dial (1225-); EDD sb1 1 Co for sense 1.

1 A short, thick woollen oversock, worn in boots to prevent chafing or around the house as a slipper.

[1811] 1818 BUCHAN 4 Snow shoes, buskins, vamps, cuffs.

1884 STEARNS 166 [Vamps] are simply cloth-like slippers, and much resemble a stocking cut off just above the instep with the edges bound or sewed over and over with worsted, and a central flap an inch or two long from the middle of the front edge, in which is made a loop and by which the pair are looped and fastened, the one to the other, when they are hung up to dry.

[1886] LLOYD 55 [Sealskin boots and moccasins] are worn with two pair of thick swanskin vamps.

1937 DEVINE 55 ~s. Outer stockings. T 210-65 You'd make [the boots] a couple of sizes too large for your foot, and then you'd get on some vamps. Sometimes they'd have skin vamp, and then a woollen one inside, beside the sock.

1975 GUY 60 Vamps came next. Hand-knit from the self-same material these socks came to just above the knobs of the ankles and were worn over the first two sets of hose.

1977 RUSSELL 68 I was sittin' by myself in the kitchen this night about nine o'clock, with my boots off, a pair of woolen vamps hauled on over my socks, and with my feet up on the pan of the stove smokin' my pipe. 2 The bottom of a sock.

1872 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 1 He stood 6 feet 4 inches in his stocking vamps.

1955 ENGLISH 37 ~ The sole of a stocking.

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Word of the Week (March 15 - 21) sheila

2009-03-15T13:07:00.002-02:30

sheila n also sheelagh, sheiler. H HALPFRT 'Ireland, Sheila and Newfoundland,' in Ireland and Nfld (1977),147-72; W HONE Every-Day Book (1827) ii, 194-5: Sheelah, -'s day; see BRUSH and PATRICK'S BRUSH for sense 2.

1 In folk legend, the wife, sister, housekeeper or acquaintance of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland.

1819 ANSPACH 473 It is hardly in the power of any priest in the world to hinder an Irishman from getting gloriously drunk, if he is so inclined, on the whole of the 17th of March, as well as the next day in honour of Sheelagh, Saint Patrick's wife.

1829 Newfoundlander 26 Mar, pp. 2-3 Members of Benevolent Irish Society had dinner on March 17th. The company continued to retire, successively, until six o'clock on Sheelah's morning, at which hour, we understand, a few of the campaigners might have been seen, as usual, piously and patriotically employed in 'drowning the shamrock.'
1901 Christmas Bells 13 [The crew brought] her safe into the harbour of Placentia, after a thrilling experience, having been driven by the celebrated storm of Sheelah's Day to Indian Harbour, and just getting to anchorage before the veer of the wind to the northwest. C 68-20 Sheila's day is the day after St Patrick's Day, the eighteenth of March. C 73-98 Patty walks the shores around and Sheila follows in a long white gown... Sheila's gown apparently is a blanket of snow.

2 Comb sheila's blush*, ~ brush; also sheila: fierce storm and heavy snowfall about the eighteenth of March; LINER; see also PATRICK'S BATCH, ~ BROOM, ~ BRUSH.

1923 CHAFE 21 About St Patrick's Day [the sealers] start, most of them waiting until after Sheilah's brush or the equinoxial gale has passed.

1924 ENGLAND 124 Perhaps the most memorable of those occasions was on the night of 'Sheila's Brush,' which is to say the 18th of March. Newfoundland has two 'brushes,' Patrick's and Sheila's; that is to say, storms supposed to be connected with the birthday of St Patrick and that of his wife... The word 'brush' is not always used, however; you will hear Newfoundlanders say: 'We have our Sheila dis time o' year.'

1957 Evening Telegram 20 Oct In the days when 600 fishing vessel crews put out their gear around the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and when 400 of them went to the ice, the sailors, fishermen and sealers all looked for. . .'Sheila's brush' about the time the sun crossed the Equator coming towards us.

1966 FARIS 48 These storms are termed 'St Patrick's Storms' until St Patrick's Day in March. The much less violent storms after that are called 'Sheila's Blush.'

1969 Daily News 12 Mar, p. 1 Don't worry, it's only Sheilagh's Brush. Nothing to worry about, that is. It doesn't mean another long extension of winter. C 69-2 When I was growing up and we didn't have a storm on or before Paddy's Day (called around home 'Patrick and Sheila') someone was sure to say 'Ha boy, we got it coming yet.'

1982 Evening Telegram 3 Apr, p. 33 You seem glad to be alive even if you have to wait for Sheila's Brush before we can safely say summer is just around the corner.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books, a "so small we're fine" Canadian audiobook publisher operating from its global headquarters atop a tor on the coast of Newfoundland and first released each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program the Weekend Arts Magazine with Angela Antle.

Word of the Week (March 8 - 14) curwibble

2009-03-08T08:33:00.003-02:30

Word of the Week March 8-14

curwibble

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

curwibble n JOYCE 244 curwhibbles, etc; Kilkenny Lexicon ~ v. A sudden lurch; unsteady or teetering motion.
1937 DEVINE 17 ~ Unsteady or fantastic motions (of man or beast), such as those caused by too many glasses. \'He was cuttin\' the curwibbles alright.\' P 178-72 ~ a sudden change of direction.

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Word of the Week: March 1 - 7: upalong

2009-03-01T15:36:00.004-03:30

Word of the Week: March 1 - 7

upalong

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
upalong av Cp EDD up 2 (3) upalong (a) 'a little way up the street or road' Ha IW Do So D Co, ADD ~ Mass for sense 1; EDD 2 (3) (b) [to the east of a county] Ha for sense 3.

1 Away from a person or locality; to or on the mainland of Canada or the United States.

1919 GRENFELLI 226 So Trader Bourne ... put to sea one fine afternoon in late November, his vessel loaded with good things for his necessitous friends 'up along.'

1931 BYRNES 45 [on Regatta Day] all roads led to the 'pond' and the crowds from 'up along,' 'down along,' and 'in along' on 'shanks mare' or lolling luxuriously in a closed carriage from the 'stand' left dull care behind.

T 70-641 And they pulled ashore right up, and enquired from all the boats up along.

T 169/212-651 Don't suppose we'll ever meet again and you be going upalong now, and we down here.

1970 Evening Telegram 11 May, p. 3 They say there are from 8,000 to 10,000 taking off upalong each year.
C 71-106 If we visited neighbours who lived some distance from us, we said we were cruising upalong.

1976 Daily News 2 Nov, p. 2 Local management is not in charge, he says, and 'someone upalong is directing the scene.'

1976 MURPHY 114 I like to think that in his early days going to this school, Mike, a 'Down-Along,' as east enders were called, often met and conversed with (or perhaps fought with) that boy from 'Upalong,' Johnny Dwyer from the Cross Roads (also born in St John's in 1845) who later became professional heavyweight boxing champion of [America].

1980 Evening Telegram 4 Oct, p. 6 I don't see why our Brian [Peckford] is getting so upset with the boys upalong just because he doesn't think it's a good idea to give our oil away.

2 Hence, upalong n: resident farther inland, or one to the south in a settlement.

1931 BYRNES 120 Who can forget the traditional 'scraps' between the 'upalongs' and 'down-alongs'? Heaven help the unfortunate youth found alone in the other fellow's territory.

1976 MURPHY 32 But the clashes between the 'Down-Alongs,' the boys of the East End, and the 'Up-Alongs,' the boys of the West End, that were in being in the sixties, seventies and eighties were reminders of the old faction fight days.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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Word of the week Feb 22-28: blessed

2009-02-22T08:54:00.001-03:30

Word of the Week: February 22-28

blessed

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

blessed a Cp EDD ~ ppl adj 'emphatic for good'; OED2 'worthy to be blessed by men'; JOYCE 196-7.

Note: The term is of unusual frequency in the region, esp applied to natural phenomena (sun, moon, sky, stars, rain, snow, thunder, etc), or used in exclamatory phrases (e.g. 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph, look down upon us this blessed day and night!'). A few examples are given below.

Comb blessed brand: the remains of wood used in Ash Wednesday church ritual. M 71-121 It was a custom on Ash Wednesday for everyone to receive a piece of Blessed Bran. Wood was burned to make the ashes [and] the wood that remained unbumt was called Blessed Bran. Each person had to clean out his stove and lay a new fire with this piece of [wood] at the bottom. This...would protect the house from fire for that year.

blessed bread: bread over or on which the sign of the cross is made prior to baking in order to ensure rising. M 71-114 Home-made bread was always [made with] the sign of the cross on the dough. The bread was always referred to as blessed bread.

blessed virgin's leaf: lady's thumb (Polygonum persicaria). P 85-65 ~ a common weed with the likeness of a thumb-print on the leaf. C 67-8 Any kind of bleeding can be stopped with the blessed virgin's leaf, a locally known plant.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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Word of the Week, February 15 - 22 : lad

2009-02-15T10:52:00.002-03:30

Word of the Week: February 15 - 22

lad

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

lad n EDD ~ sb1 (7) lad\'s love.

Comb lad-in-a-bag: a boiled pudding; DUFF1.
C 71-87 ~ name given to a boiled pudding which was cooked in a pudding bag. P 197-76 ~ another name for a figgy duff.

lad\'s love: southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum) (1897 J A Folklore x, 206).

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The REDEFiNE iT word of the week is brought to you by Rattling Books, the not just small but fine audiobook publisher from Newfoundland.

Word of the Week: February 8 - 14: spanish

2009-02-08T11:48:00.002-03:30

Word of the Week: February 8 - 14

spanish

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

spanish a
1 A grade or \'cull\' of dried and salted cod-fish prepared for the markets of Spain and Portugal; clipped form of spanish fish. Cp MERCHANTABLE.T 43-64 Our fish used to go to Spain, an\' Portugal and the West Indies. Now Spanish was number one.

1971 NOSEWORTHY 246 ~ Highest grade of fish.

2 Comb spanish cure: see sense 1; CURE.P 243-58 Spanish cure is a variety of dried, salted cod-fish.spanish fish: lightly salted, dried cod-fish of the highest quality or\'cure.\' Cp SHORE1: ~ FISH.

1928 FPU (Twillingate) Minutes 5 Oct [He] spoke about the price of fish and that shore fish was $8 and Spanish fish $9.

1937 Seafisheries of Nfld 47-8 Shore fish of the grade suitable for Spain, known as Spanish Fish... Spanish fish must be extra thick, of an amber colour, with an even surface, thoroughly clean on both back and face, without showing salt, and only [seven-eighths] dry. T 192/3-65 The ones that didn\'t show the salt—that\'s number one—kind of a yellow cast; that\'s the Spanish fish.

1965 Evening Telegram 5 Nov, p. 6 Good Spanish shore fish will never be low in price again.spanish room: in place-names, a tract of land on the water-front of a cove or harbour from which the fishery was prosecuted by Spaniards; ROOM.

1837 BLUNT 43 On the eastern side, at about three miles from the entrance [to Mortier Bay] is an exceedingly good harbor, called Spanish Room.

1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 117 Spanish Room is situated on the eastern side of a peninsula the south-western extremity of which, known as Spanish Room point, lies about one mile northward... A small town stands on its shores.

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Word of the Week: February 1 - 7: killick

2009-02-01T07:31:00.005-03:30

killick

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

killick n also cillick, kellick, killock, etc [phonetics unavailable]. OED ~ naut (N E: 1630-); DAE killock (N E: 1649-); DC (Nfld: 1774-); cp EDD kelk sb2 'a large detached stone' for sense 1.

1 An anchor made up of an elongated stone encased in pliable sticks bound at the top and fixed in two curved cross-pieces, used in mooring nets and small boats; GRANNY 2. 1760 CO 194: 15 To 1 Small Anchor of 40 lb & 1 Cillick.

[1785] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 96 Mr Collingham and two hands finished the shortest seal-net, and the people then carried them both, as also the killicks, &c. to the yawl; but the wind being too high to put them out, they left them there.

1792 ibid Gloss i, xii ~ A wooden anchor, made by nailing a pair of claws across each other, and fixing three rods to each claw; within which a large stone is placed to give it weight, and the ends of all the rods are tied together above the stone to secure it in its place.

[1802] 1895 PROWSE 419 The [seal net] is extended at the bottom by a mooring and killock fixed to each end.

1857 MOUNTAIN 7 Arrived on the Spot, they cast out a home-made anchor called a 'killock,' composed of a long shaped stone encircled with pliant strips of wood, bound tightly at one end.

1878 TOCQUE 192 He lets go his grapnel, or more commonly his kellick, and commences fishing in from 80 to 120 fathoms of water.

1896 J A Folklore ix, 23 Killock ... a small anchor, partly of stone and partly of wood, still used by fishermen, but going out of use in favor of iron grapnels.

1937 DEVINE 30 Killock. A home made anchor, consisting of a frame of witherods enclosing one or two oblong stones, settled on a base of four wooden claws: used to moor small boats and nets.

[1952] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 125 "The Fisherman's Alphabet": "K" stands for killick, wood, rock and nails. T 47-64 You'd put your mooring around the claws of the killick and then take a turn around the back end of the killick so as 'twill be layin' on the bottom.

1969 HORWOOD 81 Cod traps are set to moorings, in rather shallow water ... The traps are ... often moored to the bottom with killicks. 2 Proverb lose your killick, and [you'll] find it in the fall. C 71-102 ~ If you lose your boat anchor, you'll find it [charged on the merchant's bill in the fall]. 3 Phr have a rock in one's killick: of a woman, to be pregnant (P 148-75). 4 Attrib killick-claw: one of the four arms formed by the two cross-pieces of a killick.

[1774] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 32 Four hands ... cut some killick-claws.

[1952] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 130 "For the Fish We Must Prepare": Oh traps and trawls and fingerstalls, / Rubber boots and killick claws. killick-rod: one of the pliable sticks encasing the 'killick stone'; RUNG.

[1774] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 29 Having filled up the boat with whitings, pryor-poles and killick-rods, at high water we sailed home. killick-stone: elongated stone suitable for providing the ballast of home-made anchor.

[1776] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 178 Five hands were at work on the shalloway, and the rest were gathering killick stones, cutting longers, and rinding birch.

1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 211 Killick Stone islands [are located] 6 cables northwestward ... of Bridgeport Harbour head.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!We also invite you to visit our sister Facebook group.The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books and released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Word of the Week (January 25- February 1): spudgel

2009-01-25T08:12:00.003-03:30

Word of the Week: January 25- February 1

spudgel

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

spudgel n also spudget*, spudgin*, spudgy* [phonetics unavailable]. EDD ~ sb 1 'a wooden bowl with a long handle used for bailing' Gl IW Do So; DC Nfld (1775, 1937) for sense 1.

1 Small wooden bucket with a long handle, used to bail water from a deep-keeled boat; PIGGIN.

[1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 73 The boat proved so leaky, that the spudgel was scarce ever out of hand.

1792 ibid Gloss i, xv ~ A small bucket fixed to the end of a pole, to throw the water out of a boat, which has no pump.

1897 J A Folklore x, 210 ~ a small bucket used for dipping the water out of the dill and bailing their boats.

[c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 26 ~ a boat bailer consisting of a bucket with a long handle through it.

1937 DEVINE 47 Spudgell. A bailing bucket. It is different from a piggin in being tub shaped and having a long handle—somewhat like a corn-cob pipe.

1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 208 Otter Rub point, with Spudgell cove close north-eastward of it, lies 1¼ miles east-northeastward of the entrance to Pays cove; Spudgell Cove rocks extend three-quarters of a cable southward. P 102-60 If a man was a bit of a cooper [he would go] to the coopershop and make piggins and spudgils out of pork barrel staves. The difference between a piggin and a spudgil: one was about 10 or 12 inches high with one stave about 5 or 6 inches longer than the others to use as a handle; the spudgil was about the same size but through the handle stave was bored a hole about one inch in size through which was passed a round stick from the top and fastened to the bottom and about 4 or 5 feet long so as the man using it did not have to stoop down to bail out water from the dill in the after part of the boat. T 43/7-64 A piggin got the handle attached, an' the spudgel is the one with [the handle] on an angle. T 90-64 The spudgel [is] the little tub with a long stick in it for the larger boats, to throw the water over the gunnel.

1971 NOSEWORTHY 248 ~, spudgin, spudgy. A ten-pound tub with a long wooden handle, 5 or 6 ft. long, nailed on. It is used for bailing out deep, keeled boats. P 209-73 Spuggal. A large wooden container with a long handle used to bail water from a boat.

1975 BUTLER 38-9 1 had two big long-handled spudgels aboard. I said 'Jack, here, take one of those and,' I said, 'if you ever worked in your life, work now, if you don't want to drown.'

2 Metal or wooden container with a long handle, often larger than a boat bailer, used to dip water from a well, hot bark in the tanning of nets, and for other purposes. T 14/19-64 You'll take your spudgel and you'll dip out your tan out of the boiler and throw it on your twine and let it remain there all night. T 94/5-64 An' in the summer when [the well would] go a bit low they'd have a spudgel, a big can on a wooden machine they made—a long stick went right through from side to side so it wouldn't come off-and you'd fill up your buckets with that. C 71-103 The kind of spudgel that was used to draw water from a well consisted of a large can and a long wooden handle [that] went through a hole in the side and on down to the bottom.

1973 BARBOUR 51-2 ~ It is made of wood, shaped like a bucket, and has a long handle which goes through the bucket slantwise, or, as a fisherman would say, 'scow ways.' At Blanc Sablon the spudgel was used to dip water from over the side of the wharf in order to wash down the troughs and wharf. In lots of places the spudgel is used mainly to dip fresh water from deep wells.

1979 TIZZARD 55 This water was usually drawn up or taken from the well by a spudgel, a small tub or can made fast to the end of a long pole.

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Word of the Week (January 18 - 24) black

2009-01-18T07:41:00.003-03:30

black

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

black n
See also BLACK a. Roman Catholic term for a Protestant; freq in phr brazen as a black, saucy as a black, etc. P 245-56 ~ term of opprobrium applied by Roman Catholics to Protestants, but sometimes now used humorously rather than insultingly. P 52-62 Brazen as the black: used in reference to a saucy person. 1964 Evening Telegram 4 May, p. 7 Some of the young ones though is as saucy as blacks. M 65-1 It is common to refer to Protestants as blacks and the Roman Catholics as micks. C 66-4 The younger generation call all Protestants blacks.

black n
1985 JOHNSTON 101 Whenever it started raining, Dola would say, 'Here comes a bath for de blacks.' Her way of saying that it had been raining for some time was, 'De Prodestins must be down to last year's dirt by now.' 1985 Nfld LifeStyle 3 (1), p. 26 'You're marrying one of them Mainlanders and he's a black, too?' black a DC ~ ice 1 for sense 1; EDD ~ a 5 'extreme' Sh I Ir, JOYCE 215 ~ man 'surly, vindictive, implacable fellow,' for senses 2, 3; NID ~ fish 2, DC ~ fly (1821-) for sense 4; DAE ~ spruce (1765-) for sense 5; Fisheries of U S, p. 176 ~ ball, OED ~ book 5 (1842), O Sup2 ~ man 2 (1591- Nfld: 1969), EDD sb 1 for combs. in sense 6.

1 Of ice, thin and newly-formed on river, lake or sea; cp YOUNG: young ice. 1909 BERNIER 7 Black ice is thin dark looking ice with no snow on it; usually found between pans of older ice. At night or at a distance looks like open water. 1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 143 The ice in the middle, however, which had looked so sure from the landwash, proved to be 'black'-that is, very, very thin, though being salt-water ice, it was elastic. 1924 ENGLAND 160 We was to de nardenmost flags, on de far end o' where we knocked off yesterday. I got out on de black stuff, sir, meself, an' den cut back agin. 1933 MERRICK 21 The river was covered with new black ice. Slewing around a bend, the komatik went through and they all fell in. P 245-67 Black ice [is] thin ice.

2 In designations of Protestants (cp BLACK n): atrocious, disliked (as belonging to an opposing or conflicting group); in phr black stranger: not of or 'belonging to' a community. 1892 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 4 Poor Petrie died last month. He was a jolly whitty Irishman from the Black North. 1930 BARNES 229 If I wasn't praying at a time like that, I'd be swearing. Now, mind, I hope nobody that reads this will think I'm a black blackguard. P 148-63 Black wop (bayman). 1966 PADDOCK 121 Black Protestant: derogatory name for Protestant. 1972 Evening Telegram 29 Feb, p. 3 Some of those rural districts are so small in population that everybody knows everybody else and the electorate would rather go for a black stranger any day than one of their own blackguarding neighbors. 1974 CAHILL 10 We [Roman Catholics] might have changed and got broadminded, but they're still as bad as ever they were, the black bastards!

3 Touchy; moody; dangerously quarrelsome or pugnacious. 1964 Can Journ Ling x, 45 He's some black! 1966 FARIS 245-6 Men are, very significantly, said to be 'getting black' if they become personal and serious in their argument. Any real quarrel between persons is labelled 'black' and to be avoided in Cat Harbour at all costs. 1975 Lore & Language ii (3), p. 16 Looked black, he was always black you know, but he looked a little blacker this morning.

4 In names of animals, birds, fish, insects with black colouring: ~ and white diver; ~ back; ~ bawk [see BAWK]; blackbird; ~ cap; ~ diver; ~ fish; ~ fly; ~ hagdown [see HAGDOWN]; ~ patch. 1959 MCATEE 15 Black and white diver. Barrow's goldeneye (Nfld., 'Labr.') 1792 CARTWRIGHT Gloss 1, xi Harp. An old seal of that kind called by Pennant, 'Blackback.' 1861 DE BOILIEU 92-3 The principal seal of the coast is termed the Voyage Seal, while the males are distinctively called Harps, or Blackbacks. 1925 Dial Notes v, 326 Black back, a harp seal in the fourth year. 1951 PETERS & BURLEIGH 53 Sooty Shearwater. Puffinus griseus. Local Names: Black Bawk, Hagdown, Hag. 1840 GOSSE 96 The American Robin is a species of thrush. In Newfoundland, where it is very common, it is always called the Blackbird. 1959 MCATEE 32 Black-cap. Knot (The crown is dark streaked) (Nfld). 1708 OLDMIXON 14 A great Flock of small black Divers, about the bigness of a Feldyfare, came about the Ship a little before, but all of'em left it, and betook themselves to the Island [of ice]. [1775] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 74 John Hayes, the boatsmaster, killed four ducks, a goose, a black-diver and a lord. 1959 MCATEE 18 Black diver. Black Scoter (Nfld). 1846 TOCQUE 71 Great numbers of what some call Black-fish, and others Pot-heads, are killed during the month of September along the shores of Newfoundland. 1964 Evening Telegram 19 Feb, p. 2 Among fishermen there is a widespread opinion that the 'black-fish' or pothead whale, which is slaughtered in large numbers for mink meat, is a very stupid animal. [1822] 1915 HOWLEY 137 Myriads of moschetos, with black and sand flies, annoyed us. 1872 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 5 I have had my eyes almost closed many a time, and streams of blood coursing down my neck and face and clotting my beard and moustache, caused by the black fly. The torment was all but unendurable. 1975 HOLMES 41 Twenty-three species of black flies have been recorded near St John's, and of these Simulium venustum Say and S. vittatus Zetterstedt are the commonest species that bite man. 1883 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 4 With these Hagdowns are several of a rusty black colour, only the under parts of the wings being of a dirty white... The fishermen call them Black Hagdown... This is probably the Sooty Shearwater. 1967 Bk of Nfld iii, 282 Black Bawk or Black Hag-down. [1766] 1971 BANKS 146 The Furrs taken here are Black Patch [etc] [Black Patch is a colour phase of the Red Fox]. 5 In names of plants and shrubs: blackberry [see BLACKBERRY]; ~ hurt [see HURT]; ~ pear; ~ spruce; ~ whort [see HURT]. 1956 ROULEAU 26 Black Hurts: Gaylussacia baccata. 1898 J A Folklore xi, 226 Black pear. Pyrus arbutifolia. 1967 BEARNS 44 Because of its high wood density, black spruce is the most valuable pulpwood species in the Province. 1898 J A Folklore xi, 273 Black whorts. Gaylussacia (sp).

6 Comb black (art) book: book believed to contain secrets enabling a person to perform supernatural acts. C 68-40 People believed [him] to have a black-art book or to be possessed with the Devil. He could tell you your fortune just by looking into your hand. C 68-16 The black book is supposed to be a book given by the devil to someone who has given himself over to the devil. In it is information or knowledge of how to do things which ordinary men cannot do.

black ball: marker attached to trawl buoy for identification. 1921 Nat Geog July, p. 13 [caption:] Flying sets on the Bank / the dories are being towed by the schooner. The black disks are 'highflyers,' or 'black balls,' which are affixed to the buoys attached to the fishing lines, as markers. 1938 MACDERMOTT 170 The trawl is ... attached to a buoy which is known as a black ball, and which marks the place where the trawl is set. The black ball is a keg strapped with rope, and with a stick as stout as a shovel handle, from four to six feet long, passed through it; the stick bears a hooped canvas about eighteen inches in diameter on which is marked the dory's number. C 71-87 ~ This flag was homemade from calico, with a hoop sewed around the edge of it. it was then painted and the number of the dory was written on it so that each fisherman would be able to keep track of his own buoys.

black boy: (a) man with blackened face, hands and clothing, accompanying Christmas mummers; (b) charred tree remaining after a forest fire: also black-burn, blacky-boy. P 133-58 ~ , black burn: a stick of wood that has been seared in a forest fire. 1965 Evening Telegram 24 Dec The blackboys, so called because of their blackened hands and faces, were dressed in black clothes and tall hats and carried a staff. It was traditional that the blackboys should be well ahead of the mummers, for the mummers would have to try and catch them (which they always did), and having caught, would throw them in the snow and maul them about. C 70-15 Trees which had been burned over in a forest fire were much in demand [for firewood] because they were partly dry. However they were very sooty and called blacky-boys.

black jack: (a) variety of molasses from West Indies; (b) type of felt or tar paper used for waterproofing, insulation, etc. 1909 BROWNE 81 One firm did an extensive trade in 'Black Jack' (St Kitts' molasses). P 148-64 [The] roof [is] covered with black jack. 1971 NOSEWORTHY 174 ~ Black felt for placing on roofs and [in] fish boxes to hold the water. black man: a figure invoked to terrify children into good behaviour; the devil (P 148-60). T 301-66 They would say when children were naughty, 'Here's the bully-boo' or 'a black man.' 1961 Christmas Mumming in Nfld 138 The archetype stranger, the Devil, is the 'Black Man' or 'Blackie.'

black-man's bread, ~ cap: possibly harmful mushroom; FAIRY CAP (P 148-61). Q 67-25 Black-man's caps [are] mushrooms. 1971 NOSEWORTHY 174 Black-man's bread: inedible mushrooms.

black psalm: text thought to have sinister power. M 68-17 She believed that she could put a curse on anyone by reading a certain psalm, 'the black psalm,' she called it, 'on' the person she wished to curse. The number of the psalm was secret to her.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books and released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Word of the Week (January 11-17): scuddling

2009-01-11T12:19:00.006-03:30

Word of the Week: January 11 - 17

scuddling

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

scuddling vbl n Comb scuddling hole: hole at stern of boat through which oar is worked to steer or propel craft (Q 67-33); SCORE-HOLE, SCULLING HOLE. scuddling oar, scuddle ~ : scull; SCULLING OAR. 0 67-1 Scuddle oar—the oar used to steer the punt with. One person sits or stands in the stern of the punt and steers it with a scuddle oar. P 209-73 ~ an oar used to propel a punt through a hole in the stern.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books and released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Revisiting Last Year's New Year's Resolutions: Don McKay

2009-01-02T10:18:00.002-03:30

This time last year Rattling Books ran a New Year's Resolution Contest here at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Among the winners was this one from Don McKay.

January 2nd and your head still feels like a waddock that's been bashed up and down the field by size thirteen spaugs, and no wonder, you're after being a slinger randying all Christmas, guzzling the screech and stuffing your gob, telling your old cuffers filled with all that pishogue, how you were forever grassing in the bawn like the rawny merrybegot you are, how you'd marl up the droke with a joke and a bottle and all the girls waiting to kiss you in the drung behind the church hall, way back when you were but a lewardly nuzzle tripe of a angishore before the blue drop got in your blood and you were out jiggering for cod with the bawks and guds whirling overhead, the gillies, turrs and tickleaces skimming the surface, the swiles sculling and diving, now here you are so hung over you can hardly stand to shive the goowiddy off your fousty face, yes my son, you say to the boo in the mirror, you've been a jeezly seeny-sawny long enough, it's time for a whole yaffle of resolutions, if only you could figure out where to start.

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Don McKay is a poet whose most recent book Strike/Slip was awarded the Griffin Prize. In 2008 he selected and read poems of his on the themes of birds, birding and flight which he recorded with Rattling Books. The result was Songs for the Songs of Birds.

Most recently Don McKay has been honoured by the Government of Canada as a new member of the Order of Canada.

The Complete List of Words of the Week from 2008

2008-12-31T09:26:00.003-03:30

Throughout 2008 Rattling Books has brought you words of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English both here on this blog and through our sister facebook group.

More recently the word of the week has also been announced each Sunday morning on the CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Along the way we took tangents and had a recipe contest.

Here is the complete list of words of the week from 2008.

ballicatter
beat
bedlamer
brewis
britches
calavance
carey chicks
cross-handed
dotard
duff, figgy duff
elt
empter
faffering
fairy squall
firk
gaffer
gawmoge
gilguy
glauvaun
gommel
hag
hare's ears
laddie-suckers
larrigan
livyer
maid
maiden vein
maggoty
mauzy
pea
pelt
penquin
quintal
racket
rattling
rawny
scrunchins
scurrifunge
sish
slob, slub
slut
tickle
tuckamore
twillick
vang
wag

Word of the Week Dec 21-28: racket

2008-12-21T19:30:00.002-03:30

Word of the Week Dec 21-28

racket

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

racket1 n Comb racket bow: the wooden frame of a snowshoe.

[1786] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 150 At two o'clock one of the Canadians came here from Muddy Bay, with a new Mountaineer sled, a pair of rackets, and a pair of racket-bows; being presents [from] captain Gabourit to me.

racket2 n OED ~ sb3 2 b (1745-) for sense 1; DAS 3 for sense 2.

1 A social gathering, party; TIME; freq with defining word kitchen (1924 ENGLAND 319). P 245-66 Kitchen racket [is] an impromptu house-party. P 121-67 We had a kitchen racket last night. M 71-39 They gathered at the homes of more liberal hosts and had what was most likely a very innocent party. These illicit gatherings were called by the more pious parishioners 'kitchen rackets.' . . . The host of the party, or 'racket,' was named and branded as the Devil's Advocate.

2 Habitual activity or occupation, freq with defining word fish, sealing, wood, etc.

1924 ENGLAND 30'T'ings is ahl in a fruz, now,' he added, 'but you'm goin' to like dis racket.' Ibid 262 One who knows how poor their food resources are at home and during the cod fishery can perhaps understand why the 'swilin' racket' attracts so many.

1960 FUDGE 12 March month came on and we fished tub racket. We took two tubs of gear baited and sat one tub at a time, lay on the end and fish until a dory load of Haddock was secured, then go on board. T 141/60-652 They got it renamed since that woods racket was started up there. T 187/9-65 He said 'This swilin' racket is a hell of a hard racket.' T 410-67 That's something is goin'out—the wood racket. Most people use oil now.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books and released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Word of the Week Dec 14-20: gaffer

2008-12-14T11:07:00.003-03:30

Word of the Week Dec 14-20

gaffer

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

gaffer n JOYCE 259. A boy, young fellow, esp one capable of assisting older men at work.

1896 J A Folklore ix, 31 ~ as applied to children only, must have been derived from Ireland.

1937 DEVINE 23 ~ A boy, between ten and fifteen, able to help at the fishery.

1966 SCAMMELL 106 "Tommy Decker's Venture": Three smart young gaffers right enough, I know it for a fact, / Or else they'd never have the nerve to start the like o' that. / And we old codgers wish 'em luck and all the folks around / Will feel right glad if lots o' fish strikes on the handy ground. M 68-24 ~ This was the name given to any young boy who could pick berries fast, could catch fish fast, could split wood fast, who really could work fast.

1975 RUSSELL 1 Must have been almost thirty years ago. I was just a young gaffer then—spending my third or fourth summer in the bow of the banking dory.

1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 83 The wind had come down and was blowing us hard and we two young gaffers were sayin': 'Let's go in.'

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

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The word of the week is brought to you each week by Rattling Books and released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Word of the Week Dec 7 - 13: larrigan

2008-12-07T07:00:00.002-03:30

Word of the Week Dec 7 - 13

larrigan

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

larrigan n [phonetics unavailable]. Cp O Sup2 ~ 'a long boot' (1886-). Jocular term for leg, from the knee-boot worn by woodsmen and fishermen. P 43-67 Stretch your larrigans [to the fire]. C 71-103 ~s: legs. It was commonly used by the fishermen when I was a child.

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The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

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The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

The Old Hag: a scientific explanation and Sheryl Crow a victim?!

2008-12-01T20:53:00.001-03:30

THE 'OLD HAG' SYNDROME"

The Scientific Explanation

The medical establishment is quite aware of this phenomenon, but has a less sensational name than "old hag syndrome" for it. They call it "sleep paralysis" or SP (sometimes ISP for "isolated sleep paralysis").
So what causes it?

Read the rest here.

Sheryl Crow Battles The Old Hag

Rock singer Sheryl Crow is a victim of sleep paralysis, as she revealed in a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. "It's a bizarre and twisted feeling where you feel completely paralyzed. You are sure you are going to die."

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Hag was our latest word of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Brought to you by Rattling Books.

Word of the Week (November 23 - 28) : hag

2008-11-23T08:39:00.002-03:30

Word of the Week Nov 23 - 28

hag

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

hag v Cp HAG n: HAG-RODE. To torment (in a nightmare).C 70-25 If you think or talk badly of someone who is dead, the dead person will hag you. The person hagged will become light headed and will talk in his sleep. The way to get him out is to slap him across the face. C 71-6 As a young girl she got hagged. That night she woke up screaming, she had felt the young man's hands around her throat but she couldn't scream or move.

hag1 n [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~1 1 c obs (1632, 1696) for sense 1; OED hag-ridden 1, EDD hag sb1 2 (4) hag-ride esp Do So D Co for comb in sense 3. See D Hufford, 'A New Approach to the "Old Hag" [Nfld], 'in WAYLAND D HAND American Folk Medicine (1976), pp. 73-45.

1 The nightmare; freq in form old hag. Cp DIDDIES.
1896 J A Folklore ix, 222 A man ... told me he had been ridden to death by an old hag, until a knowledgeable old man advised him to drive nails through a shingle, and lash it to his breast when he went to bed.

[1929] BURKE [6] "No Short Skirts": For her skirts are so tight round the hips, Jennie, / It's no wonder she got the old hag.

1924 ENGLAND 216 A sufferer from nightmare is supposed to be ridden by something called 'the old hag,' and the only way to free him from torment is to call his name backward.

1937 Bk of Nfld i, 230 Nightmare is called by fishermen the 'Old Hag.' T 222-66 Well, by this time it would be bedtime, and perhaps after such an exciting day you would probably have bad dreams; in fact you might have the old hag, or a nightmare. C 69-22 He often gets the hag. Usually he is dreaming that someone is chasing him [or] he may be falling from somewhere. C 70-23 If you sleep on your back you'll have hags.

1975 Evening Telegram 20 Dec, p. 3 Christmas for many has moved beyond the yearly sufferable nightmare to the realm of that particularly exquisite nocturnal terror called, in Newfoundland,'The Old Hag.'

2 Part of inner organs of a lobster, discarded in eating (P 127-73); OLD WOMAN.

3 Comb hag-rode: (a) troubled by nightmare; (b) bewitched (see P 51-67 quot).P 213-55 Hagorid: [afflicted by] a nightmare, especially one in which the victim feels someone sitting on his chest. P 51-67 When he couldn't catch any fish, he said he was hagrode. C 67-10 ~ [Hagrode is when] she awakes in a sweat and feels pinned to the bed by some unseen force.hag1 n DBE ~ 2 for sense 1.

1 [1886] 1910 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 23 'Oh' said he, 'Cole has got the Old Hag Sir, thats all.' ... He tried to call out but could not, but just as they were giving him the third and last swing [over the cliff] he made one desperate effort to screech.

1985 A Yaffle of Yarns 94 She frequently announced...that she had had the 'old hag' the night before and described the symptoms in great detail.

1985 JOHNSTON 66 The air itself was black and thick and wrapped like arms around me. The hag, to those who have not known her, cannot be described.

3 Comb, cpd ~ rode, ~ wind: a gale at sea.

1981 SPARKES 166 A person having a nightmare was said to be hagrode.

1977 MOAKLER 22 So blew the hag winds till a mauzy dawn/That left the Banks as peaceful as a bawn. P 308-88 'That's no way to call a man when he is egg rod.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Word of the Week Nov 16 - 22: hare's-ears, hazures

2008-11-16T11:03:00.001-03:30

Word of the Week Nov 16 - 22

hare's-ears, hazures

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

hare's-ears, hazures: a pair of pointed rocks protruding above the surface of the water; twin peaks (of a hill).

[1773] 1971 SEARY 224 Two rocks, known as Hare's Ears, 40 feet high, lie close eastward of [Branch] head.

1909 Nfld Qtly Mar, p. 3 Now at our Ferryland, we have an excellent specimen of a Forillon, in the well known rock called The Hazures.

1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 159 Two smaller peaks, about 350 feet high, in the southern part of the island are known as Hare's ears. Q 67-84 Hasures [is the name given to] a rock split in the middle looking like hare's ears.

1971 SEARY 87 Hare's Ears ... is a descriptive which occurs in at least seven localities in Newfoundland to describe two steep, adjacent, pinnacle-like rocks, standing offshore.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT! The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Calavance sighting: Mediterranean Vegetables by Clifford A. Wright

2008-11-13T06:52:00.003-03:30

The following entry for calavance (our word of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English) appears in a book about mediterranean vegetables by Clifford A. Wright:

Calavance
Dolichos barbadensis and D. sinensis etc.
(Leguminosae)

Calavance is the name given to several varieties of pulse in the Dolichos genus, a genus that includes the hyacinth bean. it is not known how the word calavance entered the English language. Athenaeus relates that the Spartans could serve green calavances, beans and dried figs at kopides, feasts given for strangers. Today this vegetable is eaten by Bedouin and Berber tribes in North Africa.

Mediterranean Vegetables: A Cook's ABC of Vegetables and Their Preparation in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa with More Than 200 Authentic Recipes for the Home Cook
By Clifford A. Wright
Published by Harvard Common Press, 2001
ISBN 1558321969, 9781558321960
416 pages

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November 2 - 8 Word of the Week : calavance n also callivance, cavalance

2008-11-09T07:45:00.001-03:30

November 2 - 8 Word of the Week

calavance n also callivance, cavalance

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

calavance n also callivance, cavalance OED ~ obs (1620-1880); DAE (1682-); DJE sb (1634-1794). Type of small bean used esp for soup (Dolichos barbadensis, D. sinensis).

1895 J A Folklore viii, 38 Callivances: a species of white bean ... in contrast with the broad English bean.

[c1904] 1927 DOYLE (ed) 67 "The Kelligrews Soiree": There was birch rhine, tar twine, / Cherry wine and turpentine; / Jowls and cavalances. P 245-61 ~ small bean.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT! The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

November 2 - 8 Word of the Week : scurrifunge n

2008-11-02T07:19:00.001-03:30

November 2 - 8 Word of the Week

scurrifunge n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

scurrifunge* v [phonetics unavailable].. Cp EDD ~ v 'to lash tightly, coïre'; fung v 3 'to do anything briskly ... to work or walk hurriedly' Sc, Ki1kenny Lexicon scurryfunge 'to scrounge, cadge or wheedle.'

1 To clean thoroughly, scour (P 108-70). P 272-57 ~ as to clean out a dirty sink.

2 To scold, reprove. P 108-79 To scurravunge someone,

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT! The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group. The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

word of the week sighting: slut according to Wikipedia

2008-10-30T22:45:00.000-02:30

Oddly enough, Wikipedia's entry for our word of the week, slut, makes no mention of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English of the making of tea.

Slut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Slut (disambiguation). Slut or slattern is a pejorative term for a person who is deemed sexually promiscuous. The term has traditionally been applied to women and is generally used as an insult or offensive term of disparagement. Slut has also been reclaimed as a slang term in the BDSM, polyamorous and gay and bisexual communities.[1] It may be used by the person concerned as an expression of pride in their status, or to express envy at the "success rate" of others.

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Common usages
3 Alternate usages
4 See also
5 References
6 External links //

Etymology
Although the ultimate origin of slut is unknown, it first appeared in Middle English in 1402 as slutte (AHD), with the meaning "a dirty, untidy, or slovenly woman." Even earlier, Geoffrey Chaucer used the word sluttish (c.1386) to describe a slovenly man; however, later uses appear almost exclusively associated with women. The modern sense of "a sexually promiscuous woman" dates to at least 1450. Another early meaning was "kitchen maid or drudge" (c. 1450), a meaning retained as late as the 18th century, when hard knots of dough found in bread were referred to as "slut's pennies." A notable example of this use is Samuel Pepys's diary description of his servant girl as "an admirable slut" who "pleases us mightily, doing more service than both the others and deserves wages better" (February 1664). In the 19th century, the word was used as a euphemism in place of bitch in the sense of "a female dog."[2] Similar words appear in Dutch, German and Swedish dialects meaning "a dirty woman," indicating a common ancestor in Germanic languages. The word entered the colloquial Yidish as "akhsluttishkha" meaning "a hag". It exists in Ukrainian too as slutyj as a loan word from Yidish or via the mediaeval Scandinavian Varangian colonists in Kievan Rus'. A popular theory connects slut to earlier Germanic forms meaning "slush" or "mud puddle," but this derivation remains in question.

Read the rest of the Wikipedia entry here.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by Rattling Books.

October 25 - November 1 Word of the Week : slut

2008-10-26T08:07:00.002-02:30

October 25 - November 1 Word of the Week

slut n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

slut n 1 A tin kettle, often one with a large flat bottom and tapering to the top, used to boil water on an open fire; cp PlPER, SMUT.

1924 ENGLAND 11 Some were drawing water at an icicled faucet near the cropping shed, bringing 'sluts' (kettles) aboard, and brewing tea.

1937 DEVINE 46 ~ A large tin teakettle. P 102-60 Everybody would line up 3 times a day for salt meat, potatoes and figgy duff or saltfish and brewis and a slut full of boiled tea, no milk but good old Barbados molasses, no sugar. P 54-67 A hotwater kettle, of the familiar type locally made by tinsmiths and much used on outdoor picnics, hunting trips etc, is called a slut—especially the very large sort, holding about 4 gallons and made of sheet copper, used on board the old sealing steamers, being always kept full of boiling water on the galley stove, whence sealers would take small kettlesful to take to their bunks and brew tea with.

1973 MOWAT 69 Twice a week ... we got duff, made out of condemned flour put into bags and boiled in a slut—a big kettle—with a bit of salt pork.

2 Attrib slut kettle: see sense 1 above.
T 181-65 An 'we had a large kettle [that was shaped] up like that. They used to call 'em the slut kettle. slut tea: strong tea brewed in the kettle in which the water is boiled. P 145-74 There was nothing on the table but bread, molasses and slut tea.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

laddie sucker sighting: Sex and the Island Blog

2008-10-20T18:12:00.004-02:30

Kids grow up so fast these days [Sally Sucker and Laddie Sucker]
April 3, 2008

Rumex acetosella, or Sheep’s Sorrel, is a common weed found through out… well… the entire Northern Hemisphere of Earth. It has hardly a quality that gives it value, except as a curdling agent for cheese, which I assumed just happened naturally, given… you know… that it’s dairy.

read the rest at the Sex and the Island Blog

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Laddie-sucker is our word of the week.

REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by Rattling Books.

Oct 19 - 25 Word of the Week: laddie-suckers

2008-10-19T08:06:00.001-02:30

Oct 19 - 25 Word of the Week

laddie-suckers n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

laddie-sucker n Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella); SALLY2.
1975 SCOTT 15 Most children in Newfoundland have enjoyed the refreshing taste of the Sheep Sorrel and it is too bad that this habit is lost with childhood. The Sheep Sorrel is known as Sweet Leaf or Laddie Suckers or Sally Suckers.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Galloped Golly Gob Recipe from the St. John's Suzuki Talent Education Program (STEP)

2008-10-12T09:14:00.003-02:30

Galloped Golly Gob
(aka Galloped Gob O’Golly)
Recipe from the testing kitchens of the Suzuki Talent Education Program (STEP), St. John’s;

First off, clear the place of any connivers who will covet a drop.
Stock up on charmers to chew the fat and grease the time.
Gaffle out the gear for mixing up a gob of dunge.

Mang together the following:

4 cups of confloption of whatever dried fruit you can firk out of your cupboards (eg. Prunes, apricots, raisens, sultanas, currants, dates etc. according to your preference) and including 1 lemon and 1 orange, each entire which you are after chippling up.

5 cups further of dried fruit confloption wed to grated parsnip and carrot (1 of each if gurrr size; if puny, a couple each)

3 cups Screech

teaspoon each of cloves, ginger, nutmeg and salt and 2 of cinnamon

Mang, mang and mang.

On the side caudle together 4 cups of bread crumbs, 2 cups of brown flour and 1 cup chopped almonds or whatever other nuts you can scare up.

Mang it all up with the other crowd and 4 eggs and 1 cup of oil.
Cover tight with a plastic bag or rig up some other scheme for storing the whole mess in the fridge or other cool place where it can bide for a day or two while you make like jack-easy with the choicest charmer and just for badness kill the rest of the screech , one pleasant grog at a time.

Somewhere between the final mang and the next step, offer all jinkers and other hangashores the chance to make a wish and improve themselves by hanging off a wooden spoon while they cut the curwibbles through the dunge according.

When you’re feeling jonnick, move on. Grease two large pudding bowls or a mess of tins and put to gallup for 3 hours.

Cool and wrap for keeping, somewhere cool and dry, to bide til Thanksgiving.

To serve, reheat and offer with rum sauce after dousing in brandy and putting to blaze. Guttle it down with choice company. If you forget it, no odds, it’ll keep til Christmas.

Leftovers make awful good company bread, guaranteed to beat out any other fairy bun for effectiveness.

Submitted by STEP (Suzuki Talent Education Program) to our Recipe Redux Contest and selected as a part of our alternative Thanksgiving Dinner Menu.

Winning Entry to Recipe Redux from Lesley Davis

2008-10-12T09:07:00.002-02:30

My ancestors arrived in Greenspond, Pool's Island and Pinchard's Islandin the 1790s.

Although I knew my grandparents were born in NL, our family lived in Toronto. Until 2006, when I began doing my family history, I didn'tknow that I had relatives in Newfoundland.

My husband, Richard and I spent 3 weeks here in 2006. By happenstance,we found, not only relatives but property! We have spent two full summersin our cottage in Greenspond with our cocker spaniel, Billy. Now it iswith heavy hearts that we are preparing to leave our "newfound" relatives and friends.

In Ontario, we sometimes find puffballs, the size of dinner plates, in the woods. We fry them in butter and have a good feed! What a surprise tofind that my relatives in Newfoundland have been doing the same thing!

Recipes for our "hungered" Newfoudland friends:

Bring a "light" of wood in for the fire.

Put on a "priny" and go to the "kitchen place"

SOUP COURSE

Pea soup floating with "bang bellies".
Make bang bellies with flour, fat, molasses some hot water and a "joog"of salt.
Float on soup to cook.

MAIN COURSE

"Baccallao"

Soak salt fish overnight in water and drain.
"Hotten bake pot" on "kettlestick" over fire.
Add lightly floured fish and fry until browned on both sides.

Serve with "rumpers" "tatties" and a "Joanie" (bread dough cooked onstove top lid) and..."Smokey Jacks aka Horse Farts" or Puff Balls.
In a "bake pot" "hunk" some salt fat and "hotten" over "ampering"fire.
"Hunk" the "horse farts" and add to the "bake pot"
Stir with a "fark" until golden.
May add a "joog" of butter and some chopped onions.

DESSERT

"Bang Belly Pudding (if it falls it's called a "slam bang"!)" aka"Joanie" or "Hurty""Squat" blueberries or partridge berries, add flour, baking powder, sugar,molasses (seal fat optional!) hot water and a "joog" of salt.Drop "poon"fulls into hot water until cooked.

BEVERAGES:

Take fresh water from "staneen"Heat water in a bibby, tin kettle, hurry up or slut over an open fireof "blasty boughs" on a "kettle stick".
Add tea. sugar and milk.
This is dfinitely not "bare-legged tea"OR"Squatum or HurtWine"Home brewed wine from the juice of "squatted" berries and lots of sugar.

"Scoff it up or "guttle" it up, if you're really hungery!

ENJOY!

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Submitted by Lesley Davis to our Recipe Redux Contest and selected as a part of our alternative Thanksgiving Dinner Menu.

Bonnie Morgan’s Stuffed Cod

2008-10-12T08:53:00.003-02:30

Thanksgiving Fish Dinner

Get yourself a good-sized round fish. The size needed depends on how many hands you plan to feed and their appetites. A rounder might feed one or two, but a larger fish is needed for a crowd.

Head your fish, then gut him in one of three ways:

1. Split him down the belly. This makes cleaning easier, but adds to the sewing.

2. Split him in the back and take out part of the sound-bone to get at the offal, leaving his belly intact.

3. Don’t split him at all, but clean him through the hole where his head used to be. This option is best left to the highly skilled, because the fish must be awful clean before you stuff him.

Scrape your fish and take off his tail and fins. Wash him carefully in several waters and pat him dry inside and out with paper towels. Let him bide on a tray or cookie sheet until ready to stuff.

Make dressing as you would for turkey, chicken, turr, grouse or squid. The amount you need depends on the size of your fish. Roll sufficient day-old white loaf in your hands until fine crumbs form. Seasoning the crumb is highly subjective. Add in savory, salt, black pepper, butter, and fresh or dried minced onion and mix with your hands until it smells just right and holds its shape when you squeeze a small amount gently in your hand. Pack the dressing into your fish through his back, his belly or the hole where his head used to be. Don’t put in too much or you won’t be able to sew him up. He could also burst asunder while baking.

Once the dressing is in his gut, thread a darning needle with twine and sew up his back, belly, and neck hole, as required. You may want to put a small square of tinfoil inside the neck before you sew him up, similar to the treatment you give the over-sized arse of a stuffed turkey. This will keep every bit of dressing inside as he bakes. Once sown up, heave him in a greased roaster and surround him with chopped onions. Cut paper thin strips of fat pork or fat back, and lay them across the fish. Salt and pepper to taste, or to as much as your blood pressure will allow. Add a bit of water, cover the roaster and bake him in a hot oven (400 degrees) until done.

In the meantime, cook praties, carrot, turnip, greens or cabbage enough for all hands in your boiler with a small junk of watered salt beef. Cook until vegetables are fork tender, falling apart, or can be sucked through a straw, according to local tradition.

To serve, hoist the cooked fish onto a serving platter, making sure to leave the bits of fat pork and onion in the roaster. To keep the fish from breaking this must be done very carefully, using two or more metal spatulas and calling in help if needed. Lift out the cooked vegetables into serving bowls, keeping everything separate but the carrot and turnip. Put the beef on the platter with the fish. Leave the cooking water in the boiler. Make up gravy in the usual manner, using flour for thickening and incorporating the pork, onions and drippings. Add water from the boiler as needed. Stir up and cook your gravy in the roaster or use a dipper if preferred. Don’t forget the browning!

Place the platter with the whole stuffed cod in the middle of your dining table, surrounded by the bowls of vegetables and the dipper of gravy. Don’t count on leftovers but the bones and twine.

End the meal with cups of tea, berry pie, tinned cream, and yarns about how big fish used to be when you were youngsters.

Dictionary of Newfoundland English words used:
Arse
Awful
Berry
Bide
Boiler
Dipper
Fat back
Fat pork
Fish
Hands
Heave
Junk
Loaf
Offal
Pratie
Round
Rounder
Salt beef
Sound-bone
Split
Turr
TwineWater

Submitted by Bonnie Morgan to our Recipe Redux Contest and selected as a part of our alternative Thanksgiving Dinner Menu.

Nicky Hawkins' Bottle Arse Squid On a Bed of Cavalance Pummy Garnished With Saddiesuckers

2008-10-12T08:45:00.003-02:30

Bottle Arse Squid On a Bed of Cavalance Pummy Garnished With Saddiesuckers

Gallop a cup of cavalances in four cups of water until soft.Shawl and mash to a pummy.

Steel a knife.

Pip, slouse and scurrifunge a funk free bottle arse squid.

Cut into small pieces and fry in bang.

Mang pummy and squid.

Scrob and slouse three cups of laddiesuckers and gallop briefly preferably in a slut.

Add a sketch of pinky,salt and pepper to taste.

Layer the pummy, squid and sallysuckers artfully on a plate and lash it down.

Wash the fog -meal down with more pinky and give the skig to the cat.

Submitted by Nicky Hawkins to our Recipe Redux Contest and selected as a part of our alternative Thanksgiving Dinner Menu.

Announcing the winners of our Recipe Redux aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

2008-10-12T07:47:00.009-02:30

ANNOUNCING
The Winners & Alternative Thanksgiving Dinner

RECIPE REDUX

aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

AND

our selection for an alternative Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Eve

Rabbit Dinner ala Nellie Strowbridge's Basket Soup Recipe

Thanksgiving Day Dinner

Hors d'œuvre

Nellie Strowbridge's

Basket Soup

Entrée

Bonnie Morgan’s

Stuffed Cod

with

Nicky Hawkins'

Bottle Arse Squid On a Bed of Cavalance Pummy

Garnished With Saddiesuckers

and Leslie Davis' sautéed horse farts

Dessert

Suzuki Talent Education Program's (STEP's)

Galloped Gob of Golly

The Grand prize winner of a Dictionary of Newfoundland English is Leslie Davis.

Each of the contributors to our menu win their choice of three Rattling Books each.

Thank-you to everyone who sent recipes in to Rattling Books and CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine.

Recipes will be posted here

on the REDEFiNE iT Blog

Bon Appétit

Give thanks for each glutch and guttle!

Recipe Redux Contest Deadline Extended to October 8

2008-10-02T09:00:00.000-02:30

RECIPE REDUX
aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

New Deadline for Submissions is October 8

To enter:

submit one or more recipes that comply with the following guidelines:

1. must include atleast 3 ingredients found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

2. must include directions to do things to those ingredients that include atleast 3 additional words found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

3. must be fit for human consumption or be of some other use to people eating a Thanksgiving Dinner.

You may redefine existing recipes, renew old acquaintances or go where no cook has gone before.

By submitting your recipe you agree that we may post it on the internet, read it on the radio or feed it to the gulls.

Deadline for Submissions is October 8

The Fruits of your labour:

We will announce a multi-course Recipe Redux Menu composed of selected entries.

Any entries making it into the Menu will get their pick of 3 Rattling Books.

A Grand Prize Winner will be pulled from the Chef's Hat on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine (WAM) by host Angela Antle and recieve a copy of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Submission Deadline : October 8

Where to Submit:

Post your recipe here or send us an email on the Rattling Books Contact Us page

Deadline : October 8

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Bitch and Dogbody: Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

2008-09-30T09:00:00.003-02:30

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we're posting recipes found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one, reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English. (cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

bitch and dogbody

A cake made of flour, fat pork and molasses; also comb bitch and dogbody. 1924 ENGLAND 152 'Ye mind, sir,' asked Roberts, 'we used to have a kind o' cakes made o' fat pork, flour, an' molasses, called "bitch and dogbody"? An' de broken hard-bread was called "slut"?' T 156/7-65 They went aft to get some flour to bake what they calls a bitch—that's what we call a bangbelly.

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Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest. Deadline for Entry submissions is October 1.

word of the week (Sept 28 - Oct 4): scrunchins

2008-09-28T07:00:00.000-02:30

Sept 28 – Oct 4 Word of the Week

scrunchins n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

scrunchins n pl also cruncheons, scrunche(o)ns, scrunchings, scrunchions [phonetics unavailable]. Cp EDD scrunching(s) I 'the remains of a feast; remnants of food, broken meat, scraps,' 2 'refuse of any kind' Y, and also crunch Sc Lei Gl, crunshon Y Ha, scrunch 7 Ox, 8.

1 Bits of animal fat or fish liver, esp after its oil has been rendered out.

1792 PULLING MS 8 The only substitute I can find they have for bread is eggs, mixed up with deer's and swile's cruncheons which forms a kind of paste.

[1844] GOSSE 114-15 The advancing heat of spring melts the fat from the cellular tissue, which, when the oil has been drawn off, is rejected under the name of scruncheons.

1861 DE BOILIEU 158 After taking out as much oil as possible, and placing it in a tank, the remainder in the boiler, called 'scrunchens,' is collected, and undergoes the process of being pressed with a strong screw.

1897 J A Folklore x, 208 Scrunchings, the fibrous part of seal blubber and cods' livers, after they have been boiled or tried out and the oil pressed out of them.

1937 DEVINE 43 ~ the residue in a cask or boiler of cod livers or seal fat after the oil has been drawn off. P 218-68 ~ squares of whale fat after the oil has been rendered from them. Often used as fuel to keep the fires going under the oil vats.

1981 HUSSEY 21 When the cod oil was all rendered out and sold, we used to go over across the harbour to the factory and get the scruncheons (the residue that remained after all the [cod liver] oil was pressed out ... and although it didn't burn quite so well as the cod livers ... it helped ... to keep us warm in the fall.

2 Fatback pork, cut into cubes, often fried and served as a garnish, esp over FISH AND BREWIS.

1920 WALDO 160 'Bruise' is a very popular dish of hard bread boiled with fish, and with 'scrunchins' (pork) fried and put over it. P 245-55 ~ small, finely cut bits of fat pork, fried and eaten with fish and bruise. They are in the form of little cubes, 1/8 in. thick or smaller, and crisp on the top. T 92/3-64 And cut it real fine. What we used to call scrunchins, the little chunks. You cut them up and you put that in the flour. P 207-66 We're having scrunchins with our fish and potatoes.

1966 SCAMMELL 23 'Fish and brewis?' Uncle Jasper's tone was reverent. 'And scruncheons?' 'And scruncheons. Mary needn't know. And if she does, what odds?

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!
The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.
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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Brewis tangent: Hard Tack and ship's biscuit

2008-09-27T10:44:00.000-02:30

According to Wikipedia:

Hardtack (or hard tack) is a simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and salt. Inexpensive and long-lasting, it is and was used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military campaigns.[1] The name derives from the British sailor slang for food, "tack". It is known by other names such as pilot bread (as rations for bush pilots), ship's biscuit, sea biscuit, sea bread (as rations for sailors) or pejoratively "dog biscuits", "tooth dullers", "sheet iron" or "molar breakers".[2]

Because it is so hard and dry, properly stored and transported hardtack will survive rough handling and endure extremes of temperature.

History

To soften it, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal. Baked hard, it would keep for years as long as it was kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing.[3]

.....

Modern use

Alaskans are among the last to eat hard tack as a significant part of their normal diet, especially those in or from around Alaska. Interbake Foods of Richmond, Virginia produces most, if not all, of the commercially-available pilot bread under the "Sailor Boy" label — 98% of its production goes to Alaskans. Originally imported as a food product that could stand the rigors of transportation throughout Alaska, like powdered milk, pilot bread has become a favored food even as other, less robust foods have become available. Alaskan law requires all light aircraft to carry "survival gear", including food. The blue-and-white Sailor Boy Pilot Bread boxes are ubiquitous at Alaskan airstrips, in cabins, and virtually every village.
Commercially-available pilot bread is a significant source of food energy in a small, durable package. A store-bought 24-gram cracker can contain 100 calories, 20% from fat, 2 grams of protein and practically no dietary fiber. Two-pound boxes sold by Wal-Mart, Costco, Fred Meyer and other local stores in Anchorage cost roughly $4.00 in late 2007.
In the fall of 2007, rumors spread throughout Alaska that Interbake Foods might stop producing pilot bread. An Anchorage Daily News article[4] published November 6, 2007, reported the rumor was false, to the relief of many. Alaskans enjoy warmed pilot bread with melted butter or with soup or moose stew. Pilot bread with peanut butter, honey, or apple sauce is often enjoyed by children.

Those who buy commercially-baked pilot bread in the continental United States are often those who stock up on long-lived foods for disaster survival rations. Hardtack can comprise the bulk of dry food storage for some campers. Pilot bread, sometimes referred to as pilot crackers during advertising, is often sold in conjunction with freeze-dried foods as part of package deals by many freeze-dried survival food companies.
Hardtack was a staple of military servicemen in Japan and South Korea well into late 20th century. It is known as Kanpan in Japan and geonppang (건빵) in South Korea, meaning 'dry bread', and is still sold as a fairly popular snack food in South Korea.

Many people who currently buy or bake hardtack in the United States are Civil War reenactors.[citation needed] One of the units that continually bakes hardtack for living history is the USS Tahoma Marine Guard Infantry of the Washington State Civil War Association. British and French reenactors buy or bake hardtack as well.

Hard tack is also a mainstay in parts of Canada. Located in St John's, Newfoundland, Purity Factories currently bakes two varieties. A cracker, similar to a cross between an unsalted saltine and hardtack, is the "Crown Biscuit". It was a popular item in much of New England and was manufactured by Nabisco until it was discontinued in the first quarter of 2008. It was discontinued once before in 1996, but a small uprising by its supporters bought it back in 1997.

Read the rest here.

Don't forget our current Recipe Redux Contest. How about a few contemporary recipes for hard tack to make the brewis?

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Sample Recipe Contest Entry from Nellie Strowbridge

2008-09-26T09:00:00.000-02:30

Here's an entry to our Recipe Redux (aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick) contest to get you all inspired!

Basket Soup (Step One)

First: (I’ll get to the soup, directly)

set a rabbit snare, preferably in the woods.

Wait for a full moon on a frosty night

when rabbits are running

getting their exercise for the big event.

When you find a plump rabbit flicing (thrashing) in the snare,

bring it home still warm, and so fresh the memory of its run

is still imprinted on its eyeballs.

Sculp (skin) it and relieve it of liver, lights and grand piece (pancreas).

shuff the rabbit in the oven until it’s cooked. Have a scoff.

Don’t be greedy. Leave a little meat on the basket (skeleton) for a pot of:

Basket Soup (Step Two)

Pour a slut kettle full of iceberg water into a large pot (not a chamber pot) on the damper of a bogie stove.

Bring to a boil, then sling in the rabbit basket.

Now that the rabbit is lighter than when it wore fur and flesh, it can do a dance while you cut up navel beef (or substitute a horse’s navel), pickled in a bucket of bloody brine (forcing your lazy arteries into doing a bit of exercise to get your blood circulating).

Keep boiling until you have a nice, unbroken greasy surface.

Throw in the grand piece (pancreas) for a relish.

Wash new taties. Cut pieces out of them to make chip potatoes. Don’t use spuds that have been around so long their eyes are popping white snakes.

Sling in tootree chibols (mild onions).

Lastly but not leastly, heave in a cup of freshwater rice (dampened flour rolled into tiny balls).

In between the whiles slurp a little liquor off the soup.

Drop in puff-ins of dough for white boys. Smother them with a tight lid.

When the doughboys raise the cover, they are tipping their hat to say, “It’s time to slurp soup!”

For a real fog meal (big meal) you’ll have the rabbit, then the basket soup. Then you can go on to having a drop of flip (concoction of liquor, eggs and sugar or a drink of spruce) while someone else from facebook cooks the goose for the turkey dinner.

Make a blueberry grunt or lemon curd (a soft custard) for afters. Have a second cup of tea to mimpse (drink slowly).

When the full-course meal is done,let out a gark (burp) to show you appreciate the grub.

Save some coudins (couldn’t eat) for quality (visitors), and only the bones for the gulls’ beals (bills).

Nellie Strowbridge

N.B. Nellie Strowbridge is a Newfoundland writer and author of The Newfoundland Tongue.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

brewis sighting: Vikings of the Ice by George Allan England, first edition page 117

2008-09-25T09:00:00.001-02:30

"Fish an' brewis, how many youse?" It rhymed, for brewis is pronounced "bruise." "Anny man don't get up to braffus got to go widout un!" As the men told how many portions they wanted for themselves and for those they were serving, the cooks slopped out the famous dish renowned in Newfoundland lore: hard-bread boiled with cod. "Putt a little grase on un, b'ys. An' gi's us a drap o' tay, too, ye sons o' guffies!" Liberally the cooks drenched the fish and brewis with liquid pork grease and bits of crackling. With this, the sealers jostled away to their foul, underdeck quarters, to crouch and eat.

An old, familiar provender to me was fish and brewis, from previous rambles in "The Oldest British Colony." You can boil the hard-bread and fish in water or milk; condensed milk if you can't get fresh, which generally you can't. To thousands of Newfoundlanders it furnishes a staple, the hard-bread substituting for vegetables. As for "fish," that always means cod. The story is time-worn of the old livyere exclaiming: "if ye can't gi' us fish, gi' us haddock!"

The above excerpt is drawn from Vikings if the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great Newfoundland Seal Hunt by George Allan England, Doubleday, Page & Company 1924. An upcoming unabridged audio book release from Rattling Books.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: tatie pork-cake

2008-09-23T09:00:00.002-02:30

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we'll be posting some recipes found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one, reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English. (cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

tatie pork-cake:

variety of cake or bun made with flour, mashed potatoes and pork; freq in children's rhyme when playing ducks and drakes. P 267-58 ~ s. Small baked cakes of potato, pork, flour. C 66-7 In Grand Bank they usually have pea soup for dinner on Saturday, [but] sometimes they substitute titty pork cakes made of potato and pork fried in a pan. 1976 Daily News 24 Feb, p. 3 It was considered a respectable effort if your stone skimmed the surface long enough for you to recite, not too fast: 'A duck and a drake and a tatey pork cake and a dory's stern'. . . The recipe, if I remember correctly, called for potatoes, fat back pork, flour and baking powder.

Word of the Week (Sept 21 - 27) : brewis

2008-09-21T08:22:00.003-02:30

brewis n

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

brewis n also brews(e), broose, bruis, bruise, bruse [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~ 2 " 'bread soaked in boiling fat pottage, made of salted meat" [1755] (J.)'; cp EDD sb 2 'bread or oatcake soaked in hot water'; DC Nfld (cl850 [sic = 1960], 1906-). See also FISH n: FISH AND BREWIS, FISHERMAN'S BREWIS.

1 Sea-biscuit or 'hard tack' soaked in water and then boiled; such a dish cooked with salt cod and fat pork. [(1766) 1971 BANKS 137 It is a Soup made with a small quantity of salt Pork cut into Small Slices a good deal of fish and Biscuit Boyled for about an hour.]

1858 [LOWELL] ii, 273 Putting a check upon their own curiosity, they had some tea and brewse [L's note: ship-bread soaked into a pulp in warm water] made in the best art of the ship's cook.

1895 J A Folklore viii, 28 Brews ... is a dish which occupies almost the same place at a Newfoundlander's breakfast-table that baked beans are supposed to do on that of a Bostonian. It consists of pieces of hard biscuit soaked over night, warmed in the morning, and then eaten with boiled codfish and butter.

1905 DUNCAN ix-x 'Broose' is a toothsome dish resembling boiled hard-tack.

1908 HUBBARD 242 'Bruise' for breakfast. Hard tack, fish, pork, boiled together—good. 'Two more early risin's, and then duff and bruise,' is said to be a Thursday remark of the fishermen.

1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 23-4 All right-minded Newfoundlanders and Labradormen call it [brewis] 'bruse.'

1924 ENGLAND 117 'Fish an' brewis, how many youse?' It rhymed, for brewis is pronounced 'bruise.'

1933 GREENLEAF (ed) 250 "Change Islands Song": No sign of salmon on that shore; discouraging was the news; / No pirate money could be found, and not a fish for brewis.

1936 DULEY 56 Isabel had a chicken to draw, a jam tart to make, brewis to put in soak for the Sunday morning breakfast.

1937 DEVINE 5 'Brewis,' a once popular morning meal composed of broken hard biscuit soaked in water over night, boiled with small pieces of salt codfish and served up with melted fat pork, evidently came from Scotland... In the old days in St John's, when the merchants lived over their stores on Water Street, they all used to have brewis for breakfast on Sunday morning. It was a light meal, palatable and easy of digestion... The fisherman followed the merchant more from necessity than choice ... and most days of the week, as well as Sunday, saw brewis used all over the country.

1955 DOYLE (ed) 11 "A Noble Fleet of Sealers": Tho' Newfoundland is changing fast, / Some things we must not lose, / May we always have our Flipper pie, / And Codfish for our brewis. T 75/6-64 [We'd] carry a stock o' hard bread, and [when] the soft bread'd be gone make brewis out o' the hard bread. T 43/8- 64 There was no fresh meats, no baloney, no fresh fish—you'd get salt fish Fridays, salt fish and brewis and fat.

2 Phr have a head like a brewis-bag: to be empty-headed, forgetful. C 67-14 'He has a head like a brewis bag' [meaning] could not 'hold' or retain anything. stiff as brewis: dignified, unbending. C 65-2 ~ said about a person who walks [in a] dignified [manner] and is supposed to be proud.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English facebook group where we explore tangents on the Word of the Week.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Figgy Duff sighting: Rock Recipes Blog

2008-09-20T10:43:00.007-02:30

The following is recipe is found on a wonderful blog site dedicated to recipes and cooking lore.It's called Rock Recipes and here is a bit of what it says about Figgy Duff (our word of the week):

First for those of you reading without benefit of Newfoundland experience, Figgy Duff has nothing to do with figs, dried fresh or otherwise. Raisins are historically referred to as figs in many parts of the province.A recent email request and this mornings brunch prompted me to add my standard recipe for Figgy Duff. A young lady from the southern US who is married to a Newfoundlander asked for assistance in preparing this dish. I was reluctant to answer with a definitive recipe because I don't believe that one actually exists. I have encountered many variations of what people call Figgy Duff here in Newfoundland. Family history and local variations of the recipe account for many differences in both opinion and experience of what Figgy Duff actually is. It is a close cousin to the traditional English Spotted Dick where, I suspect, a part of our English and Irish heritage has survived over the centuries in this dish.This is a slight variation on my grandmother, Belinda Morgan's recipe, where I remember having it at many a Sunday dinner in her Port-de-Grave kitchen. A similar recipe with the addition of molasses and spices I have heard referred to as Labrador Duff. Other recipe variations I have seen include breadcrumbs, orange zest or currants but I have never attempted any of those.

Read the rest including the recipe at Rock Recipes Blog.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Figgy Duff : recipe from Newfoundland Recipes website

2008-09-20T10:42:00.004-02:30

Figgy Duff

The following recipe is found at the Newfoundland Recipes website.

Ingredients: 2 cups bread crumbs, made from bread crusts

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp hot water

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp ginger, allspice, and cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Water Molasses Coady: 1 cup molasses, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 tsp vinegar

Method: To make bread crumbs, soak dry bread crusts in enough water to soften; drain and squeeze gently to remove excess water. Break bread into crumbs and measure out 2 cups. Grease a 4 cup mold. Mix crumbs, raisins, molasses, and melted butter together. Combine baking soda and water and add to crumb mixture; mix well. Sift together flour, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and salt; stir into crumb mixture. Pour mixture into greased pudding mold. Cover the top with a large piece of greased foil and fold snugly over sides of mold to keep steam out. Remember to leave some slack in foil because pudding will need room to expand. Place mold on rack in a steamer or large pot. Add boiling water to halfway up the sides of pudding mold. Cover and steam for 2 hours or until firm to touch. Serve topped with Molasses Coady. Pudding can be placed in a cloth pudding bag instead of mold. Place bag in pot with enough water to cover bag. Pudding can be cooked in a pot with Jigg's Dinner.

Making Molasses Coady: In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients. Heat until boiling; simmer, stirring ocassionally, for 10 minutes. Serve over steamed or baked puddings.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Figgy Duff sighting: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada

2008-09-20T10:35:00.002-02:30

Figgy Duff is our word of the week.

It's also the name of a Newfoundland band. Here is what the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada has to say about it.

Figgy Duff. Newfoundland folk group. Named for a raisin pudding popular on the island, it was formed in 1975 in St John's by Noel Dinn (piano, drums) and Pamela Morgan (vocals), with Philip Dinn (vocals, percussion), Kelly Russell (violin), Art Stoyles (accordion), and Dave Panting (mandolin, bass guitar). Dinn (b St John's 25 Dec 1947, d St John's 26 July 1993) and Morgan (b Grand Falls, Nfld, 25 Nov 1956) have been constant to Figgy Duff.

Personnel otherwise varied with each of its three albums to 1990: Figgy Duff (Posterity PTR-13014, issued in 1980) with Panting and the accordionist Geoff Butler; After the Tempest (Boot BOS-7243, issued in 1984) with Panting, Butler and the bass guitarist Derek Pelley; Weather Out the Storm (Hypnotic 71356-1000, CD and cass, issued in 1990) with Kelly Russell, Frank Maher (accordion, harmonica), Bruce Crummell (guitar) and Rob Laidlaw (bass).

Based in St John's, save for a period 1977-8 in Toronto .....

Read the rest here.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by the Newfoundland based audio book publisher Rattling Books.

Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: pipsi n also pipsey, pipshy

2008-09-16T09:00:00.001-02:30

pipsi n also pipsey, pipshy DC pipshi (Labr: 1771-);

PEACOCK English-Eskimo Dictionary 225 Fish, dried: pipsi; Labrador Inuit 101 pitsik 'dried fish.' Cod-fish and trout preserved by drying in the sun and wind without salt. [1771] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 138 I was greatly pleased with [the Eskimo] method of curing codfish without salt; which, in that state, they call pipshy. The fish is split down the back. the bone taken out, and the thick parts scored down to the skin, an inch asunder; two of them are then fastened together by their tails, and hung across a pole to dry in the open air. 1895 GRENFELL 63 To prevent scurvy in winter, when fresh fish is not attainable, salt meat must be avoided, even if they can afford to buy it. The following recipe is invented with that end: 'Dry the cod in the sun till it is so hard none can go bad. In winter powder this, rub it up with fresh seal oil, and add cranberries if you have any.' This dainty is known as 'Pipsey.' 1966 BEN-DOR 50 Dried fish, 'pipsi,' is the Eskimo technique of preserving cod and trout for future use. 1977 Inuit Land Use 123 Char caught in the spring make the best dried fish (pipsi); later in summer, their flesh is more oily, and it quickly becomes rancid if left long in the sun.

Word of the Week (September 14 - 20) duff; figgy duff

2008-09-13T18:52:00.004-02:30

duff; figgy duff

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

duff1 n EDD ~ sb1 1 esp Co quot; DAE 1 (1838-) for sense 1; for comb in sense 2: Cent duff-day 'on board ship, Sunday.'

1 A pudding made of flour and water, sometimes with suet and raisins added, boiled in a cloth bag; CLOTH PUDDING. FIGGY DUFF, STOGGER.

[1856] 1975 WHITELEY 56 Today we have chowder (cod) breakfast, duff (flour pudding) for dinner (with W.I. Molasses).

1883 HATTON & HARVEY 305 On three days of the week dinner consists of pork and 'duff,' the latter item consisting of flour and water with a little fatty substance intermixed 'to lighten it.' When boiled it is almost as hard as a cannon-ball.

[1886] LLOYD 36 The fare usually consists of salt pork, duff, molasses, tea, and codfish; on which the changes are rung from January to December in each year.

1924 ENGLAND 151 Then they got pork an' duff three times a week, an' hard biscuit an' tea.

[1926] 1946 PRATT 174 "The Cachalot": The weather fair, the weather rough, / With watch and sleep, with tack and reef, / With swab and holystone, salt beef / And its eternal partner, duff.

1936 SMITH 52 Ready or raw give the men their 'duffs' and let us get on the ice.

[1960] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 141 "On the Schooner John Joe": We ate a bang-belly, we had Sure enough, / We made a good meal of the fat pork and duff. T 178/9-65 A duff and a pudding is two different things. A pudding is cooked into a pudding cloth and tied up; a duff is [made in] a bag about so long, and you put your dough in the bag, and he's small down under and big on top. When you'd take un out of the pot, you would untie him and take hold by the end and the duff would shoot out in the pan. That was the rig of a duff!

1977 BURSEY 24 The duff was made of water and flour and a generous addition of raisins and all saturated with molassses. We called it a figged duff and it was indeed a luxury.

2 Comb duff bag: cloth bag in which pudding is boiled (1924 ENGLAND 315). duff day: day of the week when a boiled pudding is customarily served at the main meal. C 70-15 Dinner was at 1 p.m. and again there was a heavy meal designed for a particular day; Tuesday and Thursday were 'duff' days when the meal was vegetables of different kinds, salt beef or salt pork, and pease pudding. M 71-103 Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays were 'duff days.'

1977 BURSEY 24 Tuesday was 'duff day' and we must buy the necessaries.

duff 2 n EDD ~ sb1. A blow, esp a kick in the backside.
[1968] 1976 Culture & Tradition 37 [He] comes up and gives him a good swift duff in the hole. P 148-79 He's so stubborn that I want to give him a duff.

Supplement:

duff1 n 1 1984 WRIGHT 15 These meals usually consisted of salt fish or meat, with 'duffs' of steamed flour. Sweet duff--with a bit of molasses--was served [the sealers] Sundays.

duff2 n P 301-83 'I'll give you a hard duff.'

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our facebook group .The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: old scripture cake

2008-09-13T09:00:00.001-02:30

(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

old scripture cake: Christmas cake made from recipe drawn from biblical texts.

M 69-7 Here is a recipe for an Old Scripture Cake used [at Christmas]: 1 cup Judges 5:25 milk, 2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 sugar, 3½ cups 1st Kings 4:22 flour, 3 cups Samuel 30:12 raisins, 1 cup Genesis 43:11 nuts, 1 cup Exodus 3:8 honey, 5 Isaiah 10:14 eggs, a little Leviticus 2:13 salt, a few kinds of lst Kings 10:2 spices, 1 large spoon Genesis 24:20 water. Follow Solomon's advice for making a good boy, Proverbs 23:14, and you will have a good cake.

Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: Hamburg Bread or Hard Bread

2008-09-12T09:00:00.002-02:30

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we'll be posting some recipes and references to recipes found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's one reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

hamburg bread: hard thick biscuit; HARD BREAD.

1852 Morning Post 12 Feb, p. 4 800 bags No. 1, 2, and 3, Hambro' Bread.
[1879] 1898 Nfld Law Reports 185 [The plaintiff] being dissatisfied with the quality of the machine-made biscuit of Newfoundland, as compared with that imported from Hamburg, he introduced into his establishment a process known amongst bakers as hand rolling ... and a biscuit is thus produced which ... in the words of one of the witnesses, has driven Hamburg bread out of the market.

1906 LUMSDEN 68 'Hamburg bread,' or hard biscuit (not to be confounded with pilot or sailor biscuit as popularly known, being thick and cake-like in shape and extraordinarily hard), is in constant use on the vessels and in the houses of the fishermen.

1936 DEVINE 92 He laid his plans to get the formula or recipe for making Hamburg bread and succeeded [in making hard bread].

1964 BLONDAHL (ed) 97 "Red Cap's Hole": When they came to dine at dinner-time, / Some joyful words were said... / Of days of yore when the pots boiled o'er, / With brewis from hamburg's made.

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Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest. Deadline for Entry submissions is October 1.
Posted by Rattling Books at 8:35 AM 0 comments

Recipes from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: Fisherman's Brewis

2008-09-11T08:35:00.005-02:30

Until we announce the winner of our Recipe Redux Contest we'll be posting some recipes found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to inspire you. Here's the first one, reproduced as found in the online Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

(cartoon by Jennifer Barrett)

fisherman's brewis: cod-fish cooked with hard tack or sea biscuit and pork fat. See also BREWIS, FISH AND BREWIS.

T 80/2-64 He keeps up the old tradition. Every Sunday morning—fisherman's brewis, just as regular as the mornin's comes.

P 9-73 A recipe for fisherman's brewis, schooner-style, for five or six hungry men: two cakes of hard bread per man, two plump codfish with head off and entrails removed, one piece of fatback pork.

1978 Evening Telegram 7 Aug, p. 4 [He] promises [visitors to Bonavista] a parade, races and feeds of fisherman's brewis.

1979 TIZZARD 278 In the boat sometimes my father carried a cooking pot and a frying pan, and with that a piece of fat back pork in the bread box. This meant that he could have fish and brewis or fisherman's brewis, whichever was preferable... The pork would be fried out in the frying pan. When the codfish was cooked the brewis and pork fat would all be thrown in the pot together and mashed up, thus making fisherman's brewis.

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Rattling Books is running a recipe contest inspired by the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. We call it Recipe Redux, aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick, Recipe Contest. Deadline for Entry submissions is October 1.

RECIPE REDUX: aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest Details

2008-09-08T14:59:00.005-02:30

RECIPE REDUX

aka Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

Deadline for Submissions is October 1

To enter:

submit one or more recipes that comply with the following guidelines:

1. must include atleast 3 ingredients found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

2. must include directions to do things to those ingredients that include atleast 3 additional words found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

3. must be fit for human consumption or be of some other use to people eating a Thanksgiving Dinner.

You may redefine existing recipes, renew old acquaintances or go where no cook has gone before.

By submitting your recipe you agree that we may post it on the internet, read it on the radio or feed it to the gulls.

Deadline for Submissions is October 1

The Fruits of your labour:

On October 5 we will announce a multi-course Recipe Redux Menu composed of selected entries.

Any entries making it into the Menu will get their pick of 3 Rattling Books.

A Grand Prize Winner will be pulled from the Chef's Hat on CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine (WAM) by host Angela Antle and recieve a copy of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

Submission Deadline : October 1

Where to Submit:

Post your recipe here on the Wall or below in the relevant TOPIC belowor send us an email on the Rattling Books Contact Us page

or leave a comment on our REDEFiNE iT Blog

Deadline : October 1

Ponder this while you pick your blue berries.

"rattling" sighting: The Blueberry Ball

2008-09-08T09:27:00.002-02:30

Here is use of the word "rattling" that is not included in the definition found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. It is also a use of the word "rattling" that I was personally unfamiliar with until informed by people that it was a common adjective in Britain. The following song makes me wonder if it was also common on the west coast of Newfoundland. I'd love to hear from anyone from out there or elsewhere in Newfoundland where the term is used in the way it appears below.

The Blueberry Ball

On the tenth of September as you all may remember,
I'll sing you a short line or two;
He stuck to the tiller like a girl loved a feller,
A-pushing the Jubliee through.
We went to Daniel's Harbour, the truth I will tell,
We was there on a rattling good time;
We stayed there three days and we landed our freight,
And I tell you that we drank the wine.

There was old Mrs. Biggins to pour out the wine,
And Sam House to carry it 'round;
Phil Decker was there collecting the money,
Will Keough to pass it around.
We started a dance about half-a-past eight,
And we never knocked off until four;
And many of those girls that danced there that night,
Said they'd never dance there any more.

There was lots of strange faces that night on the floor,
And some I can't never name at all;
Such a rattling racket I never beheld,
As the night at the Blueberry Ball.
We started a scuff about half-a-past two,
And every man stood to his share;
We danced till broad daylight and then went on board,
And the sharemen went out to their gear.

Oh, now to conclude and finish my song,
I hope I haven't said anything astray;
We'll haul up our anchors and reef our shank-painters,
And prepare for a time in the Bay.

Collected in 1958 from Freeman Bennett of St.Paul's, NL, by Ken Peacock, and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.43-44, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.

Kenneth Peacock noted that this native ditty was composed in Daniel's Harbour just above St. Paul's on Newfoundland's northwest coast. Mr. Bennett was not sure of the composer's name. One of the men mentioned in verse 2, Sam House, was a well-known composer in the area.

From the dictionary of Newfoundland English:
Scuff - a dance held in somebody's house, barn or stage.
Reef our shank-painters - roll up our lines; figuratively: to depart.

Sept 7 - 13 Word of the Week: rattling

2008-09-07T07:00:00.000-02:30

Sept 7 - 13 Word of the Week: rattling

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

rattling ppl See also RATTLE¹ . Of a river or stream, noisy, clattering, swift.
[1783] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 15 We rowed along [the lake] for a mile and an half, when we arrived at the mouth of a strong, rattling brook. [1811] 1818 BUCHAN 5 [It lay a] mile above the rattling Brook. 1842 JUKES ii, 136 We soon reached the mouth of the Great Rattling Brook, a considerable stream coming down from the north. 1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 294 Rattling brook descends in a waterfall into Corner Brook cove.

rattling ppl
[1768] 1989 Nfld Qtly lxxxv (1), 21 Great Rattling Brook. 1983 Gazetteer of Canada: Nfld 142-3 Rattling Brook [etc, high frequency in river names]. 1984 POWELL 101 Soon I was heading up the Big Lake, about four miles long, and then I had to go down a very rattling brook about one mile where the water emptied into the river.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

The Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick Recipe Contest

2008-09-06T22:49:00.004-02:30

Announcing the
Not Much Meat on a Carey Chick
Recipe Contest

brought to you by Rattling Books REDEFiNE iT Word of the Week and CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine

To enter:

submit one or more recipes that comply with the following guidelines:

1. must include atleast 3 ingredients found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

2. must include directions to do things to those ingredients that include atleast 3 additional words found in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English

3. must be fit for human consumption or be of some other use to people eating a Thanksgiving Dinner

You may redefine existing recipes, renew old acquaintances or go where no cook has gone before.

By submitting your recipe you agree that we may post it on the internet, read it on the radio or feed it to the gulls.

Angela Antle of CBC Radio's Weekend Arts Magazine (WAM) will select a winning entry to recieve a copy of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

The weekend before the Canadian Thanksgiving Day we will provide a multi-course Thanksgiving Day Dinner Menu based on entries.

Ponder this while you pick your blue berries.

carey chick sighting: Ode to Mother Carey's Chicken by Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914)

2008-09-06T08:00:00.000-02:30

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Ode to Mother Carey’s Chicken

Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832–1914)

On Seeing a Storm-Petrel in a Cage on a Cottage Wall and Releasing It

GAZE not at me, my poor unhappy bird;

That sorrow is more than human in thine eye;

Too deep already is my spirit stirr’d

To see thee here, child of the sea and sky,

Coop’d in a cage with food thou canst not eat,
5
Thy “snow-flake” soli’d, and soli’d those conquering feet

That walk’d the billows, while thy “sweet-sweet-sweet”

Proclaim’d the tempest nigh.

Bird whom I welcom’d while the sailors curs’d,

Friend whom I bless’d wherever keels may roam,
10
Prince of my childish dreams, whom mermaids nurs’d

In purple of billows—silver of ocean-foam,

Abash’d I stand before the mighty grief

That quells all other: Sorrow’s king and chief:

To ride the wind and hold the sea in fief,
15
Then find a cage for home!

From out thy jail thou seest yon heath and woods,

But canst thou hear the birds or smell the flowers?

Ah, no! those rain-drops twinkling on the buds

Bring only visions of the salt sea-showers.
20
“The sea!” the linnets pipe from hedge and heath;

“The sea!” the honeysuckles whisper and breathe;

And tumbling waves, where those wild-roses wreathe,

Murmur from inland bowers.

These winds so soft to others,—how they burn!
25
The mavis sings with gurgle and ripple and plash,

To thee yon swallow seems a wheeling tern.

And when the rain recalls the briny lash

Old Ocean’s kiss thou lovest,—when thy sight

Is mock’d with Ocean’s horses—manes of white,
30
The long and shadowy flanks, the shoulders bright—

Bright as the lightning’s flash,—

When all these scents of heather and brier and whin,

All kindly breaths of land-shrub, flower, and vine,

Recall the sea-scents, till thy feather’d skin
35
Tingles in answer to a dream of brine,—

When thou, remembering there thy royal birth,

Dostsee between the bars a world of dearth,

Is there a grief—a grief on all the earth—

So heavy and dark as thine?
40

But I can buy thy freedom—I (thank God!),

Who lov’d thee more than albatross or gull,

Lov’d thee when on the waves thy footsteps trod,

Dream’d of thee when, becalm’d, we lay a-hull—

’T is I thy friend who once, a child of six,
45
To find where Mother Carey fed her chicks,

Climb’d up the stranded punt, and with two sticks

Tried all in vain to scull,—

Thy friend who ow’d a Paradise of Storm,—

The little dreamer of the cliffs and coves,
50
Who knew thy mother, saw her shadowy form

Behind the cloudy bastions where she moves,

And heard her call: “Come! for the welkin thickens,

And tempests mutter and the lightning quickens!”

Then, starting from his dream, would find the chickens
55
Were only blue rock-doves,—

Thy friend who ow’d another Paradise

Of calmer air, a floating isle of fruit,

Where sang the Nereids on a breeze of spice

While Triton, from afar, would sound salute:
60
There wast thou winging, though the skies were calm,

For marvellous strains, as of the morning’s shalm,

Were struck by ripples round that isle of palm

Whose shores were “Carey’s lute.”

And now to see thee here, my king, my king,
65
Far-glittering memories mirror’d in those eyes,

As if there shone within each iris-ring

An orbed world—ocean and hills and skies!—

Those black wings ruffled whose triumphant sweep

Conquer’d in sport!—yea, up the glimmering steep
70
Of highest billow, down the deepest deep,

Sported with victories!

To see thee here!—a coil of wilted weeds

Beneath those feet that danced on diamond spray,

Rider of sportive Ocean’s reinless steeds—
75
Winner in Mother Carey’s sabbath-fray

When, stung by magic of the witch’s chant,

They rise, each foamy-crested combatant—

They rise and fall and leap and foam and gallop and pant

Till albatross, sea-swallow, and cormorant
80
Would flee like doves away!

And shalt thou ride no more where thou hast ridden,

And feast no more in hyaline halls and caves,

Master of Mother Carey’s secrets hidden,

Master most equal of the wind and waves,
85
Who never, save in stress of angriest blast,

Ask’d ship for shelter,—never, till at last

The foam-flakes, hurl’d against the sloping mast,

Slash’d thee like whirling glaives!

Right home to fields no seamew ever kenn’d,
90
Where scarce the great sea-wanderer fares with thee,

I come to take thee—nay, ’t is I, thy friend—

Ah, tremble not—I come to set thee free;

I come to tear this cage from off this wall,

And take thee hence to that fierce festival
95
Where billows march and winds are musical,

Hymning the Victor-Sea!

Yea, lift thine eyes, my own can bear them now:

Thou ’rt free! thou ’rt free. Ah, surely a bird can smile!

Dost know me, Petrel? Dost remember how
100
I fed thee in the wake for many a mile,

Whilst thou wouldst pat the waves, then, rising, take

The morsel up and wheel about the wake?

Thou ’rt free, thou ’rt free, but for thine own dear sake

I keep thee caged awhile.
105

Away to sea! no matter where the coast:

The road that turns to home turns never wrong:

Where waves run high my bird will not be lost:

His home I know: ’t is where the winds are strong,—

Where, on her throne of billows, rolling hoary
110
And green and blue and splash’d with sunny glory,

Far, far from shore—from farthest promontory—

The mighty Mother sings the triumphs of her story,

Sings to my bird the song!

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Carey chick or Mother Carey's chicks is our word of the week here at REDEFiNE iT.

Carey chick sighting: the words to Two Jinkers by P.K. Devine

2008-09-05T09:26:00.000-02:30

JIMMY WALSH AND STEPHEN
(or Two Jinkers)
by P.K.Devine

Two jinkers in our harbour dwell,
Adventuresome and plucky,
The plans they make all promise well,
But always turn unlucky.
Men were hard to get that year,
Else sailed we would have sooner,
So to our sorrow and despair,
They shipped aboard our schooner.

Misfortune followed on their trail
Wherever they did venture,
And when bad luck did us assail
These two we'd always censure.
To the offer ground you's see them bound,
Look out for squalls that even',
Make for the land--cries every man,
Here's Jimmy Walsh and Stephen.

When we landed on the Funks
We had two Cat's Cove ruffians,
They went battin' Carey's chicks
And said that they were puffins.
When we came to share our eggs
We thought all hands had even,
Then found that two had none at all--
Poor Jimmy Walsh and Stephen.

In crossing Belle Isle Straits next night,
The orders from the skipper
Were: "Keep your canvas all drawn tight,
And on your lee the dipper."
Before the dawn there came a crash,
From stem to stern a shiver,
Then from our bunks we made a dash,
And heard a running river.

We found that Stephen was at the wheel,
And Jimmy was the scunner,
That we still lived 'twas good to feel
When two such craytures run 'er.
Our water line a growler rives,
And through the seam comes seivin'
The ocean roaring for the lives
Of Jimmy Walsh and Stephen!

Our Guardian Angels never knew
Of such an active season,
We kept our senses all alert,
And knew we had good reason.
Such constant strain might crack the brain,
The fishery game I'm leavin',
And if I "raise" give all the praise
To Jimmy Walsh and Stephen !

carey chick sighting: Leach's Storm-Petrels on stamps

2008-09-04T08:20:00.000-02:30

Leach's Storm Petrel
Oceanodroma leucorhoa

Leach's Storm Petrels are also known as Carey chicks or Mother Carey's chicks (our word of the week).

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This note brought to you by Rattling Books, a Canadian audio book publisher based in Newfoundland, surrounded by carey chicks.

2008-09-03T08:50:00.002-02:30

Our word of the week is carey chicks which is one of the Newfoundland terms for Leach's Storm-Petrels. Here's an intro to the Leach's Storm-Petrel from the folks at the The Birds of North America Online.

Leach's Storm-Petrel

Oceanodroma leucorhoa

Order

PROCELLARIIFORMES

– Family

HYDROBATIDAE

Issue No. 233

Authors: Huntington, Charles E., Ronald G. Butler, and Robert A. Mauck

Leach’s Storm-Petrel, also known as Leach’s Petrel and Mother Cary’s Chicken, is the most widespread procellariiform breeding in the Northern Hemisphere. More than eight million pairs nest in burrows or crevices on Atlantic islands from Norway to Massachusetts and on Pacific islands from Baja California to Hokkaido, Japan. Outside the long nesting season, these seabirds disperse widely in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, well away from land and mainly in the tropics. Millions more nonbreeders, mostly immatures, remain at sea year-round, although many of them visit colonies during the nesting season. Small and dark and not usually gregarious or attracted to ships, this species is inconspicuous at sea. Even at nesting islands, individuals fly to and from their subterranean nests only at night. Many aspects of their lives remain mysteries.

Breeding populations in the North Atlantic Ocean are quite similar to those in the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific and are considered the same subspecies. Taxonomic treatment of populations with increasingly dark-rumped individuals southward in the eastern Pacific is still tentative. Of interest and worth continued investigation are the distinct populations with different egg-laying seasons on Guadalupe Island off Baja California (Power and Ainley 1986). Much work remains to determine the nonbreeding distributions of these populations. The smaller, dark-rumped Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis), nesting off Japan, Korea, China, and Russia, is so similar it has been considered a race of Leach’s Storm-Petrel; the two are appropriately considered a superspecies.

To read more and find out how to subscribe to the Birds of North America visit them here.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by Rattling Books, an audiobook publisher based in Newfoundland. Rattling Books has a special fondness for the carey chick.

August 31 – Sept 6 Word of the Week: Carey chicks

2008-08-31T07:23:00.001-02:30

August 31 – Sept 6 Word of the Week: Carey chicks

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

Carey chicks

carey's chicken n also carey's chick, carey chick. Cp OED chicken 4: Mother Carey's chicken (1767-); DC Carey: Carey's chick (Nfld: 1953-); see also PALL CAREY for sense 1.

1 Variety of petrel, esp northern Leach's petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa).

[1937] 1940 DOYLE (ed) 11 "Two Jinkers": They went battin' Carey's chicks / And said that they were puffins.

1959 MCATEE 4 Carey chick—Leach's petrel. (Nfld, Que.) C 69-7 The kerry-chicken, which lives away out at sea, shows signs of a storm if it is seen near land. P 127-73 Carey chick is a small bird that walks on water.

2 In clipped form carey: in coastal features, esp shallow waters of an inshore fishing ground identified by the habitual presence of Leach's petrel.

1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 550 These include North Carey island ... and Bingham island... 2 2/3 miles north-eastward ... of Carey island. 1966 SCAMMELL 139 ~ [name] of fishing grounds [off Fogo Island]. Q 71-3 ~ shoal on a fishing ground [on the South Coast].

3 Cpd carey-church: large square lantern at the masthead of a fishing schooner, a lure to the seabird in foggy weather (P 90-69).

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

"tuckamoor" sighting: Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve Management Plan

2008-08-30T22:26:00.003-02:30

MANAGEMENT PLAN
BURNT CAPE ECOLOGICAL RESERVE
Parks and Natural Areas Division
Department of Environment and Conservation
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador 2000

"The primary purpose for setting aside Burnt Cape as an Ecological Reserve is protection of it*s unique flora. Two main vegetation communities predominate at Burnt Cape: limestone barrens and tuckamoor...

2. Tuckamoor
This term is used to refer to stunted tree growth which commonly occurs throughout coastal locations in Newfoundland (i.e. ravines, lower slopes and the base of cliffs provide the right microclimate). This wind-pruned vegetation type varies in height, from tens of centimeters, to 2 meter high trees of balsam fir and white spruce. In areas of greater soil moisture, black spruce replaces balsam fir as the dominant tree species.

On Burnt Cape tuckamoor accounts for 35 % of the vegetation cover. The species which occur are typical of tuckamoor found throughout insular Newfoundland (e.g. Abies balsamea f. hudsonia), Corn lily (Clintonia borealis), Creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula), Heart-leaved twayblade (Listera cordata), Starflower (Trientalis borealis) and Spinulose wood fern (Drytoperis spinulosa). Moss flora is a significant component of this community and includes the following forest floor mosses: red-stemmed moss (Pleurozium schreberi), knight*s plume (Ptilium crista-castrensis) stair-step moss (Hylocomium splendens), common hair-cap moss (Polytrichum commune), shaggy moss (Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus) and broom moss (Dicranium spp.)."

Read more from the Burnt Cape Management Plan here.

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The REDEFiNE iT word of the week is brought to you by the Newfoundland audio book publisher Rattling Books.

"Tuckamore" sighting: Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland

2008-08-27T22:27:00.002-02:30

Since 2001, the Tuckamore Festival has offered an inspiring and intensive chamber music program for emerging musicians in historic St. John's, Newfoundland. For two weeks, talented pianists and string players perform and attend numerous concerts as well as participate in workshops, open rehearsals, private lessons, coachings, and master classes.

Learn more about the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland.

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tuckamore is our word of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English (brought to you by Rattling Books).

"tuckamore" also known as Krummholz which is what you find in Wikipedia

2008-08-26T23:27:00.002-02:30

Krummholz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Krummholz or Krumholtz formation (from German: krumm, "crooked, bent, twisted"; and Holz, "wood", also Knieholz "knee timber") is a feature of subarctic and subalpine tree line landscapes, where continual exposure to fierce, freezing winds cause vegetation to become stunted and deformed.

The wind kills branches on the windward side, giving the tree a characteristic flag-like appearance. Where the lower portion of the tree is protected by snow cover, only the exposed upper portion have this appearance.

Common trees showing Krumholtz formation include Subalpine Fir, Subalpine Larch, Engelmann Spruce, Limber Pine, and Lodgepole Pine.

William Rogers Fisher introduced the English terms elfin-tree and elfin-wood to correspond to the German 'krummholz' in his 1903 translation of Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper's Plant-geography upon a physiological basis.[1]

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And the Dictionary of Newfoundland English records tuckamore as describing similarly wind pruned evergreens in Newfoundland.

word of the week august 24-30: tuckamore

2008-08-24T08:04:00.001-02:30

August 24 -30 Word of the Week

tuckamore

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

tuckamore

tuckamore n also tuckamil, tucken-more, tuckermel, tuckermill, tuckermore DC ~ Nfld (1895-). For tucken-more, see TUCKING BUSH and MORE n. See also TUCK2. (a) Small stunted evergreen tree with gnarled spreading roots, forming closely matted ground-cover on the barrens; also attrib; (b) collectively, low stunted vegetation; scrub.

1863 MORETON 31 Tucken-mores. Small low-grown shrubs and creeping plants.

1866 WILSON 37 In the hollows are the tuckermore bushes, which is a dwarf juniper, with strong branches at right angles to the stem, and closely interlacing each other: the tops of these bushes are level, as if they had been clipped. To walk upon these tuckermores, or penetrate their branches, is equally impracticable.

1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 9 The country is nearly level with scarcely any woods except occasional patches of tucking bushes (Tuckamores).

1891 PACKARD 84 Half-way down, as [the vale] widens out, [it becomes] choked with a stunted spruce and fir growth, or what the people call 'tucking,' or 'tuckermel-bush.'

1895 J A Folklore viii, 39 ~ , in some places tuckamil, a clump of spruce, growing almost flat on the ground and matted together, found on the barrens and bleak, exposed places. Ibid viii, 288 I drawed down to the tuckamores aside the pond and got twict thirty and varty yards from un. I lets drive and the loo' dove.

1919 GRENFELL2 229 He had gone through his snow racquets and actually lost the bows later, smashing them all up as he repeatedly fell through between logs and tree-trunks and 'tuckamore.'

1927 RULE 70 Travelling alongshore between Bonne Bay and Cow Head, I sometimes used the sloping surface of tuckermill as a couch to rest upon.

1970 Evening Telegram 21 May, p. 3 We proceeded as usual to the Witless Bay Line ... and from thence some 13 miles on foot in over the tuckamores. C 70-12 Tuckamore is a sort of low bush which grows in the marshes and in the small valleys. It is in the tuckamore that the path of a rabbit is most likely to be found.

1971 NOSEWORTHY 258 Tuckamoors or tuckamoor trees [are] low bushes on the barrens, about knee-high.

1981 Evening Telegram 17 Oct, p. 8 A good (and bad) cross-section of ptarmigan habitat (i.e. prostrate balsam, tuckamores, high plant or shrub cover, open tundra, rock exposures, marshes, etc).

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Twillick sighting: Twillic Steady subregion: Central Newfoundland Forest

2008-08-23T08:00:00.001-02:30

Twillick Steady subregion
Central Newfoundland Forest

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Twillick is the word of the week, here at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Brought to you by Rattling Books, an audio book publisher based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Twillick tangent: Audubon's Twillick was a Tell-tale Tatler

2008-08-22T21:54:00.003-02:30

PLATE CCCXLV.--MALE AND FEMALE, IN WINTER

Family
TELL-TALE GODWIT.--TELL-TALE TATLER.[Greater Yellowlegs.]
Genus
TOTANUS VOCIFERUS, Wils. [Tringa melanoleuca.]

It is my opinion that they who have given so much importance to the cry of this bird, as to believe it to be mainly instrumental in ensuring the safety of other species, and in particular of Ducks, have called in the aid of their imagination to increase the interest of what requires no such illustration. A person unacquainted with this Godwit would believe, on reading its history as recorded in books, that the safety of these birds depends on the friendly warning of their long-billed and long-tongued neighbour. And yet it is at no season more noisy or more vigilant than the Kildeer Plover, nor ever half so much so as the Semipalmated species, the reiterated vociferations of which are so annoying. It is true that the Tell-tale is quite loquacious enough; nay, you, reader, and I, may admit that it is a cunning and watchful bird, ever willing to admonish you or me, or any other person whom it may observe advancing towards it with no good intent, that it has all along watched us. But then, when one has observed the habits of this bird for a considerable time, in different situations, and when no other feathered creatures are in sight, he will be convinced that the Tell-tale merely intends by its cries to preserve itself, and not generously to warn others of their danger. So yon may safely banish from your mind the apprehension, which the reading of books may have caused, that duck-shooting in the marshes of our Middle Districts, is as hopeless a pursuit as "a wild goose chase."

Read the rest of Audubon's Account of the Greater Yellow-Legs or Twillick, here.

Twillick tangent: Nesting of the Greater Yellow-Legs in Newfoundland, an account from 1919

2008-08-22T21:43:00.003-02:30

Nesting of the Greater Yellow-Legs in Newfoundland.
--On June 20, 1919, Mr. J. R. Whitaker and the writer had the satisfaction of discovering a female of this species ......

Read this account here.

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Greater Yellow-Legs are known in Newfoundland as Twillicks. Twillick is the word of the week here at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Brought to you by Rattling Books.

Twillick tangent: Joseph Beete Jukes (1811-1869) Exursions in and About Newfoundland During the Years 1839 and 1840

2008-08-22T08:00:00.000-02:30

Jukes, Joseph Beete (1811 - 1869)
Birth:
1811, Birmingham, Warwick, England
Death:
29 July 1869, Dublin, Ireland
Cultural Heritage:
English
Occupation:
geologist
naturalist [details]-->
Life Summary
Resources

JUKES, JOSEPH BEETE (1811-1869), geologist, was born in Birmingham, England, the son of John and Sophia Jukes. Educated at Wolverhampton and King Edward's School, Birmingham, he studied geology under Professor Sedgwick at Cambridge (B.A., 1836). In 1839-40 Jukes was geological surveyor of Newfoundland and his Excursions In and About Newfoundland During the Years 1839 and 1840 (London, 1842) contained the fruits of this pioneering work.

Read the rest of this online Biography of Jukes here.

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Jukes is quoted in many an entry of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Including the entry for this week's word of the week, Twillick, wherein he is quoted as follows:

1842 JUKES i, 141 We shot a couple of 'twillecks,' a grey long-legged bird. about the size and shape of a plover, that frequents the shores of the lakes and arms of the sea.

"Twillick" sighting: shot by Litehouseman on flickr

2008-08-21T07:39:00.007-02:30

Twillick (Greater Yellow Legs)

These amusing shore birds are often referred to as "twillicks" in rural Newfoundland. Of course, they do indeed have long skinny yellow legs, which gives rise to the expression "she has legs like a twillick"!

You will have to go to this Flickr page by and see the beautiful photograph of a Twillick there by Litehouseman .

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The word of the week this week here at REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is Twillick .

Joel Thomas Hynes redefines the tar paper shack

2008-08-19T08:09:00.003-02:30

Apparently it "only leaks when it rains".

Read Joel Thomas Hynes Blog here.

Twillick sighting: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

2008-08-18T08:29:00.004-02:30

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca )

also known in Newfoundland as the Twillick

(our word of the week)

To learn more about the Greater Yellowlegs, including what it sounds like, visit this fabulous bird site run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

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REDEFiNE iT's word of the week, tangents and sightings are brought to you by Rattling Books, the world's largest Newfoundland audio book publisher!

Word of the Week (August 17 - 23) twillick

2008-08-17T07:39:00.003-02:30

Twillick

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

twillick n also twilleck, twillet, twillic, twillig, twillik, twillock. Cp OED twillock (Nfld: 1620) obs var of willock 'guillemot' (1631-); DC Nfld (1842-) for sense

1. 1 Greater yellow-legs (Totanus melanoleucus); occas lesser yellow-legs (T. flavipes), and other long-legged birds frequenting sea-shore and streams: plover, snipe; AUNTSARY1.

[1620] 1887 MASON 151 The Fowles are ... Teales, Twillockes, excellent wilde Ducks of diuers sorts and aboundance, rare and not to be found in Europe.

1842 JUKES i, 141 We shot a couple of 'twillecks,' a grey long-legged bird. about the size and shape of a plover, that frequents the shores of the lakes and arms of the sea.

1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 25 I spent my day looking around the place, caught some small trout and shot one twillick.

1870 Can Naturalist v, 295 Then they are a perfect nuisance to the sportsman, as they not only keep out of range themselves, but alarm every other bird by their incessant cry of 'twillick,' 'twillick'. . . Provincial names of this bird are 'twillick' [and] 'twillet.'

1907 MILLAIS 86 The greater yellowshank ... locally known as 'Twillik,' is very common in all the Newfoundland rivers during the summer and autumn.

1910 PRICHARD 59 Several flocks of yellow-shanks, locally known as 'twilligs,' haunted these flat shores in some numbers.

1951 PETERS & BURLEIGH 192 Greater Yellow-legs... Local Name: Twillick. Voice: A fast repeated whee-oodle, whee-oodle, or twil-ick, twil-ick... It is a verv noisy bird.

1959 MCATEE 27 Twillig. Semipalmated Plover. Ibid 28 Twillic. Common Snipe.

1964 JACKSON 14 'Twillicks' eat small fish and water insects. They used to be a game bird but are now protected. 2 Epithet for a fool; an inexperienced boy P 69-63 Don't be such a twillick! P 198-67 He's just a twillick (boy of eight years of age about to go trouting for the first time). C 69-9 Go away, you twillick (fool). P 79-73 The oldest child is real big, but the youngest is a real twillick.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

You can also visit REDEFiNE iT on our facebook group.

Word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

"tickle" sighting: Tickle Harbour, the Newfoundland band

2008-08-14T08:45:00.001-02:30

(N.B. This week's word of the week is "Tickle ")

Tickle Harbour:A musical journey through Newfoundland's heritage

A contemporary band with deep roots in Newfoundland's cultural heritage, Tickle Harbour is representative of the folk music revival in Newfoundland and Labrador. Indeed, like Figgy Duff before them, Tickle Harbour's songs resonate with the musical heritage of the first European settlers from Ireland and England. In existence since 1980, Tickle Harbour has released three albums, The Hare's Ears, Brule Boys In Paris and Battery Included.

To learn more about Tickle Harbour visit this Heritage Website.

******************The REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English word of the week, tangents and sightings are brought to you by Rattling Books, an audio book publisher based on the eastern edge of North America in Newfoundland. So small, we're fine.

"tickle" sighting: The Tickle Inn at Cape Onion, Newfoundland

2008-08-13T08:33:00.001-02:30

(N.B. This week's word of the week is "Tickle ")

The Tickle Inn at Cape Onion is a typical old Newfoundland outport home that has been designated a Registered Heritage Structure. It has been attractively restored to near it's original state by David, a fourth generation member of the original Adams family. The ocean is "at the doorstep" in Cape Onion, a picturesque cove at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula. This bed & breakfast is surrounded by 9 acres of incredibly beautiful meadows and hills that provide great opportunities for beachcombing, hiking or taking leisurely strolls through the meadows.

Cape Onion is an ideal base for day trips to L"anse aux Meadows to experience Viking history and to St. Anthony to learn more about the amazing humanitarian work of the medical missionary, Dr. Wilfred Grenfell. Be sure to also plan time to see other highlights of the area including a boat trip to experience the northern waters and marine attractions (whales, icebergs); a trip to Burnt Cape botanical ecological reserve; drives through picturesque rural communities; visits to craft and carving shops, and hikes and walks on spectacular scenic trails. To find out more about the Tickle Inn or plan a stay there visit them here.

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The REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English word of the week, tangents and sightings are brought to you by Rattling Books, an audio book publisher based on the eastern edge of North America in Newfoundland. So small, we're fine.

"tickle" sighting: Black Tickle, Labrador

2008-08-12T08:42:00.000-02:30

(N.B. This week's word of the week is "Tickle ")

The Community of Black Tickle is located on the Island of Ponds in a cove called Salmon Bight. On the other side of the Bight is the Community of Domino. Both Communties share resources such a medical, schooling and airport. Today the community is still dependent upon the fishery as its primary source of employment, but instead of cod, the current resource is snow crab. These two communities have no road connection to the outside and are therefore dependent upon coastal boats during the summer and year round air servcie.

History: The community of Black Tickle was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by a group of British seamen who had jumped ship. In 1865 Captin Hood reported on the population and fishing catches from Battle Harbour to Red Island in Labrador and on of largest establishments of that time was Black Tickle.

Population: 229

Surnames: Dyson, Holwell, Hudson, Keefe, Lane, Morris, Neville, Parsons, Roberts, and Turnbull. To learn more about the town of Black Tickle visit them here.

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The REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English word of the week, tangents and sightings are brought to you by Rattling Books, an audio book publisher based on the eastern edge of North America in Newfoundland. So small, we're fine.

"tickle" sighting: The Dark Tickle Company

2008-08-11T08:09:00.004-02:30

(This week's word of the week is "Tickle")

The Dark Tickle Company is located in Griquet, on the Great Northern Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. We manufacture jams, sauces, vinegars, teas, drinks and chocolates from unique wild berries. These berries, picked by hand, are carefully processed without additives resulting in a quality product that is both distinctive and delicious.

A 'tickle' is a narrow channel of water, which in our case is dark due to its surrounding high hills. It is also the area in Griquet where we are located and as represented by the picture in our labels.

To check out the Dark Tickle Company and their products visit them here.

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The REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English word of the week, tangents and sightings are brought to you by Rattling Books, an audio book publisher based on the eastern edge of North America in Newfoundland. So small, we're fine.

August 10-17 Word of the Week: tickle

2008-08-10T08:16:00.002-02:30

August 10-17 Word of the Week: tickle

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

Tickle

tickle n OED ~ sb1 Nfld 'narrow difficult strait' (1770-); DC 1 a, b esp Nfld (1770-); see SEARY 141-2; cp TICKLE a. A narrow salt-water strait, as in an entrance to a harbour or between islands or other land masses, often difficult or treacherous to navigate because of narrowness, tides, etc; a 'settlement' adjoining such a passage; also attrib. Cp REACH, RUN n.

[1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 64 There is a narrow tickle of twenty yards in width, between this island and the continent; across which a net is fixed, to stop the seals from passing through.

[1770] 1971 SEARY 141 Tickle, in the form Tickles, is first cited in OED in Cook and Lane 1770 [1775] B, repeated in Lane 1773, for a locality at the head of St Mary's Bay.

1792 PULLING MS Aug, p. 29 He had been out in his boat a few weeks before, and rowing through a tickle not far from the cove, he saw a canoe of Indians coming through another tickle and nearly meeting him.

1812 BUCHAN MS 17 July I proceeded thro' the Ladle tickle for New bay and return'd again by dark, from Wards island to the head of New bay must be twenty miles. On the 14th I set out for Halls bay by way of Pretty tickle passage, this is form'd by the Tritons and the projecting heads of Bajer and Seal bay, and the Mainland from the latter to Halls bay.

1837 BLUNT 29 This harbor is very secure, with good anchorage in any part, above the Harbor Rock; it has two Tickles, so called, in Newfoundland, and intended to describe narrow passages between islands and rocks.

1842 JUKES ii, 31 What the origin of this word Tickle may be I am at a loss to conjecture; but it is applied all over Newfoundland to a narrow passage or strait between two islands, or other points of land.

[1870] 1973 KELLY 27 The Captain, seeing that we were in a little difficulty in getting under weigh in the narrow Tickle, kindly sent his men for this purpose.

1876 HOWLEY 19 The word Tickle appears to refer to a narrow channel between two or more islands, or between islands and the mainland, through which the tide runs with considerable force.

1907 DUNCAN 142 'Twas wild enough, wind and sea, beyond the tickle rocks.

1920 GRENFELL & SPALDING 13 We have turned into a 'tickle,' and around the bend ahead of us are a handful of tiny whitewashed cottages clinging to the sides of the rocky shore.

1940 SCAMMELL 9 "The Squid Jiggin' Ground": There's men from the harbour; there's men from the tickle.

1947 TANNER 285 As has been said the tides are of no great size at the Atlantic coast, but they are sufficient to produce strong tidal currents in the archipelagos and channels of different orders: runs, tickles and rattles.

1951 Nfld & Lab Pilot i, 143 [The two islands] are separated from the eastern side of Long island by narrow channels, passable only by boats, and on the shores of which stands a township known as the Tickles. T 50/1-64 There's only a notch comin' in through, you know, when you comes to the tickle, an' if a stranger didn't know nothing about it he'd be liable to run the lighthouse close, see. Ibid An' she got in a tide rip when she got in the shoal tickle in Lewisporte, an' they had like to make a big mess of it. Down she had like to go.

1968 SCHULL 85-6 Nearly four thousand men of the city and the outports, the Tickles and the Guts and the Reaches and the Coves of Newfoundland, were bound to the age-old rendezvous of the ships and the moving ice.

Supplement: tickle n

[1976] 1985 LEHR & BEST (eds) 55 "The Ella M. Rudolph": At five o'clock in the evening through the Tickles she did pass/The threatening of a violent storm was showing by the glass. 1987 FIZZARD 210 'We come in to make Green Island and even if it was very thick we'd have to steer across to Pass Island and there were times I went through that tickle and you'd have a job to see both sides at the same time.'

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.We also invite you to visit the REDEFiNE iT facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

"Rawny" according to the online Urban Dictionary

2008-08-09T13:12:00.002-02:30

rawny

(according to the online Urban Dictionary)

Another way of saying horny, combines with the word rawr(suggesting something to sexual)
Are you rawny?
Want to fool around?

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The REDEFiNE iT word of the week from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English and tangents thereof brought to you by Rattling Books, the world's largest Tors Cove, Newfoundland based audio book publisher!

Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival kicks off tonight

2008-08-08T21:25:00.002-02:30

Really good music'
JUSTIN BRAKE
The Telegram

The Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival kicks off tonight boasting one of its most diverse lineups ever. It's part of the "Folkies Without Borders" theme organizers chose to celebrate the relationship and ancestry folk shares with other forms of roots music.

"We want to make sure we represent the living traditions," explains Newfound-land and Labrador Folk Arts Council chairwoman Anita Best, who had a hand in selecting this year's performers."It's not just a dead culture we have," she says. "It's a culture everyone's participating in."

With that, the festival will feature performances by artists from an array of musical backgrounds, including Sylvia Tyson, Andy Irvine, Roy Johnstone, blues act The Roger Howse Band, local reggae-ska outfit The Idlers, and a special reunion performance by legendary Newfoundland ensemble Figgy Duff.

"We went with what we thought would be a good mix," explains Best.

...

Newfoundland troubadour Ron Hynes, who will perform on the main stage tonight, began his career around the same time the folk festival started and shares Andrews' sentiment on the event.

"The folk festival is so important to us because we have a longer history of original and traditional music," he says, explaining the uniqueness of folk music in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"It stems from local storytelling, poets in small towns all around the island and in Labrador who wrote songs about things that happened in their communities," he continues. "(The songs) weren't written to be published ... they were written to define who the people were.

Read the rest of this article here.

Weekend passes for the 32nd Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival are $60 for adults and $40 for students and youth. Day passes are $25 and $15 respectively and session passes are $15 and $10.For more information visit www.nlfolk.com.

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Rawny tangent: Radio Association of Western New York

2008-08-07T08:16:00.003-02:30

Our word of the week (rawny) is sighted in Western New York!

RAWNY

Radio Association of Western New York

The Radio Association of Western New York, often called RAWNY, was formed in 1917. It is believed to be the second oldest amateur radio group in the United States and is considered to be a general interest club encompassing all aspects of amateur radio.

RAWNY became affiliated with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), a national organization of amateur radio operators, in 1920.
Amateur radio activities were ended by government decree when World War II started. Once hostilities ended and the government ban was lifted, amateur radio was reborn. It was then that several hams decided to "give life" again to the Radio Association of Western New York. RAWNY has been active ever since. RAWNY was incorporated with the state of New York in 1955.

It fostered the formation of two-meter activity and financed a group within the club to promote the same. Eventually this group became BARRA (http://barra.hamgate.net), the Buffalo Amateur Radio Repeater Association, and like RAWNY, one of the five sponsors of what was once HAM-O-RAMA (the WNY ham radio/computer flea market).
At present and since 1980, RAWNY has been engaged in bringing Amateur Radio to the public through many demonstrations at the Buffalo Naval and Servicemen's Park. Our group has set up many special event stations including field day aboard the U.S.S. Little Rock, where the public can view Amateur Radio in operation. The station is a memorial to the late Clara Reger, W2RUF.

Read more about RAWNY here.

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REDEFiNE iT's word of the week is brought to you by Rattling Books, the Newfoundland based audio book publisher.

rawny sighting: cattle breeding in Maine, 1873

2008-08-05T09:06:00.004-02:30

A word here to those who argue that there is no real difference in animals, — that the feed makes all the difference, and that the prices obtained, are the result of deception by the breeder or vender. Now suppose you select the most vigorous pair of Kerry, Hereford, Holstein, Short-horn, Devon or Jersey cattle, and place them in the hands of the most skillful breeder, upon the most luxuriant feed for five years. Have you changed their general characteristics ? Do they not retain their original character ? Again, select a pure native cow, small, mean, rawny, crooked and ugly ; breed her to a first-class thoroughbred bull. The result is a half blood grade ; being bred to another thoroughbred, you get a three-fourths grade ; another cross, and you have
a seven-eighths grade, and so on. Have you not, during this process, lost nearly all the distinctive features of the native cow ? Would not this stock sell in any market, for from fifty to seventy-five per cent. more than the original stock ? If so, why this assertion reflecting upon the integrity of the breeder, and a thrust at improvement? If this whole system of scientific breeding is aswindle, what a vast multitude are being swindled, and have been, for the last century, by paying from $1,000 to $50,000 for horses, from $1,000 to $40,000 for cattle, from $50 to $1,500 for sheep, from $100 to $500 for swine, and from $25 to $200 per trio for fowl.

Read the rest of the report.

rawny sighting: The Dialect of West Somerset

2008-08-05T08:50:00.002-02:30

Excerpt from the English Dialect Society's 1875 guide to West Somerset vernacular, available here.

RHINY [hruynee], adj. i. Thin; lean; hungry-looking. Jennings and Williams spell this rawny. Fat her ! a rhiny old thing, her've a-zeed too many Zindays, I b'lieve ; I count mid so well try to fat a yurdle. Said of a cow.

2. Miserly ; near ; close-fisted ; too stingy to be clean. Proper rhiny old fuller, 'tis a waeth aiteenpence to get a shillin out o' ee. The slouen and the careles man, the roinish nothing nice, To lodge in chamber comely deckt, are seldom suffred twice. — Tusser, 102, v. I.

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Word of the Week is brought to you, as always, by Rattling Books.

"rawny" tangent: from Mary Dalton's Merrybegot

2008-08-03T20:40:00.002-02:30

The Tangler

From the word go it was a thankee job –
We all knew –
But that tangler came pretty near to
Fooling up the whole works,
Blathering to this one and that one –
The foreman had like to
Flatten him –
A fierce little red-headed bantam,
Rearing out the big ones,
Ready to board
That tongue-flapping long-shanks,
That rawny ghost of a gommil.

Mary Dalton's Merrybegot, performed by Anita Best (narration and song) and Patrick Boyle (trumpet and flugelhorn) is available from Rattling Books.

August 3 - 9 Word of the Week: rawny

2008-08-02T23:17:00.003-02:30

August 3 - 9 Word of the Week

rawny

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
rawny a EDD ~ adj
1 'thin,' 2 'of cloth, thin' So; DINNEEN ránaidhe 'thin'; JOYCE 311.

1 Thin, gaunt, bony (1937 DEVINE 39).

207-467 I never saw such a rawny horse. 1968 DILLON 151 He was a big rawney-boned fella.

2 Of cloth, flimsy, threadbare.

P 113-56 His coat must have been cheap. It became rawny after only one winter.

P 245-61 His shirt cuffs are rawny (frayed).

P 184-67 That material is rawny. 1979 'Twas a way of life 45 If the [sweater] was poorly done, comment was passed on it, 'Some rawny! You could shoot gulls through that!'

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite. We also invite you to visit our facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

britches sighting: Iceland, 1809

2008-07-30T12:16:00.004-02:30

This excerpt comes from William Jackson Hooker's Journal of a Tour in Iceland in the Summer of 1809. You can read the whole book here.

Fresh, or soft fish, such as may be considered good merchandize, should be delivered immediately after being taken out of the sea, and untainted; nor must there be any lean or skin-fish among it. The heads must be cut off, the entrails taken out, the fish properly split, in such a manner that the bone be taken out three joints below the navel, and the scales of the cole-fish must be scraped off. Such fish as can be used for dried fish, must be salted immediately on being caught, with the necessary quantity of French salt, or some other sort equally useful. It should be well cleansed, and afterwards properly cured, according to the Newfoundland mode, in such a manner that it may obtain the proper appearance, and keep well. The neck, and every thing about the neck, must likewise be cut away, before it receives the last day's drying. The dried fish must be well worked and thoroughly dried, and not mouldy, rotten, slimy, or maggotty. The neck must be cut off when it is half dried, or at least before it is received and weighed. The fresh cod-roe must be delivered immediately on its being taken out of the fish, the breeches must be whole, and the roe of a red color, firm, and not spawning. The oil must be clear and clean, and leave no sediment.

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Word of the Week is brought to you by Rattling Books.

July 27 - August 2 Word of the Week: britches

2008-07-27T00:09:00.004-02:30

July 27 - August 2 Word of the Week

britches

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

breeches n pl also britches, britchet(s), britchin'(s) [phonetics unavailable]. OED breech sb 6 pl 'roe of a cod-fish' obs (1688).

Cod-fish roe and the ovarian membrane which contains it.

P 94-57 Britches: cod roe, so-called from shape.

P 148-65 The lady fish wear the britches!

1968 Avalon Penin of Nfld 58 Britchins: cod roes.

C 71-100 'Them britches, lights, and sounds are some good,' said Uncle John, 'when fresh caught and fried in scrunchions.'

1975 The Rounder Sep, p. 12 'Britches' consist of the egg sacks of the female cod, and are named for their resemblance to a pair of baggy trousers.

And from the online supplement:

breeches n pl Anglo-Manx Dialect britches 'the roe of a [cod] fish.'

1989 Evening Telegram 4 July, p. 13 I mean good fresh northern cod: steak, scrod, cheek and tongues, britches, tomcods, sounds, any part of the fish, provided it was to be fried, stewed with scrunchions, or stuffed and baked.

Now, we invite you to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite. We also invite you to visit our facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

quintal sightings: India and beyond

2008-07-24T10:59:00.002-02:30

A yaffle of world-wide quintal usages, with a special tangent on Indian weights and measures, via e-mail from Stephen Keller.

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Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 7:18 AM
Subject: quintal

used to occasionally hear it in india. no more though.

from american heritage dictionary:

quin·tal (kwntl)
n. Abbr. ql. or q.

1. A unit of mass in the metric system equal to 100 kilograms.
2. See hundredweight.

[Middle English, a unit of weight, from Old French, from Medieval Latin quintle, from Arabic qinr, from Late Greek kentnarion, from Late Latin centnrium (pondus), hundred (weight), from Latin centnrius, of a hundred. See centenary.]

in the u.s.a. the quintal is sometimes is 100 /_pounds_/ (quintal = hundredweight, cwt, short hundredweight, centner, cental, quintal )
a United States unit of weight equivalent to 100 pounds

and elsewhere it's 100 kg!

better make sure the guy you're bargaining with understands what you mean!

further research indicates it's used locally in many parts of the world just to signify a hundredweight of whatever the local unit of weight was.

_

quintal (q) [1]
a traditional unit of weight in France, Portugal, and Spain. Quintal
is also the generic name for a historic unit used in commerce
throughout Europe and the Arab world for more than 2000 years. The
unit began as the Latin centenarius, meaning "comprised of 100"
because it was equal to 100 Roman pounds. The centenarius passed
into Arabic as the cantar or qintar and then returned to Europe
through Arab traders in the form quintal. The German zentner and
English hundredweight are familiar forms of this same unit in
northern Europe. The traditional French quintal equaled 100 livres
(48.95 kilograms or 107.9 pounds), but today the word "quintal" in
France usually means a larger metric unit (see next entry). The
Spanish quintal is 100 libras (about 46 kilograms or 101 pounds).
The Portuguese quintal is larger; it is equal to 128 libras (about
129.5 pounds or 58.75 kilograms). "Kwintal" is the English
pronunciation given in standard English dictionaries, but "kintal"
(closer to the Spanish pronunciation) and "kantal" (closer to the
French) are also used.
quintal (q) [2]
a common metric unit of mass equal to 100 kilograms or approximately
220.4623 pounds. Notice that the metric ton is roughly equal to its
non-metric predecessors, but the metric quintal is about twice the
size of the traditional quintal.

since it comes from the latin and is connected to pre-revolutionary france's livre and kg. didn't come into existence until the french revolution, a hundredweight would seem the best usage, even if it does create cross-national confusion.

and to further muddy the waters let's not forget its cousin the qintar:

qintar
a traditional Arabic unit of weight, often called the cantar in
English. The qintar is the Arabic counterpart of the European
quintal (see below). The unit varied in size from market to market
and over time. In recent years, the qintar has been interpreted as
an informal metric unit equal to 50 kilograms (110.23 pounds);
traditional qintars tended to be a few percent larger than this. The
qintar is equal to 100 rotls.

in the indian subcontinent and in southeast asia too, many measures were variable, sometimes within a single administration, so before modern times many measures might have a single name and not be exactly the same.

this was common --- and in laos for example still is --- with regard to units of agricultural land (area). in many parts of laos the unit of area was that amount of land that would produce so many local containers (also of variable size) of rice. no wonder i was frequently confused, eh?

used to be that distances in third-world countries were variable too, since no one had an odometer and there were no mile- or km-posts. even today in rural india "how far is it to X?" will as often as not be answered in terms of how long it will take to walk there. but, since the person telling you has no way of measuring time either, the answer is frequently unhelpful. most infuriating before one becomes used to vagueness is the common reply: "only two furlongs" (1/8 of a mile). that response seems to have nothing to do with reality and can mean just about anything from a ten minute walk to several hours away. probably it means "go away and leave me alone".

even today measures change. a /tola/ in india really indicates a hair less than 11-2/3 grams (11.664 grams to be exact). the tola was what a silver rupee in the times of the raj weighed. silver rupees are long gone but that measure is still used more or less for precious metals. however, for spices, /_intoxicant drugs_/ and many other items the tola has been approximated downward (to the benefit of the shopkeeper or vendor or dealer) to 10 grams. you can fight for 11.664 grams but increasingly you'll get the reply, "that was then, this is now" ... "besides who can find all those tiny weights for fractional grams?" inflation everywhere these days! i doubt if digital scales will bring back the tola.

if this isn't enough, check out this website:

http://www.indiacurry.com/Miscel/indiahistoricweightsmeasure.htm

quintal sighting: learning the metric system in St.Pierre

2008-07-22T16:53:00.000-02:30

CBC Radio One's Weekend Arts Magazine host Angela Antle received this message after quintal was introduced as the Word of the Week:

Hi Angela,

When I was going to school in St Pierre quintal was taught to us along with the metric system, the symbol was q ; the plural in French is "quintaux";

quintal from Arabic quintar (quintar)
in the metric system = 100 kg
no longer used except in Latin America where it is used in the commerce of cotton

Bonne journée
Jacqueline Park

quintal sighting: American salt cod on the Newfoundland market in 1877

2008-07-21T16:35:00.010-02:30

An intriguing excerpt from the Award of the Fishery Commission, Documents and Proceedings of the Halifax Commission, 1877, under the Treaty of Washington. Read the whole document here.

Q. Are you aware as to any practice on the part of the American bank or deep-sea fishermen of throwing small fish overboard? — A. Yes; I have been on many occasions told they always threw the small fish overboard — fish under 22 inches in length, they told me. These fish were not suited to their market and were thrown overboard. That had been their practice, I know, for years.
Q. Since the operation of the Washington Treaty, what practice has grown up with regard to those small fish ? — A. They save the fish now and bring them into Newfoundland market, and sell them there at from $1.50 to $2 per quintal.
Q. And over, I believe ? — A. I believe so, but I speak within the mark when I say from $1.50 to $2 per quintal. The quantity each vessel would catch would be about 200 quintals. That is, the quantity every vessel would otherwise have thrown overboard would be 200 quintals.
Q. How do you get your information ? — A. I got it through the captain of an American vessel.
Q. His estimate was that every American banker would throw overboard 200 quintals? — A. About 200 quintals of small fish during a successful voyage. [ . . . ] there is a duty on fish brought into Newfoundland of $1.30 per quintal, which the American fishermen are now relieved of under the Washington Treaty.
Q. Figure that amount up, supposing the vessels to number 300. — A. 300 vessels at 200 quintals each vessel, would be 60,000 quintals of fish, which at $1.30 per quintal would give $78,000 as the amount of duty saved by 300 sail of vessel on fish brought into Newfoundland. There is also the value of the fish which would be thrown overboard if the American fishermen were not permitted to bring it into the Newfoundland market. At the low estimate of $1.50 per quintal the amount would be $90,000; and at $2, $120,000.
Q. That fish is very lightly salted ?— A. It is lightly salted; they salt it to meet the Newfoundland market; they formerly threw it away. So soon as they discovered there was a market for the small fish, that it was well adapted for the Brazils, they immediately salted it lightly, as the Newfoundland manner is, for sale in Newfoundland. They would otherwise have thrown it away.
Q. What quantity of salt would be used on that fish — 100 quintals? —A. About 12 hogsheads to 100 quintals.
Q. How much is it per hogshead? — A. The price in Newfoundland is about 7s. per hogshead.
Q. Then, I suppose, there is the labor of putting it down into salt, which would be comparatively trifling? — A. The oil would pay well for salt and labor. I have not computed the value, but it is the usual computation in Newfoundland that the oil pays handsomely for salt and labor of salting the fish.
Q. But the oil would be saved whether the fish were thrown overboard or not? — A. That I cannot speak of.
Q. Presuming the small fish were thrown overboard immediately they were taken out of the water, and the livers were not saved, you say the oil in the small fish would pay for the salt and labor used in curing them ? — A. Undoubtedly, it would handsomely pay for them.
Q. Then you arrive at the conclusion that the value of that fish sold to Newfoundland, heretofore thrown away, is clear profit to the American fishermen? — A. There is no doubt about that. I have no doubt that the remission of duties on that quantity of fish is far larger than the remission of duty on all products sent by Newfoundland to the United States market.

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quintal sighting: Michael Crummey's Hard Light

2008-07-21T15:53:00.009-02:30

This excerpt from "Making the Fish" by Michael Crummey appears in Hard Light, first published in 1998 by Brick Books.

The Bawn

Wait for a fine day in August. Sweep a stretch of beach clear, put stones down over any patch of grass that might spoil the fish.
The salt cod taken from the bins and washed by hand in puncheon tubs, front and back, like a child about to be presented to royalty, the white scum scrubbed of the dark layer of skin. Carried to the bawn on fish bars and laid out neatly in sunlight, 150 quintals at a time, the length of the shoreline like a well-shingled roof.
Two fine days would finish the job, a week and a half to cure the season's catch. The merchant's ship arriving in September, anchoring off the Tickle; the cured cod loaded into the boat and ferried out.

What It Made

You could expect $2 a quintal for your trouble, a good season for a crew was 400 quintals. Anything more was an act of God. The Skipper took half a voyage, out of which he paid the girl her summer's wage, and squared up with the merchant for supplies taken on credit in the spring. The rest was split three ways, $130 for four months of work, it could cut the heart out of a man to think too much about what he was working for.

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Want to hear more? Hard Light: 32 Little Stories, narrated by Michael Crummey, Ron Hynes, and Deidre Gillard-Rowlings, is available from Rattling Books.

"quintal" according to Wikipedia

2008-07-21T11:06:00.008-02:30

The folks at Wikipedia have this to say about quintal:

The quintal or centner is a historical unit of mass with many different definitions in different countries, but usually it is 100 base units of mass, e.g. pounds.

Both terms share their roots in the Classical Latin centenarius, meaning hundredlike, but the quintal has a convoluted etymology: It became Late Latin centenarium pondus, then in succession, Late Greek, kentenarion, Arabic, qintar, Mediæval Latin, quintale, and finally Old French quintal before passing into the English language. The word centner, on the other hand, is just a Germanicized form of centenarius.

The unit was and still is used in the Arab world, where it is known as the qintar. It is currently defined informally as 50 kg. The qintar was reimported to Europe by traders.

In France it used to be defined as 100 livres (pounds), about 48.95 kg, and has later been redefined as 100 kg (mesures usuelles), thus called metric quintal with symbol q. In Spain it is still defined as 100 libras, or about 46 kg, and in Portugal as 128 libras or about 58.75 kg. In English both, quintal and centner, were once alternate names for the hundredweight and thus defined either as 100 lb (exactly 45.359237 kg) or as 112 lb (about 50.84 kg). Also, in Dominican Republic it is about 125 lb.

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The Word of the Week is brought to you, as always, by Rattling Books, where you will find at least a quintal of quality audio books, some quirky, some quiescent, some queerly querulous. Tales of quixotic quests, of quotidian quietude, and of the odd quick-and-dirty quid pro quo. The very quiddity of literary recording, to quell your quavering and quash your qualms.

July 20 - July 27 Word of the Week: quintal

2008-07-20T07:45:00.003-02:30

July 20 - July 27 Word of the Week

quintal

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

quintal n also cantal, kental, kintal(l) [phonetics unavailable]. OED ~ a. 'a hundredweight (112 lbs.)' (c1470-); DAE 'esp in measuring fish' (1651-); DC 1 esp Nfld (1712-) for senses 1, 2.

1 A measure of cod-fish caught by fishermen.

[1664] 1963 YONGE 67 Having sold our salt, and caught about 130 kentals of fish, for our 5 boats, we took aboard our trade and sailed for Torbay.

[1676] 1895 PROWSE 206 300 kintalls for each boat one year with another accounted with them an ordinary voyage.

[1711] 1745 OSBORNE 794 [The French] have also salt, and some fishing craft, cheaper than us; and generally kill one or two hundred quintals per boat more than the English kill.

1787 PENNANT Sup 45 A banking vessel of ten thousand fish ought to be filled in three weeks, and so in proportion; and eighty quintals (112 lb. each) for a boat in the same time.

1888 STEARNS 185 'How much is a quintal?' asked Allic. 'Oh, a quintal is different, according,' laughed Mr Godard. 'It's 212 pounds of wet fish, just out of the water, and, as fish shrink one-half in drying, it's 112 pounds of dry fish. We measure all our fish, dry or wet, by quintals, because that's the way we sell it.

1912 CABOT 79 The Spracklins had a few hundred quintals (said 'kintle') of fish, taken in the last few days.

1966 FARIS 221 The amount of catch each time is measured roughly in 'drafts' or 'quintals,' simply by visual judgment. Fishermen can see a boat approaching, and judge by the amount of water the boat is drawing how far down it is in the water the number of drafts (or quintals) of fish caught.

2 A measure of dried and salted cod-fish ready for the market; 112 lbs (50.8 kg); cp DRAFT.

1623 WHITBOURNE 79 The foresaid two hundred thousand of Fish, loading the said ship, it will then make at Marseiles aboue two and twenty hundred Kentalls of that waight.

[1698] CHILD 222 The current price of our Fish in that Country, was ... seventeen Rials which is eight shillings six pence per Quintal.

1787 PENNANT Sup 46 A heap of dried fish twenty feet long, and ten wide, and four deep, contains three hundred quintals. Such an heap settles, in the course of forty-eight hours after it is made, about 1/12th.

[1806] 1951 DELDERFIELD 82 Most interesting is an account of the sale of 1,147 Portuguese quintals of Newfoundland fish in 1806. It was listed:- '661 Qtls large, 208 Qtls small, 278 Qtls dumb, wet and broken.'

1882 TALBOT 13 About one hundred twenty fishes of fair size go to make up a hundredweight [or quintal] of dry or cured fish. T 36/8-64 And when the tub was full they'd have an idea how much fish they had—a tub would hold about a kantal; that would be a hundred and twelve pounds. T 41-64 A hundred and twelve pounds [would be] a quintal o' fish, dried fish.

1977 Inuit Land Use 332 [Fish] would be about $1.50 a quintal then. A quintal used to be 112 pounds. We worked hard for that.

3 A measure (of bread, flour, seal 'pelts', bark, etc); 100 or 112 pounds of a commodity.

1813 CARSON 15 One hundred and forty thousand quintals of bread and flour, are required for the support of the people in this island.

1895 Outing xxvii, p. 23 The values [of the sculps] range from $2.75 to $5.50 per quintal, the old hoods bringing the lowest and the pups the highest prices.

1916 MURPHY 19 [In 1859] the crew of the Zambesi made £40 19s a man, seals fetched 27 shillings per quintal and the rise.

1924 ENGLAND 248 Not so many years ago—three thousand sealers struck for a minimum of $5 a quintal for their fat.

1944 LAWTON & DEVINE 79 This Company paid the sealers one dollar and twenty-five cents per quintal more than was offered by Bowring Brothers. T 66-64 In the summer time when there'd be no fish, they'd go rining. Birch rine was a dollar a quintal. 4 Attrib quintal drum, ~ fish drum: wooden container holding 112 lbs of dried and salted cod fish; DRUM. T 90-64 There was the quintal drum with twenty inches and the sixteen-inch head.

1977 RUSSELL 51 He was goin' to earn a few cents with it, by making it into a quintal fish-drum like they used to use in those days for the Brazil market. quintal faggot: 'pile' of dried cod-fish weighing 112 lbs; FAGGOT. T 36-64 Providing the next day was fine, you'll enlarge on your faggot [till] you got it in quintal faggots.

And from the online Supplement:

quintal n also kantle.

1 1931 Can Geog J ii, 399 In one year these hardy men took about 500,000 'kantles' of cod (a quintal is 112 pounds).

1983 WARNER 26 A thousand cantles...we fished, and we were all in the family for crew.

2 1987 POWELL 34 In late September my crew and I got the last of our codfish sun-dried. After it was all weighed we had a little less than two hundred quintals, 112 pounds per quintal.

3 1987 Evening Telegram 27 Apr, p. 7 The pelts were all weighed by the quintal. Then there were deductions of the weight of the fat for scraps of meat that was left on the [seal] pelts.

4 Comb ~ drum. 1987 FIZZARD 160 'We had several makes of barrels. There'd be half-quintal drums, quintal drums [etc].'

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.We also invite you to visit our facebook group .

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Beat as a nautical term

2008-07-19T22:45:00.000-02:30

The Lachlan & Elizabeth Macquarie Archive (LEMA) Project is an electronic gateway aimed at providing a new context for the historical investigation of the lives and times of Lachlan Macquarie (1761-1824), and his second wife, Elizabeth Campbell (of Airds) (1778-1835).

Nautical Terms

A select list of nautical and historical terms as applicable to late C18th and early C19th usage.

Our word of the week, beat appears in the glossary on the above site as follows:

Beat (or beat up): (of a ship) to work to windward by successive tacks; to proceed obliquely tro windward with the wind first on one side and then on the other.

July 13 - July 19 Word of the Week: beat

2008-07-13T07:52:00.001-02:30

July 13 - July 19 Word of the Week

beat

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

beat v Cp OED ~ v1 19 naut 'to strive against contrary winds or currents at sea' for sense 1; 3: beat the streets (1375-1587), EDD v2 1 (6) So D for phr in sense 2. 1 Of a herd of animals, esp seals, to move instinctively in a certain direction; to migrate.

1866 WILSON 316 In the autumn, or near winter, [the deer] migrate, or, as the hunters say, they 'beat to the south,' and go near Cape Ray or the Bay of St George.

1924 ENGLAND 239 Wary at last, beating north and ever northward, the vast herd—decimated but still incredibly numerous—is on the trek to the far places where men cannot pursue.

1947 TANNER 493 The mother at last forces the remaining pups to take to the water, a mysterious instinct at once teaches them to go north, and by the end of May these 'beating seals' have mostly passed along the Labrador coast. P 102-60 [They have] fresh seal meat, as early in May the seals beating their way north from the Gulf would trim the shore.

2 Phr beat the paths/streets/roads:to be out at night. P 97-66 You're beating the paths again!

1972 MURRAY 157 Decent girls did not 'beat the roads' till 'all hours of the night.' bet/beaten to a snot: completely exhausted. 1970 Evening Telegram 17 July, p. 2 I'm fair bet to a snot.

And from the online Supplement:

beat v

1 1985 Canadian Sealers Association 6 'After the young seals become 6 to 8 weeks old, they start their journey north, which is known as beating their way north.'

2 Phr 1977 MOAKLER 138 We pulled our dory, sleeping as we rowed/...The sunset found us chilled and be't to snots.

1987 KIMIECIK 99 '"On the roads," "beating the paths," "on the prowl," all describe the custom of just going out and walking around, at night, either with a girl or looking for one.'

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.

Firk sighting: Urban Dictionary

2008-07-09T21:34:00.003-02:30

The Urban Dictionary has four suggested contemporary urban meanings for our word of the week: "firk"

1. FIRK
Acronym describing somoene as Funny Intelligent Responsible/Respectful and Kind
"You know what kind of boyfriend you need, a FIRK!!!"
firrk funny intelligent responsible respectful kind

2. firk
not smart, useless, not appropriate.
That kid's a firk, you're a firk.
dumb stupid smart inappropriate jerk

3. firk
A word that means the same as 'expel' in schools or universities.
The school firked him for doing drugs.

4. firk
Polite variation used in place of fuck. Used around older relatives and in the workplace.
Sally, go tell Peterman he firked that logistics report all up! I need it done again, pronto!

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Firk sighting: Free online Dictionary

2008-07-08T15:54:00.003-02:30

Firk according to the Free Online Dictionary

v. t.1.
To beat; to strike; to chastise.
I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him.
- Shak.

v. i.1.
To fly out; to turn out; to go off.
A wench is a rare bait, with which a man
No sooner's taken but he straight firks mad.B.Jonson.

n.1.
A freak; trick; quirk.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.

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REDEFiNE iT: Dictionary of Newfoundland English is brought to you by Rattling Books, a Canadian audio book publisher based in Newfoundland and Labrador.

July 6 - July 13 Word of the Week: firk

2008-07-06T08:53:00.002-02:30

July 6 - July 13 Word of the Week

firk

Definition according to the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:

firk v OED ~ 3 b obs for sense 1; EDD ~ 1, 'move in a jerking manner; to scratch.'

1 To move about quickly, aimlessly.

1937 DEVINE 21 ~ to bustle about. 'What's the old man firkin' about there?' P 245-57 Firking around—pottering about.

2 Esp of fowl and other birds, to scratch, dig, stir up (something). P 148-63 To cool off in the grass: 'The hens are firkin.'

P 10-64 Get the besom and firk the dirt.

M 68-22 We made our false faces and firked out all the old clothes we could find for mummering.

C 70-21 If someone is nosy or is known to be always poking in where's he's not wanted he is said to 'be firking around.'

C 71-16 He came upon a big flock of crows ferkin' in the dust.

Now, we invite u to RELiVE, REMEMBER and REFRESH iT and/or even REDEFiNE iT!

The main thing is to RELiSH iT.

N.B. Any Word of the Week receiving more than 10 posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.

We also invite you to visit our sister facebook group where we explore tangents on the Word of the Week.

The word of the week is released each Sunday morning on the Newfoundland and Labrador CBC Radio program Weekend Arts Magazine with host Angela Antle.