A Yorkshire Glossary

BAIRN – child
Bairns are waiting to see Father Christmas

BARMPOT – idiot

BEGGAR – blighter
You cheeky little beggar!

BLACK BRIGHT – very dirty
When he came out of the pit, he was black bright

BOG – toilet

BRASS – riches, treasure
I’d love to go out but I’ve no brass

BRAY – hit, beat
He’s got the sort of face I’d never get tired of braying

BUTTY – sandwich
I really fancy a chip butty

CACK-HANDED – clumsy

CAL – chat, talk
Come round to ours for a coffee and a cal

CHAMPION – smashing
Eeh that dinner were champion
(Had Freddie Mercury come from Yorkshire he might have written a song called ‘We are Champion’)

CHELP – talking incessantly
I wish he’d stop chelping, he’s doing my head in

CHUCK UP – vomit
He chucked up all over the cat

CHUFF/CHUFFING – nothing to do with trains, not unless used in the context of ‘that chuffing train is late’.  It’s a mild expletive like ‘bloody’.  CHUFF OFF = get lost.
Why don’t you chuff off, you chuffing pest!

CHUFFED – pleased
He was totally chuffed with his new flat cap

CLAP COLD – very cold
My tea’s gone clap cold

CLOUT – hit.
I’m going to give him a clout when I see him.
Also can refer to a woman’s downstairs bits. ie: I’m going to the doctor’s to see about my dry clout.

COCK/COCKER – 1. term of endearment 2. tough
1. How are you doing, cock?
Yorkshiremen call anyone cock, cocker without any sexual connotations and it is a term used liberally
2. Peter was the cock of the school
In the 2nd meaning, it means the toughest person ‘the cock’ of the school/street/village etc

COIT – coat
Grab your coit, you’ve pulled, love

CUPPA – cup of tea/coffee
Fancy a cuppa?

DAB ON (to have a) – sweaty
The menopausal woman had a right dab on

DAFT AS A BRUSH – stupid or soft-hearted
He’s daft as a brush with the kids

DINNER – mid day meal
Tea is the evening meal (as well as the drink) so meals in order: breakfast, dinner, tea, supper

EYUP – 1. hello. 2. hang on there (= wait a minute).
1. Eyup, I haven’t seen you for ages
2. Eyup, I did not murder your mother

FAFF/FAFFING – 1 messing about 2. effort
1. He’s been faffing about with that for hours
2. I’ve given up because it’s not worth the faff

FETTLE – clean, tidy
I’ve fettled my kitchen cupboards

GET – blighter (see beggar also)
He’s a miserable get

GIZ/GIZZIT – give/give it to me
If you’ve got the remote – gizzit ‘ere

GINNEL – a narrow passage between buildings, an alley.  Sometimes called a SNICKET. (Sometimes we go the whole hog and call it a ‘snicket-ginnel-alley’)
The burglar went out of the back door and escaped down the ginnel/snicket

GI’OR – stop
Gi’or making that noise

GIP – retch
The sight of black pudding makes me gip

GOD’S OWN COUNTY – Yorkshire
In the days of telephone boxes, it was an established fact that a Yorkshireman could ring God for only 10p because it would be a local call

GORMLESS – very thick, stupid
Someone who is gormless usually has a dopey expression

JAMMY – lucky
He won the lottery, the jammy get (note ‘get’ and not ‘git’)

JIGGERED – tired
I’m going to bed, I’m absolutely jiggered

KHALI (pronounced Kay-lie) – 1. sherbet. 2. (when used as a verb, past tense) drunk
1. You can dip your lolly in my khali. (not necessarily a euphemisim)
2.  I got totally khalied at the party

KIDDING – joking
You’re kidding me – she’s never a size 12

LAIK, LAIKING – play/playing (pronounced LAKE)
Are you laiking out later?
Stop laiking abart!

LIG – laze, linger
‘Wheer’s ar Kevin?’ ‘He’s ligging in bed, the lazy arse’

LOOK SHARP – hurry up
Look sharp, I’m waiting

MARDY – grumpy (often accompanied by ‘bum’ at the end)
He’s a right mardy bum
She’s a right mardy cow

MASH – as well as being something you do to a potato, in Yorkshire it means to brew tea
I’ll mash the tea, you get the cups out

MAUNGY – moaning, whingeing, sulky.
Her husband is a maungy sod

MONK ON – sulky, annoyed
She got the monk on with me when I said I wasn’t sharing my buns.
(Note we have a lot of expressions for sulking and annoyance despite being nice people really)

NAR – now
I’m coming nar

NESH – feels the cold easily
Why are you wearing a jumper in July?  You must be nesh

NEB – nose
Keep thi neb out of my business!

NOWT – nothing
I walked in and he had nowt on

OWT – anything
I’ll have owt to eat, I’m not fussed*
(*I don’t mind)

OIL/OYLE – hole or place
Ear oil (or lug oil) = ear hole, cake oil = mouth, arse oil = self-explanatory, chip oil = chip shop, coil oil = place where coal is kept

PARKY – cold.
It’s *proper parky outside tonight
*proper in this sense means ‘truly’

POP – fizzy drink or child-friendly drink
I’ll have a glass of pop as I’m driving
(NB: ‘corporation pop’ is ‘tap water’)

POTS, to do the (or sometimes side the pots) – wash up
I’ll do the pots before I go to bed
Having a pot on his arm = a plaster cast

PUDDING BURNER – a woman who goes out for a drink on Sunday afternoons and so is likely to burn her husband’s Sunday lunch starter of the Yorkshire puddings

PUMP – 1. fart (also see trump) 2. plimsolls

PUT WOOD IN T’OIL – close the door
Put wood in t’oil on your way out

REIGHT – right as in good, okay.
Yorkshiremen use ‘right’ liberally in the sense of ‘really’ or ‘very’ as in: it was reight good
Also: let’s be reight about it = let’s say it as it is

REIGHT AS RAIN – good, fine
Don’t worry about me, I’m as reight as rain

RUER – crying hard
The man started ruering because someone knocked his pint over

SCARBOROUGH WARNING – warning that breaking rules will result in a punishment
I’ve given him the Scarborough warning that he better be in by 6
NB – the usage has become slightly warped as the original definition is actually the punishment before the warning is given but it is used quite commonly as the stern warning before

SLAPPING SOME TIMBER ON – putting on weight
You haven’t half slapped some timber on since I last saw you

SLING YOUR HOOK – get lost
Sling your hook you bloody pest

SNAP – food.
Packed lunch container is a snap box
It must be snap time by now

SPANISH – liquorice

SPICE – sweets
I’m off t’spice shop for a Mars Bar.

SPUGGY – sparrow

SUMMAT – something

TEACAKE – breadcake
In (most of) Yorkshire teacakes do NOT have currants in them. Currant teacakes have currants in them. How much easier can it get?
The debate over ‘teacakes’ has almost caused wars even within Yorkshire. Some do not agree  and insist on breadcake/bap/roll and that teacakes have currants in them. Where I come from though – the division is teacake/currant teacake.
Also if someone is a bit of a teacake, they are a bit stupid.
Don’t treat me like a teacake

TRUMP – fart.
Those baked beans didn’t half make me trump

WARM UN – 1. witty, a ‘character’ 2. bit of a slapper (female)
Elsie down the road is a warm un

THA – you
Tha knows nowt

THI’SEN – yourself
Gi thi’sen a pat on the back

TYKE  – someone from Yorkshire or the Yorkshire dialect
He’s a proper tyke as he comes from Barnsley.
Ginnel is tyke for a passage

SPELL – in Yorkshire, as well as being a witch’s speciality, a spell is a small wooden splinter.
I have a spell in my finger

WAZZOCK – idiot, fool
He’s a right wazzock

WARM – (rhyme with ‘harm’) someone ‘spirited’. Also often someone who has a few loose morals/ who puts it about a bit
She’s a warm ‘un yond.

WHILE – until
Confuses the arse out of people this one and I have no idea why we say it. Maybe we are too lazy to use two syllables when one will do.
I’ll be here while seven o’clock

WOR – were
He wor here and nar he’s gone

US – our
For some strange reason, Yorkshire folk use ‘us’ instead of ‘our’.
What time is us bus?

YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS – cooked batter that rises in the oven.
These cheap and cheerful puds were served up as a starter to the Sunday roast so the eater would be full and not mind their (more expensive) meat main course being small.