List of Cornish dialect words

A

• Abroad - *Abroad - 1. open: "laive the door abroad, boy." 2. in pieces: " 'e scat en abroad"
• Addled - 1. spoilt, rotten 2. empty, cracked or broken; e.g. addled eggs
• Ager - ugly
• Agerever - pollack
• Aglets - hawthorn berries
• Agone - ago; as in 'a week agone'
• Ake - a groove made on the stone of a killick
• Allycumpooster - all right
• Ancient - to describe someone who is a real character, "he's an ancient man".
• Anker - a small barrel
• Ansome - lovely ; Me ansome
• Anvon - a hard stone on which large stones are broken )
• Areah, Arear, Aree faa - an exclamation of surprise
• Arish - arable field
• Arish mow - a stack of sheaves
• Are 'em - aren't they
• Awn - a cove / haven
• Aye? - I beg your pardon?; Yes? What was that?
• Ayes - yes. Perhaps from Old Norse ei + Old English sī, like "yes". Alternatively, a modification of "aye" based on "yes". Further, possibly a conflation of any of the previous, and "ess", which may represent a dialectal form of "yes".

  B

• Backalong - in former times
• Backsyfore - the wrong side first
• Bal - a mine
• Bal maiden - a woman working at a mine, at smashing ore &c.
• Ball - a pest, used figuratively
• Bamfer - to worry, harass, or torment
• Bamfoozle - deceive, confuse, especially by trickery
• Bannal - the broom plant
• Barker - a whetstone
• Bean -
• Belong - 1. live or work - "where do 'ee belong to" 2. denotes habit or custom - "she belong to go shopping Fridays"
• Belving - load roaring/bellowing especially by a cow
• Berrin - funeral
• Better fit/better way - it would be better if...
• Bettle - mallet
• Bewattled - confused, bewildered
• Big-pattern - a show-off, "big-pattern he is"
• Big-sea - rough sea / swell
• Bilders - cow parsley
• Bimper - a peeping tom
• Biskan - a finger-stall
• Bits - spinach-beet, green beet-leaves, Chard
• Black-Annie - a black backed gull
• Bladder - blister
• Bleddy - local pronunciation of 'bloody' as an emphasising adjective
• Blowed - surprised "well I'm blowed"
• Bobber lip - bruised and swollen lip
• Brake - thicket / rough woodland
• Borbas - a rockling
• Bothel - a blister
• Bothack - the bib, or pouting
• Bothack - a hunchback
• Boughten - bought
• Bowjy - a cattle-house
• Brae / brer - quite a lot
• Brandis - trivet
• Brave - much/many
• Breal - a mackerel
• Brink - the gills of a fish
• Brock - a badger from Cornish language
• Browjans - small fragments
• Browse - undergrowth
• Browse - pulped bait
• Broze - a blaze, a great heat
• Brummal Mow - an arish mow of domed form
• Bruyans, Brewions - crumbs, fragments
• Bucca - an imp, hobgoblin, scarecrow
• Buddy - a cluster, a clump
• Buffon - a bruise
• Bulgranack - the smooth blenny
• Bulorn - a snail
• Bully - large pebble
• Bulugen - an earthworm
• Bun-fight - the wake after a funeral
• Bunny - a bunch of ore, an unusual concentration of ore
• Burd - bud as in "buddy"
• Burgam - a jocular term of reproach
• Burn - a load, as much turf, furze, etc., as one can carry; of hake or pollack, twenty-one fish.
• Burrow - heap of mining related waste, but sometimes used simply to mean "pile"
• Buster - someone full of fun and mischief..
• Buzza, Bussa - large salting pot or bread-bin, also found in phrase "dafter than a buzza" very daft
• B'y - boy, like sir

  C

• Cabester, Cobesta - the part of a fishing tackle connecting the hook with the lead
• Caboolen, Cabooly-stone - a holed stone, tied to a rope, and used to drive pilchards or mackerel back from the opening of a seine
• Cack - filth
• Caggle, Gaggle - to cover in filth
• Cakey - soft, feeble minded
• Cal - tungstate of iron
• Calamajeena, Calavajina - a thornback
• Calcar - the lesser weever
• Calken, Calican - the father-lasher
• Callan - a hard layer on the face of a rock
• Cand, Cam - fluorspar
• Canker - a harbour crab
• Cannikeeper - a spider crab
• Canter - a frame for a fishing-line, originally a peg was used
• Captain - the manager of a mine or similar enterprise
• Care - the mountain ash, or rowan
• Carn - a pile of rocks
• Carn tyer - quartz
• Carrack - a stone composed of quartz, schorl and hornblende
• Cassabully - winter cress
• Casteeg - to flog
• Catched - caught
• Catchpit - a place in the home where everything is dropped
• Cauch - a mess
• Caunse - paved way
• Chacking - thirsty
• Chacks - cheeks
• Chea chaunter, cheechonter - stop your chatter!
• Cheel - child especially girl "a boy or a cheel"
• Cheldern - children
• Chewidden Thursday - a miners' festival
• Chill - lamp
• Chimley - chimney
• Chirks - remnants of fire, embers; "chirk" burrows where used coal was found near mines
• Chuggypig - woodlouse
• Churchtown - the settlement where the parish church is located
• Clacky - sticky and chewy food
• Clidgy - sticky, muddy
• Clim - climb
• Clip - sharp in speaking, curt, having taken offence
• Cloam - crockery, pottery, earthenware
• Cloam oven - earthenware built-in oven
• Clunk - swallow; clunker - windpipe
• Coffen stile - a coffen stile is a type of stile consisting of rectangular bars of granite laid side by side with gaps between

• Coose - to hunt or chase game out of woodland/covert, from the Cornish word for woodland 'koes'. I.e. a command given to encourage a hunting dog "coose him out then dog!".
• Cornish diamonds - quartz
• Cousin Jack - a Cornish emigrant miner; "Cousin Jacks" is a nickname for the overseas Cornish, thought to derive from the practice of Cornishmen asking if job vacancies could be filled by their cousin named Jack in Cornwall.
• Crease - children's truce term
• Crib - a mid-morning break for a snack
• Croust - a mid-morning break for a snack
• Cummas 'zon - come on, hurry up
• Cundard - a drain
• Cuss - curse
• Cutting of it up - speaking in a fake posh accent

  D

• Daft - silly
• Dag - short hatchet or axe ; also in phrase "Face like a dag"; sheep tailings
• Dappered - dirty / covered in mud
• Dashel - thistle
• Denner - dinner, evening meal
• Devoner - someone from Devon
• Didikoy - gypsy
• Didnus - Didn't we
• Dilley - wheeled play trolley made from wood and pram wheels
• Dishwasher - water-wagtail
• Do - auxiliary verb - "the pasties mother do make" or even "that's what we d' do"
• Dobeck - somebody stupid
• Dram - swath
• Drang - narrow passage or lane
• Drash - thresh; "drasher" = thresher
• Dreckley / Dreckly - at some point in the future; soon, but not immediately; like "mañana", but less urgent
• Dreckzel - threshold of a doorway
• Dry - a dry is where the sludge gets processed
• Dryth - drying power, "There's no dryth in the wind today"
• Dummity - low light level, overcast
• Durns - door frame

  E

• 'e - contraction of "he" but used in place of "it"
• Easy - slightly simple mentally
• Ee - contraction of thee
• Eeval - farmer's fork implement
• :wikt:emmet|Emmet - ant or more recently tourist ; four-legged emmet - newt
• 'er - she
• Ess - yes
• Ess coss - yes of course
• Ewe - she cat
• Exactly - as in "'e edn exactly", meaning he is not right mentally

  F

• Fains - children's truce term
• Fall - autumn, Fall
• Ferns - bracken "the hounds lost the fox in the ferns"
• Figgy hobbin - lump of dough, cooked with a handful of raisins
• Fitty - proper, properly
• Fizzogg - face
• Flam-new - brand new
• Fly, Flies - hands of a dial or clock
• Folks - people
• Fossick - to search for something by rummaging, to prospect for minerals
• Fradge - repair
• Fuggan - pastry dinner-cake
• Furze, furzy - gorse, covered with gorse, as in the local saying at Stratton "Stratton was a market town when Bude was just a furzy down", meaning Stratton was long established when Bude was just gorse-covered downland.

  G

• Gad - a pick, especially a miner's pick; this kind of pick is a small pointed chisel used with a hammer, e.g. a hammer and gad
• Gashly - terrible, dismal, hideous
• Gawky - stupid
• Gazooly, Gazol - gazoolying / gazoling means "to be constantly uttering laments"
• Geeking - gaping
• Geddon - good show / well done
• Girt licker - very large object, as in "That fish you caught is a girt licker"
• Giss on! - don't talk rubbish!
• Glance - bounce
• Gook - bonnet
• Gossan - a term for the loose mixture of quartz, iron oxide and other minerals often found on the "back" of a lode; decomposed rock
• Grammersow - woodlouse
• Granfer - grandfather
• Griglans - heather
• Grisly, Grizzly - a grating used to catch and throw out large stones from the sluices
• Grushans, Groushans - dregs, especially in bottom of tea cup
• Guag, Gwag - emptiness, hollow space in a mine
• Gug - a coastal feature/cave, esp. North Cornwall; e.g St Illickswell Gug
• Gunnis - an underground excavation left where a lode has been worked out
• Gurgoe - warren
• Gwidgee-gwee - a blister, often caused by a misdirected hammer blow

  H

• Haggel - hawthorn berries
• Hav - summer
• Heave - throw
• Hell-of-a-good - very good!
• Hell-of-a-job - a difficult job!
• Heller - troublesome child
• Henting - raining hard
• Hepping stock - mounting block
• Hoggan - pastry cake
• Hoggans - haws
• Holing - working, mining used in phrase "holing in guag", meaning mining somewhere that has already been mined.
• Huer - a lookout on land assisting fishermen by shouted directions

  J

• Jacker - Cornish man, mainly used by non-Cornish to refer to Cornish, especially used around the dockyards
• Jackteeth / Jawteeth - molars; "jackteeth" is used in the north east, "jawteeth" in the southeast and mid Cornwall, but "grinders" in the west.
• Jamien - a hero, legend, honourable person
• Janner - Devon man
• Jowse - shake or rattle
• Jowster - itinerant seller, e.g. "fish jowster"

  K

• Kewny - rancid
• Kibbal - iron container used for ore and rock haulage
• Kiddlywink - unlicensed beer shop
• Kieve - wooden tub, mainly used in mineral processing
• Killas - metamorphic rock strata of sedimentary origin which were altered by heat from the intruded granites in Devon and Cornwall.
• Knack-kneed - knock-kneed
• Knockers - spirits that dwell underground

  L

• Lathered - drunk
• Larrups - rags, shreds, bits
• Launder - guttering, originally a trough in tin mining
• Lawn - a field
• Leaking wet - very wet
• Learn - teach
• Linhay - lean-to
• Long-spoon - term to mean a tight-fisted person, i.e. you'd need a long-spoon to share soup with them!
• Longfellas - implements with long handles
• Louster - to work hard
• Lowance out - to set limits financially

  M

• Made/matey/Meh'd - mate
• Maid - girl, girl-friend
• Maund - large basket
• Mazed - greatly bewildered, downright mad, angry
• Meader - unknown; used in the 'Poldark' novels apparently of a weakling or runt of a litter
• Milky-dashel - milk thistle
• Minching - skiving "minching off school"
• Mind - remember
• Month - a particular month is referred to with "month" added to its name, e.g. May month
• Mossil - mid morning snack, similar to croust/crib
• Mowhay - barn, hay store, stackyard
• Murrian, Muryan - ant or more recently a tourist
• Mutt - sulk

  N

• Nestle-bird, nestle-drish - the weakest pig of a litter
• Nick - onomatopoeic, tap - as in "'e go nick nick" i.e. it keeps tapping
• Nip - narrow path or short steep rise
• Nought but - as in "nought but a child"

  O

• Oggy - pasty
• Ope - an alley
• Oss - horse

  P

• Padgypaw, Padgy-pow - a newt
• Palm - the pussy willow, branches of which were traditionally used as substitutes for the palm or olives branches on Palm Sunday
• Pard - friend
• Party - a young woman
• Peeth - well
• Piggal - turf cutting tool
• Piggy-whidden - the runt of a litter of pigs
• Pig's-crow - pigsty
• Pike - pitchfork
• Pilez, Pillas - Avena nuda
• Pilth - small balls found in over-rubbed cotton
• Pindy or Peendy - Tainted usually of foodstuffs going off or rancid, especially by sense of smell ´this meat is pindy´
• Pisky - pixie
• Planching/Planchen - a wooden or planked floor
• Platt - market place
• Pokemon - clumsy.
• Polrumptious - restive, rude, obstreperous, uproarious
• Prong - fork
• Proper - satisfactory; "proper job"; "Proper Job IPA" is a St Austell ale
• Pussivanting - an ineffective bustle

  Q

• Quignogs - ridiculous notions or conceits
• Quilkin - frog
• Quillet - small plot of land

  R

• Rab - gravel
• Redders - feeling physically hot, either from the weather or from exertion
• Right on - an informal way of saying goodbye, or response to greeting "Alright then?"
• Roar - weep loudly
• Rumped - huddled up, usually from the cold; phrase "rumped up like a winnard"

  S

• Sandsow - woodlouse
• Scat - to hit or break "scat abroad = smashed up" ; musical beat ; "bal scat" is a disused mine. Also financial ruin "he went scat/his business went scat".
• Scaw - elder tree
• Screech - to cry loudly
• Scrink, skrink - to wrinkle, screw up
• Scroach - scorch
• Scrowl - to grill over the fire on an iron plate
• Shalligonaked - flimsy, light or scanty
• Shippen - farm building for livestock. From Middle English schipne, Middle English schepne, schüpene, from Old English scypen, from Proto-Germanic *skupīnō, diminutive of *skup-. Related to shop.
• Shram - chill
• Slab - a Cornish range
• Slawterpooch - a slovenly, ungainly person
• Slock - to coax, entice or tempt, as in "slock 'un 'round"
• Small coal / slack - coal dust; "slack" only in the far south west
• Smeech - acrid smoke, and also used as the verb in west Cornwall for misty rain, as "its smeeching".
• Smuts - soot
• Some - very, extremely
• Sowpig - woodlouse
• Spence - larder in house; "crowded = House full, spence full"
• Splatt - patch of grass
• Spriggan - spirit
• Sproil - energy
• Squall - to cry
• Squallass, squallyass - crybaby
• Stagged - muddy
• Stank - to walk, also a word for a long walk as in "that was a fair old stank"
• Stargazy pie pie - a pilchard pie with the fish heads uppermost
• Steen - stoneware pot
• Steeved - frozen
• Stinking - a very bad cold/flu, i.e. "I have a stinking cold"
• Strike up / strike sound - start singing, especially with traditional spontaneous a capella Cornish pub singing
• Stripped up - dressed appropriately
• Stroyl - couch grass
• Stuggy - broad and sturdy
• Swale - to burn to bring on new growth

  T

• Tacker - small child, toddler
• Teal - to till, cultivate
• Teasy - bad-tempered as in ´teasy as a fitcher´ or a childhood tantrum may be explained as the child being ´tired and teasy´
• Teddy / tiddy - potato
• Thirl - hungry
• Tidden - tender
• Tight - drunk
• To - at; e.g. ""over to Cury" Also "Where is it?" could be phrased as "Where's he/her/it to?" and "Where's that" as "Where's that to".
• Tob - a piece of turf
• Towan - sandhill or dune
• Town Crow - a term used by Port Isaacers to describe Padstonians,.
• Towser - a piece of material worn by agricultural workers and tied around the waist to protect the front of trousers, often made from a hessian potato sack
• Trade - stuff of doubtful value: "that shop, 'e's full of old trade"
• Tuppence-ha'penny - a bit of a simpleton / not the full shilling, i.e. "she's a bit Tuppence-Ha'penny"
• Turmut - turnip; or commonly swede

  U

• Ummin - dirty, filthy. As in 'the bleddy floor is ummin'.
• Un - him/her
• - a generalised geographical term meaning anywhere which is in England, except for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
• Urts - whortleberries, bilberries
• Us two / We two - As in 'there are just we two'; "Us two" is used only in north east Cornwall and "we two" in the rest of Cornwall.

  V

• Veer - sucking pig
• Vellan - villain
• Visgy - mattock
• Vor - furrow, as in a planted field
• Vug - rock cavity

  W

• Want - a mole. Want hill - A mole hill
• Wasson - what's going on?
• We be - as in 'Oh yes, we be!'; used in most of mid and east Cornwall, whereas "we are" is used in the far west.
• Wheal - often incorrectly attributed to meaning a mine, but actually means a place of work; the names of most Cornish mines are prefixed with Wheal, such as Wheal Jane, Wheal Butson, etc.
• Whidden - weakling
• Whiffy - changeable)
• Whimmy - full of whims, fanciful, changeable)
• Whitneck - weasel
• Wilky - a frog
• Winnard - redwing; see also Winnard's Perch
• Withys - willow trees
• Withy-garden - area of coppiced willows cultivated by fishermen for pot making
• Wisht - hard-done-by, weak, faint, pale; e.g. "You're looking wisht today" see Winnard above for the saying as wisht as a winnard
• Wo / ho - stop

  Y

• Yarnigoat - term used by Padstonians to describe Port Isaacers. Due to the exposure of Port Isaac to the weather, the fishermen often could not put to sea and would instead congregate on the Platt to converse / tell yarns..
• You, yo - as an emphatic end to a sentence, e.g. "Who's that, you?"; "Drag in the cheeld, you! and don't 'ee lev un go foorth till 'ee 's gone"

  Z

• Zackley - exactly
• Zam-zoodled - half cooked or over cooked
• Zart - a sea urchin
• Zawn - a fissure in a cliff These fissures are known to geologists as littoral chasms.
• Zew - to work alongside a lode, before breaking it down
• Zuggans - the essence of anything