Some words that I grew up hearing don't seem to need an explanation but we know how that goes.
Weans : small children.
It's simply wee 'uns merged to make a new word.
But then we have ......
Greet : cry.
And it's not so obvious.
I mention these two words in one post as when I was growing up in N. Ireland, they often went together, or at least they were formed to go together.
Crying children became greetin' weans.
Of course I was never accused of greetin' or greeting. Not much anyway. I stoically suffered all that life threw at me which considering I was once run over by a set of farming discs being pulled by a tractor, shows that as well as being a 'wee dote' I was also a 'brave wee dote.'
(I hope you've all been keeping up with my UWOTD posts or else you'll be lost by now).
But when I went to boarding school at 11, my greetin' made up for lost time. I think it started when my parents car disappeared from view at roughly the same time as 4 huge 6th formers took it's place in my eyeline.
It ended when I drove out the school gates 7 years later.
I've always liked greetin' - not doing it, but the word.
ReplyDeleteOnly seven years though, and of course teenage years aren't important in any way, are they? HAH! When I'm Prime Minister boarding schools will all be abolished. And if anyone fancies telling me that boarding schools have changed - - well maybe they have - - but kids haven't, some are just as cruel as ever they were.
ReplyDeleteThe Scots use 'greeting' too, don't they? And I don't blame you for greeting when you got sent to boarding school. I don't understand boarding school. What is it for? Is it a place to send kids to be tortured because you don't like them? Seems so to me.
ReplyDeleteI still think you're a brave wee dote. ;)