D - Buckinghamshire Vocabulary

The following list of words are quoted from three articles published in the "Records of Buckinghamshire" by Alfred Heneage Cocks, M.A, between 1897 and 1909 (some editing has been used to produce a unified list). See the introduction for further details..

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DAB, DABSTER, a proficient "He's a dab(ster) at it.". TO DAB, also means to put the hand suddenly down upon anything, to snatch at. A DAB WASH, a small wash of clothes without boiling.
DAB-CHICK, sometimes DABBER, the Little Grebe (Podiceps fluviatilis).
DADDY-DOOMSDAY, see Doomsday.
DADDY-ROUGH, the Pope or Ruffe; the fish Acerina vulgaris.
DAFFY, DAFFYDOWNDILLY, the daffodil.
DANDLING ABOUT, for dawdling about.
DANDY-GREY-RUSSET, also DANDY-GOO-RUSSET, of nondescript colour, of no colour in particular.
DANIEL, "Take your dannel!" Take your hook, or Be off!
DAR, for DORR, a cock-chafer.
DARING, not plucky or brave, but impudent, "cheeky." "They children are so daring, they don't take a bit o' notice o' me 'ollering at them."
DASSN'T, for dare not.
DAWSEY, drowsy.
DEDIKOY, or DEDDIKOY, a gipsy, sometimes a tramp.
DENT, is of course, a dictionary word, but is mentioned for the sake of the following story of the Ivinghoe neighbourhood:- An old man "as weren't 'alf sharp" received a blow on the head from a stone thrown by a boy. "You 'nation young rogue," said he, "you've been and rose a dent in my 'ead as big as a walnut's egg."
DEVIL, the Swift (Cypselus apus).
DEVIL-BIRD, the swift.
DEVIL-HOLD, land held by squatter's right.
DEVIL'S GUT, the common bindweed or convolvulus. See Bethwine.
DEVIL'S DARNING NEEDLE, a dragon fly.
DEVILMENT, mischief.
DIBBLE, to plant, or sow, in separate holes made with a pointed stick, usually the upper part, including the eyed end, of the handle of an old spade [A technical word, rather than a merely local one].
DICK-BOBBING, DICK-DOBBING. Two boys armed with stones or catapults, beating a hedge, one on either side, and "potting" the birds as they fly out. Dick = dicky-bird.
DICKEREN, for Dicky Wren, used universally for a wren. DICKERTY.
DICKY-WHITE, the Common Whitethroat (Sylvia cinerea).
DIDDLE, to trick, or cheat.
DILLING, DILLEN. The small one in a litter of pigs.
DINKSE, TO (pronounced dinx), to walk in a fidgety manner; to dance anything (as a baby) in the arms; to walk in an affected manner. Adj. DINKSY.
DIP-NET, a small hand-net, for catching fish from the well of a punt.
DISH-WASHER, a Wagtail; especially the Pied Wagtail (Motacilla lugubris), the commonest British species.
DISSIGHTMENT, an eye-sore; a disfigurement.
DITTY, a tale, story, account. Perhaps the original sense of the word. "I up and told 'im the 'oole ditty." "I 'eered the 'oole ditty."
DO ABOUT, TO, to illtreat. DOING ABOUT, busy with small matters.
DOB DOWN, TO, to crouch down suddenly. "I dobbed down behind the hedge."
DOE-RAT, see Sow-rat.
DOFFTING, paddling in water.
DOG-DAISY, see Moondaisy.
DOG-PARSLEY, cow-parsley.
DOG-TROT, zig-zag. From a resemblance to the prints of a dog's feet when running slowly. TO DOGTROT, to place alternately, or zigzag In planting a hedge (of quicks, etc.), the plants are usually put in two rows, each plant a foot from the next, but second row are not planted behind the front bushes, but placed midway between them, or dog-trotted.
DOLLOP, a lump, or shapeless mass.
DOMINO (verb), to domineer: "I won't allow nobody to domino over me." (Substant.): "He isn't no small domino, either" = masterful, giving himself airs, swaggering, perhaps with some thought of a bully.
DON, clever, active, proficient. Much the same as Dab, being generally used in, "a don hand at " anything.
DONE, for did. "He done a day's work a' Toosday."
DOOMSDAY, DADDY-DOOMSDAY (perhaps for dead-doomsday), midnight. "Well, I never shall get done to-night, not while daddy-doomsday."
DOSSIT ABOUT, to gad about.
DOSSITY, animal spirits. "She's got no dossity about her." Halliwell gives it as a west-country word, = ability, quickness.
DOUT, to extinguish (as a candle). Mentioned in Webster's Dictionary as obsolete, and derived from do out. Not in Johnson (4th Edit., folio, 1773).
DRESS, manure.
DROGUE, a timber carriage.
DROTCHEL, a woman of unkempt, down-at-heels appearance, a sloven, or slut.
DROVING UP, collecting of birds in autumn.
DRUCKSEY, unsound (of wood).
DU'SS'N'T, for durst not.
DUCK'S FROST, rain.
DULL HUNT, used for anything unprofitable. A man with a bad hand at dominoes says, "Wal, this is a dull hunt, I call it."
DUMB-DOLLIES, posts set across the entrance of a footpath, to allow the passage of pedestrians, to the exclusion of vehicles.
DUMB-NETTLE, the red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum).
DUMMEL, dull, of the edge of a mattock or other tool; or of a person; also in the sense of damp, or limp from dampness, of corn lying cut.
DUNNY, deaf.
DUP, for do up.
DUTCH UNCLE. "I talked to him like a Dutch uncle," i.e., in a paternal or avuncular manner. Also, "silly as a Dutch uncle."