G - 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..

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y

GAFFER, a head labourer.
GALLOPERS, for calipers, compasses.
GALLOWS, very. "He's a gallows bad un.".
GALLUS, very extremely. Spelt in Halliwell, gallows, and no doubt as the gallows was the extreme of all things, so a "gallus good fellow" would mean the ne plus ultra of good fellowship. Mentioned in Slang Dictionary, and the word is originally, doubtless, Cockney slang, and not a local production.
GAMMY, crooked; GAMMY-LEGGED, bowlegged, or bent at the knees like a worn-out horse. Welsh, cam = crooked, bowed; Lat. (but probably a foreign word adopted), camurus.
GARP, pronunciation of gape.
GAWK, a tall, awkward person, especially a youth or girl; a foolish, gaping person, a simpleton. GAWKY, tall and awkward, "hobbledehoy." AS deac, a cuckoo; Swed. gök; Norweg., gög; Scotch, gowk; a cuckoo (or a fool, in the same way that we use "goose," "donkey," etc.); German gauch, a fool.
GEELY-BALKS (hard "g"), the pot-hooks and chains hanging from the chimney over the old-fashioned wide fire-places [North Bucks]. The true meaning is, however, the beam or balk to which these chains are attached. Known as hangers. Cf. pothooks and hangers, the name given from their superficial resemblance, to the earliest attempts at writing.
GENTLES, fly-grubs (maggots), used as bait for roach-fishing.
GET FOOD ACROSS ONE, TO, to eat.
GETHER, TO, for gather, also in the sense of to fester.
GILLIES, the gilliflower, or wall-flower.
GIM, GIN, for, give, or gave.
GIVE OUT, GIVE OVER, TO, to leave off, cease.
GLINE, TO, to glance sideways, amorously or distrustfully.
GLINT, TO, to gleam, glitter, glisten. "Th' ol' fox was a-lookin' at me through th' edge; law! that's eyes did glint!"
GLOUTY, cross, illtempered.
GO-DAY, COME-DAY. "He's a goo-day, come-day sort o' feller," i.e., a happy-go-lucky fellow, improvident, lazy.
GOB, TO, to spit; also a substantive.
GOBBLER, a turkey-cock.
GOGGY, soft tender, toothsome. Applied to fat, the opposite of reasy, which see.
GOLDEN-KNOB, the golden-crested wren (Regulus ignicapillus).
GOO, go, frequently so pronounced. As a substantive = incident, occurrence. "That were a rum go." See Start, infra, and Touch.
GOOLS, or GOOLDS (? for golds), corn-marigolds.
GOOLY-BUG, GOOLY-BEE, a ladybird (Coccinella).
GOSH, GUM, BY-. Mr. Rye explains these as "foolish and very vulgar evasions of profane oaths, including the Sacred Name, combined with some other word."
GOSS, for gorse, but generally used not for the furze (Ulex), but for the Rest Harrow (Ononis arvensis).
GOT, used tautologically. "Am I got to do this?" "You're got to do this."
GRAFTED IN DIRT, covered with dirt.
GRAMMER, grandmother.
GRAMMERED, begrimed.
GRAMP, GRANF, grandfather.
GRAMPY, GRAVY, Old Man's Beard, or Traveller's Joy (Clematis vitalba). Also used as a name for the 13th century effigy of a priest in Ivinghoe Church [Lipscomb, III.,397.], now "guide-booked" into "Grandfather Grey-beard." The second word is, however, no corruption of greybeard, but the Middle English word greyuë, or greyvë, a reeve or magistrate, AS gerefa. In the 13th century romance of Havelock the Dane is:-

"Undo, bernard the greyue!
Undo swithe and latus in." (Li. 1771-2).

GRANDFA', for grandfather, also GRAMFER.
GRANDMOTHER'S NEEDLE, the plant Valerian.
GRASS, applied to all Clovers.(See Black-grass).
GRASS-MOUSE, the common Field-Vole (Arvicola agrestis).
GRAVY, see Grampy.
GREENHIDE, a cover for shooters, made of green branches; used especially for wood-pigeon shooting. The "greenery" used by children on May Day.
GREENER, a greenfinch (Ligurinus chloris).
GRET, to work by the piece.
GRINNERY, pronunciation of granary.
GRINSTEAD, grass-land. (Literally a green place, or spot.) (Cf., East and West Grinstead, in Sussex.)
GRISTIS, the ears of corn, separated from the straw. (Cf. "Grist to the mill.") The plural of all nouns ending in S followed by another consonant is formed in a similar way. See Postis infra.
GRUBBIN'-AXE, see Stock-axe.
GRUBBY, dirty; eaten by grubs. Halliwell gives it as poor, shrunken, stunted. Also, testy, peevish.
GUDGEL, mud, ooze, silt, drainage. "That there ditch is brim-full o' filthy gudgel."
GULLOP, to eat greedily. Halliwell gives a Somersets. subst, gollop, a large morsel; and his sixth meaning of Gull, is to guzzle, or drink rapidly (Stanihurst's "Ireland," p. 16).
GUMPTION, common sense, energy.
GUN, whimsical name for a tobacco pipe.
GUTS, properly the intestines, metaphorically stamina, endurance.
GUY AN IT (emphasis often on an), an interjection. "So-and-so's doin' well, and, guy an it! so he oughter! See what he charges."
GWAN, GWANE, for going.