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F - 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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FAG, to cut corn with a sickle. Halliwell gives it as a west-country word, to reap, or cut the stubble with a short scythe. A FAG, is a kind of reaping-hook, with longer blade than ordinary. "There'll soon be no good farming, now that fagging's introduced." (This was remarked forty years ago [1857], or more, showing that a fag was then somewhat a novelty.)
FAGGING-HOOK (pronounced faggin'-'ook), a large reaping-hook (See also Bagging-hook).Mr. Gurney gives the following explanation of the differences between the various implements used in reaping by hand, obtained from a Pitstone man:- The fagging-hook is used at arm's length, but in using a reaping-hook (ripping-hook) the quantity of corn to be cut at one "go" is in that hand. The true sickle was set straight in the handle or stayel (which see), whereas the two others have a crank in the tang. The sickle, moreover, had a saw-edge.
FAGOT, a contemptuous term for a woman. (Mentioned in Slang Dictionary.) Besides this meaning, and of which Mr. Gurney gives as an instance, "What be doin' in that there dirt, you young fagot?" he also gives it as a kind of rissole of pig's liver, etc.
FAL-LALS, finery, such as ribbons, cheap jewellery, etc.
FALL IN THE WAY WITH, TO, to become pregnant.
FALSE, "She is false" seems to mean interested affection or "cupboard love."
FANTAG, "to be in a fantag," = to be in "a state of mind."
FARM, to clean, e.g., "Farm them pigs out." Halliwell gives it as a west-country word, to cleanse, or empty.
FAVOUR, TO, to resemble in features. "He favours his gramfer."
FAYN, FEAN, bracken, fern. AS fearn.
FAYTHER, for father.
FEAN, see Fayn.
FEELTH, feeling, sensation. "We shall have a frost by the feelth on't". Halliwell gives it as a Warwickshire word.
FERRUCKING, working, poking about. "They've been ferrucking at that door," said of animals scratching at the wooden door of the cage. Also used as hunting about as in search of something. I never heard any other part of the verb except this participle used.
FEW, "a good few" = a good many.
FIDDLE, TO, to fidget with the fingers. "She woon't et; she on'y fiddled about with her knife and fork;" also, to work at anything half-heartedly.
FIDDLING, trifling, unimportant. "There wor'n't nothing o' no account to do, only a few little fiddlin' jobs."
FIERCE (often pronounced feess), very seldom used in the sense of savage, but almost always in that of active, lively, high-spirited, "pert," full of life. "I gin the boy tuppence, and off he went fierce as a maggot." "Jane always were a fierce young puss."
FILLEST. See Thill.
FINGER COLD, chilly, nipping.
FINIKIN, provincial form of finical. Affectedly fine in manners, etc., precise in trifles. In the ballad of Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale, "a finikin lass" occurs. It appears there to mean fine, or graceful.
FIRST-ONSET, at first.
FITTEN, for fit (= proper).
FLACK, to blow, or shake, about. Halliwell gives as the second meaning of this word, to move backwards and forwards to palpitate.
FLAIR, hog's fat (from the entrails?) for making lard.
FLAKE-HURDLE, a hurdle made of split willow timber, in distinction to one woven of willow rods.
FLAM, a net for catching rabbits.
FLASH, showy, with the idea of a sham. "A flash-looking fellow," "a flash sort of man"; a flash coin is a forged one. To cut a flash, is to make a great show for a short time. To flash a hedge, is to trim the bottom of it. To flash up, is to turn up the edge, as, e.g., in using lead or zinc on a roof, the edge is flashed up against any adjoining higher object, as brickwork, to prevent the rain soaking in as it would do if the sheet were simply abutted against it. The edge so turned up is the flashing. [flash, as adj. and subst. is perhaps slang].
FLECK, the hair of animals, especially used of rabbits and hares.
FLEW, for flown. A nestful of young birds are always said to have flew.
FLIGGED, fledged (of young birds).
FLIRT, TO, to throw by jerking, to flick, etc. "He flirted some powder into the fire."
FLIT, TO, to tie by a rope or string; to tie a horse to a post so that it can graze freely.
FLOP, "he fell flop down," merely intensifies. Plump is also use, and the slang words slap, or bang.
FLY-BY-NIGHT, used jocularly of a person of irregular habits.
FODDERED UP, crowded.
FOOT OR HORSEBACK, "I didn't know whether I were on foot or horseback;" i.e., I was much confused in mind.
FORE-HORSE, the leader of a team. Pronounced Forrus, and in the same way compounds of -house are pronounced Bake-us, Brewus, Cartus, etc.
FORE-RIGHT, opposite.
FORM, TO, to understand thoroughly, to "get at the bottom" of a thing, etc. "I never knowed 'ow it did 'appen; I never could form it, 'ardly."
FORREST, foremost (adj.).
FORTNIT, for fortnight.
FOT = fetched. Used in 1686, in Stewkley churchwardens' accounts. "I fot him a smack of the head."
FOUT, for fought.
FOWER, pronunciation of four.
FRAM-WARD and TO-WARD (pronounced Fram'ard and toe'ard). In ploughing a "land," the "dirt" is thrown "fram'ard," i.e., away from the "land," when the plough is going in one direction; and "toe-'ard," i.e., towards the "land" when returning the opposite way. Halliwell gives fram-ward as "in an opposite direction," and gives reference to the "Life of St. Brandan," p. 3.
FRAME, a skeleton.
FREM, crisp, juicy. "The celery was very frem." Halliwell gives frim, a north-country word, as vigorous, thriving, well-fed, tender or brittle, fresh, quick-grown.
FRENCH MAGPIE, the Green Woodpecker (Gecinus viridis).
FRENCHMAN, any foreigner. It is only of late years, since the advent of the shoals of tourists, that foreign nationalities have begun to be generally distinguished in Marlow.
FRET ABOUT THE HOUSE, TO, to be bored.
FRETTING, thawing slightly. AS fretan, to gnaw.
FREZ, preterite and p. participle of freeze (see friz). "That frez enough to freezea harrer-tine a-two."
FRIM, another and perhaps commoner form of FREM (see earlier).
FRIT, frightened.
FRIZ, frozen.
FROUZY, rank, musty, stinking. Halliwell says in Kent it signifies anything disordered and offensive to the eye or smell. The commoner form of the word is frousty, with the subs. froust.
FUZZEN, furze, gorse, or whin. FUZZEN-CHAT, FUZZEN-CHAP, the whin-chat.