R - 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

RAG, quarried chalk, hard chalk.
RAMP, TO, for romp, to jump about noisily.
RAMPAGEOUS, riotous, wild.
RAMSHACKLE, loosely put together the contrary of compact); straggling, out of repair. "it's rather a ramshackle old place."
RANDAN, a boat with three rowers, of whom bow and stroke each have a single oar, and the intermediate man a pair of sculls.
RANDY, "on the randy" = on the spree. Probably London slang: mentioned in Halliwell in this sense.
RARE, very; great; or extraordinary. " A rare great house. " "He's got a rare cheek" = He's got more than his share of impudence. "He's a rare piece" = He's a queer character.
RASH, violent.
RASPY, coarse or rough in taste.
RAT-BAT, any of the larger species of Bat. See also BAT-MOUSE.
RAWSEBERRY, see Roseberry.
REASY, bacon or ham which has become a little oily in keeping, and the fat a little yellow, is said to have become reasy.
REDPULL (the LL modified almost into W), pronounciation of Redpoll (Linota).
REEK, a Rick Almost invariably so pronounced.
ROBIN HOOD'S BARN, "all round Robin Hood's barn," = in all directions, everywhere, on all sides. "I've looked all round Robin Hood's barn, and I can't find him." The considerable stretch of country which contained Robin Hood's provisions (deer, etc.) might metaphorically be called his "barn," and so the phrase be applied to any large space.
ROD-EYOT, an osier bed. (See Eyot).
RODNEY ABOUT, TO, to hang about to pick up such odd jobs as holding horses, etc.; also said of a man who earns a living by such irregular trades as holding a cocoanut stall at the "statties," or hawking loaters from door to door, etc. A RODNEY, or RODNEY-BOATMAN, an odd man employed on the canal, to open the locks, etc. (See Scuffle-hunter).
ROOSH, pronounciation of rush, both verb and subt., in sense of running hurriedly; but the aquatic plants (Juncus) are pronounced correctly.
ROSEBERRY, and RAWSEBERRY, the rasberry.
RUMBUSTICAL, boisterous, full of mischief; as of a child, beyond control.
RUNT, a badly-developed or dwarfish beast or other animal, see Dilling.
RYE-PECK, a pole (larch is best) shod with a long, tapering iron spike at its thicker end, for driving into the bed of the river, to moor a punt (for fishing, etc.). ? Connected with ME ripen, to grope, probe, search into (Skeat).
RYMER, a removable sluice in a floodgate.