Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/371

10 THE DIALECT OF Bear, Beer, or Bere. In cotton-weaying thirty-eight ends or threads form a here. The word is prohahly taken from some other source, and forms no part of the dialect, because cotton- weaving, until recently, has not been followed in these parts. See Forty wove. Beardie, a small fish formerly abundant in the streams of this locality before they were poisoned by the dye- water; the same as the ' loich ' or * Tommy loich.' CohitU harhatuUiy or the smelt with the small beard. Beartean, the plant auricula. In this word the rs are almost silent, so that the pronunciation is nearly hayaees. See Letter K. Beast, or Beett, the first milk drawn after a cow has calved. In some parts of England this is called heastingSf in others heasUings, Be&t, the pronunciation of heat in the sense of to surpass. Beck, a small stream, but broader than a dyke. Bedfieuit, bedridden. Bedlam, or Bedlamspit, the liver, kidney, sweetbread, &c. of a pig ; otherwise called pig's fry (pig fraw). The termination apit may be accounted for from the spluttering noise made in the cooking ; much the same way as meat and cabbage fried together have received the name of bubble and squeaks Bedstockt, the frame of the bedstead, including the head-boaid. Bee-hoppet, a bee-hive. Hoppet is a hand-basket in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. Beeter, or Beetin (the latter form the more common), a piece put in to mend a warp, when an end or thread has broken. If it breaks in front of the * yeld ' it only wants once tying, otherwise twice. Beetneed, a common word. Halliwell says, ' assistance in the hour of distress.' The meaninf^ seems wider than that, for the term when applied to a person, as it often is, is considered offensive. ' 111 not be Mrs. So-and-so's beetneed,* may be heard from an indicant matron or helper. Now if the word only implied * kindly assistance * there could be no offence in it. It much more likely means a last resource, a stop-gap, or even a cat's-paw ; in short, an3rthing to serve a turn. This and the preceding word are connected with * Iwot * in * to boot.' iBcott, in his Old Mortality ^ YoL IE. ch. xL, has the word beetmcuitery evidently the equivalent to beetneed, 'Next she' (Mistress Ailie Wilson) * enlarged on the advantage of saving old clothes, to be what she called beetmcuiera to the new.' The word bete itself occurs in Chevy Chaccj Fytte 2, line 140 : ' Jesu Christ our baUa bete, and to the bliss us bring,' f . e, amend our ills. [Beet is rather to mend than to assist : hence the opprobrious use of it.-W. W. S.] Before long. This expression is here sometimes rendered by 'before (or afore) owt's so long.'