Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/397

36 THE DIALECT OF very popular here, especially in proper names ; in such cases, how- ever, the latter pcurt of the woni is usually lemoyed, and not the former, as aboye. Thus Donk for Donkersley, Crab for Crabtree, Jenk for Jenkin$on, Mac for Macdonaldy TcU for Tatterson, and many others. I have been told of one instance in which the abbreyiation caused considerable annoyaQce. A gentleman took to wife a lady with the classical but uncommon name of Persephone (the name I haye changed to saye tiie feelings of the family). This word took the popular fancy, and the lady was incontinently called Mrs. Senhony ; by and by her daughters and husband became the Miss Sepnonys and Mr. Sephox^y. In short they found it adyisable to seek another place of residence. An instance somewhat similar came within my own know- ledge. The lady in this case had a Scripture name — say Kesiah. They were people of wealth and station, but the natiyes would speak of her as * [feesiah/ and the boys were * Kesiah lads.' Devil (otherwise the * fearnought,' the * willow,* or ' willy,' but now ^nerally called the * teaser '), a rapidly-reyolying machme for tear- mg the wooL Should a person be caught by its spikes, which now and then happens, the injuries inflicted are frightful; hence, no doubt, the name. Formerly this machine was called a ' shoggy.' Devil on all sides, the common ranunculus, R. arvensis. So called from the hooks which surround the seeds and cause some difficulty in separating them from the grains of com. DiabolioiL Formerly, when witchery was more in vogue than now, the above singular cognomen was given to a then well-known dabbler in the black art, t. e . on sUxU occasions ; ordinarily he was spoken of as ' Old Di.' Dick, plain pudding. If with treacle sauce, treacle dick. See Lumpy dicks. Dick, a kind of apron such as worn by shoemakers, especially a leather one, which was called a ' leather dickJ The acquisition of one of these used to be a great object of ambition with Ahnondbury lads ; they regarded it as a kind of toga virUis, Gtirls also wore them ; and a lass haying got hers very wet, went close to the fire to dry it ; of course it curled up, and she called out in some surprise that it was ' frx>zzen.' Dike, or Dyke (pronounced dauk), the old form of the word ditch. In Bohin Hood^ Fytte vi yer. 25, the word seems to be undergoing its transformation: ' Some there were good bowes ibent Mo than seven score ; Hedge ne dyche spared they none, tSsX was therein before. Dike and dach^ however, must not be regarded as exactly equivalent, for the former means (besides what is ordinarily caUea a ditch) a watereourse or stream, as Eushfield Dyke, Fenay Bridge Dyke, Denby Dyke, &c., all fia^t-flowing water. If this circumstance had been considered the weU-known Z^A^e-end Lane of Huddersfield, which