@Notbitter– You’ll enjoy this one then.
Many, many jobs ago, I dealt with listed buildings and would often have to deal with members of the public in varying states of apoplexy. Quite often, I would be a bit tongue-tied – was only in my mid 20s and some of the aggression was pretty awful.
Well one day, I got a call about a dry stone wall. The caller sounded rather like the former headmaster in your story. To say he was underwhelmed with the listing was putting it mildly. He sarcastically called me “deeeeear” at the end of every sentence and was just generally nasty and patronising.
One of his issues was the phrase “sneck stone” in the description. In this instance, a sneck stone is a small squared off stone jammed into a gap in the dry stone, filling the gap and making sure the wall is stable. I believe that it is Scottish in origin*, meaning “filled”. The only place I’ve heard “sneck” used other than listing was in Upstairs Downstairs, where Hudson tells one of the maids to make sure the windows are “well snecked” i.e. the curtains were properly drawn so no light showed. Anyway, not a common word in London/South East. Had he rung up to ask what a sneck stone up and not been such a twat, I would have told him. But no, he carried on.
“I’ve no idea what a sneck stone is, deeeeeear.”
I explain.
“Well that not in my Webster’s dictionary.”
Gotcha.
“I’m not surprised, Sir. Webster’s is published in America and is an American English dictionary. It is in the Oxford English Dictionary.”
“Flaaaahflaaaahflaffthurrrrhooofle.”
“Indeed, Sir. Is there anything I can help you with?”
So satisfying.
*someone will probably come along and explain. Just checked Websters-Merriam and it defines sneck as “latch”.