Are there any regional words which you use and didn’t realise that not everyone else does?

[FormerCarer]

Inspired by a conversation with friends from different areas who assumed that everyone used mardy and mithering. It’s making me question now which words I assume are universal and really aren’t.

I didn't know giving out (scolding) was an Irish thing until I used it on a thread and everyone asked what was I giving out and to whom.

Buffit - small stool. I got into trouble for saying that to a class on teaching practice.
Starving - meaning cold
Both Yorkshire.

Otoh I was completely flummoxed moving to Birmingham and being told to turn left at the Island and go past the Outdoor. I worked it out eventually. Islands are roundabouts and the Outdoor is the Off Licence.

Most of my friends at the event were not from Glasgow though, Marsy and Mithering aren’t used here in Glasgow, and the Glaswegians and a few others were confused by the use of mardy and mithering hence the thread as we all confused one another with our various regionalisms.

Not regional for the UK, but my dad worked in Perth for a while before I was born. Two words apparently stuck and ended up in daily use in our house: eski (as in cool box) and struth (the exclamation). I was an embarrassingly long way into my 20s before I realised these were almost exclusively Australian terms.

My mum calls a turnip (small white thing) a white turnip, and a Swede (bigger yellow/orange thing) a turnip.
It seems you call them the other way round to what I do.

I was starting a thread on here saying I was foaming about something. I was very confused as to why people didn’t understand what it meant, thought they must all be a bit thick. Didn’t know it was regional.

Friends in Liverpool call trousers, pants. Really makes my teeth itch.

@MrsMoastyToastyah yes - I am Bristolian and remember confusing Londoners at DC school because I would use the phrase “daps” for plimsols!

Also yes yes to “keener” for a swot.

Add to the list “lush” to mean anything you are rather fond off - mainly in relation to boys you fancy as in “he’s lush” or “gert lush” if very fanciable 😂

I think outwith is great as well! The word without used to mean similar - outside of or excluding - but its use narrowed/adapted over the years.

As a child, I always used to wonder what it meant in the hymn - "There is a green hill far away, without a city wall" - as why on earth would a hill have its own city wall in the first place? It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned/realised that it meant that the green hill was outside of the city wall - i.e. not within the city limits.

You are the only person outside my local area who knows what Daps are. I grew up in Dorset and they were called Daps at both my primary schools but I now I live in the Midlands and no one knows what Daps are. My Devonian husband also doesn't know what Daps are. I also used to get funny looks for calling people 'lover' up here cos it's was so normal in Somerset where i spent my teenage and young adult years.

I'm from the north eastand use spelk and turnip, but I've only heard haar in Aberdeen.

Twitchel came straight to my mind as well!

Also, from the same area, cob to mean a bread roll. My DSis went to uni in North Wales and asked for a cob in a local bakery, and the assistant was perplexed, thinking she was talking about a horse for some reason

My mum calls a turnip (small white thing) a white turnip, and a Swede (bigger yellow/orange thing) a turnip

Mine too

My mum hangs her clothes inside to dry on a winterdykes. So did I until I moved south and everyone in my halls of residence laughed at me.

Are they still diddies when they're not diddy?

I also like the word outwith and think it should be put into use outwith Scotland.

I was most amused when I was offered a fancy piece by a work client in Aberdeen. I knew he was offering me some cake but the only vision in my mind was Ma Boswell ranting about Lilo Lill

On the huh.

I'm in Suffolk. Most people from outside Suffolk and Norfolk don't have a clue what we're on about

My sister, in Oldham says this too.

Are you from South Yorkshire?

I could add

gip (retching)
having the monk on (being in a mard)
being “sock on” (fast asleep)

I cruckled = to go over/twist your ankle

Manny, means the same as mardy, but in Mansfield.

Mithering means bothering or pestering as in “stop mithering, I’m making your tea as fast as I can”.

“Tea” meaning the evening meal obviously.

Ooh that’s “cockled”. Not sure if it’s a Manc phrase or imported from East Yorkshire though.

I was waiting for outwith!
We use haar in Edinburgh too.
Close to mean a stairwell.
Salt and sauce won’t get you ketchup round here, was a bit of a shock when I arrived here for uni from the west.

Grew up in Edinburgh and know exactly what haar is. But I would say skelf, not spelk.

Woodlice are slaters. Other words I use - stooshie, outwith, footer, numpty, dreich.

I had a similar experience at uni - I dry my clothes on a maiden. I had honestly never said airer

I might say 'stitherum' but I wouldn't expect everyone to know it.

I, too, used to wonder about the green hill far away without a city wall.

My Yorkshire-born grandmother and my southern-born mother had a cross-purposes conversation when they first met, over the word 'starving', which was hungry to one and cold to the other.