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

278 replies

FormerCarer · 01/09/2026 17:11

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.

OP posts:
Berrynoice · 01/09/2026 18:44

@Pinkgin00 I came on to say that. I'm going to presume, yer alreet , ya' cut thro ginnel and ya' don't dent things ya' put a dint in em. And you probably went to Hollingworth Lake on a day out.

Barleycat · 01/09/2026 18:47

Outdoor= off licence
Island = roundabout
Gambol = forward roll
Cob = crusty roll
Also took a pump bag to school
Kay lie instead of sherbet but that might just be my mum
All round the wrekin = go the long way round

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 01/09/2026 18:48

Teasy - irritable, annoyed, in a bad mood

Was really surprised when I said I was teasy and got a load of blank stares!

MadamWhippy · 01/09/2026 18:50

Press (cupboard)
Attic (loft)
Hot Press (airing cupboard)
Footpath (pavement)
Giving out (scolding)
Runners (trainers)
Chipper (chippy?)
Jacks (toilet)
Yoke (thing)
Bockety/banjaxed (broken)

TheBewleySisters · 01/09/2026 18:53

Scotland - skelf meaning splinter. When I first moved to London in the mid-70s I had a splinter in my finger and went to the company nurse who was bemused when I said 'I've got a skelf'.

TheBewleySisters · 01/09/2026 18:54

Scotland - but probably just a much older generation still using these (my mother did) : thrawn meaning very stubborn; oose meaning dusty debris and stoor meaning dust that lies, say on top of a wardrobe.

Stringagal · 01/09/2026 18:56

I told someone (a southerner) it was a bit parky the other day and they had no idea what I meant.

When I moved to where I live now I lol’d at a friend calling a daddy longlegs a jimmy spinner.

Has snicket come up yet? Folk round here all say ginnel which I’d never heard of.

fairislecable · 01/09/2026 18:56

All of those words were part of my vocabulary when I lived in Birmingham but also:

Scrage - scraped skin ( usually the knee)

My children were outraged when they used this word at school and they were told it doesn’t exist! Felt I had invented it.

Arbourimage · 01/09/2026 18:57

Foundered. Freezing

thisfilmisboring123 · 01/09/2026 18:58

Mingebag- someone who is tight.

It never occurred to me just how horrible an expression this was until I said it to someone not from where I am! The look of disgust 😂

No idea what other regions use it but I don’t think it’s universal.

Pinkgin00 · 01/09/2026 18:59

QueenAlicent · 01/09/2026 18:15

Are you a fellow Rochdalian? I never knew ‘cruckled’ was not the term used everywhere for this- so much better / more concise than ‘going over on your ankle’.

I am. I thought the same, but even my husband who is from Bury looked at me like I had two heads when I first used the saying 😆

Dr13Hadley · 01/09/2026 19:00

Mither. I use it a lot in relation to the kids……..it baffled southerner DH when we first met. He had no idea what I was saying!

TheeNotoriousPIG · 01/09/2026 19:02

I grew up on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border, so I used to use a mish-mash of both, e.g. eh-up, ta-ra, be reyt, mithering, mardy, maungy, can't be doing with X, daft ha'porth, sun's crackin' flags, put wood in t'hole, addled, dancers (stairs), cloth ears, X has a cob on, cruckle, scran, ginnel, demic, you're not as green as you are cabbage-looking, Shanks' pony, owt or nowt?, couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel, you look like a house end in that! (i.e. massive), gipping, Bobby Dazzler, si'thee (usually as in, if you buy something of good quality, it will "si'thee out!" i.e. last until you die), chuffin 'eck/'ell, kecks, skriking, put big light on, picking and piking, 'tis like Blackpool Illuminations in 'ere, tha won't feel the benefit (if you didn't take your hat or coat off inside), were you born in a barn?

There are probably many more, but as I have moved away, I have had to replace them with the more general English equivalent (if there is one!), but still trip up and have to explain things. However, eh-up seems to be the one that has stuck!

Pinkgin00 · 01/09/2026 19:02

DistantEarlyWarning · 01/09/2026 18:03

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

Cruckled is Rochdale dialect

Dr13Hadley · 01/09/2026 19:03

Also nesh - complaining of being cold

Pinkgin00 · 01/09/2026 19:05

Berrynoice · 01/09/2026 18:44

@Pinkgin00 I came on to say that. I'm going to presume, yer alreet , ya' cut thro ginnel and ya' don't dent things ya' put a dint in em. And you probably went to Hollingworth Lake on a day out.

I am guilty of saying yer alright 🙉 and it's always a ginnel not an alley. I walk around the lake often

StrongGirlsLift · 01/09/2026 19:06

@Armorlux you’re so right, it did feel like speaking two languages, or at least registers, when I moved away to university. I’m sad to have forgotten so much regional vocab (I can’t be alone - I don’t think there’s as much regional tv and radio as there used to be, and all accents and vocabs have been impacted by international TV). I definitely feel I did a lot of code-shifting between home and university, and then work.

My southern-born kids have some seriously confused vowel sounds 😂.

Dontevenlookatme · 01/09/2026 19:06

TidyWasp · 01/09/2026 18:29

Grew up on the Somerset/Devon border. School PE shoes are daps. Dimpsey is when it's getting dark but not actually dark. Rimy is cold and damp weather. Jaspers are wasps. Grockles are tourists. Using 'to' unnecessarily in questions like "where's that to?".

The one that confused me enormously moving to Bristol was 'smoothing' a cat instead of stroking it.

You’re not far from me then! My favourite is “back along” to mean a while ago. There’s an outdoor pool in a nearby town that had a “Dimpsy Dip” recently, swimming by lamplight.

TheeNotoriousPIG · 01/09/2026 19:06

Oh, and "bletherin' on" and "brew".

FeltCarrot · 01/09/2026 19:06

Clarty - muddy
Netty - outside loo
Croggy - riding on the handlebars of a push bike ( easier on a chopper)
Stottie cake - best bread in the world
Bait (box) - packed lunch

StrongGirlsLift · 01/09/2026 19:09

@Berrynoice ”yer alright” - YES! Said to me hundreds of times by relatives every time I skinned a knee/banged my head/otherwise injured myself running wild.

SquashPenguin · 01/09/2026 19:12

MrsMoastyToasty · 01/09/2026 17:31

Slider- a slide
Scrage- a scrape or graze.
Daps- trainers or plimsolls.
Gurt- very
Babber- baby.
Luvver- a term of endearment.
Council 'ouse- to mean the administrative buildings of the local council.
Coopie down- to crouch down.
Keener- a swot.

All Bristolian words ( I also speak Glaswegian).

Im from Bristol but I live in wales. I took my daughter to nursery not long ago and said she’s got a new scrage on her leg in case you wonder where she did it. They looked at me like I had two heads 😆

Lifelover16 · 01/09/2026 19:13

BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows · 01/09/2026 17:52

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.

Edited

I am 67 and until I read your post I didn’t realise “without a city wall” meant outside the city.

ghostyslovesheets · 01/09/2026 19:14

Snap - food
jigger - alleyway
savory cake - big battered fish/spud combo
youth - as in ‘were you off to youth’ used to everyone
generally putting ies at the end of everything- ciggies, butties, bizzies
clothes horse not maiden

thisismeithinkorisit · 01/09/2026 19:14

Bjorkdidit · 01/09/2026 17:21

I didn't realise that there were people who only call it a sandwich when made from sliced bread.

Here, and hopefully @SuitcaseAndSecrets will back me up, because we're likely very close to each other, a small round single serving of bread is called is called a breadcake and if you fill it with meat, cheese, egg etc, its still a sandwich, not a roll.

that's a cob.