Spelk in my finger!

[moanieleminx]

Last week I picked something up from the floor and brushed the wooden door frame. I am not sure how but a bit of the doorframe got stuck in the edge of my finger nail. I pulled it out and didn't think anything more of it.

But then under the nail, in the corner was a brown patch. I kept cleaning and it was sore to touch.
The last two days it started to throb and I was thinking I should go to a pharmacist as I might have an infection.
I just touched it, and lots of pus came out! So I grabbed some scissors, cut the nail back as far as I could beat it (it hurt) and this spelk popped out!

DH is unwilling to share my excitement so am posting here

I think you mean a skelf

Oh, it’s such a long time since I heard anyone call it a spelk! I think it’s a Northern term as down South everyone calls it a splinter. A spelk is a much better name!

LTB!

Ooh, I bet that was sore and satisfying. It’s a skelf in our house too. 😂

I have never heard of a skelf

I am a Geordie and everyone I know calls it a spelk.

So satisfying... relief was immediate. Am now no longer concerned that my nail will drop off (dramatic, moi?)

Skelf is Scottish for splinter

We call them a spile, not too sure how to spell it tbh!
Good job getting it out 👏🏻

Well, at least it wasn't a shelf!

Ooh an oossie skelf!

It's a skelf and a splinter in our (English-Scottish) house. We're bilingual.

@moanieleminx

I have never heard of a skelf

I am a Geordie and everyone I know calls it a spelk.

So satisfying... relief was immediate. Am now no longer concerned that my nail will drop off (dramatic, moi?)

Well there’s one mystery solved... I always said skelp but everyone said skelf (Glasgow) so I assumed I was using the wrong word. My Georgie mum never mentioned this...

A skelp is something quite different in Scotland. 'I'll skelp your backside if you don't behave' gives a clue as to what it means

Now is Clap (as in ‘give the dog a clap’) Scottish or Georgie? Our family was trilingual - Glaswegian, Georgie and Aberdonian...

I would clap cats and dogs (scottish)

See, my grandpa would say ‘glad the dog/give the dog a clap’ and he was a Georgie... and poke is anther word best left alone...

A poke is a bag (often a paper one). Or you could have a poke of chips

Or a shag...

Can you have a poke of ice cream in Scotland? That's what you'd get in N Ireland.

But we also use skelf and skelp. Or skite, which is fairly interchangeable with skelp. 'you behave yourself, the way you're getting on you deserve a good skite'

I remember a hokey pokey ice cream but can’t remember what it is.

@Liquorishtoffee

Or a shag...

That's a rude one 😁

Skite is to slip

Loving all these different words! I never knew there were such regional differences!

So fellow Scots, shall we compile a list of all the many and various words used for the term ‘inebriated’?

@moanieleminx

I have never heard of a skelf

I am a Geordie and everyone I know calls it a spelk.

So satisfying... relief was immediate. Am now no longer concerned that my nail will drop off (dramatic, moi?)

I'm a Geordie but I've lived down south for more than 20 years now. I got the oddest looks from my southern in-laws the first time they heard me mention spelks.

@Liquorishtoffee

Skite is to slip

Yes, also used here with that meaning too.

I think that's sort of linked, in the sense that (obviously back in the day when a slap was discipline) a skite would have been a brief one off slap round the back of the legs, like a slip of the hand, rather than what I imagine Americans mean when they say 'spank'.