This is a select list of Cornish dialect

Anglo-Cornish

Anglo-Cornish is a dialect of English spoken in Cornwall by Cornish people. Dialectal English spoken in Cornwall is to some extent influenced by Cornish grammar, and often includes words derived from the Cornish language...

 words in English--some of these terms are obsolete, but some are in current use. Many Cornish dialect words have their origins in the Cornish language

Cornish language

Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 while others belong to the West Saxon group of dialects. The words listed are in some cases not exclusive to Cornwall and may be found in use in other western counties.

Table of contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z • See also • References

A

• Addled - empty, cracked or broken
• Aglets - hawthorn berries
• Alt - cliff (a place-name element)
• Ar'm - are 'em/aren't they
• Ay? - I beg your pardon?

B

• Backalong - in former times
• Bal - mine
• Bal maiden
  Bal maiden
  The term bal maiden refers to women and children who were probably working at or in the mines in Devon and Cornwall from the days of antiquity, but the earliest written records date from the Middle Ages. From this time, at least, it seems that women and girls did not work below ground, but usually...
  
   - a woman working at a mine
• Bar - (a place-name element) top
• Bean - (a place-name element) little ("vean" when second element)
• Berrin - funeral (burying)
• Better fit - it would be better if...
• Bobber lip - bruised and swollen lip
• Bos - (a place-name element) homestead (older form also: bod)
• Boughten - bought (i.e. food from a shop rather than home-made)
• Brae or Brer - quite a lot
• Brea - (a place-name element) hill
• Bron - (a place-name element) hill
• Browse - undergrowth
• Bulhorns - snails
• Bully - large pebble
• Burd - (second person singular) bud as in "buddy".
• Burrow - heap of (usually) mining related waste, but sometimes used simply to mean "pile"
• Buster - someone full of fun and mischief
• Buzza - large salting pot, also found in phrase "dafter than a buzza" very daft
• B'y - boy, (second person singular) like sir

C

• Caer - (a place-name element) stronghold or enclosure
• Cakey - soft, feeble minded (from 'put in with the cakes and taken out with the buns' - half baked)
• Carn - (a place-name element) heap of stones
• Catchpit - a place in the home where everything is dropped
• Caunse - paved way
• Chacking - thirsty
• Chacks - cheeks
• Cheel - child especially girl "a boy or a cheel"
• Cheldern - children
• Chirks - remnants of fire, embers; "chirk" burrows where used coal was found near mines
• Chy - (a place-name element) house
• Clacky - sticky and chewy food
• Clip - sharp in speaking, curt, having taken offence
• Cloam - crockery, pottery, earthenware.
• Cos - (a place-name element) wood (also sometimes: quite, from old Cornish form coit)
• Crease - children's truce term (west Cornwall) (from the Cornish word for "peace")
• Crib - a mid-morning break for a snack (see below also)
• Croust (or Crowst) - a mid-morning break for a snack (usually west Cornwall)
• Cummas 'zon - come on, hurry up
• Cundard - a drain

D

• Dag - short hatchet or axe (miner's dag); also in phrase "Face like a dag"
• Denner - dinner, evening meal
• Dinas - (a place-name element) hill fort
  Hill fort
  A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
  
  
• Dishwasher - water-wagtail
• Dobeck - somebody stupid ("great dobeck")
• Dreckley / Dreckly - at some point in the future; soon, but not immediately; like "mañana", but less urgent (derives from English "directly" but differs in meaning)
• Dreckzel- threshold of a doorway
• Du - (a place-name element) black
• Durns - door frame

E

• 'e - contraction of "he" but used in place of "it"
• Ee - contraction of thee
• Eeval - farmer's fork implement
• Emmet  - ant or more recently tourist (mildly derogatory)
• Enys - (a place-name element) island
• Ess - yes

F

• Fains - children's truce term (east Cornwall)
• Figgy hobbin - lump of dough, cooked with a handful of raisins (raisins being "figs" and figs "broad raisins")
• Fitty - proper, properly
• Fizzogg - face
• Flam-new - brand new
• Fly, Flies - hands of a dial or clock
• Fradge - repair

G

• Gad - a pick, especially a miner's
• Gelly - (a place-name element) copse
• Giss on! - don't talk rubbish!
• gossan
  Gossan
  Gossan is intensely oxidized, weathered or decomposed rock, usually the upper and exposed part of an ore deposit or mineral vein. In the classic gossan or iron cap all that remains is iron oxides and quartz often in the form of boxworks, quartz lined cavities retaining the shape of the dissolved...
  
   - decomposed rock
• Grammersow - woodlouse
• Greeb - (a place-name element) crest
• Grushans - dregs, especially in bottom of tea cup
• Gwidgee-gwee - a blister, often caused by a misdirected hammer blow

H

• Hayle - (a place-name element) (saltwater) estuary
• Heller - child who plays their parents up
• Henting - raining hard ("ee's henting out there")

K

• kibbal
• Kiddlywink
  Kiddlywink
  Kiddlywink is an old name for a Cornish beer shop or beer house, which became popular after the 1830 beer act. They were licensed to sell beer or cider by the Customs & Excise rather than by a Magistrate's Licence which was required by traditional Taverns and Inns...
  
   - unlicensed beer shop
• Knockers - Spirits that dwell underground

L

• Lan - (a place-name element) enclosure or monastic enclosure (in place-names usually the site of an early Christian cell though the meaning in Cornish is "enclosure")
• Larrups - rags, shreds, bits
• Launder - guttering, originally a trough in tin mining
• Lawn - a field
• Laze - (a place-name element) green
• Linhay - lean-to (of a building)
• Louster - to work hard
• Lowance out - to set limits financially (from "allowance")

M

• Made/meh'dy/Meh'd - mate
• Maen - (a place-name element) stone ("vaen" when second element e.g. kistvaen)
• Maid - girl, girl-friend (see also Bal maiden)
• Maund - large basket
• Mazed - mad, angry
• Me 'ansum - friendly form of address
• Meor - (a place-name element) great
• Milky-dashel - milk thistle
• Mind - remember
• Minching - skiving "minching off school"
• Mowhay - barn, hay store, stackyard
• Murrian - (Cornish) ant or more recently a tourist (mainly west Cornwall) (cp. Emmet)

P

• Padgypaw - a newt
  Newt
  A newt is an aquatic amphibian of the family Salamandridae, although not all aquatic salamanders are considered newts. Newts are classified in the subfamily Pleurodelinae of the family Salamandridae, and are found in North America, Europe and Asia...
  
  
• Pard - friend ("partner")
• Party - a young woman
• Pen - (a place-name element) headland or top
• Piggy widden - the runt of the litter
• Pilth - small balls found in over-rubbed cotton
• Pisky - pixie
• Planching/Planchen - a wooden or planked floor
• Pol - (a place-name element) pool or inlet
• Porth - (a place-name element) cove or bay
• Praze - (a place-name element) meadow or common
• Proper - satisfactory; "proper job"

R

• Red - (a place-name element) ford
• Right on - an informal way of saying goodbye
• Roar - weep loudly
• Ros - (a place-name element) moor or heath (or peninsula, "Roseland")
• Ruan - (a place-name element) river
• Rumped (up) - huddled up, usually from the cold; phrase "rumped up like a winnard"

S

• Sans - (a place-name element) holy (as in "Pensans", Penzance)
• Scat - to hit or break "scat abroad = smashed up"; musical beat ('e's two scats behind)
• Screech - to cry loudly
• Shippon - farm building for livestock (derived from 'sheep' 'pen')
• Shram - chill (as in "Shrammed as a winnard")
• Slab - a Cornish range
• Slock - to coax, entice or tempt "slock 'un 'round"
• Some - very, extremely ('e d' look some wisht, 'tis some hot today)
• Sowpig - woodlouse
• Spence - larder in house; "crowded = House full, spence full"
• Splatt - patch of grass
• Spriggan - spirit
• Squall - to cry
• Squallass, squallyass - crybaby
• Stagged - muddy
• Steeved - frozen
• Stripped up - dressed appropriately
• Stuggy - broad and sturdy (of a person's build)

T

• Teasy - bad-tempered
• Teddy / tiddy - potato
• Tob - a piece of turf
• Tol - (a place-name element) hole
• Towan - sandhill or dune
• Tre - (a place-name element) house or settlement (properly a farmstead)

U

• Upcountry - a generalised geographical term meaning anywhere which is in England, except for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
• Un - him/her (used in place of "it" accusative)
• Urts - whortleberries, bilberries

W

• Wasson - what's going on?
• Wheal - (a place-name element) mine or shaft
• Winnard - falcon
• Wisht - hard-done-by, weak, faint, pale; e.g. "You're looking wisht today"
• Wilky (Quilkin) - a frog

Z

• Zackley - exactly
• Zam-zoodled - half cooked or over cooked
• Zawn - (a place-name element) chasm