Meanings

[spartan300]

Hi all, i'm originally from Thurso but now living in Lincoln and after speaking to an old friend it brought up something i've always wondered, why did we refer to people from Wick as 'Dirty Weekers/wickers' ? Was it just something we called them as kids or is there a reason.

[Alrock]

Because it was a childish insult you should have grown out of by now & be ashamed of it so much that you would not have the cheek to repeat it now....

Or maybe not as the case may be...

[linnie612]

I think it was originally 'dirdy' Wicker, but I can't remember why..

[spartan300]

Sorry didnt mean to upset anyone. My friend, who is from Wick was the one who brought it up and we both wondered if it was based on any historical feud or if it was just kids name calling, I just thought this would be a good place to find out.

[linnie612]

Here it is - a wee bit down on the left. Seemingly 'dirdie', meaning busy.;)

www.caithness.org/atoz/wick/index.htm (http://www.caithness.org/atoz/wick/index.htm)

[spartan300]

Thats great, thanks :cool:

[John Little]

Or in a more modern sense...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=derdy

[_Ju_]

I think it was originally 'dirdy' Wicker, but I can't remember why..
i was told that dirdy meant hard working. To do with the herring industry's hard work, I think.

[gleeber]

I grew up thinking it was Dirty Weekers and thats what everyone said. I dont how many of them knew it was Dirdy but I didnt know that until I was an adult. It wasnt an insult. Most Weekers I ever worked with used the term to describe themselves. Us in Thurso are teanabowlies. I presume it had to do with our tea drinking habits. Theres always an intertown rivalry or inter neighbourhood or inter county. It's human nature. Thats why the Gaelic Act is so divisive in Caithness. [lol]

[bcsman]

Dirdie means busy
http://www.caithness.org/dialect/caithnessd.htm

[sids]

Could be a reverse etymology. People who didn't like being called dirty claimed it was really "dirdy."

[golach]

My Dad told me the reason Weekers called us Thurso folk "Teainabowlas" was that the afore said Weekers were insinuating that we Thurso folks were poorer than them, and could not afford cups. Bowls were common place in the farming community, could be used for multi-purpose crockery, sic your porridge in the morning, your soup at denner time, your tea when your evening meal was done, the uses are and were endless. Ask any Orraman who spent his early days living on a ferm, a bowl was an essential piece of crockery/kitchenware.
I am proud of my Faithers ferm workers heritage. I am a Teainabowla!!!!

[south view 7]

Ma mither (a weeker)uest till say teeinabowlla cracacuppa upinthursa an shay merrid a thursa man......S.V.7.adirtyweeker.

[gleeber]

I remember the Weekers saying that SV7. Faz at gadge ayre wiz anither wan.

[gleeber]

I was having a look through the caithness dictionary and I was thinking about the origin of some of the words. Theres some words Ive never heard before especially words describing animals or birds or plant life. These words must have been around for hundreds of years in Caithness. A lot of them sound as if they come from a Gaelic background, especially words related to human character. Two that come to mind is glaikid and gushel. Do they come from a gaelic background? Then theres gurr. Thats a discharge from the eyes. So descriptive and what about an ousin-ee? That's a blue tit.

[golach]

Gleeber, that reminds me when I was a tour guide, used to get the upper deck of an open topped bus full of visitors to recite what I think is one of the most descriptive Scots words.......Dreich!!!!, It got them all laughing, and that made my tour a lot easier.

[lisagrace]

i have a norwegian friend with a partner from thurso and one night i commented on how she was picking up on the caithness accent (ee, at etc - missing out the 'th') and she told me this is actually from the norwegian accent where they don't pronounce th and words like bairn, hoose etc are also scandanavian. I also think most caithnessians would say that gaelic is not part of our language? i may be wrong

[golach]

i have a norwegian friend with a partner from thurso and one night i commented on how she was picking up on the caithness accent (ee, at etc - missing out the 'th') and she told me this is actually from the norwegian accent where they don't pronounce th and words like bairn, hoose etc are also scandanavian. I also think most caithnessians would say that gaelic is not part of our language? i may be wrong

I have friends who are from the Netherlands and Germany and the Low Countries, who also use words like hoose, moose, soor, for House, mouse and sour, also our word for a church is Kirk, many countries on the other side of the North Sea call their Kirks in a similar version.
IMHO our Scots tongue is a mishmash of many cultures, and of no specific one.... John 'O Groats comes from a Dutch Ferryboat man called Jan de Groot, nothing to do with Eric the Red or whatever. Sadly Gleeber, your Thirsa tongue has Gaelic in it, the Gaels were there before the Vikings!!!

[gleeber]

Another name for an inhabitant of Thuso is a soor-selag.

[John Little]

So the Gaels set up Dalraeda after invading from Ireland under Fergus. What happened to the Picts and their language?

[pmcd]

I got really confused reading up in Ticklepaedia the origins of the place name "Latheronwheel". Armed only with an extensive knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German, Gothic, and other sublunary medieval tongues (note the absence of Gaelic, which was made up by Aleister Crowley as a curse on civil servants), I proceeded to parse the village name, and here are my findings.

"La" is Old Scouse for "My Dear Chap", and refers to the dispossessed Scousers of Stranraer, who used to visit Latheronwheel (or "Ug" as it was first known) to "whelter" (i.e. "pickle") the herring crop every September to preserve it through winter.

"The" contains the Anglo-Saxon letter "thorn" - which looks like a pregnant "I", and back-refers (metathesis) to the "La", meaning "THE Dear Chap".

"Ron" shares its derivation with the popular song of the 50s "Da Doo Ron Ron" - Old Norse for "Do give (me) a rum, Ron!" - a reference to the old Swyving Greeting of Aelders when entering a mead-hall for the evenings "Hwaet!" or boasting session. Indicates "Powerful". Thus so far "La The Ron = The dear powerful one".

"Wheel" derives from Old High Teutonic "Wiechel" from the Schleswig-Holstein area of the Upper Rhineland, and indicates the intention, or hope, of prosperity.

Now the full meaning of the place name becomes abundantly clear -

"O Dear Powerful One - Prosper Well!"

I am starting a movement to record this place name in all its glory on the village sign at Latheronwheel - as well as Old Norse, Gothic, Old High German, Low Teutonic, Scouse, Scots, Jabberwocky and Esperanto, there will be sub-titles in Gaelic for the deaf. I am sure no-one will mind the extra cost of the polyglot scrawlings, as they come under the SNP heading of "Heritage" (twinned with "Subsidy" in the Big Boy's Book of Politics)

[sids]

Is a Wicker who was educated at the Academy a Durdy Rat?


http://www.meredy.com/cagney/cagney10.jpg

[John Little]

Now I'm really confused. Really really confused.

I always knew that Gaels from Ireland invaded from the west and founded a Kingdom called Dalraeda. I got taught that at the Miller.

But I've been doing a spot of reading round and now I find that back in the 640s ad this kingdom was stopped from expanding any further by the Pictish Federation, which had already absorbed the Kingdom of Cait.

The language of the Pictish Federation was the now extinct Pictish and Brythonic Celtic language. So although Gaelic speakers were gradually merged into the country that became known as Scotland, they did not succeed in conquering Caithness - indeed the Picts seem to have confined the Gaels to the west.

The old Kingdom of Cait was then conquered by a gentleman named Ketil Flatnose who did not speak Gaelic..

So historically it seems that Gaelic was never the language of the indigenous population; yet loads of folk seem to think it was.

So who do I believe - the stuff on the internet, the SNP supporters who say that Gaelic was once spoken in Caithness, or the folk on the Org who say that Gaelic was once spoken in Caithness?

Which version of history is correct?

Pictish roadsigns anyone?

[gleeber]

Now I'm really confused. Really really confused.

Which version of history is correct?

Pictish roadsigns anyone?
If it was about history Gaelic would be laughed out of town.
The Gaelic movement are very powerful in Scotland
The Gaelic act was passed unopposed in 2005 by the whole Scottish parliament. No argument there.
A good article here .

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/tentacles-of-the-gaelic-mafia-1.762058

[John Little]

Ah - so it's political I see - good article that.

A Gaelic Scotland has never existed but may in future.

The Gaels are staging a coup.

Thanks Gleeber - much clearer.

Wonder what the Picts would make of this?...

[gleeber]

Ah - so it's political I see - good article that.

A Gaelic Scotland has never existed but may in future.

The Gaels are staging a coup.

Thanks Gleeber - much clearer.

Wonder what the Picts would make of this?...
The picts are lying on their backs getting their bellies tickled.