The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire Part 25

Upsi'des. _adv._ On an equal or superior footing. _To be upsides_ with a person, is to do something which shall be equivalent to, or of greater importance or value than what has been done by such person to us.

Utch'y. _p.r.o.n._ I. This word is not used in the Western or Eastern, but only in the Southern parts of the County of Somerset.

It is, manifestly, a corrupt p.r.o.nunciation of _Ich_, or _Iche_, p.r.o.nounced as two syllables, the Anglo-Saxon word for I. _What shall utchy do?_ What shall I do.

I think Chaucer sometimes uses _iche_ as a dissyllable; _vide_ his Poems _pa.s.sim_. _Ch'am_, is I am, that is, _ich am_; _ch'ill_, is I will, _ich will_. See Shakespeare's King Lear, Act IV., Scene IV. What is very remarkable, and which confirms me greatly in the opinion which I here state, upon examining the first folio edition of Shakespeare, at the London Inst.i.tution, I find that _ch_ is printed, in one instance, with a mark of elision before it thus, _'ch_, a proof that the _i_ in _iche_ was sometimes dropped in a common and rapid p.r.o.nunciation. In short, this mark of elision ought always so to have been printed, which would, most probably, have prevented the conjectures which have been hazarded upon the origin of the mean- of such words _chudd_, _chill_, and _cham_. It is singular enough that Shakespeare has the _ch_ for _iche_ I, and _Ise_ for I, within the distance of a few lines in the pa.s.sage above alluded to, in King Lear. But, perhaps, not more singular than that in Somersetshire may, at the present time, be heard for the p.r.o.noun I, _Utchy_, or _iche_, and _Ise_. In the Western parts of Somersetshire, as well as in Devonshire, _Ise_ is now used very generally for I. The Germans of the present day p.r.o.nounce, I understand, their _ich_ sometimes as it is p.r.o.nounced in the West, _Ise_, which is the sound we give to frozen water, _ice_. See Miss Ham's letter, towards the conclusion of this work.

V.

[The V is often subst.i.tuted for f, as _vor_, for, _veo_, few, &c.]

Vage, Vaze. _s_. A voyage; but more commonly applied to the distance employed to increase the intensity of motion or action from a given point.

To Vang. _v. a._ To receive; to earn.

Varden. _s._ Farthing.

Vare. _s._ A species of weasel.

To Vare. _v. n._ To bring forth young: applied to pigs and some other animals.

Var'miut. _s._ A vermin.

Vaught. _part._ Fetched.

_Vur vaught, And dear a-bought._

(i.e.) Far-fetched, and dear bought.

Vawth. _s._ A bank of dung or earth prepared for manure.

To Vay. _v. n._ To succeed; to turn out well; to go. This word is, most probably, derived from _vais_, part of the French verb _aller_, to go.

_It don't_ vay; it does not go on well. To Vaze. _v. n._ To move about a room, or a house, so as to agitate the air.

Veel'vare. _s._ A fieldfare.

Veel. _s._ A field; corn land unenclosed.

To Veel. _v._ To feel.

Yeel'd. _part._ Felt.

Vell. _s._ The salted stomach of a calf used for making cheese; a membrane.

Veo. _adj._ Few, little.

Ver'di, Ver'dit. _s._ Opinion.

To Ves'sy. _v. n._ When two or more persons read verses alternately, they are said to _vessy_.

Ves'ter. _s._ A pin or wire to point out the letters to children to read; a fescue.

Vier. _s._ Fire. Some of our old writers make this word of two syllables: "_Fy-er_."

Vin'e. _v._ Find.

Vine. _adj._ Fine.

Vin'ned. _adj._ Mouldy; humoursome; affected.

Vist, Vice. _s._ [_i_ long.] The Fist.

Vitious. _adj._ Spiteful; revengeful.

Vitten. _s._ See Fitten.

Vit'ty. _adv._ Properly, aptly.

Vlare. _v. n._ To burn wildly; to flare.

Vleer. _s._ A flea.

Vlan'nin. _s._ Flannel.

Vleng'd. _part._ Flung.

Vloth'er. _s._ Incoherent talk; nonsense.

Voc'ating. _part._ Going about from place to place in an idle manner. From _voco_, Latin. The verb to _voc'ate_, to go about from place to place in an idle manner, is also occasionally used.

Voke. _s._ Folk.

To Vol'ly. _v. a._ To follow.

Vol'lier. _s._ Something which follows; a follower.

Vooath. _adv._ Forth; out. _To goo vooath_, is to go out.

To Vooase. _v. a._ To force.

Vorad. _adv. adj._ Forward.

Vor'n. _p.r.o.n._ For him.