I found an old file I created some years ago where I had recorded some words and their meanings from Archibald Cregeen’s ‘A Dictionary of the Manks Language‘ (1835). Here are some that caught my fancy.
♦ BONNEE or BONNY = a general term for an old mare
♦ BOW GHORREE or RAAD MOOAR REE GOREE = Orry’s Bow and the Great Road of King Orry i.e. the Milky Way
♦ BUN-NY-GEAYEE = the wind’s eye, where the wind blows from
♦ BWOAILLEE = a halo or circle around the sun or moon
♦ YN CHONEEAGH = the twilight, the cowering
♦ COMLEAYRTYS or CHIONNLEAYRTYR = the time between day break and sun rise, and sunset and night.
♦ CON-GHORRAGHYS or CON-GHORRID = darkness, not altogether dark, pretty dark
♦ CONREA = a tup that has his testicles in his back
♦ CUG = breast milk
♦ DHONKEYDER = one who thumps
♦ DOO-GHEYREY = the dead of winter
♦ FAR-LHEIY = a false conception of a calf, said to be generated between a cow and what is called a Tarroo-ushtey
♦ FED = an emotion of the body in laughing
♦ FEDDAL = shaking of the body in laughing
♦ FED-GAILLEY = the gurgle in the belly of a horse when rode hard
♦ FLIPPERAGH = telling fibs
♦ FLAUNYS = heaven, the seat of God, of holy angels and the blessed, a place of bliss or happiness beyond the conception of mortal man
♦ GARDAR = a very strong gust of wind
♦ GEAYEEAGH = windy, flatulent
♦ BEN GHENNAL = a cheerful woman
♦ OIE GHEURREE = the winter’s night
♦ GIENNAGHTYN REESHT SPYRRYDOIL = spiritual birth, regeneration
♦ GLUGERAGHT or GLUGERNEE = gurgling, the noise made on emptying a cask or bottle, when there is no passage for the air but that from which the liquid comes
♦ GLUT = a piece of timber nailed on a larger to hinder something passing any further
♦ GOAL-THOO = thatch held or made sure on a house by forms made of briars or wattles which are cut in short junks, bent, twisted and pointed and pushed through the thatch into the scraw to bind the thatch on; when I suppose this kind of thatching takes its name
♦ GOSH = what is said to call geese
♦ NYN GOSHEE = travellers on foot
♦ GRIU = the goods that are found in the possession of a thief or felon
♦ GRUNT-THIE = houststead, the ground the house stands on
♦ HARNEE = the sound or noise of thunder
♦ BEN HORRAGH = a pregnant woman
♦ JARGANEE = small worms found in the gravel, on the sea shore, and used for bait to catch fish
♦ JEENAGH = the rinsing of the milking vessels after the milk has been drained
♦ JEELLEYDER = one that commits havoc
♦ KEEKEYDER = a peeper
♦ KESHAG = a bunch of froth or foam that fly together. This word is applied to snow when it comes down like feathers
♦ KIN-OIE (the Kin from Kione) = the end of night
♦ KIN-MAIRAGH = the end of tomorrow night
♦ KRINK = a knight
♦ KRINKYS = knighthood
♦ LHIANNOO = a child. Some say this word is from Lieh-noo (half a saint)
♦ LITCHER = a lazy person, a sluggard, an idler
♦ LUGHT-THIE = a household, a family
♦ MEEKEY-SOOILL = the twinkling of an eye
♦ MEEKEYDER = a winker/one who winks
Source: A Dictionary of the Manks Language (1835), by Archibald Cregeen. Artwork is of Niarbyl Cottages by John Holland courtesy of imuseum.
