Friday 15 March 2013

Twankleten


The Wurzels


I recently bought West Country English (for the lovely price of £2.50). It's a short collection of words that are, apparently, still in use in the west of England. It includes the exquisite word twankleten, which means melancholy.

Never again shall I be unhappy. I shall instead be twankleten.

1 comment:

  1. Possibly no relation at all, but on the Isle of Wight to 'twank' used to mean to beat, as noted in the 'Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect' compiled by W H Long, a 19th century parson. My treasured copy took me years to hunt down but most of it can be read online here:

    http://www.round-the-island.co.uk/isle_of_wight_dialect/dialect.pdf

    It's full of beautiful and quirky anecdotes and examples of words in use.

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