Monday, 10 December 2012

Don't Be Nesh


The Inky Fool in Oswestry
I was in Shropshire over the weekend and came across a lovely little dialect term: nesh. It's one of those words with a very precise meaning, which is, according to several Shropshirerians "afraid of the cold". It's used only in the phrase "Don't be nesh" which means something along the lines of "Stop worrying about getting your scarf, we're going for a long walk anyway."

And then you end up fair clemmed, or frozen.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing a talk in Blackwells Charing Cross at six thirty.
Posted by at

21 comments:

  1. Duncan10 December 2012 at 10:33

    It is quite widely used:

    nesh |nɛʃ|

    adjective dialect

    (especially of a person) weak and delicate; feeble: it was nesh to go to school in a topcoat.

    DERIVATIVES
    neshness noun

    ORIGIN Old English hnesce, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch dialect nes ‘soft or foolish’.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 11:01

    I would love to host you on a visit to Australia if you like discovering words in a different dialect. I am happy to offer my services as an interpreter.
    Nicki

    ReplyDelete
  3. Paul Orton10 December 2012 at 11:12

    Nesh is a commonly used word in Sheffield.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 13:17

    Not heard nesh for years, but as a child in Lanchasire, in the fifties, I heard it used by older people quite often.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown10 December 2012 at 14:15

    I grew up in Nottingham and 'don't be nesh' was a frequent childhood taunt. It would generally follow the same useage as don't be chicken but with less of an implication of being afraid than of being weak or unmanly.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous10 December 2012 at 14:55

    I am married to a Yorkshireman who frequently accuses me of being nesh - and complains of being fair clemmed

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pat10 December 2012 at 23:13

    "You nesh southern bastid" was a phrase I heard quite often when I came to Manchester. I am less nesh than almost all mancunians I have met as I avoid central heating except when frost forms inside. I revel in using "ye nesh northerner" as often as I can, best when wearing a t-shirt standing outside work in mid-winter.

    ReplyDelete
  8. StourbridgeRantBoy11 December 2012 at 06:17

    Widely used in the Black Country often used in conjunction with the phrase 'Big Girls Blouse.....

    Laurie -

    ReplyDelete
  9. WalterSBilge11 December 2012 at 21:43

    'nesh' in Wigan means soft. Perhaps a throw back to the Scandinavian marauderers who have left some of their influence on the local dialect when they were chucked out of Ireland in the early 10th Century and ended up here.

    'Ah wur fair clemm't' means that you are rather hungry, not frozen.

    So soft and in need of foody sustenance, not cold and more cold as a Shropshire Lad may mean.
    Either way, not an appealing state to be in, so I'd rather take Housman's advice and live life to the full, always remembering to fill my belly and keep a warm coat handy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous12 December 2012 at 22:58

    Yep, used it at school fairly frequently just down the road in Herefordshire. "You'se nesh, you is". Grammar not a strong point.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous15 December 2012 at 18:15

    I also came across 'nesh' frequently in Manchester.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous21 December 2012 at 07:30

    My wife from Hawarden, N Wales uses this. The southern equivalent is of course 'a wimp'.

    ReplyDelete
  13. broadbean22 December 2012 at 02:12

    My other half is from Cheshire and frequently laughs at me for being nesh (which I freely admit I am),

    ReplyDelete
  14. Geoff Realname24 December 2012 at 12:07

    Just today came across this word (new to me) in "Far from the madding crowd" re the dead Fanny Robbin: "She was such a childlike, nesh young thing that her spirit couldn't appear to anybody if it tried, I'm quite sure." She is also supposed to have succumbed to "a general neshness of constitution".

    ReplyDelete
  15. Brigid28 December 2012 at 19:11

    Aww my dear late father used to use this word. We used to say it when we were feeling ill or weakly "I'm feeling a bit nesh"

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous17 February 2014 at 16:50

    During the war we lived in Glossop, Derbyshire as the Admiralty moved my father there from Portsmouth. As you may imagine at times we were baffled by local dialect words and this was the first time I had heard the word 'nesh'. Also the word 'mardy' was another in frequent use.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown13 December 2015 at 11:47

      My family originates from Cumbria and the term was commonly used in reference to feeling the cold. When I moved to Somerset and was walking around in t-shirts in October I accused the Somersetians of being 'Nesh'. Now of course I have acclimatised and have become 'Nesh'myself especially when returning to the Frozen North for a visit!!

      Delete
    2. Unknown13 December 2015 at 11:48

      My family originates from Cumbria and the term was commonly used in reference to feeling the cold. When I moved to Somerset and was walking around in t-shirts in October I accused the Somersetians of being 'Nesh'. Now of course I have acclimatised and have become 'Nesh'myself especially when returning to the Frozen North for a visit!!

      Delete
    3. Unknown24 February 2017 at 14:54

      Nesh has been explained above, but people think the word Clemm is slang. In fact it's a proper English word meaning "to starve", and can be found in the 19th century novel North and South, eh. When the author said that" the workers were clemming", any really good dictionary will have it.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous2 March 2020 at 16:10

    NESH was a common word in Pontypool area,
    South Wales, in the 1960's. Frequently used to someone who didn't want to come outside in cold weather etc.

    ReplyDelete
  18. TmD1 September 2020 at 11:04

    Nesh is my Wife��

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)