sackless to Stee-as

S

sackless:- NY&NE
mentally deficient. This used to mean mentally deficient in a harmless, innocent way.. However now it seems also to have taken on the meaning of incompetent or useless. I recently heard someone described disparagingly as a sackless nowt. Of Norse origin. In Mod Icelandic saklaus means ‘innocent’

Sandscratcher:-TS
Redcar person Presumably from the practice of scraping sea-coal off the beach

sandshoes:-( pronounced san’shoes )NE&NY
gym-shoes . This is probably a moribund word now given the advent of the ubiquitous trainers

Satin City:-TS
The Tilery, Stockton

scally onion or scallion:- NE
spring onion (from Old French eschalogne)

scraps:- TS only?
spare bits of batter you can get with fish and chips. You might be asked 'D’ye want scraps?'

scrat:-NE&NY
Scratching around like a cat or dog clawing at the ground or ‘scratting around’ just getting by in making a living. 'Scratting around' for odd jobs.

scunner TS
A low life person. Reported from Redcar and South Bank. Origin ????? Connected with Scots/Nth Country ‘scunner =to recoil from’ ????

secyetary:-NE? NY? TS only?
secretary ( The other notable example of the substitution of y for r is in Febyuary i.e. February)

seg:- NY
a metal stud hammered into boot sole to make it last longer.

seggy:-NY
Second in children’s games..the second turn. Second years at school were seggies

shan:-TS
poor quality, shoddy. Reported from Hpool .From Redcar also to describe/or protest at unfair or mean treatment. 'That’s a bit shan!'

Shanghai:-TS
Thornaby

shigs:-NE? ask for a fair share of something.
(also 'yigs' means the same). e.g.One kid finds
10p others would shout 'Shigs!'


skeg:-NY
A quick glance, a look over. 'Have a skeg'.

skem:- NE ?
common pigeon. Wild urban pigeon. Griffiths has the word ‘skemmy’

skew-whiff(t):- NY
out of balance, lop-sided

slag:-TS
loose-change

Slaggy Island /Slaggy:- TS
South Bank a town adjoining the east of Mbro,In 19c much land was reclaimed from marshland around the Tees by dumping iron slag into the marshland. Although South Bank was built on solid land it was, perhaps, surrounded by such reclaimed land.

Smoggy:-NE
This is (was?) an insult term devised by the Plastic Geordie (i.e Sunderland) football fans for Boro fans because of the alleged smog emanating from Teesside's vast chemical plants. It has also been taken up by the Geordies. But, as is often the way with insulting ‘locatives’, those insulted have adopted the term themselves. There is a Smoggies Scooter club, for example. You can buy Smoggy Tee-shirts and Smoggy badges to display your Teesside pride.

snagger:-NE
a turnip reported from H’pool. Common word in East Durham.

snaggin’:-NE & NY
pulling up and chopping tops off turnips-'tunnip snaggin’ see also tungie

sneck NY & NE:-
door latch , window catch and now a Yale-type lock. Although it can be traced to the OE root word for ‘snatch’ it does have a Scandinavian sound to me. ( Interesting that the Modern Norwegian word for a carpenter is snekker Man who fits doors & snecks?)

snicket:-NY
alleyway connecting adjoining streets (reported from Redcar)

snide:-TS
In ‘TeesSpeak’ this means ‘false’ ‘fake’ ‘untrue’ rather than its meaning in Standard English. e.g. trainers with a counterfeit brand are 'snide'. A person pretending to be something he is not, is 'snide'

spanish:- NE & NY
liquorice (In Teesside, by the way licorice is pronounced likkerish)

spelk:- NE
A splinter i.e as stuck in finger. This is a North-Eastern word I’ve had reported from Hartlepool, Darlington and Billingham. However see the very next word

spell:-NY
meaning exactly as above . (Mbro kid’s joke: Why did the magician give up magic? Because one of his spells got stuck in his finger. Gadgie with a wooden legs invites,"Owee sit on me knee for a spell, pet) 'spell' is NY. Perhaps this is one word where the Tees is a definite boundary between North Eastern and North Yorkshire speech?

spiff:-Mbro. School pejorative word for a 'swot'
especially someone who stayed on in to the
VI Form
splodge:- South Teesside
To go for a paddle see plodge

spuggy:-NE
sparrow

squinge:- reported from Thornaby
kids' word for spinning someone round really fast until they were too dizzy to stand. "Gizza squinge"

squits:-TS
truce word (see Kingy also) equals..We’re squits now=We’re even

starve:- NY In Teesside ,as in Yorkshire generally ,you can starve with cold as well as hunger.(from OE steorfan=to die)

Stee-as:- NY
local name for Staithes on the NE Yorkshire coast