If some of the phrases that Ross and others come out with, have you scratching your head, clue up on the meaning of key Cornish words and sayings with our ‘Poldark lingo decoder’.
Say them with a Cornish accent and you’ll be ‘proper job’!
Ansome: Lovely (shortend form of handsome) and a familiar address e.g. alright me ansome?
Bal: Mine
Bal maiden: A woman working at the mine.
Cousin Jack: A Cornish emigrant miner
Crib: A mid-morning break for a snack (north Cornwall)
Croust: A mid-morning break for a snack (mid/west Cornwall)
Cummas ‘zon: Come on, hurry up!
Dreckly: At some point in the future; soon, but not immediately e.g. I’ll do it dreckly!
Geddon: Good show / well done
Oggy: A pasty; culinary fuel for miners. It’s said that miners, with their arsenic covered hands, would hold the pasty by its crust and eat it on its side, tossing the crust away when they’d finished!
Proper: Satisfactory e.g. proper job
Right on: An informal way of saying goodbye
Scatt: Broken, as in ‘the bals scatt’
Teasy: Bad-tempered
T’int right, t’int fair, t’int proper: A ‘Jud-ism’, only he can explain this one!
Towan: A sandhill or dune
Wasson?: What’s going on?
Wheal: A place of work e.g Wheal Leisure, Wheal Grace
Zawn: A steep sided cove.
Place name prefixes: The Cornish have their own language, similar to the Welsh and Breton. You will see it in place names all over the county, many having the same prefix. here are a few of the more common ones.
Tre– a settlement or homestead
Ros(e)– heath, moor
Pol– a pond or pool
Lan– a religious enclosure
Pen(n), Pedn – a hill or headland
Bos, Bod or Bot – a home
Chy – another name for a home
For more information on the Cornish language, check out Go Cornish
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