Join us in playing REDEFiNE iT with the Dictionary of Newfoundland English
Word of the Week (October 9):
angishore n also angashore, angyshore, hangashore, etc
angishore n also angashore, angyshore, hangashore, etc [phonetics unavailable]. EDD angish 2: angishore 'a poverty-stricken creature' Ir (1894); JOYCE 211 ang-ishore; DINNEEN aindeiseoir 'an unfortunate person or thing, a wretch' for sense 1. An aspirate [h] is frequently pronounced initially in words beginning with vowels; therefore this Irish loan angishore is often pronounced and spelled hangashore, and this in turn has been reinterpreted by folk etymology.
1 A weak, sickly person; an unlucky person deserving pity; freq preceded by poor. 1914 Cadet Apr, p. 7 'Angyshore' a youngster who is no good, sick, weak, and unable to do his work. 1929 MILLER 44 "Big Davey's Comforting": So he kep' bathin' the place 'at's tore / An' sayin—'Pore little 'ang-ashore!' 1931 BYRNES 121 How many years have passed my friends, since you heard these once familiar localisms? . . .'The poor angashure.' 1966 HORWOOD 18 If some poor 'angshore be brought low be 'is own foolishness, maybe that be a cross an' affliction 'e can't help. P 130-67 He hasn't a coat to his back, the poor angishore. 1968 DILLON 131 You poor little angishore, are you frost-burned with the cold? P 144-77 The poor angishore! There's not flesh on her to bait a trout. 1979 Evening Telegram 24 Nov, p. 15 'Come in, girl,' sez the woman. 'Himself is in the kitchen with a face like black Monday on him, but I suppose the poor 'angashore is in pain.'
2 A man regarded as too lazy to fish; a worthless fellow, a sluggard; a rascal; sometimes merges with sense 3. 1924 ENGLAND 180 Know where them angyshores was to? Hidin' behind a pinnacle. They fired their pipes, an' was chewin' the fat rather 'an haulin' it in! 1964 Evening Telegram 17 July, p. 22 'What are you two angashores doin'? sez he. 'I had word from a woman in Bell Island she's havin' water trouble, an' I'm going out to Portugal Cove to pick up her pump. Do you want to come along?' 1966 SCAMMELL 53-4 I got no use for that dolled-up hangashore. 1970 JANES 23 [He] grumbled that if a man was not wearing khaki people seemed to take it for granted that he was some kind of cowardly hangashore.
3 An idle, mischievous child or person; SLEEVEEN. 1956 Daily News 13 Aug For example, when someone (especially a child) is doing something he should not be doing one would say, 'Stop that, you angishore.' C 70-18 'You little hangashore,' my grandfather called me on a spring's day of 1956. The term was used in anger. [1973] ROSE (ed) 71 "The Hangashore": Uncle Solomon Noddy was a hangashore if ever there was one. By that I mean he was too bad to be called a good-for-nothin' and not bad enough to be called a sleeveen. He was just ... a hangashore. 4 A migratory fisherman from Newfoundland who conducts a summer fishery from a fixed station on the coast of Labrador; STATIONER. Cp FLOATER. 1936 SMITH 105 [chapter title] A Freighter and a 'Hang-a-shore' at Cutthroat.
Now, we invite u to REDEFiNE iT!
You can do it on the REDEFiNE iT facebook group or here on this blog.
N.B. Any Word of the Week recieving more than 10 redefinition posts will trigger a prize from Rattling Books for our favourite.
