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30 A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect,
Coney, m. A rabbit.
"There is no remedy: I must coney-catch, I must shift."
—Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. sc. 3.
Concerned in Liquor, e. Drunk.
This is one of the many expressions used in Sussex to avoid the word drunk. To have had a little beer, means to have had a great deal too much; to have half-a-pint other-while, means to be an habitual drunkard; to be none the better for what he had took, means to be much the worse; to be noways tossicated, implies abject helplessness. A Sussex man may be tight, or concerned in liquor, but drunk never!
In the village of Selmeston the blacksmith's shop is next door to the public-house. I have met numbers of people going up to the forge, but never one going to the Barley-mow. Contrairy. [Contraire, French.] Disagreeable; obstinately self-willed.
A man describing his deceased wife, to whom he was really very much attached, said, " She was a very nice, pleasant 'ooman as long as no one didn't interrupt her, but if you had ever so few words with her, she'd be just as contrairy as ever was a hog."
Contraption, m. Contrivance; management.
A pedlar's pack is spoken of sometimes as his contraption. Comb, m. An instrument used by thatchers.
Cooch-grass. [Cwic, Ang. Sax.] A coarse, bad species of grass, which grows very rapidly on arable land, and does much mischief by the long stringy roots which it throws out in great quantities.
Barnes says, with reference to this—Cooch, couch grass, quitch grass, creeping wheat grass, Triticum repens. Mr. Vernon suggests that it was originally quick grass, from its lively growth.
Coombe, or Combe, m. [Cwm, Welsh, a valley.] A hollow in the Downs.
This word is to be traced in the names of many Southdown villages and farms, such as Telscombe, Ashcombe, &c. Coolthe, e. Coolness.
" I set the window open for coolthe." Cop, e. To throw; to heap anything up.
Copson, to. A fence placed on the top of a small dam laid across a ditch for the purpose of keeping sheep from going over it. |
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