Joanna, Robin,
Thank you both very much. The only context I had heard for the word was my
great-grandmother 'guddling' for her stockings in a bowl of soapy water! My
great-grandparents were from mining familes based somewhere in County Durham
so I can see where the word might have crossed the border some time in the
past.
My name before I got married was 'Shadforth' which is a village somewhere in
County Durham. It seems my family had probably been there for quite a
while.
Tina
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joanna Boulter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:47 PM
Subject: Re: SNAP - Bass
> Oh, I'll believe you, Wee M'Wotsit, except for this URL you say I have and
> I don't know anything about ....
>
> Guddle is a lovely word, I quite agree with Tina's great-grandmother.
> Checked it in Chambers which is where I learned it was Scots. I've been
> trying to remember where I heard it as I've known it a long time, and have
> finally concluded that I heard it from an old school friend about 30 years
> back, whose twin sons, then aged about 10 or 12, were catching fish that
> way. But this was in Wiltshire, and the only possible Scottish connection
> I can think of is that Mary's mother was a Geordie with a 'thing' about
> Rabbie Burns. It's quite possible they were misusing the word somewhat,
> though it was definitely a context of fishing-by-hand.
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robin" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 10:13 PM
> Subject: Re: SNAP - Bass
>
>
>>> 'Guddle' -- it's Scots, means to fish with the hands by groping under
>>> banks or stones. Like tickling trout.
>>>
>>> joanna
>>
>> Not exactly like tickling trout, I think, Joanna, but related -- it's
>> usually the weans who guddle for minnows, at the edges of burns and that.
>> So you do it for wee fishes, no big ones, with a cupped hand, rather than
>> tickling them behind the gills with a finger.
>>
>> I think -- that's the top of my head rather than a dictionary, but you
>> could check me, as you have the URL for the Dictionary of the Scottish
>> Language.
>>
>> The Wee M'Greegor
>>
>
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