First of all, I found out you mustn’t say Newfie; it’s an insult (like calling an Icelander a “ghoulie”).

Second, I couldn’t find my little alphabet book. I checked the words on my list against the dictionary and some of them aren’t in it. It was published in 1945’; perhaps some of the words I found are newer or more colloquial? Like fooster. According to my little list, it means to cook up a meal. Couldn’t find it. And ruckshin, supposed to mean argument or disagreement - not in the dictionary. Neither is thunder mug, but we all know what that means.

On the other hand, I found a lovely word with an interesting history fully explained in the Nfld book. “Gulch”, a verb, means to frequent a sheltered hollow for sexual intimacy. The note reads as follows; "[GULCH] has come, on the Labrador coast, to have a meaning peculiar to that region and those who frequent it. In summer, men, women, and children from Newfoundland spend some weeks there at the fishing, living in a very promiscuous way. As there is no tree for shelter for hundreds of miles of islands and shores, parties resort to the hollows for secret indulgence. Hence gulching has, among them, become a synonym for living a wanton life….Sunday afternoons were good gulching days.” My little list defined it as “making out in a crevasse.” I like gulching, the verb not necessarily the activity. I have a fading memory.

Here are a few more from my little list, corroborated by the dictionary:

squish or asquish: uneven, askew

ballycattered: coated with ice

sparble: nail in a shoe (a short nail, worked out of the shoe into the foot, not pleasant, or a stud(s) on the outside of the shoe to help prevent sliding on ice)

cocksiddle: tripping, tumbling over (somersaults)

I stayed up past my bedtime, whenever that is, reading and browsing some more in this delightful book.I could go on and on.

Anon, anon.