[From Manx Dialect, 1934]

F

Faayl, the obsolete peat-spade with a long, narrow blade. "He laid on to it (the tarroo-ushtey) for a long while with his faayl " (A Manx Scrapbook, page 53 ; also page 54, foot).

Faggot, a worthless woman or girl. " Look at that boul' faggot ! " Also English dialect or slang.

Fairy. For names of animals, place-names and plant-names containing this word see A Second Manx Scrapbook, chap. vi, sec. z.

Faiyr, grass-land, pasture. " I was jus' up at tha top a tha faiyre " (Roeder in Moore's Manx Folk-lore, page 52). Manx for grass.

Fall is used as a transitive verb. " Don't fall the jug," don't let it fall. " I'm goin' to fall that tree," I'm going to make it fall, fell it.

Faluting. " When they ought to be at their workfalutin' about an' wastin' their time " (V.A.D., " Flander "). Larking ?

Famlagh, seaweed in general. Manx. Famlagh crammanagh, the seaweed called in England ' buttonwraick' (J.J.K.). Manx, literally 'knobby-seaweed.' Known also in Man as ' fairy-bottles.' The focus nodosa.

Fanks, close, crisp, level turf for sheep-grazing, convenient for penning them with hurdles. " On the Fanks hard by was Phil's hock-bedn, Nippin' close, as that grass is short " (Quarrie, " The Melliah "). ' Bock-bedn',' white gelding. Much of the present Ramsey Golf-links was called ' the Fanks.' Fanks are mostly found in the North of the Island. Scotch dialect for a fold or pen.

Fans, a spatulate variety of seaweed. For its sweetish flavour children used to chew it, and may do so still.

Fearful is used in its proper sense of ' afraid, full of fear.' "He was very 'fearful' of these Gaarderyn Sloek " (Roeder, Manx Notes and Queries, page 8) ; certain squalls of wind. " He did not know what to make of it ; he was not fearful " of the spectre (Roeder, Lioar Manninagh, iii, 159). ' Frightful' is used in the same way. "There was such a . . . noise he was frightful " (Roeder, loc. cit., 160).

Fell (topographical), though regularly used in old documents, especially in the plural, for an uncultivated hillside, is not now heard in the dialect, though it occurs in many place-names.

A contributor to the Year Book of the Viking Society for 1912 (page 50) draws attention to a mistake made by Captain Thomas in handling the place-names of the Western Isles, and " perpetuated by every writer since "; namely, that -bhal, sometimes written -mheall, and in maps -val in names of hills, always represents fjall. Fjall means, it is pointed out, a mountain or mountain range, as distinguished from a fell or hill. " Fell " as a suffix is the Old Norse hvdll, which is still the name in Iceland for a small piece of rising ground somewhat larger than a hall or knoll, but not so large as a fell-i.e., a fjall.

These two terms in Manx place-names, though now reduced to a final -el or -al, can be distinguished by anyone familiar with the respective eminences to which they have been applied. Sartal in Jurby, for example, represents Svart-hvdll, Dark Hill, whereas Sartal, in Michael, is Svart fjall, Dark Mountain.

Fell-ditch. See " Ditch."

Fenian conveys the idea that a person (male or female) is a thorough bad lot, " a born devil, on whom nurture can never stick." " He's a black-blooded Fenian, that one ; the Captain turned him out of the Glen." ' Captain ' of the parish. There is probably some confusion in users' minds with ' fiend.'

Fess, a spindle, as of the queeyl (ordinary spinningwheel), or of the queeyl-vooar (flax wheel). " Come here and take that fess queeyl-wooar. . . . Run the hot fess right through my thigh " ( " The Kione Prash," Manx Quarterly, No. 23). Manx the same.

Fidge, a nervous, anxious state; a person of a fidgety temperament. "Worked herself all into a fidge " (Juan Noa, Manx Yarns, page 17). " He's a reg'lar oul' fidge."

Fire-house, an obsolete term for a dwelling-house of the primitive sod-built type, distinguishing it from an outhouse or barn. "If anyone break open a fire-house, either the Wall or Door thereof, or if there be no door, but a bundle of Gorse or Ling reared up in the door to keep out the wind, or but two sticks across in the door, it is Burglary and death to the delinquent, though it be but Felony under the value of sixpence halfpenny" (Blundell's History, 1648, Manx Soc. edn., ii, 107).

In an Act of Tynwald, 1817, sec. 12, " dwellinghouse " is substituted for " fire-house," and two riders added: " by night," and " any person being then inhabiting in such house " ; but death is still the penalty.

Fisseree, a state of fuss and excitement (J.J.K.).

Fit. 1. As adjective, used absolutely and in the negative, means no good, worthless, or even injurious. " You nasty thing ! you're not fit, You're no better till a ideit ! " (Brown 529). " Some people's eye isn't fit " (Roeder in Moore's Manx Folk-lore, page 56). The allusion is to the Evil Eye. With ' fit ' in the negative compare ' worth,' q.v. Also affirmatively, in the English and Irish colloquial usage. " He was fit to tear the rocks when they told him." " And mother fit to froth At the mouth with rage " (Brown 409)2. As noun, means character, nature, manner.

" No rascal at all, divil a bit of him ! You don't know the fit of him " (Brown 489). " The ould chap couldn' do without him. Aw, the Docthor knew the very fit Of all his notions " (Brown 344). " So that's the way of it, the very fit " (Brown 439).

Fitty, in good condition. " Thou look gennal and fifty!" (Gaelk, "The Taffy Spree," Examiner cutting, 1908). ' Gennal,' cheerful.

Flegs, flakes, tatters. In a charming anecdote related to me about a dead sheep found in a watercourse, " flegs of the flesh" were said to have been sticking to the bones and fluttering in the running water, from which, a little further down-stream, the narrator had previously taken a hearty swig.

Flock is used for a large number of inanimate objects, as ' a flock of bouldhers,' ' a flock of sharries ' (charabancs) ; but especially for forms of money " I got a flock of hundreds " (Shimmin, Dooinney Moyllee, page 29) ; " I gave . . . all the Kinsale earnings to Kirrie, and there was a flock of notes too " (Shimmin, The Third Boat, page 4).

Flump (noun and verb). A heavy fall; to fall heavily. " Me-Yee-kin-flump he'd go to the floor " (Quarrie, " The Melliah "). Translate " My God, what a thump! " " She flumped off the laddher lek a sack of spuds." ' Flump ' is current in the Southern half of England. (E.D.D.)

Fly, a part of a spinning-wheel. 'Flyer' is the name of two different parts of a spinning-wheel in Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively. (E.D.D.)

Foilliu (obsolete), multure, a small proportion (legally one twenty-fourth) of each customer's grain which was retained by the miller instead of a money payment for grinding. From the correct Manx form of the word, fooillagh, leavings, remainder, it would appear that originally a miller's recompense was limited to the pollard and coarse bran. We may feel sure, however, that the term was not applied in that sense to the Lord's multure, as specified in the Earl of Derby's ' Orders and Directions ' of 1636 (Statutes).

Follagh was the placing of the ball or the ' kit ' (q.v.) in one of the holes, in the boys' game of ' Kit-cat.' " One of the words in the game was a 'hide ' or ' follagh ' " (V.A.D., " Kit-cat "). Manx follaght, a hiding-place ; also found in two placenames, " Follaght y Vannin " and " Follit y Vannin."

Foosther, to fuss, meddle. " He comes foostherin' about the kitchen lek an oul' hen." A noun ' foostherer ' is derived from it. Manx foosterey, to stir, rouse, fidget.

Fore-rig, the first or left-hand rig (ridge) of the harvest-field. The last rig on the right-hand side of the field was the ' ghart ' (Quarrie, " The Melliah," glossary). The reaper of the last rig of standing corn was also called ' the ghart.'

Foreigner is-or was-applied to anyone from another part of the Island, if sufficiently distant. " A furriner from the Sous without a penny piece " (Cushag, Mylecharaine, page 6). ' Sous,' South (0f the Island). Fork, a sheep-mark. See " Animal Words," page 149. Frightful. See " Fearful."

Frump, a shrug, flounce, bridling gesture. " So the gel gave a frump, like ' dear me ? ' " (Brown 290). Some English dialects have it in the same sense.

Full-git, smartly, at full speed. " Up he was again to-rec'ly, full git " (V.A.D., " Full ").

Full-rig, at top speed. " Then reel on reel and jig on jig Away they went again full-rig " (Quarrie, " The Melliah ").

Full-rigged. A woman or girl who is dressed up in all her finery is ' full-rigged.' "When a young woman got an oil print beggon and a checkered apron on her, she was full-rigged " (Roeder, Lioar Manninagh, iii, 130). ' Beggon,' bedgown. (" Here she comes, i' faith, full sail, with her fan spread and her streamers out, and a shoal of fools for tenders.")