Oak

OAK, sb. Var. dial. forms and uses in Sc. Irel. and Eng. [ōk, oək, ēk, iək; jak, jek; wōk, wuk.] I. Dial. forms. 1. sing.: (1) Aac, (2) Aäk, (3) Aik, (4) Ak, (5) Auk, (6) Eac, (7) Eak, (8) Eake, (9) Eike, (10) Eke, (11) Oche, (12) Whoke, (13) Woak, (14) Wock, (15) Woek, (16) Wok, (17) Woke, (18) Wuck, (19) Wuk, (20) Yaak, (21) Yack, (22) Yak, (23) Yeäck, (24) Yeck, (25) Yek, (26) Yik. (1) n.Cy., Yks. (B. & H.) (2) m.Yks.1 w.Yks. T'aäk coomed aat afore t'esh (F.P.T.); w.Yks.1 (3) Sc. Good aik timber, Scott Pirate (1821) v. Gall. Wi' the aik kibblings I'd never fight mair, Mactaggart Encycl. (1824) 68, ed. 1876. Dwn. The aiks the knowes hae shaded, Savage-Armstrong Ballads (1901) 152. Nhb.1, Dur.1, n.Yks.2, w.Yks.1 (4) ne.Yks.1 Pronounced yak. (5) m.Yks.1 Aoh'k, ao·k. (6) n.Cy. (K.) (7) K. m.Yks.1 Ih'k. (8) n.Yks. (W.H.) (9) n.Cy., Yks. (B. & H.) (10) n.Cy. B. & H. (11) n.Yks.2 (12) Der. Drive him aneath th' tawest whoke-tree, Cushing Voe (1888) I. ix. (13) w.Yks.3 Glo. When I'd a-hung un up in th' woak tree, Buckman Darke's Sojourn (1890) xiv. Wil. Slow Gl. (1892). Dor. As we wer catchèn vrom our laps Below a woak our bits an' draps, Barnes Poems (ed. 1879) 78. (14) Som. Jennings Obs. Dial. w.Eng. (1825). (15) e.Som. W. & J. Gl. (1873). (16) w.Yks.3 (17) Hmp.1 This pronunciation, though not general in n.Hmp. now, used to be so. (18) e.Som. W. & J. Gl. (1873). (19) Shr.1 The Squire's levellin' the wuk this 'ear. Glo.1 e.Som. W. & J. Gl. (1873). (20) Cum.1 (21) n.Cy. Holloway. Wm. If 't ash tree buds before 't yack, Gibson Leg. and Notes (1877) 50. n.Yks. Awd stiff yack nut eeasy bended, Castillo Poems (1878) 25. e.Yks. Marshall Rur. Econ. (1788). m.Yks.1 (22) n.Cy. (B. & H.), Dur.1 Cum.1 Ya'k cubbert. Wm. Double yak deurs, Whitehead Leg. (1859) 5. s.Wm. (J.A.B.) n.Yks.2 Me grannum's aud yak-kist. Yak-bink [oak bench]. ne.Yks.1, e.Yks.1, w.Yks.1 w.Yks.3, n.Lan.1, ne.Lan.1 (23) ne.Lan.1 (24) Nhb. Then 'noint her wiv a twig o' yeck, Wilson Pitman's Pay (1843) II. Dur. It's a' green hills en big yeck trees, Egglestone Betty Podkins' Visit (1877) 9. Cum. The yeck kist cried out murder, Rayson Poems (1839) 8. (25) Nhb. His leg pletted oure his Yek Pleught, Bewick Tyneside Tales (1850) II. Lakel.1 Yek cubbert. Cum.1 w.Yks. Lucas Stud. Nidderdale (c. 1882) 291. (26) Cum.1 2. pl.: (1) Akis. n.Cy. (B. & H.); (2) Oaken. Hrf.2 II. Dial. uses. 1. In comb. (1) Oak and nettle day, May 29; (2) Oak-apple, a sprig of oak or maple; (3) Oak-apple day, see (1); (4) Oak-atchern, an acorn; (5) Oak-ball, an oak-apple or oak-gall; (6) Oak-ball day, see (1); (7) Oak-bee, the cockchafer, Melolontha vulgaris; (8) Oak-berry, see (4); (9) Oak-billet timber, small oaks, crooked oak, not good enough for timber; (10) Oak-crammel, a knotty branch of oak, an oak cudgel; (11) Oak-day, see (1); (12) Oak-dotteril, a pollard oak; (13) Oak-eggar, a moth; (14) Oak-fern, the common bracken, Pteris aquilina; (15) Oak-fork, an oak stem forked naturally at one end; (16) Oak-gnar, an oak-knot; (17) Oak-heir, a young oak-tree left growing when a wood is cleared; (18) Oak-leather, a kind of fungus found in old oaks; (19) Oak-lungs, the pearl moss, Chondrus crispus; (20) Oak-marble, see (5); (21) Oak-mass or Oak-mast, see (4); (22) Oak-prod, an oak-peg; (23) Oak-snag, a thick oak-branch; (24) Oak-stake, (25) Oak-stob or Oak-stoup, an oak-post; (26) Oak-tree clay, (27) Oak-tree loam, the Kimmeridge clay; (28) Oak-web, Oak-cub, Oak-ub, or Ocop, see (7); (29) Oak-wood, a forest of oak; (30) Oak-wright, obs., a worker in oak. (1) Not. A custom now dying out existed... on the twenty-ninth of May, or ‘Oak and Nettle day,’ as it is termed. The rising generation sally out in the morning, their caps and buttonholes adorned with sprigs of oak. They also provide themselves with a bunch of nettles. They request all persons they meet with ‘to show your oak.’.. Supposing they are unprovided... their face, neck, and hands are well nettled, Flk-Lore Jrn. (1884) II. 381. (2) Dev.4 There need be no apples on the sprig. (3) Nhp.1 On this day it was formerly the custom for all the principal families in the town of Northampton to place a large branch of oak over the door of their houses, or in their balconies, in remembrance of the restoration of Charles the Second. The oak-boughs are gradually disappearing; but the corporate body still goes in procession to All Saints' church, accompanied by the boys and girls of the different charity schools, each of them having a sprig of oak, with a gilt oak-apple placed in the front of their dress; and, should the season be unpropitious, and oak-apples be scarce, small gilded potatoes are substituted... Some villagers in the country notice the day, by decorating their houses with branches of oak, or by children carrying them about in their hands. War.3 Houses were decorated with boughs or sprigs of oak bearing oak-apples. Boys wore the latter in their coats. Those who neglected or were unable to provide themselves with this decoration were whipped about the hands and face, by their fellows, with stinging nettles. Hnt. (T.P.F.) Dor. The 29th of May, Oak-apple Day, was called Shicsack Day, when all loyal urchins were expected to display a bit of oak in their hats or caps, Longman's Mag. (Mar. 1889) 517. w.Som.1 It is still the custom for all the public-houses, and many private ones, to fasten a green bough of oak at the side of the outer door. When they can be got, oak-apples are stuck on this bough, often covered with gold-leaf... Farm boys also stick sprays of oak with oak-apples if procurable in their hats, while the horses always have to be ‘trimmed’ with oak on King Charles's day. (4) Chs.1 Chs.3 s.Chs.1 Oa·k-aachŭrn. (5) s.Chs.1 Oa·k-bau. War.3 (6) Shr. On this day, branches of oak bearing ‘oak-apples’ or ‘oak-balls’ are hung at the doors of many houses in Shrewsbury; about Newport the cart-horses are adorned with oak-boughs, and in many places the railway-engines are similarly decorated. Many people in all ranks keep up the custom of wearing sprays of oak with ‘balls,’ if possible, on this day. Young men and lads wear an oak-ball and a few leaves in their hats, and about Market Drayton I am told that a boy who shows himself without a bit of oak is apt to receive some sort of chastisement from his companions. The National school children in many places beat those who wear no oak with stinging nettles, Burne Flk-Lore (1883-1886) 365. War.2 It is the custom to wear an oak-ball in the hat or buttonhole on May 29, and to decorate horses with the same. (7) Hrt. The darr or oak-bee, Ellis Mod. Husb. (1750) VI. i. 67. (8) Yks. (B. & H.) (9) Nrf. He has recently brought down a cargo of oak-billet-timbers in three or four feet lengths of the more slender boughs, Patterson Man and Nat. (1895) 66; Small oaks, or the arms of oak timber-trees, are cut into short lengths and used for smoking herrings with (M.C.H.B.). (10) n.Yks. (T.S.); n.Yks.2 A stunt yak-crammel. (11) Not. The locomotive engines are sometimes decorated with oak leaves. School children nettle those among them who are not wearing oak leaves on the 29th of May (L.C.M.). sw.Lin.1 (12) Nhp. The knarled oak-dotterel, Clare Rur. Muse (1835) 77. (13) Sc. Watching... an oak-eggar moth settle lazily on a moss cushion, Steel Rowans (1895) 144. Som. Compton Winscombe Sketches (1882) 140. (14) Nrf. From the appearance of the section of the vascular bundles in the rhizome (B. & H.). w.Som.1 Oa·k-vee·urn. (15) n.Yks.2 Used for various country purposes. (16) n.Yks.2 (17) Hmp. A number of oak-heirs and ash-tillows are left at each cutting, Marshall Review (1817) V. 329. (18) Ir. (B. & H.) (19) Lon. Sold in Covent Garden market under this name, Loudon's Gardener's Mag. (1832) VIII. 94, in (B. & H.). (20) Dev.4 When ripe is used for the game of marbles. (21) Dev.2 Old crooked oak is loaded with oak-mass. nw.Dev.1 Cor. I'd rethur tamp wilkies an' toads in ma belly, Ur oak-masts an' bittles, Daniel Bride of Scio (1842) 231; Cor.2 (22) n.Yks.2 (23) Sc. He'll glower at an auld warld barkit aik-snag as if it were a queez-maddam in full bearing, Scott Rob Roy (1817) xxi. n.Yks.2 (24, 25) n.Yks.2 (26) Wil.1 Britton Beauties (1825) III. (27) Wil. The deep oak-tree loams about Mere... a low flat tract of land under the foot of the chalk-hills, of a strong deep loam, with a substratum of clay, over a very thick vein of blue marble. The soil is very sour, as appears by its abundant and spontaneous production of oak trees, Davis Gen. View Agric. (1811) xii; Wil.1 (28) s.Ir. (A.S.-P.) w.Cy. Grose (1790) MS. add. (C.) Dor. N. & Q. (1877) 5th S. viii. 358. Som. West of the Parret this insect is called ‘wock-web,’ because it infests the oak, and spins its web on it in great numbers, Jennings Obs. Dial. w.Eng. (1825). w.Som.1 They rooks be doin' purty well wi' they there oak-'ebs. Dev. A brown beetle, that feeds much upon the leaves of oak, Horae Subsecivae (1777) 309; I zay, Polly, düee put a pin drü thease oakweb's tail, an' yü'll zee 'ow 'e'll buzzee when I spin 'th'n roun' my 'ead wi' theāse bit ov coord, Hewett Peas. Sp. (1892); Science Gossip (1874) 263; Dev.2 The weather is going to change, there are so many oak-webs about to-night. nw.Dev.1 w.Dev. Marshall Rur. Econ. (1796). Cor. N. & Q. (1851) 1st S. iii. 259. s.Dev., e.Cor. (Miss D.), Cor.1 (29, 30) n.Yks.2 2. Phr. to go 'twixt the oak and the rind, to make fine distinctions, to split hairs, to quibble. w.Som.1 Hence the phr. has come to mean the quibbling by which a trimmer agrees with both sides, ‘runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds.’ nw.Dev. We usually add to the phrase ‘where the devil can't go' (R.P.C.); nw.Dev.1 3. An oaken cudgel. Lnk. ‘Hand me out yon muckle oak.’ She brought the stick, Muir Minstrelsy (1816) 31. 4. pl. The suit of clubs in cards. Som. Jennings Obs. Dial. w.Eng. (1825). w.Som.1 The parish clerk... after having been playing cards late on Saturday night, dozed during the service next day, and... cried out, ‘Oaks be trumps, Mr. Hosegood.’ An old distich is, ‘Oaks be trumps in Horner 'ood, There they growed, and there they stood.’ Dev. There, I'm beggared ef hoaks bant trumps again! Why, that's dree times urning, Hewett Peas. Sp. (1892) 88; Dev.1 From the resemblance which they bear to the oak-leaf. nw.Dev.1 Hence Oak-wuck, sb. the club at cards. e.Som. W. & J. Gl. (1873). 5. The maple, Acer campestre. Dev.4 I have been astonished to find how constantly the Maple is called Oak.

OAK, sb. Sc. Cum. Lin. Not. 1. In comp. (1) Oak-acorn. n.Cum. (E.W.P.); (2) Oak-nut, an acorn. Kcb. (J.M.), Cum. (E.W.P.) 2. Phr. the old oak tree, the game of ‘wind up the bush faggot,’ q.v., s.v. Wind, v.2 II.2 (4). Lin. Known as ‘The Old Oak Tree’ in Lincoln, Kelsey, and Winterton. When coiling round the children sing ‘Round and round the old oak tree, I love the girls and the girls love me!’ When they have twisted into a closely-packed crowd they dance up and down tumbling on each other, crying,‘ A bottle of rags, a bottle of rags,’ Gomme Games (1898) II. 386. Not. In the Anderby and Nottinghamshire version of the game the children often sing ‘The old oak tree grows thicker and thicker every Monday morning,’ GOMME Games 386.