For years I have subscribed to a word service called Worthless Word for the Day. Sometimes the entries are truly worthless but mostly they are fun to discover. Today I found frab in my mailbox and had to share it with you. Apparently this is a British verb which means to harass, scold or nag. They also mention its onomatopoeic quality and that it is "dialect" but not necessarily a regionalism. Now that is not much help. Many of the WWFD stuff comes from regions of Britain which might have been isolated like Northumbria or parts of Scotland.WWFD always provides a quote or two which put the new word in context. These examples are sometimes not worthless but wonderful!
"I was not kind to you. I frabbed you, and plagued you from the first." - E.C. Gaskell, Ruth (1853)
"But dinna frab yerself. Ye be na trouble to us." - Ellen Howard, The Gate in the Wall (1999)
"I was not kind to you. I frabbed you, and plagued you from the first." - E.C. Gaskell, Ruth (1853)
"But dinna frab yerself. Ye be na trouble to us." - Ellen Howard, The Gate in the Wall (1999)
No comments:
Post a Comment