There are many ways of describing the act of dying in the English language, for example:
to croak, to kick the bucket, to pop your clogs, to shuffle off the mortal coil, to go domino, etc.These all seem to be common throughout the country, and indeed the wider world. But how common are the following:
- To cark it
- To kiff it
A quick search for references to cark revealed a long history but with different meanings. Wiktionary has cark as related to Middle English carken and Old English carcian, meaning to be anxious about something or to care for:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cark
Whereas the Free Dictionary has it as related to Norman French carquier meaning to burden:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/carked
Kiff or kiffed, on the other hand, has many different meanings from joining a gang and really liking something to feeling a bit strange, and many others (Google it).
These two verbs were both in use by my peers, and one of my frineds used kiffed when I was in Warrington in November.
Any other words for death? What do cark and kiff mean to you?
Hiya Wirelector. I have never heard of cark and kiff before.I hope they are unique Woolyback.Neither have I heard "to go domino",that one does'nt sound like dying.
ReplyDeleteAnother one is "To snuff it" or to "Meet your maker". Then after you have died your"Six foot under" "A stiff" or "pushing up Daisies"
Have you heard cark and kiffed in relation to dying?
Hi Gaynor. Yes, we used to say that someone had "kiffed it" or "carked it" when we were younger (late teens, early twenties). It may well be a newish addition to the dialect, or it may have been brought in from somewhere else. Many of my friends when I was growing up were born in Warrington to Liverpudlian parents. If kiff or cark are not familiar to older Warringtonians, then there is the strong possibility of a scouse influence, or indeed some other influence.
ReplyDeleteI have a few scouse relatives,Ill ask when I see them.A few friends a similar age to me have never heard either word.I keep telling them all to visit the blog but apart from shoving the keyboard in their hand what can you do!
DeleteHi. It may not be scouse, I have a couple of Southern friends as well. I'm a bit surprised that no-one has heard of them, but you learn something everyday :-)
DeleteAnd about your friends, you can lead a horse to water...
I think many people believe that they have nothing to contribute. This is normally down to the fact that people think of dialect as individual words, and if they see those words already on here, they think they have nothing more to offer. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Dialect is about words, but (hopefully as can be seen on this blog) it is about many other elements of language too. You can tell a lot about the dialect and its history by the way people structure their sentences, for example. Admittedly, it is much easier to spot dialect features when people speak. This is because the way we speak and the way we write are completely different. However, for the time being I have to rely on the written forms on this blog. I hope to visit Warrington to do some "field research" and spoken-language recordings at some point, but that depends on money and time.
Hiya Wirelector. It seems as though "He's carked it" or "Kiffed it" are scouse influences,although carked it is the most well known.
DeleteIts a good idea to do some recordings. I have listened to the ones on the History of English link,its amazing how the sound of the English language has changed.
Both terms are new to me, but the first thing I thought of was "carcass".
ReplyDeleteAs for other terms used for death, the list is probably endless. Ones that I've used are pretty much everyday terms and nothing really new.
Bite the dust (I think originates from the old west)
Buy the farm (I think had something to do with finally retiring from the rat-race and settling down. The only way to get there was to die)
Dead as a doornail/doorknob (have no idea where that one comes from. I think it was Dickens who came up with it though.)
And finally : Ride the pale horse. ( I thought Johnny Cash came up with that one, but now as a much older and wiser man, I realize it's from the Bible :-D )
Hiya. Ive never heard of "Buy the farm" sounds good though. Pale horse was the horse of death(seems to go with the man in black!)
DeleteAlso dead as the Dodo, I think Ive heard that one before and "drawn his/her last".
Dickens did mention "Dead as a door nail" in A Christmas Carol. Could be because the nail is hammered hard into the door, so cant be used again. I bet this saying is dead old though.