_killeck_

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1972
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/39546

killick n We have the term _killeck_ for an anchor, with the secondary meaning of midwife. _Granny_--more often _old granny_--is a term for midwife, with the secondary meaning of "killeck", a wooden anchor. These terms have additional meanings and might be cast in the form of dictionary entries as: _granny_, _old granny_ n. 1. [< British dials. < colloq. _granny_, grandmother] _esp. as a form of address_ An elderly woman, particularly one who has born children. 2. [< British and Anglo-Irish dials. (by extension)] A midwife. 3. [< a pun involving _granny_ (as above) and Irish, Gael. _crann_, tree, bolt, _crannda_, bowed, feeble, woody, frail, Irish _crannog_, hamper, basket, Gaelic _crannag_, wooden frame, Middle Irish _crannoc_, a wooden structure; see also _cailleac_ , below] A wooden anchor, a "killeck" (def. 1) (over) [reverse] _killeck_, _killick_, _killik_, _killock_ n. [<English maritime usage, esp. Cornish English dial. _killik_ (etc.), a wooden anchor<Old Cornish _kelli_, Welsh _celli_ , wood; see, however, Irish _cailleac_, a stone anchor] 1. _Atlantic provs._ _esp. Nfld., Lab._ A wooden anchor consisting, usually, of a large stone enclosed in a wooden framework; a "stone anchor". 2. _Cdn maritime slang_ an anchor of any type, esp. a small makeshift anchor: a "mudhook". 3. _Cdn and British Naval usage_ [<def. 2 (_supra_); because of the anchor badge worn on the upper arm] A Leading Seaman. 4. _Nfld._ [because _granny_ q.v. has the meaning both of wooden anchor and midwife] A _granny_ (def. 2); a midwife. This provides an example of a usage that on first examination seems obscure, yet is "easy" when one realizes that Newfoundlanders, like the Irish, tend to re-use old words in a punning sense and, like the Irish, retain the usage long after the pun is forgotten. The "_granny-killeck_" pun is not entirely of Newfoundland origin: In Irish, _cailleac_ means both a stone anchor and an elderly woman! an anchor, with the secondary meaning of midwife W. J. KIRWIN DEC 1972 JH DEC ...