Quizzes & Puzzles4 mins ago
Not wuthering or withering
10 Answers
Can anyone come up with a word, possibly dialect or colloquial, that describes a decrepit, mouldering house? It's something like the words above, but not what I want.
It's annoying me - could it be dundering (towers)?
It's annoying me - could it be dundering (towers)?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The phrase, 'dundering inn', appeared on AB elsewhere recently and I pointed out that it was almost certainly just a mishearing of 'dundering-in'. I cannot for the life of me see what it can possibly have to do with inns or taverns any more than any other building!
According to the Oxford English Dictionary - the word-'bible' - to dunder is a variant of an old Scots verb, dunner, meaning to collapse with a reverberating noise. (The link with thunder is pretty clear.) You could, therefore, describe the house you refer to as the victim of a dundering-in. I'd need some persuading that calling it "a dundering inn" is the right phrase!
According to the Oxford English Dictionary - the word-'bible' - to dunder is a variant of an old Scots verb, dunner, meaning to collapse with a reverberating noise. (The link with thunder is pretty clear.) You could, therefore, describe the house you refer to as the victim of a dundering-in. I'd need some persuading that calling it "a dundering inn" is the right phrase!
Anne, you're obviously perfectly fee to use whatever description you prefer, it's just that the one you've chosen does not appear to make any sense, unless the building concerned actually WAS an inn. I don't see how a tumbledown cottage, church, shop, office-block or whatever can be referred to as an inn, no matter what state it may now be in.
An 'oul quilt', on the other hand, is a perfect metaphor. But what the hey...Good luck to you!
An 'oul quilt', on the other hand, is a perfect metaphor. But what the hey...Good luck to you!
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