Donate SIGN UP

shrammed

Avatar Image
scribbler | 12:47 Wed 31st Jan 2007 | Word Origins
7 Answers
Is anyone else familiar with this word?

What do others think this word means?

If you know the word where do you think it originated? ie Wiltshire, Hampshire...
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 7 of 7rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by scribbler. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
shrammed means you are very cold. it's a west country word.
'Shrammed', although old, seems to be a more recent variant on 'shrimped', meaning shrivelled or huddled up with cold. The earliest recorded use of 'shrimped' dates back to the 1630s and it was written by the son of a clergyman in Suffolk...so not really very West Country!
'Shrammed's' earliest appearance - in Francis Grose's Provincial Glossary - was a century and a half later, so all we can say for sure from the title is that it was a dialect word but not necessarily where it originated.
Of course, by the time that 'shrammed' version appeared, it may very well have been in Wiltshire/Hampshire.
As a matter of interest, here is a quote from an edition of The Daily Telegraph published in the 1860s "...being shrammed with cold, as they say in Wiltshire." So, after a couple of centuries, it would appear that it had become West Countryish even if it did not really originate there!
I'm from Hampshire and we've always used it to mean so cold that you feel all crumpled up - you know, when you're so cold you just want to huddle up.
I'm from Chipping Sodbury, Sth Gloucs & it was a common word but now live in Southampton, Hampshire where no one has any idea of what it means! Hnce I thought I'd look it up. Daps is another common word at home but they call them Plimsols here, weird.
This word was used by my grandmother who was a Hampshire resident, although I've noticed that when I say this to younger people than myself (50) they don't have a clue what I'm talking about. It's definitely fallen out of popular use. A shame..it describes the cold that you're feeling perfectly!
I have lived in Dorset for 40 years and was born in Bristol. I have always used shrammed for cold, daps for plimsols and pitching not settling for snow.
'Shrammed wwith the cold' is a phrase I grew up with in Ireland (Co Tipperary) and it was still fairly common in the 'fifties. I'd love to know where the word originated and when. Although many obscure words here have their origin in the Irish language, others are archaic English. 'Anent' iss another, meaning 'beside' or 'adjacent.' Marjorie Quarton.

1 to 7 of 7rss feed

Do you know the answer?

shrammed

Answer Question >>

Related Questions

Sorry, we can't find any related questions. Try using the search bar at the top of the page to search for some keywords, or choose a topic and submit your own question.