In the same way two nouns beginning with the same letter are yoked together to form a phrase, as for example: care and cark (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Glo. Suf. I.W. Som.), anxiety, sorrow; by raff and reng (Yks.), by little and little; scrap and screed (Wm.), every particle, e.g. He’s geean, an’ teean iv’ry scrap an’ screed he could lig hands on. I’ve neither brass nor benediction (Yks.) means I am quite destitute. Of a total disappearance it may be said: There was nowther head nor hair on’t, moit nor doit (n.Yks.).
Rhyming Words and Phrases
Beside these are the rhyming words and phrases, such as: argle-bargle (Sc. Lin.), to argue; crawly-mawly (e.An.), poorly, ailing; dimmy-simmy (Shr.), languishing, affected; eeksie-peeksie (Sc.), equal, on an equality; ham-sam (Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.), adv. irregularly, confusedly; hanchum-scranshum (Lin.), bewilderment, confusion; havey-cavey (Yks. Lan. Der. Nhp.), unsteady, trembling in the balance; hay-bay (Lakel. Cum. Yks.), a hubbub, uproar, commotion; hirdum-dirdum (Sc. Lan.), confused, noisy mirth; how-skrow (Lakel.), disorder, a state of confusion, e.g. It’s cleenin’ time an’ we’re o in a how-skrow; kabbie-labby (Sc.), an altercation, wrangle; mimpsy-pimsey (Dev.), fastidious, affected, e.g. Whot a poor mimpsey-pimsey craycher ’tez, tü be sure; nibby-gibby (Cor.), a narrow escape; otty-motty (Chs. Der.), suspense, e.g. Keepin’ him in otty-motty, an noather tellin’ him one thing or another—it’s enough to vex annybody; pinky-winky (n.Cy. Lan. Nhp.), very small; quavery-mavery (e.An.), undecided, hesitating; rory-tory (Som. Dev. Cor.), loud, noisy, also gaudy, tawdry, e.g. Of all the rory-tory bonnets ever you zeed, Mrs. Vickery’s beat ’em all, he was all the colours of the rainbow. The word occurs in Fielding’s Jonathan Wild, cp. ‘Cavaliers and rory-tory ranter boys.’ Tacky-lacky (Som. Dev.), a drudge, a person at every one’s beck and call, e.g. Poor maid, her’s tacky-lacky to all the tother sarvunts.
Moil and toil, Rape and scrape
To biver and wiver (Ken. Dev.) means to shake and tremble, e.g. Aw, Loramassy, Joan, ’ow you did stertlee me! I’ve abin a-bivering an’ a-wivering iver zince. Yü shüde be more thortvul; to blare and stare (War. Glo.) is to wander about, e.g. What bist a blarin’ and starin’ thur for?; to codge and modge (War.) is to muddle and cobble, e.g. You’ve codged and modged this sewing pretty well; to haggle and jaggle (Yks. Lakel.) is to quarrel; to holler and boller (Lei.) is to shout, halloo, e.g. They was a-’ollerin’ an’ a-bollerin’, yo moight a-’eern ’em a moile off; to moil and toil (in gen. dial. use) is to work hard, e.g. Yo met’n mwoil an’ toil a couple o’ ’ours, an’ ’ardly get a wisket full. Tusser tells us in his autobiographical poem:
When court gan frowne and strife in towne,
And lords and knights saw heauie sights,
Then tooke I wife, and led my life in Suffolke soile.
There was I faine my selfe to traine,
To learne too long the fermers song,