Clodgy. Gawm. Gubber. Ike. Pug. Sleach. The Sussex dialect apparently contains around 30 different words for mud: the sticky kind, the puddling kind, the tenacious kind – which, having spent a winter hiking in the South Downs, I can relate to. I love this mucky lexicon. They are wonderful words, onomatopoeias that immediately call to mind the sensation of the stuff, of sliding about in it or wrestling with welly boots that have got suctioned in. They afford mud a certain dignity too, which I rather like. It’s good to be reminded that even this most humble stuff comes in a greater number of variations than there are hours in the day.
On Naming Things
On Naming Things
On Naming Things
Clodgy. Gawm. Gubber. Ike. Pug. Sleach. The Sussex dialect apparently contains around 30 different words for mud: the sticky kind, the puddling kind, the tenacious kind – which, having spent a winter hiking in the South Downs, I can relate to. I love this mucky lexicon. They are wonderful words, onomatopoeias that immediately call to mind the sensation of the stuff, of sliding about in it or wrestling with welly boots that have got suctioned in. They afford mud a certain dignity too, which I rather like. It’s good to be reminded that even this most humble stuff comes in a greater number of variations than there are hours in the day.