Air Ada - Northamptonshire expressions

Local dialects and expressions are probably something we don't spend much time thinking about.

But the BBC recently ran a project in which they encouraged poets to write pieces celebrating words specific to the areas from which they came.

'Mardy' was the word for the East Midlands, of which Northamptonshire is a part.  Mardy is one of those words that I didn't think was specific to this area, but apparently further south they don't use it.  Just in case you're in any doubt, it means sulky or moody.

Some of you may remember 'Air Ada', the classic cartoon which ran in this paper for many years, and was packed with Northamptonshire sayings and pronunciations.

I've been thinking about words that I think are Northamptonshire-isms and I've picked my favourites - I'm hoping Ada would approve:

M'duck - a friendly moniker, suitable for people of all ages, and particularly helpful if you can't remember somebody's actual name;

Jitty - a small alley between rows of houses.  Sometimes used in the expression 'he/she couldn't stop a pig in a jitty' if the person is bow-legged;

Keck - I never knew the real name for keck until recently, it was something that grew in hedgerows and of which my childhood rabbit was particularly partial; its real name is apparently cow parsley.

Another local word I particularly like is mackle - it means to try and repair something using items easily at hand, although I tend to use it in a culinary sense (as in 'I've mackled a meal together').

You don't have to travel far to be confronted by new words either.  Heading over the border to University in Leicester I was confronted by 'cobs'.  Until this point I believed a cob to be a breed of horse, but over there it's a bread roll, as explained to me by my friend who hailed from near Wolverhampton, where good things were always described as bostin'.

What are your favourite Northamptonshire words and sayings?