Us Yorkshire folk love our slang words. From greeting someone with a curt now then, to sharing our chuffing opinions about anything there is a phrase for it.
A new study has been carried out by Preply has used sources such as Oxford Royale and Green’s Dictionary of Slang to identify the most common slang words said in UK cities, and the popular choices aren’t quite what you may have thought.
Sheffield’s most common slang word is probably known by the whole of the UK thanks to the native band Arctic Monkey and their iconic song. The word is mardy and obviously, the song is Mardy Bum.
The iconic tune involves a girlfriend being angry at a partner and not being very happy with them which makes it easy to figurewhat the meaning which is someone that is being arsey or irritable.
Read More: Two Yorkshire Phrases Included In The Top 20 UK Sayings
Another word included for Sheffield was spice, which for the rest of the UK would mean seasoning whereas in Sheffield, and other parts of Yorkshire it means sweets. The survey also mentions lug oil and laik, which we all know mean ears and playing.
I know I’ve definitely been told to clean behind my lug oils as a kid and knocked on a friend’s door asking if they’re laiking out.
Not all that showed up in the results were clear to us being from East Yorkshire and the most popular word choice for the city of Leeds was gill meaning half of something and was a popular phrase in pubs across the city. The word is pronounced ‘jill’ and is seemingly not as common as it once was.
It was common for Leeds for to say phrases such as “Just going for quick gill”, which would mean a swift pint or half pint.
Check out the full map of UK slang origin below:
Having lived in Leeds for a few years I’ve never come across the word as well, so would be interested to see if this is still used by Leeds locals to this day.
Read more: 10 Of The Most Yorkshire Words & Phrases And Their Origins
