The Offishal Geordie Dictionarary

The Offishal Geordie Dictionarary. Great fun book for all Geordies and those wanting to understand what we are saying. Including Euro-Geordie speshul pull-oot supplement. Translate the Geordie language into English. Or Larn the lingo!

New and updated 2021 version of this popular book.

Have hours of fun looking at Geordie words with this book. Geordieland The Offishal Geordie Dictionarary is approx, A6 size and contains 32 pages.

Published in, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. First published in 1992.   ISBN 1 872010 85 7

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Newcastle publisher Frank Graham’s Geordie Dictionary states:

The origin of the word Geordie has been a matter of much discussion and controversy. All the explanations are fanciful and not a single piece of genuine evidence has ever been produced.

In Graham’s many years of research, the earliest record he found of the term’s use dated to 1823 by local comedian Billy Purvis. Purvis had set up a booth at the Newcastle Races on the Town Moor. In an angry tirade against a rival showman, who had hired a young pitman called Tom Johnson to dress as a clown, Billy cried out to the clown:

Ah man, wee but a feul wad hae sold off his furnitor and left his wife. Noo, yor a fair doon reet feul, not an artificial feul like Billy Purvis! Thous a real Geordie! gan man an hide thysel! gan an’ get thy picks agyen. Thou may de for the city, but never for the west end o’ wor toon.

(Rough translation: “Oh man, who but a fool would have sold off his furniture and left his wife? Now, you’re a fair downright fool, not an artificial fool like Billy Purvis! You’re a real Geordie! Go on, man, and hide yourself! Go on and get your picks [axes] again. You may do for the city, but never for the west end of our town!”)

John Camden Hotten wrote in 1869: “Geordie, general term in Northumberland and Durham for a pitman, or coal-miner. Origin not known; the term has been in use more than a century.” Geordie has been documented for at least 251 years as a term related to Northumberland and County Durham.

Travel writer Scott Dobson used the term “Geordieland” in a 1973 guidebook to refer collectively to Northumberland and Durham.