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mickle / muckle
Jun. 17th, 2008 07:26 ammickle / muckle - adj., great, large, many. n., a large number of.
As noun, often used with "of" -- a mickle of nickles. These seem to be dialectical variations of the same word, both derived from "much" -- this despite mickle being the more common of the two and some dictionaries list divergent etymologies, though there's always a root form of much in there somewhere. In any case, used mainly in Scotland, north England, and apparently Ireland.
Now if I could only figure out whether "many a mickle mak's a muckle" was a joke by Flanders & Swann or proverbial being quoted by them.
---L.
As noun, often used with "of" -- a mickle of nickles. These seem to be dialectical variations of the same word, both derived from "much" -- this despite mickle being the more common of the two and some dictionaries list divergent etymologies, though there's always a root form of much in there somewhere. In any case, used mainly in Scotland, north England, and apparently Ireland.
Now if I could only figure out whether "many a mickle mak's a muckle" was a joke by Flanders & Swann or proverbial being quoted by them.
---L.
