Picture is of Bockety Bird, Cape St. Mary's, Newfoundland, August 2008
I still can’t get used to the people who pop their eyes at me when I use this word. I’ve always used it. To describe my bike when its wheel is bent. To describe a cake that comes out of the oven all up and down. To describe a really bad haircut or an imperfect piece of knitting. Or even a road full of potholes.
Oh it’s bockety! I cry sadly, stroking the crooked object with affectionate pity.
It’s one of those perfect words because it’s onomatopoeic.
And then I find out that my lovely well-used word is Cork slang. No wonder the rest of the world outside of Cork looks at me sideways.
From the Cork Slang Dictionary:
Bockety
Construct: Adjective
Definition: Crooked, out of alignment.
Use: One of the table legs is bockety.One of the table legs is crooked - meaning short.
Derivation: Probably from the Irish 'Bacac' - imperfect, defective. (Dinnen)Also note 'Bockady' - a lame person (Joyce)
And today, well, it’s a bockety day.
And how’s yours?