Benjamin’s fingers have become rather red which I attribute to him sucking or chewing them and then probably exposing them to the air, undried. I said to Rachel that they were spreathed “as my Mum would have said”.
I was thinking that perhaps I had never heard anyone else using the word.
Anyway I have been looking around on the net and found that people say it seems to be a West of England or Welsh word.
The funny thing is that my Mum is from East Kent, though she can’t remember whether she learned the word from her parents or when she was evacuated to Caerleon (near Newport, Monmouthshire) during the Second World War. My dad also knows the word as being perfectly normal. He is from Bristol/Gloucestershire.
Through the Open University I have access to online archives of the journal “Notes and Queries”. In 1879 someone said “In my younger days I should have used it [an unrelated dialect word] as I did the word “spreathe” (a West-country verb to express the effect of cold on the skin) without a thought of its being unintelligible in the East”. Other correspondents replied (1) “Spreathe does not appear to be in use west of Dorset and Somerset shires (see Barnes and Williams and Jones). In Devonshire and South-East Cornwall the equivalent appears to be spray.” (2) “… also the word spreathe, or more frequently spree, when speaking of chapped hands [is still commonly used in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire]“. (But then again in the present day someone on another site suggests that it appears in a Devon dialect dictionary)
A blogger says:
“”Spreathed” is like nappy rash. It’s a Welsh word for something English doesn’t have a proper word for. It’s something that can happen to sklin if not dried properly and kept damp against something, under breasts with no talc, wrists that aren’t dried after hand-washing, babies’ bottoms. Chafe and chap are English words that cover parts of it. I didn’t realise spreathe wasn’t an English word until I used it to an English mid-wife and got an incomprehending reaction, and then tried it on Zorinth’s dad and other people who were happy to adopt it but hadn’t known it before.”
Her blog post received the comment:
“I’m a retired man and have had the word “spreathing” running around in my head for 24 hours and decided to just see if there are any references on the net. I was impressed to find your references and from my reading of your note the description is just right from my experience of “spreathing” - as a kid growing up in the West Country wearing short trousers I used to describe a soreness between the upper parts of my legs - above the knees - where the two legs rubbed together , particularly in winter, as spreathing.
Very tender. I have never found any reference to the word. If we continue to use the word it may be that the oxford Dictionary will eventually include it.”
There’s also a forum discussion of this and related words at Wordwizard clubhouse : apparently it appears in Chambers.
“spreathe, spreethe; spreaze, spreeze (S.W. dial.) vs.t. and vs.i. to chap, roughen — usu. in pa.p. sprayed, spraid, etc. [Origin obscure].”
It’s also mentioned in the OED, but only as part of the etymology of “sprayed”(=Roughened or made sore by exposure to cold), namely: [f. spray (also spry, spreathe, etc.), of obscure origin, common in south-western dialects, chiefly in the pa. pple.]
Anyone else from outside Wales and Gloucestershire to Devon know the word ?
