Dreckly

[Baker, John]

I just came across the word "dreckly," described as a Cornish dialect word.  Although it is a variant pronunciation of "directly," it lacks that word's sense of immediacy, but instead means "in a while" or "when I get around to it."  It's been (somewhat unfairly) described as "manana without all the rushing about."

This is a word that I grew up with, in south-central Kentucky.  I found it extremely frustrating; adults could freely say that they would do something dreckly, but of course children were allowed to do no such thing.  It seems a bit odd, therefore, to find that it is primarily considered regional English dialect.  The top two meanings of "dreckly" on Urban Dictionary both mention Cornish, and it's also in Wikipedia's List of Cornish dialect words.  A quotation in the OED under "directly" (6.c.) refers to it as Devonshire dialect, Devonshire being next to Cornwall.

Any theories on how this word made it from Cornwall to south-central Kentucky? I don't recognize any other Cornish dialect terms.


John Baker

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