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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: andygmandrew on Saturday 20 December 25 23:51 GMT (UK)

Title: Cause of death
Post by: andygmandrew on Saturday 20 December 25 23:51 GMT (UK)
The following entry in the burial register of St Nicholas, Newcastle has a word I can't decipher. It reads:

Kath: Errington Inft. daughter to Geo: Errington Tayler, ([illegible word] in a pan of water.)

It looks like 'stamfish'd' but I don't think that can be correct.

Any ideas?
Title: Re: Cause of death
Post by: Bee on Sunday 21 December 25 00:08 GMT (UK)
...............fists in a pan of water?
Title: Re: Cause of death
Post by: AlanBoyd on Sunday 21 December 25 07:47 GMT (UK)
22 April 1893: Newcastle Chronicle

Quote
NORTHUMBERLAND WORDS
BY RD. OLIVER TAYLOR
...
"Scumfish," to choke, to smother."
1699, June 2—Katherine, daughter to George Errington, taylor, "scumfish'd' in a pan of water."—Richd. Welford: "Monuments of St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle," p. 18
"The chimley's been smokin' till aa's fair scumfished."
"Yen on them wis 'scumfished' wi the stythe."
Title: Re: Cause of death
Post by: AlanBoyd on Sunday 21 December 25 07:56 GMT (UK)
11 December 1838: Globe
[quoting from the Gateshead Observer]
Quote
APPALLING MURDER AT NEWCASTLE
…
Nathaniel Goulding (65 C. policeman)—l went on duty last night at ten, at Sir M. Ridley's bank; the Arcade is not in my beat; about twenty minutes before two this morning I saw smoke coming from the outside of the Arcade, from two windows: I ran there, and heard a female crying she was "scumfished;" I went to the station-house and gave the alarm; on my return I saw the front door leading from the Arcade into the bank standing wide open, and no person near.
…
Title: Re: Cause of death
Post by: AlanBoyd on Sunday 21 December 25 08:02 GMT (UK)
I’ll stop after this!

from: The disappearing dictionary: a treasury of lost English dialect words, by David Crystal, 2015
Quote
scumfish or scomfish (verb)
Cumberland, Durham, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, Scotland, Westmorland, Yorkshire
To suffocate, stifle, choke — generally used of heat, smoke, or a bad smell. From Lothian: 'Fair scomfist wi the heat' From Yorkshire: "T'grund's scumfish'd wi' wet'. The word looks as if it is made up of scum + fish, hence the bad smell, but the etymology is more pedestrian. The alternative spelling provides a clue. Scomfish was a shortened form of discomfish, which in turn was an adaptation of discomfit ('defeat'), a relative of discomfort.
Title: Re: Cause of death
Post by: andygmandrew on Sunday 21 December 25 08:56 GMT (UK)
Brilliant!

Well done again folks, this site is a wonderful resource for transcribers like me.