10th Batt RWS Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 I've got a large collection of letters written by a Private in the 2nd Border regiment to home during 1917 and in them he refers to lice as Higgies or Tiggies (still having trouble deciphering his T's, P's & H's) Has anybody ever heard of this word as a reference to them before? Many thanks in anticipation. Excellent forum, glad I stumbled across it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Welcome to the forum. I haven't come across Higgies or Tiggies before, but I did a Google and the first suggested link for "Tiggies" proved to be somewhat unfortunate. I also Googled "slang for lice" and came across this page "The original cooties were very real and extremely nasty, since the word was first applied to body lice. It’s a slang term intimately (and I mean that sincerely) associated with the military in World War One. It’s first recorded in print in 1917, but is presumably older." Which is a bit peripheral to your question, but no doubt GWF members with personal knowledge of the subject will be able to pass on their awareness. Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Not in the Oxford English Dictionary as Higgy or Tiggy (or the same with -ie ending)! Was the said Private native Scots? In which case I'll try a Scots dialect dictionary. sJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonraker Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 "Tiggy" is a name for a hedgehog! Moonraker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 8 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Hello, thank you both for your replies, much appreciated. I couldn't find the term anywhere either other than in his letters. The context is correct as he suggests Harrison's Pomade had helped in a small way, although I think the new vest probably helped moreso. Itchy / hedgehog? Might fit? Anyway, apart from the first letter, it is definitely '_iggies' My chap was from Battersea, not sure it is a local nuance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Welcome to the forum. I haven't come across Higgies or Tiggies before, but I did a Google and the first suggested link for "Tiggies" proved to be somewhat unfortunate. Moonraker So of course I Googled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Brayley Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 So of course I Googled. As did I.... Don't follow the above examples! Was it a "regional" name for the little blighters? I have checked my WW1 slang dictionary and the name does not appear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 It's not in the Dictionary of the Scottish Language online dsl.ac.uk. I'll check Joseph Wright's Dialect Dictionary of the English Language when I have a bigger screen to read archive.org. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knotty Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 I can remember when a lad being told to watch out for "chiggers" when playing in the fields, it's another name for the harvest mite which gives a little nip that comes up as a rash. It might just be a colloquial name for the same thing. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Higgies/tiggies not in the Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang either. Any chance you could post an image of the word as written? sJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 8 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Just googled it myself, not the best idea! ha Ok, I will post an image of it as it is written by the man himself. Thanks for the interest on the topic Chiggers is the closets so far, thanks John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 8 May , 2016 Share Posted 8 May , 2016 Worth remembering that some words were family inventions and perhaps only known to a handful of people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 9 May , 2016 Share Posted 9 May , 2016 So far the only thing I've found that might be relevant is in Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (1898) - tiggy-hog for a wood-louse, from Northamptonshire. https://archive.org/stream/englishdialectdi06wrig#page/n151/mode/2up I've only been looking at head-words rather than searching the text, so if I start from the suspected definition I may track back to a possible headword for that. But I'll do that later! sJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 9 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 9 May , 2016 Great, thanks seaJane, I thought there must be some relevance to the creature itself in the term but of course, it could also be a family name for them. I can't seem to find how to upload an image of the written word, can someone enlighten me? Thanks, as always AC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 10 May , 2016 Share Posted 10 May , 2016 Hi AC, Have you got an image less than 250 KB in size for a start? Then click "More Reply Options" at the lower right corner of this box. On the lower left you will see a Browse button; click that and select your image; then click "Attach This File" below it; then click "Add To Post". Then "Add Reply" and, we hope, bingo. sJ PS: if your word is by any chance in fact "biddy / biddies", that too is a word meaning a louse or flea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 10 May , 2016 Share Posted 10 May , 2016 It sounds a bit like 'school yard' slang to me ? khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 10 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 10 May , 2016 Thanks SJ, easy when you know how lol Ok, image uploaded. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 10 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 10 May , 2016 To give the above image some context, these are the words around the word in question; I went to a church service yesterday morning. The church is like a dug out and holds about 20. It is a pleasant little place. And also had a bath yesterday which is very necessary as the Higgies are abundant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 10 May , 2016 Share Posted 10 May , 2016 Looking at some of the other letters I'm inclined to think "tiggies" - an upward stroke to the top of the t, the t cross-stroke beginning low and rising to the next letter, and the dot for the i off to the right... but my post #13 is still as near as I've got to a matching spelling. Edit: Could the church description be "peculiar" rather than "pleasant"? I see another i-dot ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 10 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 10 May , 2016 I'm still checking a lot of the words and some of these were dictated via a voice recognition package so I need to go over them. Peculiar does look correct - Long way to go yet. Like I said, I'm still having trouble with the T', P's and H's. Thanks SJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Posted 10 May , 2016 Share Posted 10 May , 2016 Do you know where the writer came from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10th Batt RWS Posted 10 May , 2016 Author Share Posted 10 May , 2016 He is a Battersea man Dragon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now