Weird but wonderful words and phrases that will only make sense if you're from Nottingham

Got your knobby greens in yet yooth? Well wrap up if you’re going aat because it’s Derby Road out there for a ya nesh bogga like you.

Our autocorrect might be confused, but most people in Nottingham will know exactly what all that means. 

Every region and city has its colloquialisms: those unique words and phrases that have grown up organically over the years. 

Here are some of the weird and wonderful words you’ll only find spoken in these parts. 

Read more: Your Nottingham

Kids the world over give each other handlebar lifts on their bikes. But only in Notts, the home of Raleigh bikes, do they call it a croggy.

If you’re preparing your Christmas roast, you might be wondering whether it’s really worth the brussel sprouts again - although some strange people seem to like them. But if you’re trying to make the kids take a liking to them, it might be best not to call them by their loca,l colloquial name: knobby greens. 

The description is about right, but it’s hardly how sprouts should be read out as a special, if you wanted to sell it to customers.

The Collins Dictionary ‘Language Lovers’ blog lists 11 local phrases from Nottingham. Some of which might have eyebrows raising in neighbouring towns and cities which feel they have their own claim.

Eyup, me duck!

You certainly won’t be in Nottingham long without hearing someone say ‘Eyup, me duck!’, for example. (I won’t embarrass the friend of mine who came to stay, and texted me wondering whether the fact that the ‘bus driver just called me duck’ meant that he was flirting with him).

There are of course other places in the Midlands and the North where you’ll hear ‘duck’ used. But perhaps as a city we have taken ownership of the whole phrase: the fact that Prince Harry greeted a Nottingham crowd with ‘Eyup me ducks!’ back in 2013 could be taken as something of a royal seal.

It's a cob

The debate over the proper word for a bread roll still rages around the country. Depending on where you go it’s a ‘bap’ or a ‘bun’ or a ‘barm’ or a plain old roll. But if you’re asking for one in Nottingham, be sure to give it its proper local name: a cob. And if you’re from out of town and looking for somewhere to buy homemade sandwiches, just ask for the nearest cop shop.

If you’re looking for a bottle of something for the evening, you’ll be fine using the ubiquitous ‘offy’ for an off-license. But you could also try and ask for the nearest ‘beer-off’ to see if that old phrase is still alive in the vernacular. 

We know that there’s going to be a row over the word ‘mardy’. Especially since the Arctic Monkeys song Mardy Bum came out, tying the word very much to Yorkshire. But then, Sheffield’s only a short hop on the train - that might be one that started in the East Midlands and the folks in Yorkshire have borrowed over the years.

Pronunciation matters!

If you’re out in this sort of weather you might want to cover your tabs (ears) up, especially if you’re nesh. In other words, if you feel the cold. 

Or should that be Derby Road? Not meaning that it’s particularly cold up on Canning Circus. That’s a rare example of Nottingham rhyming slang. 

Still confused, because how does ‘road’ rhyme with ‘cold’? It does if you pronounce the word ‘cold’ in a way only encountered in this part of the world: by dropping the ‘l’, and making it sound more like ‘code’.

If you’re new to the city and just finding yourn way round, you’ll want to get these little phrases and pronunciations right. You wouldn’t want people getting mardy, or giving you the code shoulder, when all they’ve done is ask if you’re orryte, yooth (young man).