In a series of letters responding to recent articles, readers have shared regional and obsolete words for feeling cold or overheated, amid reflections on extreme weather and other topics. The letters were published in response to a previous letter that introduced the word 'puthered' to describe being overheated.
Words for cold and heat
Claire Whatley from Berwick St James, Wiltshire, recalled that in the pre-climate-crisis winters of her late 1950s and early 1960s Hampshire childhood, her parents would come in from the cold claiming to be 'shrammed'. She questioned whether the word is now redundant as well as obsolete.
Jan Davinson from Beetham, Cumbria, noted that in County Durham, people are 'scumfished' by the hot weather. Ian Arnott from Peterborough added that in north-east Scotland, people would say: 'I'm fair puggled.'
Art review praised
Ben Entwistle from Crewe, Cheshire, praised Jonathan Jones's five-star review of the Constable exhibition at Ipswich, calling it a 'perfect, ekphrastic prose-poem in its own right' and saying he read the last line and burst into tears. The review, titled 'The Hay Wain: Walking Constable’s Landscape review – a masterpiece for the climate crisis age', was published on 10 July.
Football and other anecdotes
Alan Green from London recalled being described as 'diminutive but nippy' in a 1960s Times report of a football match, adding: 'Not so nippy now, but maybe more dim.'
Bernard Taylor from Billingham, County Durham, asked: 'So, how high can a labrador get?' after a report of a Labrador rescued after eating discarded cannabis on a Ben Nevis hike. Tony Mitchell from Worsley, Greater Manchester, quipped: 'Did the cannabis-eating dog order a pizza when it came round?'
