gurt

See also: Gurt and GURT

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɜːt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɝːt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɜːɹt/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

Etymology 1

Origin obscure. Possibly a metathesis of gutter.

Noun

gurt (plural gurts)

1. (mining) A gutter or channel for water, hewn out of the bottom of a working drift.

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Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “gurt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 2

From Middle English girt, gert, a metathetic variant of gret (“great”). More at great.

Alternative forms

• gert
• girt

Adjective

gurt

1. (UK dialect, West Country) Eye dialect spelling of great.

   Then I opens the cupboard door and I sees a gurt big spider looking up at me.

   • 1842, The Sportsman, Volume VI: January to June, page 103,

     Zo ′e bought a slap-up rod and tackle, and, ev coose, a darn gurt book vull o′ vlies — talk′d about ketchin′ whackin′ trout, and me — ap a salmon the fust time.

   • 1845, Douglas Jerrold (editor), Shilling Magazine, Volume II: July to December, page 416,

     “That was the word,” said Farmer Forder. “Hav′n pocketed the tuppunce, the chap as show′d off the clock opened the case, and let me zee the works of ′un, and wonderful works they was : wheels within wheels, and all sorts o′ crinkum-crankums, like a gurt puzzle. […] ”

   • 1884, John Coker Egerton, Sussex Folk and Sussex Ways: Stray Studies in the Wealden Formation of Human Nature‎^[1], page 27:

     “Well, Tom, where did those birds settle?”

     “Down there, sir, under that gurt oak-tree.”

     Not a bird, however, was to be found.

Anagrams

• trug, turg