ratton

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English ratoun, from Anglo-Norman ratoun and Middle French raton, corresponding to rat +‎ -oon.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ratton (plural rattons)

  1. (now Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A rat. [from 14th c.]
    • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Shirley. A Tale. [], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., [], →OCLC:
      'A Yorkshire burr,' he affirmed, 'was as much better than a cockney's lisp as a bull's bellow than a ratton’s squeak.'
    • 1873, Richard Morris, Walter William Skeat, “Glossarial Index”, in Specimens of Early English[1], volumes II: From Robert of Gloucester to Gower, A.D. 1298—A.D. 1393, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 490:
      To dark is still used in Swaledale (Yorkshire) in the sense of to lie hid, as, 'Te rattens [rats] mun ha bin darkin whel nu [till now]; we hannot heerd tem tis last fortnith'.
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Anagrams

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