‘Bonny lad’ - People in Newcastle city centre are quizzed on Geordie words and phrases

As we all know, there are many Geordie phrases and terms that are used to describe certain things or get across emotions.

Phrases like ‘give owa’ and ‘belang’ have been used for years and are still in the vocabularies of many across the North East to this day.

We wanted to know how many people still understand what some iconic Geordie words and phrases mean.

So we took to the streets of Newcastle city centre to find out.

First up was Dot, Aoife and Linda who worked as a team to correctly translate all of the phrases that were put ot them.

”Bonny lad is a nice looking fella or a term of endearment,” they said, before continuing: “clobber is clothing.”

Another term that we asked the public to translate was ‘belang’, which is quite simply another way of saying ‘belong’.

So if someone says they “belang Newcastle”, it means that they are from Newcastle.

Another participant was Colin, who self-proclaimed that he has a “posh accent” but knew what the words and phrases mean as he was brought up in the North East.

He said: “Divvin’ dee means don’t do it and give owa means just stop, cease or desist.

“The last one is mint which generally means that it’s good.”

One word that stumped a number of participants was clobber due to the fact that it could have a dual meaning.

A man called Ricky was unsure about the meaning and said: “Clobber is getting into trouble, having a fight maybe.”

However, a participant called Fiona confidentially stated that ‘clobber’ is a term for clothes.

Colin highlighted that it could mean two things, commenting: “It could mean to beat them up or it can mean clothes as well.”

The words that we tested people on in Newcastle city centre were: ‘bonny lad’ ‘belang’, clobber’, ‘divvin dee’, ‘give owa’, and ‘minted’,

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