knotchelled

Gammerstang commented on the word knotchelled

(adjective) - (1) When a man publicly declares he will not pay any of his wife's debts which have been contracted since some fixed day, she is said to be knotchelled, a certain disgraceful imaginary mark. Lancashire.

--Roger Wilbraham's Glossary of Some Words Used in Cheshire, 1826

(2) In short, she is a marked woman.

--Edgerton Leigh's Dialect of Cheshire, 1877

(3) In Lancashire, to "cry a woman knotchel" is when a man gives a public notice that he will not pay his wife's debts.

--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaisms and Provincialisms, 1855

(4) Cry-notchil, to advertise irresponsibility for a wife's debts. In the old time, this was effected by means of the bell-man. It is now done through the medium of newspapers.

--Francis Taylor's Folk-Speech of South Lancashire, 1901

January 26, 2018