Actually (and controversially) I once read that Geordies are really from the North Durham, i.e. Gateshead, Hebburn etc. area. I wish I could re-find this reference, which was from an apparently authentic (learned) source. :-)
:-)
The Monkey Chokers!
Not a mention of stottie pies anywhere or even the sight of a t-shirt in winter, so I tend to agree.
good ideas - better than when Caroline Quinten did a series ! He's a Geordie so could be a regional thing ...
I did know that. I found out very quickly when I worked with a girl from Sunderland ! Actually her accent was noticably different from Geordie. Old George is described as a Geordie in nearly all the info about him on the internet though. Simon.
don't have a clue.
In message , sm_jamieson writes
Take your pick (No pun intended)
Whats a Geordie you may be asking yourself, in essence its them canny fowk from the North East of England sometimes wrongly but not surprisingly mistaken for Scots or Irish.
One opinion is that the name was born in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, when the Jacobites bypassed Newcastle, which, as well as favouring the Hanoverian King George, was also a well-guarded garrison. The Jacobites then said that Newcastle and the surrounding areas were all "for George". Hence the name Geordies.
Another probable school of thought thinks the name originated from the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland, for many poems and songs written about and in the dialect of these two counties speak of the "Geordie". The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word has two meanings: a guinea (which had the figure of St. George on it) and a pitman. Whilst the name was applicable to coal-miners it later became applicable to Tynesiders in general.
The third possible origin is from George Stephenson, who in 1815 invented the miners' lamp. The Northumberland miners used this lamp in preference to that invented by Sir Humphrey Davy at the same time, and the lamp, and eventually, the miners themselves became known as Geordies.
The last possible explanation also derives from George Stephenson. In
1826, he gave evidence to a Parliamentary Commission on Railways at which his blunt speech and dialect drew contemptuous sneers. From that date, it is said that Londoners began to call the Keelmen who carried coal from the Tyne to the Thames "Geordie".Who is permitted to call himself a Geordie? Again there are various viewpoints. Originally, it would appear that the name applied only to miners (origin 2 and 3), Keelmen (origin 4) or inhabitants of Newcastle (origin 1). Later it became applied to members of the Tyneside Community at large. Nowadays, it would seem that anyone in Northumberland, Co. Durham or Tyne and Wear can call themselves "Geordie".
Mackem
Evidence suggests the term is a recent coinage. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, which with the BBC carried out a well-publicised search for references,[1][2] the earliest occurrence of it in print was in 1988,[3] although the phrase "we still tak 'em and mak 'em" was found in a sporting context in 1973 in reference to Sunderland Cricket & Rugby Football Club.[3] While this lends support to the theory that this phrase was the origin of the term Mackem, there is nothing to suggest that "mak 'em" had come to be applied to people from Sunderland generally at such a date. The name Mackem is often claimed to have been used by "Geordie" shipyard workers in the 19th century on the Tyne, to describe their Wearside counterparts. The Mackems would "make" the ship to be fitted out by the Geordies, hence "mackem and tackem" ("make them and take them").[4] Geordies along with other people consider the term "mackem" as an insult, perhaps owing to the perceived more skilled role of fitting out the ships compared to the more physical role of assembling the hull. However, without any substantiated use of the phrase prior to the 1970s, this may well be a folk etymology.
Other variants include Sunderland workers who were encouraged to move to Teesside's shipyards for work, where the Teesside-based employers would "mack-em" ("make them") build the ships. The term could also be a reference to the volume of ships built during wartime on the River Wear, e.g. "We mackem and they sink em".[citation needed] Alternatively, this phrase may refer to the making and tacking into place of rivets in shipbuilding, which was the main method of assembling ships until the mid-twentieth century.[citation needed]
The term has come to represent people who follow the local football team Sunderland AFC, and may have been invented for this purpose. Although many Sunderland supporters use this term to describe themselves, the Geordie supporters of rivals Newcastle United invented the term as an insult.[5] Newcastle and Sunderland have a history of rivalry beyond the football pitch, dating back to the early stages of the English Civil War,[6] the rivalry following on industrial disputes of the 19th century and political rivalries after the 1974 creation of Tyne and Wear County.
I tend to agree that Mackem is of recent coinage, having been born and raised in the North East up until 1965 and never having heard it until relatively recently. Similarly a Geordie was anyone from the Durham/Northumberland coal fields. Jack Charlton was from Ashington a Northumberland mining village. I think he would consider himself a Geordie although not strictly from Newcastle.
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