Just remembered my uncle had another one, had a wooden handle, that you slid up and down - it acted like a bicycle pump, a brass bar with a valve on the end in the tube, pushed water. Beautifully polished brass. Known as a skeeter.
Thanks, I knew of stirrup pumps but skeeting always meant something else, on so saying I can see where the saying goes of going for........ not being funny but thats possibly where it originated from.
. There is an unpolished, hand held, skeeter similar to the one I have in mind to for sale on e bay antiques. There is a picture and it’s described as ‘OLD BRASS/ WOODEN HANDLE GARDEN HAND PUMP. LENGTH 62cm’. Growing up I remember window skeeting was a regular communal event. The prized pump would be passed on to neighbours to use with old people getting theirs done as a matter of course. The only other time I came across it after that was on the I.O.S. in the mid sixties where Father Matt did his on Hugh Street, usually on a Saturday afternoon.
For your interest, S there is a word in the Cornish, skitlenn, which means the 'pizzle' of a bull. There is also the word skitya which does mean 'to squirt, syringe, inject'. The link looks obvious but it is possible also, to be objective, that skitlenn may be related to the English word 'skittle' and there is another obvious similarity there!
From the Cornish Dialect dictionary - Skeat A heavy fall of rain Skeater (also Teacer) Small tube elf water for squirting Skit or Skeet To squirt saliva through teeth
(Around St Austell a leak on a China Clay press is still referred to as a ‘skit’)
Interesting topic, I had a similar conversation with my OH recently.
We used skeeting down with rain and liquid would come 'skeeting out' of a leak and when cleaning a wall, yard or milking parlour with a hose I would skeet 'n' down' or skeet 'n over . Whereas in her family she had only heard it used as in going for a ...
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