ratton

English

Alternative forms

• ratten (rare)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹatən/

Noun

ratton (plural rattons)

1. (now Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A rat. [from 14th c.]
   • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Yorke (continued)”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 67:

     “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'.

Related terms

• rattoner

Anagrams

• attorn, torn at, Arnott