Donkey is one of those words, like scarecrow, for which there are, or were, many different words, depending on where you live. It's a cuddy in Scotland, a nirrup or ranterpike in Dorset, a pronkus in Lincolnshire, a dicky in East Anglia, a yawney box in Derbyshire, a mokus in Devon and a fussock in parts of Yorkshire. Then there are the colloquialisms and abbreviations, such as donk, moke and neddy.
A Jerusalem, or Jerusalem pony, is another term for a donkey. The OED says this came about because Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass. Eric Partridge in his slang dictionary says that it is from rhyming slang - Jerusalem artichoke rhymes with moke and, in the tradition of Cockney rhyming slang, the second word, or second part of the phrase is omitted (as, for instance, 'have a butcher's', meaning 'look', where the full rhyming phrase is 'butcher's hook').
Partridge also has Jerusalem nightingale as another slang term for a donkey. The OED doesn't have this as such, but under 'nightingale' it says that animals with completely unmelodious voices are sometimes ironically termed nightingales (and donkeys, as well as frogs, appear in the citations).
I've heard of 'fussnock' as a Yorkshire dialect word for a donkey, but, strangely, I've heard 'fuzznag' used locally for a cat! Also fusker is used locally (Hull, Yorks.) for a cat. That's pretty close to fussock.
I remember a radio programme on music hall songs, one of which was a cockney costermonger's lament, "The Jerusalem's Dead".
Posted by: Jemmy Hope | August 01, 2011 at 08:04 PM
Thanks, Jemmy. Fascinating!
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Posted by: Hull Pat Testing | September 04, 2011 at 01:23 AM
Neat info -- "ranterpike" ... I like that!
Posted by: Shooting Sports | November 10, 2011 at 01:43 AM
Does anyone know where I could get a copy of 'The Jerusalem's Dead'?
Posted by: Rae Croft | November 19, 2011 at 01:34 PM
Language is a weird and interesting thing, fascinating blog. The word donkey however, now just reminds me of Shrek.
Posted by: sophie | November 21, 2011 at 09:44 AM
The donkey plays a significant part in the biblical world.
Posted by: sophie | November 22, 2011 at 02:39 PM
I can't wait to see my daughters christmas Nativity this year my daughter is dressed as a donkey.
Posted by: ava | November 22, 2011 at 03:00 PM
Thanks for the comments. Rae, I could find just one mention on the internet of someone else apart from Jemmy remembering the song 'My Jerusalem's Dead'. I think you'll need to look through some old anthologies of music-hall songs. Or you could try contacting a site specialising in music-hall songs, such as this one: http://www.trasksdad.com/MusicHall/index.html
Or you could see if you can find the name of any academics who specialise in music-hall songs and see if they have any suggestions.
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