Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun West Cumbrian, Borrowdale (dialect)
three in Celticsheep counting
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He would then start from the beginning again: “Yan, tan, tethera. . .”
HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010
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He would then start from the beginning again: “Yan, tan, tethera. . .”
HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010
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He would then start from the beginning again: “Yan, tan, tethera. . .”
HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010
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"The forced-feeding regime has guards and medical staff strap a captive into a chair, Velcro his head to a metal restraint, then tethera tube into the man's stomach through his noseto pump in liquid nourishment twice a day."
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Yan tan tethera pethera pimp nothing to waste but nothing to skimp.
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Yan tan tethera is very familiar to me, but I can't tell you where I first heard it.
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You might like to look at this book, Part of the Special Collections at Manchester Metropolitan University: K Lindsley, wood engravings for H D Rawnsley, Yan, tyan, tethera 1987 © Fleece Press, Kathleen Lindsley - it's right here in my home town, but I found it via the RSS feed for Coudal's Fresh Signals...
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The father, from the west coast of Cumberland b. 1949 and only one generation removed from the family farm, is certainly familiar with 'yan, tan, tethera'.
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Somewhere along the way, an old shepherd explained that "yan, tan, tethera" was how shepherds counted out their sheep.
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My father taught me yan, tan, tethera etc as a child.
johnmperry commented on the word tethera
3 in North of England sheep counting jargon. See yan
September 26, 2008