The lexicon used on this site relies mainly on definitions from several glossaries which are referenced as follows:

NED/BG North East Dialect: Survey and Word List; Bill Griffiths, 1999
NW/ROH Northumbrian Words; Richard Oliver Heslop, 1892
NDW/CG A Northumberland and Durham Word Book; Cecil Gleeson, 1969
HPT/FP Hetton-le-Hole Pitmatic Talk; Rev, F.M.T. Palgrave, 1896
APW/JOH Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words; James Orchard Halliwell, 1878
NCW/JTB A Glossary of North Country Words; John Trotter Brockett, 1825
MND/TM Mid-Northumbrian Dialect; Thomas Moody, 2007

The compilation of this glossary of words is a work-in-progress. There is much to be done not only to add new words to the list, but also to edit the existing list to attribute references for each definition, etymology and further add examples of word usage.

While people may be eager to root out the source of each word and attribute an etymology, it should be noted that not every word can be defined in this way. Many of our dialect words are simply phonetic spellings, a result of the distinctive accents heard throughout the region. Words which are considered to be derived from the pronunciation are marked as ph.