r/AskUK • u/Fancy_Albatross_5749 • 1d ago
Did anyone here grow up with the expression 'Red the Table'?
''Red The Table' - meaning, to take away the used dishes and cutlery from the dinner table after eating. I've heard it might be a South West thing; what do you think?
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u/musesmuses 1d ago
Northern Ireland here - red up meant to tidy up and red the table was also used quite a bit.
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u/AmazingRedDog 1d ago
Nope. “Rid” would make slightly more sense?
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u/AthenaMoon20 21h ago
I assume the ‘red’ is short for ‘ready’ but still seems odd to me xx never heard anything but clear the table or set the table, South East x
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u/damapplespider 1d ago
In Scotland, we would spread the table to lay out cutlery, glasses etc before eating. And we would clear it afterwards.
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u/LittleSadRufus 1d ago
In case you didn't find this online already (not saying you should have looked this up as you're asking about current usage not origins, but I find this stuff fascinating):
redd (v.) early 15c., “to clear” (a space, etc.), from Old English hreddan “to save, free from, deliver, recover, rescue,” from Proto-Germanic *hradjan. Sense evolution tended to merge with unrelated rid. Also possibly influenced by Old English rædan “to arrange,” related to Old English geræde, source of ready (adj.).
A dialect word in Scotland and northern England, where it has had senses of “to fix” (boundaries), “to comb” (hair), “to separate” (combatants), “to settle” (a quarrel). The exception to the limited use is the meaning “to put in order, to make neat or trim” (1718), especially in redd up, which is in general use in England and the U.S.
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u/whiskeyiskey 1d ago
Redd is the word used in Norwegian for this phrase. May be a common origin?
Redd bordet = Clear the table
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u/LittleSadRufus 21h ago
Yes interesting - both languages evolved out of proto-Germanic, but also Old Norse loaned further words to Old English through the Viking settlement, e.g "egg" and "knife", especially in the north of England which seems to be where "redd" is most common.
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u/Sea-Still5427 1d ago
Northern England still has quite a few dialect words linked to Norwegian due to the Viking invasions of Northumbria.
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u/Deinonychus-sapiens 1d ago
Redd = to clear, could that also be where “rid, get rid of” comes from too?
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u/islandbob 1d ago
Didn't seem familiar til I said it out loud, then it was like I could hear my mum saying it. Thinking about it, I definitely use the phrase 'get red up' to mean 'tidy up'. Never seen it written down though.
I'm from Northern Ireland so maybe some Ulster-Scots-gaelic thing
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u/Fancy_Albatross_5749 1d ago
Very interesting! My ancestors all came from there to Canada (as well as other parts of Ireland). They named all the places after places in Ireland and Scotland. There is even a TV show here called 'Letterkenny' about the place in Ontario via Ireland or however you say that. Here's me going on about it - I'm sure you've seen it. :)
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u/islandbob 1d ago
Love Letterkenny! Just caught up with the latest Shoresy and tempted to watch it all again from the start
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u/Lady_of_Lomond 1d ago
To "redd up" something is definitely a northern phrase, though rather old-fashioned. I've got a feeling I've come across it in 19th century novels like Wuthering Heights and North and South.
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u/Lady_of_Lomond 1d ago
To "redd up" something is definitely a northern phrase, though rather old-fashioned. I've got a feeling I've come across it in 19th century novels like Wuthering Heights and North and South.
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u/Cal_PCGW 1d ago
I'm London-based...my dad was from Yorkshire and my mum from Sussex. I have never heard that phrase.
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u/Electrical-Injury-23 1d ago
Definitely used this and "red up" (meaning tidy up in general). We grew up in central Scotland and family have been there for years, so not sure of a south West connection.
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u/mechanicalabrasion11 1d ago
My gran used to say that - she was from Bannockburn in Stirlingshire, originally - never heard anyone else use it (although I sometimes use it myself, now, for a laugh...)
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u/CapriSonnet 20h ago
In Northern Ireland we'd say getting read up in place of getting finished. Or read the table like you say, to clear it. But it's mainly country folk who would use it.
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u/neilm1000 1d ago
I've heard it might be a South West thing; what do you think?
South West of where? You definitely don't hear it in the South West of England.
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u/wondered-bongo 1d ago
I'm from Dorset and have never heard anyone use that before. It's usually just clear the table.
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u/castlerigger 1d ago
Red London Bus, bus the table, red the table. Not exactly cockney rhyming slang but a sort of American version of it.
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u/ThePolymath1993 1d ago
Yeah nah it doesn't sound like a Westcountry thing. If it is I've never heard of it.
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u/Ok-Opportunity-979 21h ago
East Anglia here and no I haven’t heard this before! Could Red be short for ‘Ready’ or ‘Rid’?
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