EAST MIDLANDS DIALECT
slang. both verb and adjective. Brock means broken.
Similarly, Breck is a verb which means to break something.
Brock can be substituted by the word "Bost" (burst) when referring to balloons, tyres or milk cartons etc
But, Breck or Brock are not used generally when referring to having a break from something or using the brakes on a vehicle, these similar sounding
words are always said in their original English form eg. 'I'm having five minutes break' or 'slow down and put your brakes on'
East Midlands dialect is very diluted in modern speech and to a large extent, is dying out, so these
words are considered 'common' sounding nowadays. A lot of
words spoken in the E.Mids region of England have Danish origins. The author D H
Lawrence, himself an Eastwood
man would have been very familiar with the word 'brock' and its use in the vernacular.
1. CONVERSATION OVERHEARD IN AN ILKESTON PUB : "I bought me son one of them there new
smart phones for his birthday...he's only had it five minutes and brock it already.
so, I took it back to Argos and they asked me what were up with it an I said "I dunno its brock, it needs mendin".
They said: who brock it d'you know?
I tode
em tharradint.
They said "Did you breck it?"
I said "I dint breck it, I oppened the
box and it were already brock"
they said orate, and that thid gerrus a new un out the back, but I thought He'd only goo an breck that
one an all, so I gorrim a telly instead, but now he's got
munk-on cos he wanted a phone."
2. A SIMILAR CONVERSATION: "I seen a
fate on Ilson Market last nate...two pissed-up blokes knockin seven bells a shit out each other...Ones ot his swede the other brock his
nose. Coppers ad to breck it up. They
shook 'ands on it though after and watched two boilers scrappin over their handbags"
3.
MAN BOASTING OF HIS DESTRUCTIVE POWERS: " When I breck sommat, it stays brock."