Shore
A street drain or gutter, especially the open one beside the kerb. Distinct from the standard 'shore' meaning sea-edge. 'The shore was blocked' = the gutter was clogged. Heard mostly in Ulster and parts of Scotland.
Etymology
From an older English noun 'shore' meaning a drain or sewer, ultimately from a Germanic root parallel to standard 'shore' (sea-edge) but probably distinct in origin. Documented in Scots and Northern English as a working word for street drainage. Standard English narrowed to the sea-edge sense; Scots and Ulster Scots preserved the drain sense. The two homophonous senses do not confuse each other in context.
In a sentence
"There's a stink off the shore again - somebody's been pouring chip fat down it."
Historical notes
Shore in the drainage sense is one of the words that confuses visitors to Belfast: 'the shore needs cleaning' is a complaint about a clogged kerb-drain, not a discussion of the seafront. The word survives most strongly in Ulster building and roadworks vocabulary; younger speech defaults to 'drain' or 'gutter'.
Sources
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), entry SHORE n. (drain sense). · dictionary