eebskel

/ˈeːb.skɛl/

adj.· region: north-noemic, upland· frequency: scarce· first recorded: 1894

too quiet to be alone with; said of a room that has stopped keeping the listener company.

from eeb (the hollow at the centre of a sound) and -skel (a hard fragment, a sheet of frost). the older form eebsken survives only in the kitchen-verse of the upland villages. used now almost always of houses, occasionally of weather, never of people, though a person may produce eebskel rooms behind them.

• "the parlour had gone eebskel; i left the radio on without listening to it." — diary, j.r., 1971
• "the cabin is eebskel after the kettle is taken off the stove. only the clock keeps me, and the clock is poor company." — from a letter, k.s.

see also · silence solitude brisven nullabye dictionary