Vétipelle

There are two occurrences of vétipelle in our online corpus, and it's fairly easy to see what it means from the contexts but the word is not in the dictionaries.

 

In 1904:

"A r'grée les routes, à êdutchi l'zavers à d'autre monde, et à d'autres vétipelles de la sorte" 

(mending the roads, educating other people's children, and other frivolous things of that kind)

 

In 1911:

"Et quant à la fourni d'chandelle / Ou n'me couôt'tait qu'une vétipelle" 

(And as for providing it with a candle, it'll only cost me a trifle)

 

The Dictionnaire Jersiais-Français gives vitupelle as a variant of vitupéthe = vituperation, censure, blame

Examples

• I' M'a Conté Les Mille Vitupéthes 
• I' M'a Chanté Les Mille Vitupéthes 
• Ah, sécours, j'n'ai ouï qu'vitupéthes tout l'long du c'mîn 

 

We think therefore that like in English a tinker's cuss or a tinker's damn is something that is of little value (as in "not worth a tinker's damn"), vétipelle must be derived from vitupelle and has been used in the meaning of the worth of a damn (i,e, not worth a damn thing).