yaffle n EDD yafful sb 1 'a handful; an armful' D Co (1842, 1880); ADD Nfld; Cent n2 2 Mass; SED iv (1), p. 251 yafful 'armful of hay' two points in Co and D; EDD jaffle sb1 'handful' Co (1880). Possibly a development from the base in OED jag sb2 1 [i e *jagful] 'a load (usually a small cart-load) of hay, wood, etc' (1597-): see well-supported senses in EDD jag(g) sb1, jagger, DAE jag (1633-).
1 An armful (of dried and salted cod-fish, kindling, etc); a load.
1862 Daily, News 28 Apr [p. 2] [He] was charged with having purloined a quantity, known in this land as a
yaffle of dry fish. [c1894] PANL P4/14, p. 198 'To spell a yafful of crunnocks' is to gather an armful of dry wood for kindling purposes. 1896 J A Folklore ix, 25 ~ an armful, applied especially to gathering up the fish
which have been spread out to dry. 1903 Daily News 6 May "The False Prophet": Last fall I trow, we had to
go / And sell fish by the 'yaffle.' 1937 DEVINE 57 ~ An armful, especially of dried fish. P 65-64 Wood is
brought into the cook-house by the 'yaffle.' T 185-65 They'd go out alongside and throw the fish up in yaffles
and put it on a bar and dump it right down in the hold o' the vessel. 1966 SCAMMELL 83 Ned plumped
another yaffel (armful) of fish on the culling board. 'You're heavin' out too many cullage. I'm not standin'
by and watchin' a greenhorn crucify my fish like this.' 1979 TIZZARD 88 The evening the fish was ready to
carry in the under store, someone, usually the father, would take it up in little yaffles and we would carry it in
an armful at a time.
2 Fig. a small bundle or bunch; a handful (of people).
1964 Evening Telegram 4 May, p. 7 Get over to Lester's field and get another yaffle of dandelions.
3 Phr yaffle at hand, ~ up: call used by men loading dried cod when an armful is gathered together.
T 192/3-65 The men down in the hold'd be yaffling up the fish, and they'd yaffle so much to get enough for the weight to make the draft on the bar, and then there'd be 'yaffle at hand. Yaffle at hand.'. . . Down Fogo you call 'yaffle up.' 1977 BURSEY 35-6 Several boys like myself would yaffle the fish and one would cry out 'Yaffle in hand' and someone aboard would receive it and stow it in the hold of the schooner, each man's separately.
