No: neither have I; although I used to have. I guess that, like me, you have no idea what the word means. My wife produced it tonight as a part of her (successful) attempt to “slaughter me at Scrabble” (her words). Of course, I challenged it, but it does turn out to be in the dictionary. * I suppose that this is her revenge for all those occasions on which I have hit her with technical terms from rock-climbing and sailing.
What it means, I discovered, is an outside toilet or earth closet. Although I spent a part of my childhood (and two years as a student) in houses where this was the only available sanitation I had never encountered the word before. The explanation for my ignorance is that it turns out to be a dialect word from the north-east of England. I once found myself sharing accommodation with a man from Gateshead, and for some time found it almost impossible to understand what he was saying. Given that experience I am thoroughly puzzled about the situation in which my wife might have come across the word. There is obviously some mysterious interlude in her past about which I haven’t been informed.
Scrabble is a wonderful way of exposing some of the more obscure episodes in your partner’s past life. I’m puzzling over who was this guy from Wearside I’ve never heard about before.
*Well: one of the four different dictionaries we consulted. The others had never heard of it either.