"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 18/12/17 (riding a croggy)

I had a nice e-mail from Christine Craigie, who said, "My cousines talk of riding croggy for fun when the two of them ride on a bike together. Where does this term come from?" It's a great example from English dialect which, contrary to everything we believe, is actually quite well and in quite robust health. Wonderful, wonderful words are falling out of use. They all seen to collect around certain themes, which is quite interesting as well - left-handedness being one of them. Believe it or not, children's games and particularly this idea of riding two on a bike is another one. Dozens of a local versions of them so there is riding backie, dinky, seaty, piggy and croggy, which I love. That's still use in Midlands, especially in Nottinghamshire and Teesside as well. The difference here is that riding croggy, you're riding on the crossbar. You're not riding behind the rider. It may have come north all the way from Cornwall where a croggan is a limpet shell. So the idea is that you've got two riders and one is clinging really tightly to the other, which I think is beautiful. It may simply be CRO from crossbar. That's a more prosaic version, but I like a limpet explanation but, as I say, it's just one of so many words for riding on a bike this day. A lot of fun.