Learn English – Phrase for a child moving around — “ritching around”

expressions

Whenever a child was fidgeting or moving around, my grandmother would tell them "stop ritching around!" When I used this phrase recently, my wife told me that it was not an English expression, and I was surprised that I could not find it on Google.

Is "ritching around" an English expression for a child moving around? Is it instead some Pennsylvania Dutch dialect that my grandmother picked up from learning English in Pennsylvania?

Best Answer

I live in PA, and it's a very common word among the PA Dutch (I've picked up a great many strange words and expressions from them.)

It's not quite "ritching"; the first syllable's vowel sound is more like the oo in book. So I would spell it "rootching", but, yes. It is equivalent to squirming:

a change of position that does not entail a change of location -TFD

Synonymous with fidgeting, wiggling, etc.

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