DO other readers cringe when "tyke" is used to describe a Yorkshireman?

Although apparently intended as a term of admiration or even endearment, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that it is also the name for "cur" or "low fellow."

Your headline, 'Tyke mums are happiest' (March 28), therefore, seems all the more unfortunate when you bear in mind its derivation from the Old Norse word "tik" for "bitch."

Hardly top-class journalism.

Brenda Tomlinson,

Westfield Grove,

Wigginton, York.

Updated: 10:18 Saturday, April 02, 2005