Scots Language Centre - Scots Language Centre

LOWN adj calm, sheltered; n calm weather, a sheltered spot

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:37:00 +0000

Although this comes from the Old Norse noun ‘logn’ meaning calm weather, it makes its earliest recorded appearance in Scots as the past participle of a verb, in John Barbour’s Bruce (1375), describing a mile of shore “that wes lownyt all with treis”. David Fergusson, the collector of proverbs, supplies a comforting example of its use as a verb (a1598): “Blow the wind never so fast it will lowien at the last”. As an adjective, it frequently describes weather and localities. Hence we have this advice on melon growing from John Reid in The Scots Gard’ner (1683): “Acquaint them a little with the air by raising the edg of the glasses with a little straw on the laun side, closing it at night again”. Used of people, ‘to have a lown side to someone’ means to be kindly disposed towards them. Scots words for good weather are far outnumbered by words for bad and there are many who cannot enjoy good weather without the fear that we’ll pay for it later. You can sense this behind the weather report in Gilbert Rae’s In the Howe o’ Braefoot (1951): “Far ower lown for this time o’ the ’ear”. Perhaps he expects drifting snow, as described by W. D. Latto in Tammas Bodkin (1864): “It colleckit in immense wrades whaurever it faund a lowan corner to settle doon in”. There is nothing but peace and joy, however, “In the gowden lown o’ autumn days” evoked in John Service’s Thir Notandums (1890). This finds a figurative echo in D. M. Moir’s Mansie Wauch (1828) in the desire “To spend the evening of our days by the lound dykeside of domestic comfort”, perhaps, in time, to make such a peaceful end as we find in J. Ballantine’s Poem (1856) “Like lown simmer gloamin’ she faded awa”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

This week's Word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.

SEMMIT n a vest

Tue, 08 May 2012 08:29:00 +0000

Perhaps because underwear is not a fitting subject for literary discourse, the early records of this word are very sparse. The only quotation in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue is from Gilbert of the Haye’s Buke of the Law of Armys (1456) and seems to refer to a tunic: “Julius Cesar brocht with him nouthir wapyn ... na othir defence bot in his semat”. Tentative etymologies suggest a link to ‘samite’ a fine silk fabric far different from the wool, flannel or even string of the modern Scots garment. The word then disappears from the written record, to resurface again in the report of a case from 1865 in the High Court of Justiciary itemising “1 knitted woollen semet”. Once into the twentieth century, we find that the semmit has become as much part of the everyday language as of wardrobe. From O Douglas’s Priorsford (1932), we have this model of industry: “I’m at ma twelfth semmit, an’ I’ve made six pairs of socks”. This eident knitter might have been of great service to the learned gentleman addressed in John J. Lavin’s Compass of Youth (1953): “Yer semit an’ drawers, Professor, are gey the waur o’ wear”. Anyone who as a child suffered ‘a dook in a saucer’ instead of a bath will sympathise with the victim in Margaret Sinclair’s Soor Plooms and Candy Balls (1993): “Sit up oan the jaw box. Jist take aff your semmit”. Inevitably, the jaw-box or kitchen sink was in front of an uncurtained window. The indignity might well be followed by a similar situation to this, related by Sheena Blackhall in The Bonsai Grower (1998): “Mrs Mathers rugged aff Maisie’s playin claes an plunkit her inno a steen-cauld scratty semmit new aff the claes-line, far the icicles jinglit like coo bells in the jeelin win”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

FREMMIT adj strange, unfamiliar, foreign; n a stranger

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:38:00 +0000

From week to week, I try to give a mixture of fremmit and familiar words. I’d be interested to know which category you think this week’s word comes into. All the most recent quotations in the dictionary are very literary and we would like to know whether it is still current in everyday speech. It was certainly well used in the past. Originating in Old English, from the late fourteenth century onwards we find it in the sense of foreign, unfamiliar or unrelated. Often it occurs in contrastive phrases such as “frend or fremmit” (The Catechism of John Hamilton 1551). Rob Stene’s Dream (1591-2) gives another common phrase: “Doggis spairis nowdir sib (kin) nor fremit”. Robert Chambers in The Picture of Scotland (1827) claims that the people of Galloway kept themselves to themselves: “Its long-maintained independence is yet indicated by the popular phrase, --- the fremit Scot o’ Gallowa”. This additional sense of aloofness, merging into hostility, is well illustrated in the proverb from A. Henderson’s 1832 collection: “Better a fremit friend than a friend fremit [i.e. Better have a stranger for your friend than a friend turned stranger]”. Places as well as people can be fremmit as shown in this simile from Sir Walter Scott’s Old Mortality (1816): “He routed like a cow in a fremd loaning”. The warm welcome which Shetland gives to visitors is steeped in tradition. The Old-lore miscellany of Orkney Shetland Caithness and Sutherland (1908) states that “‘Inbu da fremmd’ was the sacred duty of the hearty old Udallers”. (Udalers were holders of land in Shetland under the Norwegian system.) Elsewhere in Scotland foreign currency was equally welcome; The Ledger of Andrew Halyburton, Conservator of the Privileges of the Scotch Nation in the Netherlands contains an entry dated 1493, “Rasauit fra Georgh Clark ... 2 fremd penys off gold”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

BREARD n the first shoots; v to sprout

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:29:00 +0000

The Oxford English Dictionary says of this word 'Properly Sc ... but now sometimes used by English writers: the first shoots of grass, corn, or other crops'. In Older Scots it appears in The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane meaning the surface of the earth: 'I wil noght turn myn entent, for all this warld brerd'. It is also used of the brim of a vessel and we find it in its modern meaning used by Henryson in his retelling of Aesop's Fables: 'As throw a bustewous erd ... Spryngys the flowris & the corne on brerd'. This joyous manifestation of spring is reflected in John C. Shairp's Kilmahoe (1864): 'On the birk comes the leaf at the glad cuckoo cry, And green braird to upland and hollow'. The importance of weather is well attested. H. Fraser in The Border Magazine (Jan. 1935) extols 'The haars and 'drappin shooers' that 'slockened the neeps' or brairded the corn' but, after a sudden cold or wet spell, as W. Thom tells us in Rhymes and Recollections of a Handloom Weaver (1844) 'The tremblin' breird fa's sodden an' sear'd'. Soil conditions are important too. James Kelly's Collection of Proverbs (1721) claims 'There is no Breard like Midding Breard'. However C. A. Cameron in Chemistry of Agriculture (1879) warns 'It sometimes happens that overdoses of lime are applied. In such cases ... the plants may braird satisfactorily, but they will hardly produce seeds, and ... perish about June'. We also find breard used figuratively. A Scots speaker from Fife informed a researcher for the Scottish National Dictionary in 1946 that it was used of a baby's first teeth and gave the example 'It's his teeth brearan'. The origins of this word probably lie in Old English 'brerd' meaning 'brim, margin', with the sense influenced by Old Norse 'broddr' meaning 'a spike, point'.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk, 25 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN (0131) 650 4149 mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk. For £20 you can sponsor a word in the new edition of the Concise Scots Dictionary.

GEY adj considerable; adv considerably, very

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:55:00 +0000

The Older Scots spelling ‘gay’ reveals this word’s origins. From the fourteenth century, the adjective ‘gay’ means splendid or cheerful, but in 1686 the modern sense appears in George Stuart’s A Joco-Serious Discourse in two Dialogues between a Northumberland Gentleman and his Tenant a Scotchman: “Any of your enemies (of which ... yo’ve had a gay convenient number)”. Scott uses it as an adjective with the older spelling but new meaning in Guy Mannering (1815): “Kippletringan was distant at first, ‘a gay bit’. Then the ‘gay bit’ was more accurately described, as ‘aiblins three mile’”. In the Laird of Logan, we find this fanciful description of penury: “[Hornie] micht hae made his cloots clatter a gay while in the bottom o’ your pouches, before he wad hae skinned his kutes (ankles) on bawbee or bodle that was there”. A shadow of the older meaning survives where it can be interpreted as fine or excellent, and this is often intended ironically. From Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song (1932) we have “And Ellison had begun to think himself a gey man in Kinraddie”. Gey often combines with ‘and’. James Hogg uses it in Tales of The Wars of Montrose (1835) “I hae a gayin muckle wallet fu’ o’ gowd that has never seen the light yet” and from Neil Munro in The Daft Days (1907) “Reading and writing, and all the rest of it, are of less importance, but I’ll not deny they’re gey and handy”. Compare ‘good and well’. There is some understatement in John Firth’s Reminiscences of an Orkney Parish (1922) “By midnight most of the men, at least, would be ‘gey weel tae live’, as they mildly expressed the earlier stages of intoxication”. In some dialects, the pronunciation has changed too, more like ‘pie’ rather than ‘day’, but, however you pronounce it or spell it, it is a gey useful word.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Tow n a rope, card. a length of string

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:45:00 +0000

Tow is anything from thick rope to household string. Many Dictionary quotations refer to maritime uses such as this from An Account of the Depredations committed on the Clan Campbell and their Followers during the years 1685 and 1686 by the troops of the Duke of Gordon: “Ane anchor tow, 50 fadom length”. Bell-ropes also appear in several quotations. A 1738 reference in William Cramond’s The Church of Fordyce describes “The hole of the roof wherein the tow o the bell hings”. We have a climbing rope in the Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland (1496): “Giffin to the boy that brocht the towis, to clym the halk nest in the Abbotis Crag”. Tows were for restraint. Scott writes in Guy Mannering (1815) “Ropes nor tows wad not hae held him”. Worse punishment threatens in Neil Munro’s John Splendid (1896) “We had no doubt got a short quittance from MacColkitto, who was for the tow gravatte on the spot”. The sense of a cord for lowering a coffin is recorded in W. P. Milne’s Eppie Elrick (1955) “Mains was the chief mourner and got the principal ‘tow’ at the head of the coffin”. Potentially happier is a skipping rope but in Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein’s Web (1996) “Aa a skippin towe did wis lift the dubby watter frae the orra puils at their feet an skitter it ower their heids”. No pocket should be without string so George MacDonald can write with confidence in Alec Forbes of Howglen “Pit yer han’ i’ my jacket-pooch an tak’ oot a bit towie”. A tow was one of the trace-ropes in a horse-harness and so ‘to gang ower the tow’ is ‘to get out of control’ and as James Smith writes in Jenny Blair’s Maunderings (1872) says “For ane that has the power o' self-restraint, there’s thousands gang far owre the tow”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

Gettin yer dumps: a birthday custom

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:10:00 +0000

The Scots word dump means a quick blow, a thump or a thud. It can be a blow on the knuckles given to the loser at marbles, but among children it is best known in the phrase ‘gettin yer dumps’. This ritual can take place in various ways. According to to Catherine M. Maclean in Farewell to Tharrus (1944) “Getting what they called their ‘dumps’ is a great ceremony with these children from the south. Every one they call Friend gives them their ‘dumps’ on a birthday, the kind of ‘dumps’ administered varying according to the giver ... Cordelia’s ‘dumps’ consisted of lifting Kennie off the ground and making him touch the kitchen flags with his toes ten times”. An Ayrshire Scots speaker recalled to dictionary researchers in 2005, “We used to get a knee in the behind – once for each year – it was called ‘getting the dumps’. The dictionary definition reads “A children’s birthday ceremony, taking various forms, for example: the child is held by the hands and feet and its back thumped on the floor, a thump for each year of age, sometimes dropped on the final count”. That, with an upwards fling in the air that grew in enthusiam and danger as one progressed through primary school, accords with my own recollection. Scottish Language Dictionaries get their dumps today. The organisation is now ten years old, although the two parent organisations go back much further. A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue was founded in 1919 and the Scottish National Dictionary Association came into being in 1929. These gave us the two great dictionaries which are combined in the online Dictionary of the Scots Language. We maintain and build on these great works. We are planning a series of events throughout the year and I hope to see many of you there. Keep an eye on our main website for details.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Happy birthday SLD!

BIRSE n a bristle, to bristle

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:21:00 +0000

The Scottish National Dictionary entry for ‘birse’ starts with a puzzling saying from James Kelly’s Complete Collection of Scotish [sic] Proverbs (1721): “The Sowter gave the Sow a Kiss. Humph, quoth she, its for a Birse”. Why a shoemaker should kiss a pig for the sake of a bristle becomes clear when the dictionary cites John Marwick’s The Orkney Norn (1929): “Biss, a bristle; spec. of a bristle on a pig and of the bristles used by shoemakers for fixing on the end of a thread”. Other quotations showing birse as a verb confirm this use of pig bristles. James Colville in Studies in Lowland Scots (1909) writes: “He [the sutor] beat the bend-leather on his lap-stane, drew his thread across the roset ..., deftly birsed a fresh lingle end, or passed the gleaming elshon (awl) through his hair” and the Times (20 June 1932) reports; “The Duke of Buccleuch and his co-freemen [of Selkirk] went through the ceremony on Saturday of ‘licking the birse.’ This is a sheaf of bristles from a wild boar skin and was used by the Souters in making their noted soled shoon. The Duke dipped the birse in wine and drew it between his lips. This was the symbol of his initiation as Souter.” Birse is not restricted to pigs. Alexander Wardrop writes in 1887, “The tousie-tailed collie lap richt on the tap o’ me, cockit his birse, showed his white teeth, an’ barkit like fury”. Where in English you might say that someone’s hackles are raised, in Scots his birse is up. John Galt in Sir Andrew Wylie (1822) offers “Ye’re a deevil at a paik, when your birsies are up” and D. M. Moir gives us the verb in Mansie Wauch (1839): “’Haivers, haivers,’ said Nanse, birsing up like a cat before a colley”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Scots Word of the Week is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.

STOUR, STOOR n dust, a battle, a storm

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:03:00 +0000

The origins of this word lie in Anglo-Norman ‘estur’ and Old French ‘estour’. In late fourteenth century Scots, it was used in the sense of a battle or an episode of fighting, often in the alliterative phrase “stalwart stour”. We also find the phrase “stour off battaill” meaning the most hard fought part of the conflict. Sir Walter Scott provides an example in Old Mortality (1816): “‘You mean the battle some years since? Then ye saw a bonny stour,’” said Cuddie”. It was also used figuratively of struggles against pain and death. Burns uses it of adversity in general in Mary Morrison (1780): “How blithely wad I bide the stoure, A weary slave frae sun to sun”. Meteorologically, it refers to a violent conflict of the elements. From there, the meaning extends to the spray that such a storm whips up. Gavin Douglas in the Eneidos (1513) describes “The large fludis ... spowtis in the ayr ... Dryvand (driving) the stowr to the starnys (stars), as it war rane”. Finally, it starts to be used of dust, and that is the sense that predominates today. John Mowat in Some Old Caithness Proverbs and Sayings (1916) explains a local expression, “Mairch stoor’s goold dust”, as “a dry seedtime brings a good harvest”. Traces of the earlier senses still survive and a stour can still mean a commotion of some kind, perhaps not as serious as a battle, but sometimes not far off it. The words of W. M. Philip in Covedale (1887) will no doubt be brought to life in America over the coming months: “At an Election there’s aye an unco stour”. This sense perhaps survives best in the phrase ‘to kick up a stour’. If you still use it of weather, we would love to hear from you.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.
Scots Word of the Week is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.

DING v to beat with heavy blows, overcome

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:08:00 +0000

DING v to beat with heavy blows, overcome

Ding, from Old Norse dengja, has had a lot of use in Scotland?s often violent past and 'ding to dede (death)? is an all too common phrase in Older Scots. The domestic violence in this proverb from Kelly's collection (1721) is an example of past atrocities: 'You may ding the Dee'l into a Wife, but you'll never ding him out of her'. Not all dingin is so negative though. In The Poems of Alexander Hume (1599) ' The cock ... With claps of ioy his breast he dings'. William Dunbar (a1508) proclaims the good news that 'Dungin is the deidly dragon Lucifer' and we wait in hope of hearing this quotation from John Barbour (1375) as part of a Six Nations rugby commentary: 'The Scottis men dang on so fast ... As ilk man war a campioun (champion)'. Pointed weapons can be used to ding. In Bellenden's translation of Boece's The History and Chronicles of Scotland (1531) we read 'Scho ... dang hir self with ane dager to the hert'. It is this thrusting sense that applies in the anonymous Weelumm o' the Manse (1929) relating to the long-held but erroneous folk-belief regarding the foraging habits of hedgehogs: 'They'll rin up an epple tree, ding in their birse and cairry aff a hail backbirn (a burden carried on the back) o' epples'. Rain, hail or snaw has been dingin on since at least the sixteenth century. More modern examples on ondings come from J. Yeats in Transactions of the Banffshire Field Club (1887): 'A fine genial rain ... boded great wealth, and a common saying regarding it was that it was 'dingin' on milk and meal' and from George Macdonald's Robert Falconer (1868) 'Is't dingin' on, Robert?' she asked. 'No, grannie; it's only a starnie o' drift'. Finally, if you try to 'Ding doun Tantallon', you take on an impossible task.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk, 25 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN (0131) 650 4149 mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk For £20 you can sponsor a word in the new edition of the Concise Scots Dictionary.

LIPPEN v trust, rely on, expect

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:02:00 +0000

There are degrees of lippening. It can simply mean 'trust'; James Dalrymple's translation of John Leslie's Latin History of Scotland (1596) tells us that the nervous King James V 'suffirit na man to cum neir him, excepte sum quhome he lipnet maist'. An early example of paternal wisdom from Consail and Teiching at the Vys Man gaif his Sone (1460) carries the sense of 'put ones faith in', advising his offspring, 'Lipin nocht in a new-cumyne gest'. Another, from A Genealogical Deduction of the Family of Rose of Kilravock (1559), means something more along the lines of 'confidently expect': 'Your grace may lyppyne that I salbe in redynes to serwe'. The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland by Androw of Wyntoun provides one of many quotations in which it carries the force of 'entrust': 'Scho ... serwyt thame wyth hir awyne handys, Lypnand noucht till hyr serwandys', and James Hogg uses it the same way in the Brownie of Bodsbeck (1818): 'I haena biggit a bield o' the windlestrae, nor lippened my weight to a broken reed!'From a Perth speaker (1950) we have a good practical example where the force of reliability is made very clear: 'It's guid ye hae somebody ye can lippen your hens tae when ye're awa'. We also find it, carrying a similar meaning but with the preposition 'on' in a number of quotations, including this timeless one from Gabriel Setoun's Robert Urquhart (1896): ?Thae trains is no' to be lippened on'. This is slightly different from the sense of 'believe' that we find in George M. Gordon's The Auld Clay Biggin' (1911): 'I'm thinking thae statements are no a' thegither til be lippen't til'. I particularly like this no-nonsense example from the New Shetlander (1958): 'Da stars wir ida sky (whar ta da ill-helt did doo lippen dem ta be?)'.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

HIDLINS adv secretly

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 06:58:00 +0000

Hidlins occurs most commonly in Scots as an adverb in the sense of secretly. Derived from the verb 'hide', it first appears in the written record in The Buke of the Law of Armys (1456): 'Gif ony man has slayne ane othir secretely and hidlynes'. Slaughter may be one good reason for stealth, but, as we know too well, financial dealings are also often associated with lack of openness. The Edinburgh Burgh Records (1662) stipulate that people who deal in butter should not 'sell the same hidlings bot in the common mercat of this brugh'. Disease can lurk undetected until it is too late as dreaded in a poem by Charles Lockhart (1821): 'Shou'd typhus fever come amang us...Or inflammation, hiddlens, stang us, They'll nail us a'. Not all hidden things are bad though. We are given a charming rural picture by Alexander Montgomery in the Cherrie and the Slae (a1585): 'I saw the hurcheon (hedgehog) and the hare In hidlings hirpling heere and there'. Occasionally, it is used as a noun. The Huntly Express (11 March 1955) states, 'A heavy fall of snow like the one now disappearing very slowly, gives no hiddlins for hungry sheep'. J. G. Horne combines taking refuge with skulking in Flooer o' the Ling (1936): 'Far ben there are crypts that smell o? the mools (The hiddlins o' tods an' hoolets an' ghouls)'. As a noun, it can mean clandestine dealings or lack of transparency. Eliza Logan gives an example of this in St Johnstoun, or John, Earl of Gowrie (1823): 'I dinna ken what a' this hidlings is about'. Rarely, it appears as an adjective as in this derisive comment on modern courtship in Marriage by Susan E. Ferrier (1818): 'I wud nae count mysel married i' the hiddlins way they gang aboot it noo'.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

Weird n destiny

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:19:00 +0000

Occurring in Old English as 'wyrd' meaning destiny, weird makes its first recorded appearance in Scots in this fatalistic comment from John Barbour's Bruce (1375): 'Werd that to the end ay driffis The varldis thingis'. Most Scots are familiar with the word, if only in the phrase 'tae dree yer ain weird' (to suffer your own fate). There are also many modern examples of the word in general use. Sheena Blackhall, in Wittgenstein's Web (1996) writes 'Sylvester's weird wis steekit?, or his fate was sealed. This saw from Allan Ramsay's A Collection of Scots Proverbs (1736) is still fresh today: 'A man may woo where he will, but wed where his wierd is'. We find it used attributively, sometimes as an element within a compound. In the Court of Session Papers (Presbytery of Garioch v. Shepherd 1794) 'Another reprobatory witness of Mr. Shepherd's was objected to, as being a common wierd-wife, or fortune-teller'. In particular, it is used by Barbour and numerous others in the phrase 'weird sister', which the Scottish National Dictionary tells us is 'one of the Parcae'. We have a very clear example of this Older Scots sense from John Rolland's Court of Venus (c1550): 'Clotho, Lachesis 'Atropos' thir thre?To ilk man geuis in warld his fatall weir[d]'he tuik guid nicht at thir weird sisteris than.' The Scottish National Dictionary goes on to tell us it occurs first in Older Scots a.1400, then in Wyntoun, 1420, in the story of Macbeth, whence it was borrowed via Holinshed by Shakespeare and from him by misunderstanding or extension of meaning into the mod. Eng. adj. weird, strange, uncanny, popularised esp. by Shelley. The chance of a word coming within the orbit of a prolific and influential writer can often determine its dominant sense and even its very existence. The weirds of words are strange indeed.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

SKITE v dart, shoot through the air, fall or be driven in a slanting direction

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:05:00 +0000

Skite is one of these Scots words that defies translation into English. We find it used of the unimpeded slanting motion of a shooting star in a poem by Allan Ramsay (1720) “Like a shot Starn, that thro’ the Air Skyts East or West with unko Glare”. Equally, it can refer to something rebounding or glancing off course. Hail, for example is often described as skiting and this usage is reflected in a simile by J. Tweeddale in Moff (1895): “It only skited off ’im like a shoor o’ hailstanes”. A particularly vivid example comes from the Buchan Observer (28 Aug 1951): “Frost so keen as to make the scythe blades ‘skyte’, when they came in contact with the flattened and whitened corn”. If someone skites on ice, it is a much more dramatic mishap than just slipping. Skiting can be unpredictable. Robin Jenkins illustrated the unpredictability of skiting in The Thistle and the Grail (1954): “Don’t tell me he’s bald, for I don’t trust centre-forwards wi’ slippery heids, though, mind you, the goalie can never be sure what way the ball’s going to skite". It also implies speed as in this item from Peeblesshire News (28 Oct. 1960): “He skites through the racin’ page like a rid hot knife through a quarter o’ margarine”. Literal or figurative violence may also be also involved as in Joe Corrie’s The Last Day (1928): “Idle time an’ wee peys sune skite the beauty aff us”. As a noun, it can mean a glancing blow, a piece of mischief, a squirt of liquid, a short sharp shower or a small quantity of drink. ‘On the skite’ denotes a bit of a spree and in the Anthology of Orkney Verse edited by E. W. Marwick (1949) we cheerfully read that “Vikings on the skite find Valhalla for wan night”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

SNELL adj sharp, keen

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:23:00 +0000

In Old English, ‘snel’ means swift or quick. By the time we get to Older Scots, we find it applied to weather, weapons and people. So, in the late fourteenth century, John Barbour writes of “schowris snell”; Andrew Wynton in The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland (1420) describes “Haylstanys bath scharpe and snelle” and Gilbert of the Haye’s Buke of the Governaunce of Princis (1496) tells us “The wyndis ar scharp and snell and sare bytand”. Later, Burns sympathises with the homeless mouse about to experience “Bleak December’s winds ensuin, Baith snell an’ keen!” Used of weapons, it means sharp or damaging. We not only find references to snell swords but we also have this from R. Baillie’s Anabaptism (1639): “the walls of Amsterdam I wish might hold in their snell brasen shott from these places of our towres that are most weake”. Used of people in Older Scots, it means sharp or severe, but by the time we get to the early eighteenth century it ameliorates to bear the additional meanings of quick, nimble, agile and keen in body or mind. Allen Ramsay is being complimentary when he writes in 1720 “That in ilk action, wise and snell, You may shaw manly fire”. You still need to look carefully at the context, however, as the older meanings are not lost. R. Forbes in Ajax his Speech to the Grecian Knabs (1748) tells us that Diomede “wi’ snell words him sair did snib”. Snell-nebbit means astute, but snell gabbit means caustic in speech. It is a word which lends itself well to figurative applications. A snell blow is painful. A snell smell or taste is acrid, pungent or bitter. Thus we have a very clear impression of the the character described in The Poets and Poetry of Linlithgowshire (1896): “gay snell mustard he is whiles”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

SARK n shirt, chemise

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:38:00 +0000

This word appears as ‘serk’ in Old English and Old Norse. The earliest recorded usage in Scots means the male or female body-garment worn nearest the skin. So the person described in John Barbour’s Legends of the Saints as “Al nakit, bot sark & breke” was scantily attired. Early quotations show sarks being given as payment. In the Records of Perth Kirk Session (1623) we are told “ The said Margaret...ressaueit for waigeis, ane sark and ane pair schone”. Sarks could also be the wages of sin. The Accounts of the Burgh Treasurer of Dumfries (1650) record “When the hair sarkes war put wpon the wyfes [witches] in the touboth”. The sark of God might mean a surplice but it could also be a penitential shirt in Allan Ramsay’s Tea-table Miscellany (1724): “Jockey shall wear the hood, Jenny the sark of God”. Even less comfortable was the shirt worn by Hercules in the story retold by G. Myll (1492) in The Spectakle of Luf: “Hercules...was...slane be his lady Dyonera throw the inuennomyt [envenomed] serk scho maid him to weir”. Sarks could be made of flannel, linen or in David Lindsay’s Squire Meldrum (c1550) , “Of yallow taftais ... Begaryit all with browderit wark”. Another fancy sark is listed in the Inventories and other Records of the Royal Wardrobe (1587): “Ane hieland syd serk of yallow lyning pasmentit with purpour silk and silver”. Less affluent circumstances obtain in John Mayne’s The Siller Gun (1808): “Turning coats, and mending breeks, New-seating where the sark-tail keeks”. By this time, sark was often being used of men’s shirts. An interesting extension of the meaning relates to the sarking of roofs, which T. Pennant informs us in his Tour in Scotland Tour (1771) “are sarked, i.e. covered with inch-and-half deal, sawed into three planks, and then nailed to the joists, on which the slates are pinned”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

CUTTIE adj short

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:37:00 +0000

Brushing up your Tam o’ Shanter recitation for Burns night makes cuttie sarks run in your mind. The dictionary defines cuttie as “short, stumpy, diminutive”, which makes me a cuttie quine. Certain combinations are particularly common, of which the best known is probably the cuttie pipe, the short-clay variety which we find in Sir Walter Scott’s Bride of Lammermuir (1819): “Not a gleed of fire, then, except the bit kindling peat, and maybe a spunk in Mysie’s cutty-pipe”. In this context it may be used as a noun, as in this example from Ramsay’s Proverbs (1737): “I'm no sae scant of clean pipes as to blaw wi’ a brunt cutty”. The cuttie knife was also commonly to be found about one’s person. J. S. Martin in Scottish Earth (1923) demonstrates its effectiveness in skilled hands: “Sax straks o’ his cuttie knife, A weet, sax chaps and syne The bark comes aff”. The adjective is often applied to that diminutive bird which makes a poetic appearance in The Bards of Galloway (1870): “Roun’ the craft o’ the Buchan, an’ a’ Causeyen’ We kent ilka haunt o’ the wee cutty-wren”. As an antidote to Strictly Come Dancing, we have this curiosity from Notes and Queries (1871): “There was an old dance called ‘Cutty Hunker Dance’, a burlesque on dancing. It was performed by two dancers, sometimes a woman crouching down to an almost sitting posture, leaning the body forward and grasping her knees tight with both arms, and then leaping from side to side all round the room in the most grotesque fashion imaginable”. Returning to the theme of cutlery, the cuttie spoon was a familiar item and it too could appear as a noun, recorded in an apt proverb for straitened times from J. Kelly’s 1721 collection: “It is better to sup with a Cutty, than want a Spoon”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

SCOWDER v scorch

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:37:00 +0000

The descendant of Old French ‘eschalder’, meaning to burn or scald, and post-classical Latin ‘excaldare’, meaning to wash in hot water, appears in Scots as ‘scowder’. The sense of cleansing with heat is painfully described in the Jacobite Minstrelsy (1829): “He’s in a’ Satan’s frything pans, Scouth’ring the blude frae aff his han’s”. More often, though, we find it simply meaning overcooked, singed or burnt as in this description of a bannock in John Galt’s Ringan Gilhaize (1823) “somewhat scowthert and blackent on the one cheek”. A more appetising snack is found in the New Shetlander (1960): “Scoodered loff an mermalade”. From this sense too we get an unflattering nickname for a blacksmith, found in the Scots Magazine (Aug. 1808): “Whan i’ the bleeze the sheep-head hirsles ... Till scowderdoup sings aff the woo’”, a reference to the once common practice of singeing your sheep’s head in the forge fire. Just as heat can blister, so can criticism and so it is not surprising to find scowther used figuratively in Sir William Allan’s Hamespun Lilts (1874): “He brocht his scoutherin’ sermon to a close”. Those who did not heed the sermon might now be testing the truth of Christina Fraser’s assertion in Glints o’ Glengonner (1910): “Them that gang to the ill place’ll get an awfu’ skowtherin’”. Meanings can go off at some very unexpected tangents. In James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner “The grass withers as gin it war scoudered wi’ a het ern”, but just as grass may be scowdered with heat, it can also be withered by frost or wind and rain. Hence, Robert Louis Stevenson writes in 1875 of “The snell an’ scowtherin’ norther blaw Frae blae Brunteela’”. It also appears as a noun meaning a passing shower or sprinkling of snow and if it looks scowtherie such weather is imminent.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

This week's Word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.

BACHELOR n an unmarried man; a third year student, a graduate in the lowest degree at a university

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:39:00 +0000

This word’s earliest recorded borrowing from Old French into Scots was in the late fourteenth century. At that stage, it referred to a young knight and we can discover from Gilbert of the Haye’s Buke of Knychthede (1456) “How the bachelere...suld first lere the pointis ... of the ordre”. We find bachelors in the company of other interestingly named young men; “Scutiferis (shieldbearers) and sqwyeris, and bachilleris blyth” appear in Sir Richard Holland’s Book of the Howlat (c1450-2). The blitheness of bachelors is also featured in William Dunbar’s Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo (a1508): “Baronis and knychtis, And other bachilleris blyth”. The academic application meaning a graduate also goes back a long way. Andrew of Wintoun’s Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland (c1420) reassures us “The Byschape ... wes ... Bachylere in Theology”. We find it in the peculiarly Scottish sense of a third year student at the Universities of St Andrews and Glasgow, about to enter the fourth year with the hope of graduating as M.A. Records of the University of Glasgow (1695) list the students of the first three years as “Bagains, Semies, and Bacchelours”. R. G. Cant’s The University of St Andrews (1946) explains further: “By his third year the student had normally attained to the dignity of bachelor, and in the intermediate stage before this, he tended to be referred to as a semi-bachelor or semi ... The change from bachelor to tertian – a natural consequence of the disuse of the bachelor’s degree after the Reformation does not seem to have been made here until the nineteenth century”. The most familiar sense, however, is that shared with English and this advice is issued in the Miscellanea of the Rymour Club (1906-1911): “Come, all ye jolly bacheleers, That lead a single life Ye should always be precaarious In the choosin’ o’ a wife”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries

This week's Word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.

BUBBLY-JOCK n turkey-cock

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Famously described by Hugh Macdiarmid as “hauf like a bird and hauf like a bogle”, bubbly-jocks have graced the Scottish dinner-table since the sixteenth century. In the Calendar of the State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots (1571) we find: “Wyld foules of dyvers sortis sic as pertrikis, phasenes, turky cockis”, although here the reference may be to capercailzies, sometimes known as wild turkeys. The Scots name of bubbly-jock, or bubbly-cock, is first recorded in the Collected Writings of Dougal Graham who died in 1779: “His nose was like a bublie-cocks neb”. According to E. B. Ramsay’s Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character (1858), it became embedded in the vocabulary of the nobility: “Her Grace turned to him and said, ‘Rax me a spaul (shoulderblade) o’ that bubbly jock’”. Figuratively, ‘to be sair hauden doon by the bubbly-jock’ is to be oppressed with too much to do, a condition we can relate to in the run-up to Christmas. Imagine then the chore of plucking, stuffing and cooking the bird described in the Aberdeen Evening Express (2002): “The biggest Christmas bird in Scotland is set to be sold off in an exciting Christmas auction. Weighing in at a colossal 67 pounds, the Inverurie-bred turkey is set to feed more than 100 people”. Such a feast gives added force to this invitation from John Galt’s The Entail (1823): “I request and hope ye’ll bide wi’ us, and help to carve the bubbly-jock, whilk is a beast ... that requir’t the skill o’ a doctor, the strength o’ a butcher”. There was always a range of size to suit all appetites. The Scottish Historical Review refers to a supper consumed in 1671: “a paire of twrkies 8s”. By contrast, Edinburgh Burgh Records for 1688 record: “Tame foul ... the best turkie cock to be sold for £2 2s”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

This week's Word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.