Scots Language Centre - Scots Language Centre

COUTHIE adj sociable, comfortable,

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:25:00 +0000

Couthie is related to ‘uncouth’ and ‘unco’ in that their common origin lies in Old English ‘cuth’ (known). From there, the meaning of couthie expands to include notions of familiarity, intimacy domesticity and security. Strangely, couthie does not appear in Scots until the early eighteenth century, although it occurs in Layamon’s Brut, an English poem written at the very beginning of the thirteenth century. There it is used in collocation with a word meaning ‘male relatives’ and seems to imply trustworthiness. Its earliest appearance in the Dictionary of the Scots Language comes from the Poems of Allan Ramsay (1721): “Heal be your Heart, gay couthy Carle, Lang may ye help to toom a Barrel”. Rather rowdy couthieness is also present in Anna Blair’s Scottish Tales (1987): “It was to Tibbie Shiel's Inn that the great men escaped for a few days' retreat on their own, or to meet up in cheerful company with others of their kind. In her day Lady Stair might have been the famous formal hostess entertaining the Capital's literati in her gracious apartments overlooking Edinburgh from the Royal Mile, but, in these days of the 1820s there was gustier, couthier laughter under Tibbie's eyes”. Freedom from the discomfort of social constraints is couthie as in Rob Ringan's Plewman Cracks (1897): “Your Sunday braws dinna sit sae coothie on ye as your ord'nary moleskins that's tash't wi glaur”. Couthie could be informal but it is also neat, snug or modestly prosperous. There is a tendency to denigrate the homespun. The Herald (21 Sept1999) laments: “From the music halls emerged the sentimentalised and tartanised caricature of the Scot ... mouthing comic songs and couthy sayings”. More often, however, there is great affection expressed in and for the word couthie, which, like so many Scots words, refuses to be nailed down to a single English equivalent.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is spoken by Gordon Beange.

PERQUEER adv by heart, word for word; clearly.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:25:00 +0000

Once widespread, this word may now have slipped out of use. It comes from Old French ‘par queur’, which translates directly into English as ‘by heart’. We find it used John Barbour in his Legends of the Saints (1380): “Than all perquer he suld it wyt”. Rote learning was a valuable skill in the days when written or printed material was expensive. Polwart, in his Flyting with Montgomerie (a1585) puts it in perspective as a means of data storage and transmission: “I neuir haid … Ane vers in wreit in print or yit perquere”. The feats of memory documented in the dictionary are amazing. There is a genuine expectation in the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery, and Synod of Aberdeen (1604) “That be the oft repetitioun...of the said catechisme the people may lerne the same perqueir”. The skill of learning perqueer seems to be dying out as this sense of the word already has. From the literal sense, however, the meaning was extended to become ‘without hesitation’. So, in Simon Haliburton’s Memories of Magopico (1761) a feat of literacy rather than memory is under discussion: “In two years more, he made such progress that...he could read you very perqueerly the x. chapter of Neihimia”. The sense further morphs into ‘clearly, distinctly’ as intended by the Gallovidian John Nicholson, in Historical and Traditional Tales (1843) “The English cou’dna mak’ out the preceese meaning o’ the words perqueerly”. In this sense, the word survived into the 20th century, at the other end of the country, in the Orkney and Shetland Miscellany edited by Alfred and Amy Johnston, with this quotation from 1912: “He saw his son coman’ wi’ them for da house as prequier as dae”. If you know of this word in current use, Scottish Language Dictionaries would be delighted to hear from you.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is spoken by Dauvit Horsburgh

SWEIR adj reluctant

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:27:00 +0000

Sweir covers a range of senses including slothful, inactive or unwilling to make an effort. People have not changed much since 1490, when John Irland wrote in the Miroure of Wyssdome: “Quhen thai ar fillit of mete or drink than thai ar suer...and gevin to sleip and volupte”. Such human frailty causes this week’s word to appear in many proverbs. One of these, from John Skene’s Regiam Majestatem (1609) is an interesting variant of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper: “The swere and slowfull man will not plowe, nor labour, be reason of winter: therefore he sall begge in sommer”. Another, from Fergusson’s collection of proverbs from around 1600 warns against spoiling your children: “Ane oleit (energetic) mother makis a sueir dochter”. From the same collection, we have “Work for noght maks folk dead sueir” and this sentiment prompts a query to the Presbytery in Orkney in 1703: “Whether it will make a Gospel Minister sweer to Preach if he wants a Stipend?” Not all examples describe voluntary inertia. There are some inevitable reasons to be sweir. Catherine Carswell in Lying Awake (1950) warns “Auld age disna come its lane. Gin it bring naething else it brings sweirdness”. Other diseases are more curable: “Turpentine...His medicine for passage sweer” is recommended in Samuel Colville’s satire The Whigs Supplication (1681). This is one of the Dictionary’s less advisable remedies. While we are on the subject of reluctant bahouchies, Charles Mackay in The Poetry and Humour of the Scottish Language (1882) describes “Sweer-arse...a sport among Scottish children, in which two of them are seated on the ground, and, holding a stick between them, endeavour each of them to draw the other up from the sitting posture. The heaviest in the posterior wins the game”. This game is described variously as sweir-drauchts, sweir-draw, sweiry-bums and sweir-tree.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is spoken by Gordon Beange.

HAUGH n a piece of level ground

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:42:00 +0000

Haugh, sometimes spelt hauch, also appears in Older Scots as halch. It usually rhymes with loch, but in some dialects the final consonant may disappear. It is a piece of level ground, generally alluvial river-meadow land. It comes from Old English ‘halh’, meaning a corner or nook. That ‘l’ has been lost, first from the pronunciation and then from the spelling, in the course of time. We find early Scottish written evidence of the word in place-names incorporated into Latin charters from around 1200. Many of the quotations in the Dictionary of the Scots Language suggest that haughs were fertile. William Nimmo’s A General History of Stirlingshire (1817) tells us "The gravel and sand which is spread upon the clay, forms what are called our haughen grounds, that are most esteemed for corn and pasture". The Statistical Accounts for Lanarkshire (1795) describes one agricultural practice:

"The haugh-ground is generally ploughed 3 and sometimes 4 years, for oats, and then allowed to lie as long in natural grass". Other quotations suggest crops of peas or even daisies, but the river at the heart of the haugh could bring worse things than rich alluvial silt.

The Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families (1703) relate how "There came a fearfull speat Wednesday last, which covered the greater part of the haugh of Tullichmulin with sand and stones". Allan Massie in the The Last Peacock (1980) describes another climatic drawback of such terrain: "cold mist rose heart-high in the haughland", but, for all that, Violet Jacob maintains in Songs of Angus (1915) "an auld man aye thinks lang O’ the haughs he played amang". On the whole, haughs are places of well-being and prosperity, and hence, when someone suffers a downturn in their fortunes they are said "to gang frae the hauch to the heather".

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is spoken by William Gebbie

INCH n island

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:39:00 +0000

Inch comes from the Gaelic innes and is familiar to us in place-names.
We find it as such as early as 1198-9 in the Latin of the Lindores Charter: “totam insulam que vocatur Redinche” (the whole island which is called Redinch).
The term does not necessarily refer to land that is completely surrounded by water. Alexander Lowson in John Guidfollow (1890) states: “On the north side of the Loch of Forfar, there is a peninsula called the lnch”.
Inch can even mean rising ground in the middle of a plain. Some of these inches may have originally been surrounded by water, but not all. James Robertson’s General View of the Agriculture in the County of Perth (1799) gives a good illustration: "Such parts of the Carse (of Gowrie), as are elevated above the common level of the country are called ‘Inches’”.
In West Lothian, according to the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society (1845-7): "Diluvial deposits...are found in some localities to be of great depth, in some instances occurring in the form of rounded eminences, at others in isolated mounds, as in the neighbourhood of Bathgate, where they are composed chiefly of gravel, and are called inches".
In a few places, notably Perth and Aberdeen, an inch can be a stretch of low-lying land near water. Aberdeen has long been known for its neatness, as the Burgh Council records of 1593 show: “The common Inchis of the burgh, quhilkis has been weill kepit and preservit”.
The most famous inches are mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in The Fair Maid of Perth (1828): “The town of Perth, with its two large meadows, or Inches, its steeples, and its towers”. The North and South Inches give rise to the riddle which every Perth schoolchild knows: “Why is Perth the smallest city in the world?” “Because it lies within two inches”.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is spoken by Gordon Beange.

BRAT n apron, rags

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Brat used to be a common word but is now rarely heard. It comes from an Old Northumbrian loanword of Celtic origins meaning a cloak. Robert Henryson at the end of the fifteenth century used it to mean ragged clothes contrasting with braws: “Now gownis gay, now bratis laid in pres”. We find it used by Allan Ramsay’s Poems (1721): for clothes in general in this description of unruly behaviour: “They’ll rive ye’r Brats and kick your Doup And play the Deel” and again by John Galt in The Ayrshire Legatees (1821): “Her bits of brats are sairly worn, though she keeps out an apparition of gentility”. In a collection of anecdotes entitled The Laird of Logan (1837), it means a shepherd’s plaid, which suffers a mishap: “I sat as near the organ as I could get, and as they were turnin’ round the wheel, the teeth o’t grippit my plaid, and ere I could say ‘stop your bumming’ my braw brattie was out o’ sicht”. Shepherds also used brat in another context. Henry Stephens in The Book of the Farm (1844) explains: “Tup-hoggs are never allowed to serve ewes or gimmers, not having attained maturity...To prevent him effectually from serving a ewe, a piece of cloth named a brat, or apron, is sewed to the wool below his belly”. A further meaning is scum or skin such as may be found on porridge or milk. In the sense of aprons it may refer to a child’s pinafore, a housewife’s peenie, a hessian apron worn by female manual workers, or a shoemaker’s leather apron. Some employees might like to emulate this example from Hugh Roberton’s Curdies (1931) “I thocht I was entitled to a rise. So I dichts my face wi’ my bratt, an’ I sails up to the boss”.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is read by Avril Nicoll of the Scots Language Centre.

MIDDEN n dunghill, refuse heap

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:05:00 +0000

This word comes from Old Norse. We can reconstruct the probable form ‘myki-dyngja’. Quotations in the Dictionary of the Scots Language show contrasting pictures of rural and urban middens. Allan Ramsay in The Gentle Shepherd (1725) paints an idyllic scene: “A snug Thack-house, before the Door a Green; Hens on the Midding, Ducks in Dubs are seen”. Frequent references to middens in burgh statutes and ordinances, however, usually involve clearing of middens from the streets. With layers of earth or turf, the midden could be used to enrich the land. Samuel Hibbert’s Description of the Shetland Islands (1822) provides a local variation: “The manure...is a midden, consisting of dung, of heather that has been cut for litter, of sea-weed, and of earth, or dry decomposed moss, named Duff-mould”. Reflecting modern methods of garbage collection (on midden-day), Cliff Hanley tells us in Dancing in the Streets (1958) “What we called middens, upper-class people described as dustbins”. These, in affluent areas, were scavenged in the hope of finding items of value. Such bins were known as ‘lucky middens’. The Herald (3 Dec 1998) provides an instance of a particularly lucky midden: “When the various Allies were rolling across Germany in 1945, falling over themselves to pick up whatever disregarded trifles might be lying around before some other Allies should get there first, one of the most serendipitous finds in the Third Reich’s lucky middens was the materiel and personnel of the Nazis’ rocket weapons project”. The midden of Annacker’s, a Glasgow pork butcher from 1853 to 1942, was regularly raked through and this has given rise to the expression ‘Anniker’s midden’ used to describe a dreadful mess. An impractical dreamer is said “Tae look at the mune and fa in the midden”. We can even use it affectionately of a dirty wee midden, or clarty child.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is read by Avril Nicoll of the Scots Language Centre.

WEAN n child

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:15:00 +0000

The last two weeks have featured words now associated with the North East, although they once had a much wider currency. This week, we look at a word which many people associate with Glasgow. Glasgow authors have used it to great effect, as in this poignant quotation from John and Willy Maley’s From The Calton To Catalonia (1990): “Picture it. The Calton. Fair Fortnight. 1937. Full of Eastern promise. Wimmen windae hingin. Weans greetin for pokey hats (ice-cream cones). Grown men, well intae their hungry thirties, slouchin at coarners, skint as a bairn’s knees.” However, wean, a running together of wee and ane, first appears in the dictionaries with Leadhills-born poet Allan Ramsay’s The Gentle Shepherd (1725): “Troth, my Niece is a right dainty we’an”. This is followed by an Aberdeenshire quotation in Helenore (1768) by Alexander Ross: “The dentyest wean bony Jane fuish (fetched) hame”. Weans, not always dainty, appear in Burns, Scott, Hogg and Stevenson. Weans may mean offspring generally, be they laddie weans or lassie weans, but Anna Blair in The Rowan on the Ridge (1980) is more precise, placing weanhood between infancy and adolescence: “a wean and a baby whose names he had not caught, and the dour halflin’ Bryce, who had looked him up and down and seemed as if he might have checked his teeth or hooves before taking him on to labour”. Even bairnish adults can be called weanly. P. H. Waddell’s 1871 version of Psalm 119 gives “Fu’ clear comes a blink o’ yer words, makin wyss the weanliest chiel” and, in figurative usage, we clearly imagine the flying leather described in James Denniston’s The Battle of Craignilder (1832): “But sword or axe gied weanly whacks Compared wi’ Geordy’s flail, man”. So, although wean is common in West Central Scotland, it is by no means restricted to that area.

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

This week's word is spoken by Dr Dauvit Horsbroch.

QUINE n lass, girl

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:52:00 +0000

Quine goes back to Old English cwen, meaning a woman, wife or, as in modern English, a queen. An obsolete spelling of this word, quean, shows more clearly the history of this word. The earlier quotations in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue refer mainly to young women in service or of restricted financial means. There even seems to be a tendency to use the word in conjunction with harlot as in The Perth Kirk Sessions for 1623: “He hard the said Beatrix call him auld harlot cairle and he callit hir harlot quyne”, or in the phrase “methie fared quine” (maggoty-faced) as in the Cullen Kirk Sessions for 1671. Burns in Tam o Shanter is, predictably, appreciative: “Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans, A’ plump and strapping in their teens!” and in a poem of 1875 A. G. Murdoch uses it of the more affluent: “Weel-buskit dames and tocher’t queans Come seldom cheap to ony”. It was in many instances simply a word for daughter or female child but at the same time it remained in common use for a female servant and this came to be irrespective of age as shown in this quotation from The Ettrick Shepherd in The Brownie of Bodsbeck (1818): “He had hired a wastlin, auldish quean”. A sense of moral turpitude resurfaces in the 1802 Child version of the ballad The Laird o Drum: “For I'm our low to be yer bride, An yer quine I'll never be”. Like last week’s word, loun, quine has an history of multiple meanings throughout Scotland with a gradual restriction of geographical spread to the North-East, where is completely at home in this delightful picture of female childhood from Sheena Blackhall Wittgenstein's Web (1996) in which “Quines war stottin their baas aff the bikeshed waa, singin daft wee rhymes”.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Michael Hance.

BOGLE n a terrifying supernatural being

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Tonight, watch out for bogles. In the poems of Andrew Scott (1926), we learn that “Auld folks wha liv’d in days o’ yore, Could nightly tell us tales galore, ‘Bout warlocks, witches, brownies, boggles, That sometimes ev’ry traveller oggles”. The Dictionary of the Scots Language contains copious evidence of supernatural activity on this and other nights, in spite of a proverb from Henderson’s collection (1832) that suggests age brings equanimity on the presence of the unknown: “Ye’re ower auld farren to be fleyed wi’ bogles”. Gavin Douglas in the prologue to book four of his Aeneid said, “Of browneis and of bogillis ful is this buke” and the same might be said of the Dictionary. Within its pages are “Ane laithlie lene tramort (corpse), … like ane bogill all of ratland banis” from Stewart’s Buik of the Croniclis of Scotland; “boggles, brownies, gyrcarlings (ogres) and gaists” from the The Flyting between Montgomerie and Polwart (1585); and “ghoulies and bogles and dead things and horrors that crept in the night” described by Colin Mackay in The Song of the Forest (1986).

Even bogles have their uses, however. The tattie-bogle or scarecrow still serves a useful function. An article in the Dundee Courier in March 1995 gives detailed instructions: “First you need a neep for his head, a bannet for his pow, and a graavut for his thrapple". From this sense, the word extends to badly dressed or less than bonny folk providing quotations such as this one from J. J. Bell’s Wee Macgreegor (1903): “I never cud unnerstaun’ hoo yer brither Rubbert cud mairry sic an auld bogle”.

If you are feeling nervous tonight, just recall these words from Burns: “Gaists not bogles shalt thou fear; Thou’rt tae love and heaven sae dear. Nocht of ill shall come thee near, My bonnie dearie”.

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

This week's word is spoken by Sheena Blackhall from Aberdeen.

LOUN n lad, male child

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Loun has a long, complicated history. Now associated with the North East as a non-pejorative word for a son, or young man, as opposed to a lassie, it appears early in Scotland-wide use as a scoundrel or even a loose woman. East Lothian poet, Dunbar, uses it in his Flyting with Kennedy (a1508) whom he calls a “lathly loun”. Glasgow Burgh Records (1661) order “The thesaurer to pay to Charles McClean, jylour, twentie pundis for his extraordinarie paines in attending the tolbuith...having onlie theifes and louns his prisoners”. This probably implies an additional sense of a person without means, who would be unable to pay his jailor for small comforts. The sense of a female prostitute is clear from the Records of Elgin (1636) “Marjory Peterkine...a pandress as also a loun hirselff”. It could be used of a male fornicator; in the Presbytery Book of Strathbogie (1650) George Robertsone “said he sould cause that lowne the minister haue a fowll face, for he gottin ane bairne in fornication with Elspeth Gordon”. A loun minister was also a term used by Convenanters for a man of the cloth with Episcopalian tendencies. From the beginning, though, it could be used as now to mean, simply, a lad and, in 1922, J. B. Salmond clearly intends the neutral sense of boy or son in Bawbee Bowden (1922): “His father had been blawin’ a’ the week aboot the grand sermon they were to get on the Sabbath frae his loon, Tammas”. In spite of loun’s disreputable past, it is no insult to call someone a loun. It should be noted that it bears no relation to the Latin word for moon, ‘luna’, from which lunatic is derived, but comes from Dutch ‘loen’ meaning a stupid person. From this humble origin, it has come up in the world the last quotation demonstrates.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Michael Hance.

FIRST FIT n The first person to enter a house in the New Year

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

First-footing is one of the best known of New Year customs. In R. H. Cromek’s Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song. (1810) we learn “Much care is taken that the persons who enter be what are called sonsie folk, for on the admission of the first-foot depends the prosperity or trouble of the year”. According to The Reminiscences of the Ferguslie Elderly Forum (1993) “You always wanted someone dark to first foot you and they had to have a bit of coal and a bun, currant bun or shortbread”. An earlier quotation from Ebenezer Picken’s A Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1818) claims “The first-fit generally carries with him a hot beverage, made of ale, spirits, eggs, cream, sugar, and biscuit, with some slices of curran bun to be eaten along with it, or perhaps some bread and cheese”. Different times and areas favour their own offerings, including salt and whisky, but the lump of coal, once common, is rarer in the absence of open fires. Physical attributes are important. Robert Ford in Humorous Scotch Readings (1881) illustrates two undesirable traits: “He was a fair-hair’d, flet-fitted man, an’ therefore, an unlucky first-fit”.
Few people now realize that a first fit could also be the first person (or sometimes animal) met on any journey, especially on the way to church by a wedding or christening party. Walter Gregor in An Echo of the Olden Time (1874) records: “The person first met [by bridal procession] received a glass, with bread and cheese, and then turned and walked a short distance. Great attention was paid to the first fit. A man on horseback, or a horse drawing a cart...was deemed most lucky”. Did the horse get its share of the bread and cheese?

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

This week's Word is spoken by William Gebbie

STAP v stuff, block, stop

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

After a day of “Ryvin’ an’ stechin’ an’ stappin’ an’ eatin’” (Kelso Chronicle 1917), still stappit fu of Christmas dinner, with the prospect of further stappin with turkey and sprout sandwiches, I thought this might be a good day to look at the verb to stap. If, after feasting, you are looking for plain and wholesome fare, try stappit heids, also known as crappit heids. James Logan’s version in The Scottish Gael. (1876) is “A favourite winter dish...“stappit heads”, or boiled haddocks, the heads being filled with a mixture of oatmeal, onions and pepper”. The Fraserburgh Herald (1951) uses cod’s heads for “Stappit heedies”. Seasoned oatmeal and onions make excellent stappin for chickens. For finer fowls, Mrs McLintock’s Receipts (1736) recommends that you “Take Muir-Fowl or Partridges, take grated Bread and Spice, and a little Sugar and Butter and stop their Bellies”.
Outwith culinary matters, stappin makes the lady described in G. P. Dunbar’s Doric (1922) a good prospect for the fortunehunter: “She’d a craftie weel happit, A moggin (the leg of a stocking) weel stappit Wi’ siller in muckles an’ sma’s”. It can mean placing something, without cramming, as in this custom described by R D Trotter in Galloway Gossip (1901) “They ey cairry’t a wee pickle sun-saut wi’ them - Saut yt they had made oot o’ saut-water theirsels: an’ as sune as ever the wean wus born, they stappit o’t inta its mooth, an than the fairies wusna able to cheinge’t”. A stappit neb comes with a cold and stappit lugs are not listening. Many senses overlap with English ‘stop’ and this spelling is found in earlier Scots texts. The sense of to stay or remain, not recorded in English until 1801, appears in Sir David Lindsay’s Squyer Meldrum about 1550: “This squyer … stoutlie stoppit in the stour And dang on thame with dintis dour”.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Katrina MacLeod

BOOSE, BUISS n a stall

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This is another word which demonstrates the variety in Scots spelling. As well as the two spellings given above, it appears as ‘buse’, ‘beuse’ and ‘bease’. What has this word got to do with the approach of Christmas? If the nativity had taken place in a Scottish stable or byre, a boose, a stall for a horse or cow, would be an essential part of the scene. We find an early example in 1789 in David Davidson’s Thoughts on the Seasons “Unto the theeked boose The cattle...repair”. It was used more specifically for the upper part of the stall where the food was placed and extended figuratively to mean a seat at table. Other figurative uses include a bed, or even one’s niche in life. This is explained in the Victoria College Magazine (Belfast 1904): “‘Boose,’ a very old word, meaning a stall or enclosure for cattle (cows or horses). In various parts of County Down the word ‘boose’ simply means a situation, or post, or office”. Boose could be used as a verb, often as a command to a cow to “buiss up!” Then there are all the associated items. A beasin or buisin is a partition between cattle in a byre. A buisin chain fastens the animal in its boose. In Session Court Papers relating to a case in Ayr, Cunningham v. Montgomery (1785-6), the contents of a byre are described: “Two mangers, one heck, seven bousing stones...The bowsing-stones are thin flags about 4 feet broad by 4½ feet long, set upon their edges, and which serve as a kind of trevice to keep the cattle separate”. These stones could separate more than cattle and the 1887 edition of Jamieson’s Dictionary gives an expression addressed to quarrelsome children: “You twa wad need a busin-stane atween ye”. A useful one for the Christmas holidays!

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

This week's Word is spoken by Katrina MacLeod

KIRN n v churn

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

“Mony mislukis may befall to the kirneing of butter”, said their Lordships in the High Court of Justiciary in 1629. Judges are unlikely to have had hands-on experience at the kirn but there were many court cases where witchcraft was alleged as the reason for failures in the dairy. According to John Spence in Shetland Folk-Lore (1899) “Johnsmas was the season when witchcraft was most dreaded, and persons skilled in the black art deprived their neighbours of the profit of their milk and butter...by such simple means as stepping over a cow’s tether, plucking a handful of grass off the byre wall, or crossing a woman’s path when on her way to milk the cows”. “Ane report...of Kaithrein Makteiris kirning … quhen scho maid buttir quhen vtheris could not” in Dundonald Parish Records (1602) suggests that she may have been giving herself an unfair advantage. Nevertheless, superstitions work both ways and according to a 1624 quotation from the Miscellany of the Abbotsford Club you should “cast the hair in the kirne, and say thryse, Cum butter, cum”. An Orkney precaution comes from John Firth’s Reminiscences of an Orkney Parish (1922): “The housewife, as she plunged the kirn staff in the deep “plout-kirn”, made a circuit at regular intervals round the kirn, occasionally waving one hand in an outward direction to keep these mischievous spirits away”. A plout-kirn is an upright churn, worked by a plunger.

Proverbial advice concerning kirns and bad habits comes from Carmichael’s Collection (1628) “I will learne yow ane other use, nor wasch your feit in the kirne”. Kelly’s Collection (1721) gives another, “It is eith (easy) to learn the Cat to the Kirn”, also cited by Scott in The Monastery (1820) as “I see it is ill done to teach the cat the way to the kirn”.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Katrina MacLeod

REDD v n tidy up

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

One definition for the verb in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue will ring a bell with anyone who has the reddin o a teenager’s bedroom: “To clear (a space, or a passage) a. by removal of debris, undergrowth or other encumbrances, b. by striking down antagonists, or causing them to move out of the way”. In earlier usages, redd was used in the context of clearing land of rubble as in The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland by Androw of Wyntoun (1420): “Thare he begowth (began) to red a grownd Quhare that he thowcht a kyrk to fownd”. A Sermon Preached at the Kirk of Auldhamstocks in 1690 gives sound DIY advice: “When an old ruinous house is about to be repaired, the first piece of work is to remove the heaps of redd and rubbish”. Cleanliness in Glasgow is evidenced in the Burgh Records (1652) which “caus everie heretour (property owner) pay ... for removeing away of his awne red and rubisch”. We find an early reference to landfill in the Edinburgh Burgh Records of 1610-11 in which Laurence Porter was engaged “to skaill the townis red vpoun the hillis”. People could also be cleared away. In The Acts of the Lords of Council in Civil Causes (1501) it is recorded that “the sadis landis to be frelye red of the sade Jhone his servandis and gudis at ... Witsounday”. Hew Ainslie in A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns. (1822) uses it in the sense of to save: “O stood there e'er a braver Knight To redd a hail countrie?”. To redd a fire is to extinguish it. Over the years, to redd has meant to refurbish, to regulate affairs, to settle bills, to round up animals or to tidy up generally. Ramsay’s Proverbs (1736) commend redding: “Fools ravel and wise men redd”.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Katrina MacLeod

THRISSEL n a thistle

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In anticipation of St Andrew's Day, this sober woman looks at a thistle. The plant appears in accounts for heraldic embroidery and metalwork from the late fifteenth century and makes an early symbolic appearance in Scottish literature in William Dunbar's poem, The Thrissel and the Rose, composed in honour of the marriage of King James IV to Margaret, daughter of England's Henry VII. One interpretation of the symbolism is given in The Journal of Thomas Cuningham of Campvere (1640): "The thrissel crouwned signifyeth the kingdome of Scotland; ... the thrissel decoring the sword signifyeth that the honour of a king standeth in his subjects". The thrissel was not universally revered. The Edinburgh Dean of Guild Court revenue accounts (1582) describe "thrissillis, houmloikis, neittillis and vtheir vnprofitable weidis". Happily, James VI quotes a proverb in his Basilicon Doron (1598): "The asse...uill be faine of thristillis".

Cows are also appreciative: "Sic lips sic lettouse, quo the kw eating thrissils", is another proverb in Carmichael's collection (1628), which also affords the well known saying "A gangand fute is ay gettand and it were a thrissel". The thistle has long had a place in our coinage. The Register of the Privy Council in 1578 decreed "That the lauchfull and trew cunyie may be markit with a crownit thrussill". In their records of 1590-91 we read about "the thrissill noble" which should contain 200 oz of "utter fyne gold". "The thrisle crowne called the four merk peece" is described in the Records of the Coinage of Scotland by R. W. Cochran-Partick. There was even a silver penny known as the "Marie ryall", which the Register of the Privy Council says has "ane thirsill on ilk syde". Whatever the value of the thistle, real or symbolic, may the words of Alexander Smart's Rambling Rhymes ring true: "I trow auld Scotland's burrie thristle Has never lost ae single bristle".

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

This week's Word is spoken by Dr Dauvit Horsbroch.

POOCH, POUCH n a pocket

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This word of French origin has been around in Scots since at least the sixteenth century. It appears earlier in English but in the sense of a bag rather than a receptacle built into a garment. The Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland (1580) have an entry for 'Ane eln of burge satyn tobe putchis to his maiesties hoise'. By the seventeenth century, pockets were being picked and in the Rothesay Burgh Records (1659) it is alleged that 'Katherin Lamount haid putt hir hand in his pouche and tukin out moneyis furthe thairof'. She might have been surprised if she had been plying her felonious trade in Kirkintilloch where, according to the Burgh Court Records (1673), whingers (short swords) were carried in pooches: 'No man sould take it [a whinger] out of his putch that night'. A more convenient weapon to carry thus is described in The Register of the Privy Council (1628) 'A new sort of pistolett callit powtche pistoletts'. More peaceably in Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd (1725): 'He buys some Books And carries ay a Poutchfu' to the Hill'. Predicable contents are demonstrated in John Galt's Sir Andrew Wylie (1822): 'A carle that daunered about the doors wi' his hands in his pouches and took them out at meal-time'. In David Grant's Chronicles of Keckleton. (1888) a watch is praised: 'She's keepit time for me for the best pairt o' sixty years...I think ye'll find her weel worth pouch-room for some years yet'. Unexpected but still useful contents appear in Peace's Orkney Almanac (1929): 'I keep da bit o breek here i' me pooch tae dicht my specs'. On a happy note, if someone is said to lauch like a pooch on pey-day, they are laughing heartily with an open mouth like the gape of a pocket stuffed with money.

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

This week's Word is spoken by Dr Dauvit Horsbroch.

GLACK n a hollow

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

GLACK n a hollow

Older Scots has a glak as a deep glen. In Gaelic, ‘glac’ has several senses which reflect later Scots usage: the palm of the hand, a handful, a hollow; a valley. We find it in Andrew Wight’s pleasing description on the Present State of Husbandry in Scotland (1784): “The seat of Mr Tytler of Woodhouselie is romantic, situated in a glack of Pentland hills, with a south exposure”. Less salubrious in mood is a quotation from George Beattie’s Drama of John o’ Arnha (1826) about “orgies in Saint Martin’s Den; Deep i’ the glack, and round the well”. It is used for an open corner of a wood, a narrow road between woods or a gap in a hedge or dyke. Some senses seem to carry the notion of bifurcation: the fork of a tree, the fork of a chimney flue or a fork in the road. It can be the angle between thumb and forefinger. This is the glack of the hand, and the receptacle formed by the thumb and the tips of the fingers is known as a glackel. A Scots speaker from Aberdeen (1925) told the editors of the Scottish National Dictionary about an old man making tea “and when asked how much he put in the teapot he replied ‘A glackelfu’”. A glack itself could be a small quantity of food or a hasty snack. Alexander. Ross in Helenore (1768) describes how “Nory ...Took frae her pouch a glack of bread an’ cheese.” Also as a measure, a glack was as much grain as a reaper could hold in his hand, before laying down in order to be bound. Illustrating this is a quotation from the Brechin Advertiser (1892) “But fat’s a glack? It’s the fu’ o’ yer nieve, It taks three or four to mak up a sheaf”.

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

This week's word is spoken by Sheena Blackhall from Aberdeen.

CRUISIE n an iron oil lamp

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A cruisie is not a diminutive ocean voyage but an old-fashioned iron lamp, typically with a rush wick, although strips of cloth were also used. One typr described in the Dictionary of the Scots Language was formed of two boat-shaped bowls placed one above the other and attached to a bar suspended from a nail in the wall. Oil, originally fish or whale oil, dripped from the reservoir bowl into the other. Blackwood’s Magazine (Oct 1892) describes: “a triangular metal saucer with an upright hook at the base to be hung by”. Another definition from Dumfries in the early nineteenth century describes “A sort of triangular candlestick made of iron, with one or more sockets for holding the candle, with the edges turned up on all three sides”. From Banffshire we have an account from James Taylor’s Cabrach Feerings (1920) of light for poaching salmon “given by a ‘cruisie’, an iron basket in which ‘knabs’, resinous fir roots dug out of the moss, were burned”. Whatever the cruisie’s shape or fuel, the light was welcoming. As Alexander Maclagan writes in Sketches from Nature (1851): “The ingle cheek is bleezin’ bricht, The croozie sheds a cheerfu’ licht”. A cruisie provides a guiding light in W. D. Latto’s Tammas Bodkin (1864): “My mither had agreed wi’ him to place the cruzie in the gavel winnock to guide him through the mire.” It could even provide light to work: “Thrashing in the barn with flails by the light of the cruizie”, as recalled by James Ormond in Orkney 80 Years Ago (1912).

With origins in Latin ‘crucibulum’, it appears in Old French as a ‘creuset’ (crucible) and ‘croiseul’ (lamp). Middle Dutch also has a hanging lamp called a ‘kruysel’. Interestingly, cruisie also appears in Scots as a crucible for melting lead for making shot.

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

This week's word is spoken by Sheena Blackhall from Aberdeen.