Ultimately derived from Old Norse, wale has a long history - the earliest examples in the Dictionary of the Scots Language (www.dsl.ac.uk) date from the 14th century.  A couple of centuries later, we read the following, from Sir David Lindsay’s Historie and Testament of Squyer Meldrum: “Of uenisoun he had his waill, Gude aquavite, wyne, and aill” (c1550) describing someone who had his pick of the good things to eat and drink.  

Wale often refers to picking out the best from what’s available.  For example, in the 1552 Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, there is a record of a payment of “v s” [five shillings] “To the paynter that walit the culloris”, and there is reference in the Muniments of the Royal Burgh of Irvine (c1656) to “Nyne dealls [planks of wood] which they wailed from amongst the rest”.

Wale has been in use up to modern times too.  In 1993 we have this quotation from Aberdeen: “Ye aye wyle e biggest een, divn’t ye?”, and in Sheena Blackhall’s Wittgenstein’s Web (1996) we read of one Bunty Strachan, “fa cud hae wyled her pick o the loons fur miles aroon, hid she nae bin sae sweir [disinclined, lazy] tae pick a lad”.

Wale also appears in various phrases.   The wale o someone is a person’s equal, as in “There was never the wale of him sinsyne” from Stevenson’s Catriona (1893).  The wyle warst is the worst of the lot, the very worst; and to wale by is to put aside a selection, as in “Bannocks and kebbocks … She had wiled by”.  And to wale one’s feet is to pick one’s way or step forward with caution, as in this from The Misty Morning (Anon., 1857): “Walin’ his feet like a flae on a mangy dog rubbet wi’ brumstane”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Ann Ferguson of Scottish Language Dictionaries