Derived from Older Scots lete, meaning to declare, avow or pretend, leet has various senses. The ‘pretend’ meaning is exemplified in this example from Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1808): “He’s no sa daft as he leets”.  

More generally, it can mean to give a sign that one knows or is taking notice, to heed, pay attention to, regard, or listen to.  Thus we find the following examples in the Dictionary of the Scots language (www.dsl.ac.uk): “This teel [tale] cam’ at last tae the leetan lugs o’ Mr. Rankin”, from Benjie’s Bodle by C M Costie (1956); “She never leeted after me Mair than I had been a caird” from A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns by Hew Ainslie (1822); and “Oh, never leyt ’boot time an’ hoo it flees!” from the John o’ Groat Journal (1930).  Still in use in modern times, this sense is also shown in the following quotation from Aberdeen in 1993: “I cut ma finger bit nivver leet, it's nae sair”. 

Meaning to esteem, or consider, it appears in Robert Wilson’s Poems (1822): “To buirdly chields [strapping boys] they only hecht [offer] Four pounds forbye their vittle, Wha grummle sair at sic a sight, An’ leit it far owre little”.

In the sense to make mention, pass on information, or let out (e.g. a secret), it is used by W D Latto in Tammas Bodkin (1864): “Never leet that I was i’ the garret!” and by George Blaik in Rustic Rhymes (1916): “An’ some had planned, tho’ didna leet”.

Finally, on a slightly unsavoury note, leet can also refer to physical leaks, meaning to ooze or drip out slowly, usually of pus or the like.  And from this meaning, leet as a noun is described as “an unseemly mass of a liquid or semi-liquid substance”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Ann Ferguson of Scottish Language Dictionaries www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk, 25 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN (0131) 650 4149