Frush is ultimately from a Latin verb meaning to shiver into pieces, and the verb frusch appears in the Dictionary of the Scots Language (www.dsl.ac.uk) as early as the 14th century, in John Barbour’s The Brus (1375): “The hand ax schaft fruschit in twa”. 

The adjective is later and has various applications.  Used of wood or anything fibrous, its meaning is clearly stated by Sir Walter Scott in a letter of 1802: “I have never formally pleaded guilty to the misinterpretation of the word frush. It is certainly brittle”. In The Laird of Logan (1854) we read that “Banes in frosty weather are said to be frush and easily snapped”, and John Galt in The Annals of the Parish (1821) refers to roof sarking as “as frush as a puddock stool [a toadstool]”. 

Of soil, frush means friable or loose, and bakery described as frush is crumbly, short or crisp.  This was obviously a good thing, as shown by this from Galloway Gossip Sixty Years Ago by ‘Saxon’ (1877): “Baking soda … was grand to put into bread to make it frush”, and this from Christina Fraser’s Glints o’ Glengonner (1910): “Big farrels [three-cornered pieces of oatcake] and wee farrels, thick anes wi’ dreepin’ in them to mak’ them frush and easy to chow”. Hence the noun frushie, a kind of short pastry tart, as mentioned in a letter dated 1855 from Renfrewshire: “[We] have had several bakings … shortbread, tarts and frushies”.

Used figuratively, frush can mean fragile, frail or easily destroyed, as in the pessimistic “That married joys are very frush Can’t be denied” from Robert Wilson’s Poems (1822). Frush could also mean bold or rash, as in this from William Edwards’ A Collection of Poems: “But frush wi’ … bleezin’ zeal, They think themsels sae right”.

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 mail@scotsdictionaries.org.uk. For £20 you can sponsor a Scots word.