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Learning in Literature

laldie n. a beating, punishment; gie it laldie do something vigorously

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“laldie n. a beating, punishment; gie it laldie do something vigorously ”

12th March 2007

Laldie is one of the rare words that has acquired a more positive meaning during its evolution. Its origins are uncertain, though it may be connected with an Old English word læl meaning 'whip' or 'bruise'. The word first appears on record in the nineteenth century, often in the context of an impending threat of punishment or violence. A typical example occurs in H. Johnston's Glenbuckie (1889): 'If it had come to the maister's ears I'm thinking ye would have got laldie'.

Over time, the original sense of 'beating' has given way to other senses involving enthusiasm and vigour, as in this example recorded by the Scottish National Dictionary in 1958: 'The pair o' them were dancin, and were they no giein it laldie!' A quotation from the Sunday Post from 1974 describes how 'some bairns were giving it laldy with ball and stick' and last December, the Aberdeen Press and Journal reported that the Scots Traditional Music Awards provided a good opportunity to see 'the finest o oor young bands, singers an instrumentalists, geein it laldie'.

That said, it is still possible to find examples of the former sense. In a recent Daily Mail article, a woman reacted to a commentator whose views she strongly disagreed with, or, as the paper put it, 'she gave him laldy in a letter'. In Andrina Connell's short story, Took Fur a Ride, published in The People's Friend (1996), and now part of Glasgow University's online Scots Corpus, we find another figurative expression: 'A wunnert if A'd taken wan o thae serialized hemrages. Naw. A reckon it wiznae that. Bit ther wiz a wee man gein it laldy wi a big hammer inside ma heid'. Although well known, words like laldy don't often appear in print, so we would be very interested to hear of further written examples you may have encountered.