Word of the week

• hunner, hunder num. (one) hundred; hundredth
• vennel n. a narrow alley or lane between houses
• joco adj. merry, cheerful, contented, pleased with oneself

Words by month

• Oct 2008
• Sep 2008
• Aug 2008
• Jul 2008
• Jun 2008
• May 2008
• Apr 2008
• Mar 2008
• Feb 2008
• Jan 2008
• Dec 2007
• Nov 2007
• Oct 2007
• Sep 2007
• Aug 2007
• Jul 2007
• Jun 2007
• May 2007
• Apr 2007
• Mar 2007
• Feb 2007
• Jan 2007
• Dec 2006
• Nov 2006
• Oct 2006
• Sep 2006
• Aug 2006
• Jul 2006
• Jun 2006
• May 2006
• Apr 2006
• Mar 2006
• Feb 2006
• Jan 2006

Sponsored by

Supporters of

joco adj. merry, cheerful, contented, pleased with oneself

“joco adj. merry, cheerful, contented, pleased with oneself ”

9th May 2007

Joco, which rhymes with 'below', will most certainly apply to some in the aftermath of recent elections. According to George Watson's Roxburghshire Word-Book (1923), it is 'often said of persons exhilarated by drink' and we find this usage in J. Service's Dr Duguid (1887): 'Getting a hue of toddy when we gaed hame to the hottle, we were quite joco owre the auld-time cracks'.
Being joco with someone could provoke suspicion, as in the following from the collected Buchan writings in Swatches o' Hamespun (1924): 'You twa are unco joco; fat's on the go? ... Annie has promised to be my wife'. But more often it indicates that someone feels at ease about a situation, as in Neil Munro's tale of Para Handy's Wedding (1906): 'No, no, herself here -- Mery, can keep the shop or leave it, chust ass it pleases hersel', it's aal wan to me; I'm quite joco'.
Although shortened from jocose 'full of jokes, playful', the word joco has taken on a range of meanings rather different from that of its parent. It first appears in written sources in the late nineteenth century and is still found in modern Scots. Glasgow University's Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech includes Robert Fairnie's A Wee Scran o Herrin (2001), in which we read: 'They daled the siller oot atween thaim an gaed hame richt joco, the baith o thaim wi a tanner in his pooch, an juist in time for denner'. Another example occurs in David Purves' The Reid Bul o Norroway (2001): 'awbodie wes even mair joco nor afore, an gret wes the lauchin an daffin that gaed on'. The word is relatively rare in Scottish newspapers, though a recent Sunday Post charity quiz posed the question 'if you're "joco" are you happy, sad or afraid?' Winners were no doubt very joco.