Word of the week

• swither v. be uncertain about what to do or choose, doubt, hesitate, dither
• peevers n. the game of hopscotch
• breenge n. a violent or clumsy rush, a dash, a plunge
• airt n. point of the compass, direction; way, manner
• cundy n. a covered drain, the entrance to a drain; a tunnel, passage

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

airt n. point of the compass, direction; way, manner

“airt n. point of the compass, direction; way, manner”

9th July 2007

Airt is perhaps more often encountered in literature than in everyday speech, yet poetic references such as Robert Burn's 'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly like the west', keep such words alive in our cultural consciousness. Airt is found in Scottish literature dating back to the fifteenth century, including a passage from Blind Harry's Wallace, in which William Wallace laments that 'Our kyne ar slayne, ... And othir worthi mony in that art'. Of a similar date is the text known as the Wisdom of Solomon (c1460), which provides a somewhat outdated view of the workings of our solar system: 'The sonne ... serclis (circles) the erd (earth) about all artis anis euery day'.

Airt is a borrowing from Scottish Gaelic, and also appears in some northern Middle English texts, indicating contact with Irish Gaelic speakers. The Celtic contribution to Scots and English has often been underestimated, largely because few Celticists worked on the major historical dictionaries, but increasingly, etymologists are recognising the need to look to northern and western airts to find the answers to linguistic puzzles. For example, 'tod' meaning 'a fox' has for many years been relegated to the no-man's-land of 'origin unknown', but a recent plausible argument for its derivation from an Irish word meaning 'thief' may help resolve the question of its background.
In more recent times, airt has appeared in Scots poetry, such as Tom Hubbard's Isolde's Luve-Daith (1998): 'We hae come faur, Fae exile throu the warlt's ilka airt', and in occasional journalistic puns as well. In 1989, according to an article in the Scotsman, Glasgow was 'ready to flourish through a culture shock from a' the airts and arts'. And whatever direction the arts take in coming years, we can be sure that Scotland's languages will have a number of important roles to play