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Learning in Literature

scribe n. a crab-apple

Categorised in:
“scribe n. a crab-apple”

22nd October 2007

Scribe recently came to my attention thanks to some interesting correspondence on the subject of Ayrshire words. Although this word is still in use, it is a comparatively rare visitor to published texts, and in such cases local knowledge is invaluable to the work of the dictionary-maker. Written evidence includes the following from The Scottish Naturalist, a late nineteenth-century periodical: "In Ayrshire we find the Crab-apple called the Scribe-tree". Another example occurs in a work written 1921 by Alex Murdoch on Ochiltree, Its History and Reminiscences: "The boys of the village soon came to know where were to be found the best 'scribes'". At present, however, this quotation is the most recent written example we know, so we would be delighted to hear from anyone who can alert us to further examples, in materials composed or published after 1921.
Scribe is related to the word scrab, also meaning a crab-apple, and "wild scrabbis and other frutis large" can be found in Gavin Douglas's early sixteenth-century translation of Virgil's Aeneid. The existence of similar words in dialectal Swedish suggests a Scandinavian origin for scribe and scrab. Crab-apples, and their trees, are also known in parts of the Scottish Borders as scroggs or scroges, although this word originally referred to low-growing trees and shrubs. Berwickshire poet Robert Calder wrote of "The scrogg tree in the meadow" in the late nineteenth century, and an article in the Hawick Express in 1965 mentioned people gathering "hines (raspberries), blaeberries and scroggs".
Scribes and scroggs are relatively uncommon in twentieth and twenty-first century texts, so modern evidence on the use of these words for crab-apples would be of particular interest to us. We are also keen to encourage volunteers to contribute to our Reading Scheme, so if you have some spare time and would like to make a difference to the future of Scots dictionaries, please get in touch.