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Learning in Literature

ajee adv. to one side, off the straight; ajar, partly open

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“ajee adv. to one side, off the straight; ajar, partly open”

12th November 2007

Ajee or agee often describes a literal or figurative deviation from a direct path, as in the following quotation from a verse by Nellie Watson in Memories and Reflections: An East Neuk Anthology (1994): "They baith wid tell ye what was richt, And ne'er tae tell a lee, They walked the 'straight and narrow way', And never gaed agee". In other contexts, ajee can also describe something half-closed or at an angle, as in this example from Ellie McDonald's The Gangan Fuit (1991): "lave the casement o the muckle chaumer winnock ajee an the muin'll shine in owre".
Ajee first appears in seventeenth-century Scottish sources and is derived from the Scots verb jee, which has a range of meanings including swerve, move to and fro, move from a stationary position, or alter position. It appears to have some connection with the interjection jee, used to instruct a horse to turn or to move forward or faster, as in modern English gee-up. This usage is first recorded in seventeenth-century English sources and only later appears in Scots. As a verb of movement, however, jee does not appear in English texts until the nineteenth century, although occurring in Scottish eighteenth-century sources such as Allan Ramsay's poem Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (1721): "Our Fancies jee between you twae, Ye are sic bonny Lasses".
Something left in an irregular position may be a deliberate signal to others, as in Robert Burns' Whistle an I'll Come To Ye, My Lad (1793): "But warily tent (pay attention) when ye come to court me, And Come nae unless the back-yett (gate) be a-jee". That said, something described as being ajee may instead be disordered or disturbed, a usage illustrated by Sir Walter Scott in Old Mortality (1816): "His brain was awee agee, but he was a braw preacher for a' that".