Word of the week

• keek v. peep, glance, watch surreptitiously, etc.
• limmer n. term of contempt (for a woman); rascal, rogue, etc
• hunker doon v. crouch, squat down; submit, resign oneself; shelter etc
• guddle v. catch fish with your hands; prod, poke; mess about; work untidily

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limmer n. term of contempt (for a woman); rascal, rogue, etc

“limmer n. term of contempt (for a woman); rascal, rogue, etc”

17th March 2008

Limmer has been used as a term of contempt for both men and women of various ages, but it was more often applied to men until around the eighteenth century. In John Bellenden’s translation of Hector Boece’s Chronicles of Scotland (1531), mention is made of one “Lord Dane, quhilk is now takin for ane idill limmer that seikis his leving on othir mennis laubouris”. Some limmers perpetrated more serious crimes, ranging from petty theft to arson and murder. There are also occasional early examples of the term being used of women, including one from local records in Culross (1649) which proclaimed “Bessie Mackie, a vile, wicked, godless limmer, to be banished the congregation”.

Since 1700, however, the term has been increasingly used of women, especially those deemed of “disreputable character”. The parish records of the Wigtown Kirk Session noted that “The said James prayed the said Helen to pull that limmer, viz. Agnes Stewart, out of the bed from Kinslay” in 1724. Although often implying some sort of roguish, exasperating or downright malevolent behaviour, the word does not necessarily imply sexual misconduct when used of women. In C. M. Costie’s Orkney tale, Benjie’s Bodle (1956), “The hirdie boy’s mither … wis a gey mischief-maakin’ aald limmer”.

Limmer may be related to Older Scots lim (limb) “part of the body; arm or leg”, recorded as early as the fourteenth century in such phrases as “the devilis lyme”, meaning an agent or follower of the devil, a wicked reprobate. Similar phrases are found in English texts, and from the seventeenth century onwards, there are examples of English limb being used colloquially of a rascal. In Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838), Bill Sykes addresses Oliver as “you young limb”. Scots limmer has been used of mischievous children since the eighteenth century.