Word of the week

• sourocks n. a general name for various kinds of sorrel; a sulky person
• begrutten adj. tear-stained, sorrowful
• scart v. scratch, scrape with the nails, claws; mark with a scratch etc
• jink v. turn quickly, move or dodge nimbly; evade, elude

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sourocks n. a general name for various kinds of sorrel; a sulky person

“sourocks n. a general name for various kinds of sorrel; a sulky person”

23rd June 2008

Sourocks is first recorded in Scots sources dating from the fifteenth century, where it denotes the plant, sorrel. In his poem, Sum Practysis of Medecyne’, medieval makar Robert Henryson describes "Ane medecyne for the maw (mouth)... With sueit satlingis (sediment from wine) and sowrokis". Early evidence of sourocks as a cooking ingredient is found in the Inventory and Account Book of Lord Buccleuch. On November 22nd, 1631, the account book includes expenses incurred "For suwrocks to stoue (stew) a hen with".

The word appears to be a diminutive form of ‘sour’, which in Scots rhymes with ‘tour’ and is sometimes spelled ‘soor’, as in ‘soor plooms’, a variety of boiled sweets. There are similar words in other Germanic languages, including Middle Dutch zuric and Middle Low German sureke, so it is unclear whether sourocks is a Scots construction or a borrowing from abroad. A further possible influence on the etymology is the English term sour dock, which has been used for the common sorrel since the Middle Ages.

Everyday terms for plants often refer to more than one species, and sourocks is no exception. Quotations in the Dictionary of the Scots Language show that sourocks can be the common sorrel, sheep’s sorrel or wood sorrel. Like many herbs, the plant has had several uses over the centuries, and is widely known throughout Scotland. William Anderson Smith notes in his book, Lewsiana; or Life in the Outer Hebrides (1875), that "Dyes are ... easily procured. … Besides the common mordant, they use ‘sooriks’ (wood sorrel) with blue and black".

Sourocks is also used to describe someone in a sour frame of mind, as illustrated in this Blackwood’s Magazine quotation (1822): "Your mouth ony time I see’t, is either wide open ... or as fast as a vice, in a dour fit of the sourocks".