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

Words by month

• Dec 2008
• Nov 2008
• 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

scart v. scratch, scrape with the nails, claws; mark with a scratch etc

“scart v. scratch, scrape with the nails, claws; mark with a scratch etc”

9th June 2008

Scart is recorded in Scots texts dating back to the fourteenth century and is derived from the Middle English word scrat, which may be of Scandinavian origin. Scots scart first appears on record in such sources as John Barbour’s Legends of the Saints (1380) — in one instance, a woman tore her hair and "skartyt hir face" when separated from her foster-son.

Many Scots words have a very long history, with the result that some phrases in medieval texts are not all that obscure to the modern Scots reader. The following comment about the "auld carle" in William Dunbar’s poem, The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo, is a case in point: "To se him scart his awin skyn grit scunner I think". Other creatures that may be observed scartin (baith thirsels an the groun) include "The modiwart (mole) … Quho (who) fast the eirth culd scraip and scart" in John Burel’s The Passage of the Pilgremer (1590).

Scartin can refer to forms of engraving or incising, though as the quotations in the Dictionary of the Scots Language www.dsl.ac.uk show, such activities are not always welcome. In John Galt’s novel, The Entail (1822), a good mahogany table is "scartit and dintit" and in Gabriel Setoun’s novel, Robert Urquhart (1896), it is remarked that: "We maun a’ scart our names on something; an’ there’s less harmless ways than on dead rocks".

Gordon Fraser’s Lowland Lore (1880), describes such phrases as: " ‘Ye’ll scart a beggar’s houghs yet’ … spoken prophetically of any one displaying extravagant propensities". Other pithy sayings include "I’ll gar (make) you scart where you youk not (where you don’t itch)", meaning roughly "I’ll make you regret that". The poet Allan Ramsay’s Collection of Scots Proverbs (1736) provides another: "Biting and scarting is Scots fowk’s wooing".