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Learning in Literature

begrutten adj. tear-stained, sorrowful

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“begrutten adj. tear-stained, sorrowful”

16th June 2008

Begrutten is derived from the Scots word greet "cry, weep", which has the past participle form grutten, often used as an adjective meaning "tear-stained". Examples of the word are found in many different texts including Charles Murray’s collection of poems, The Sough o’ War (1917): "Wi’ apron neuks the lasses dicht Their weary grutten een". In begrutten, the be- prefix has the effect of intensifying the meaning, just as it does in such words as bedazzle. Words formed with this prefix were much more frequently used at earlier periods in time, but terms like bemartyr, bemuzzle, beshiver and besqueeze have now fallen out of use.

The earliest known example of begrutten is found in an early seventeenth-century religious text written by John Colville, in a reference to "ardent and all begrouttin eyes". It seems to have been a very rare word prior to the modern Scots period. Begrutten (in various spellings) occurs more frequently in later literary texts. It is represented in the works of the eighteenth-century Scots Vernacular Revivalists, including Allan Ramsay’s poem, Kate and Susan: A Pastoral to the Memory of John Gay, Esquire: "What’s aills you that ye dinna laugh With usual glee? Ye’re a’ begrutten and look baugh; I’m wae to s’ye". The word is also used quite frequently by John Galt in his novels. In The Annals of the Parish (1821), Galt writes: "when Charlie was to go away ... I met him just coming from his mother’s door, as blithe as a bee, in his sailor’s dress, ... his two little brothers were with him, and his sisters, Kate and Effie, looking out from the door all begreeten".

Although its use has since declined in literature, the word is still current. An Edinburgh informant provided a contemporary illustration which was added to our online Supplement in 2005: "She was aw begrutten an her cheeks were covered in mascara".