Word of the week

• Hoast n., v. a cough, to cough
• Droukit past participle drenched, soaked.
• Wifie n. a woman.
• SLAP n. a gap in a wall etc.
• HAP v. to cover, to wrap up.
• CREESH n., v. grease
• Kittle v. to tickle, to stimulate; adj. apt, problematic.
• Unco adjective, adverb, noun strange, unfamiliar; extremely; a marvel.
• JAW n. a wave, a rush of water; v. to pour
• Haiver, haver v. To talk fooolishly; n. nonsense, a person who talks nonsense.

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hamesucken n. (the crime of committing) an assault upon a person in his or her house

“hamesucken n. (the crime of committing) an assault upon a person in his or her house”

1st September 2008

hamesucken

Hamesucken is a term that is deeply embedded in Scots law and has been in use throughout the entire history of the language. It derives from Old English hamsocn and Old Norse heimsokn, both of which have the literal meaning ‘home attack’. After making a brief appearance in Middle English texts, the term died out south of the Border, though it has remained in use in Scotland until the present day. According to historical records, a William Cokburne was convicted of “the hamesukin done to Robert Sleich” in 1493 and in 1669, one Mungo Murray was “indyted for the cryme of hemsucken”. The penalty was often death.

Readers of Sir Walter Scott’s novels may recall the assault on a Mr Peebles by a Mr Plainstanes in Redgauntlet (1824): “when I had the good luck to provoke him to pull my nose at the very threshold of the court, … Old Pest was for making it out hamesucken, for he said the court might be said--said--ugh!--to be my dwelling-place. I dwell mair there than ony gate else, and the essence of hamesucken is to strike a man in his dwelling-place”.

The word still crops up in legal contexts. In 2006, during a case that came up before the Appeal Court, an attack on a man in his own home was described as “assault or hamesucken”. In the report of another case, in 1994, it was noted that hamesucken was traditionally defined as “a violent assault upon a person in his own dwelling, the dwelling having been entered for that purpose. It was a capital offence at common law, but the practice now is to treat such an assault as aggravated by the housebreaking”.