BING n, v heap, pile

The word ‘bing’ comes from Old Norse ‘bingr’. Many things can be piled into a bing. In the early sixteenth Gavin Douglas used it in the context of a funeral pile. In the twentieth century hot bings could still be found in central Scotland. These were slag heaps from coal mines, of which a few, like the one at Polkemmet, smouldered for years, emitting smoke and bad smells. The shale bings of West Lothian are quite a different matter. These red, man-made mountains, lasting memorials of Paraffin Young and the shale oil industry, have a strange lunar beauty and, in an evening light, rival Ayre’s rock as dramatic scenery. Not all bings are waste matter. The Dictionary of the Scots Language provides evidence for a “mekill byng of quhete (wheat)”, again from Gavin Douglas. William Tarras in 1804 pictures a pile of money: “Singin upo’ the verdant plain, . . . Ye’ll bing up siller o’ yir ain”. Sarah Tytler in Miss Nanse (1899) describes “a post-chaise at the door with two old gentlemen inside, and the top of the chaise just binged with luggage”. Thomas Aird’s Old Bachelor (1845) could be content: “His stackyard has just been thatched and his potatoes binged”. This diversity led to ‘bing’ meaning a large number of anything. There is jist a hale bing o uses for the word. One modern use that harks back to the bing as a scrap heap, however, is revealed in this quotation from William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw (1985) “‘How did the horses go for ye the day then, John?’ ‘Backwards. Bingers galore.’” Finally, the Transactions of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society (1880) explains a picturesque place-name for “The breeding place once occupied by the Cormorants, and still known as the ‘Cormorants’ Roost’ or ‘Doucker’s Bing.’”

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.

This week's Word is spoken by Roseanna Cunningham MSP.