BRAT n apron, rags

Brat used to be a common word but is now rarely heard. It comes from an Old Northumbrian loanword of Celtic origins meaning a cloak. Robert Henryson at the end of the fifteenth century used it to mean ragged clothes contrasting with braws: “Now gownis gay, now bratis laid in pres”. We find it used by Allan Ramsay’s Poems (1721): for clothes in general in this description of unruly behaviour: “They’ll rive ye’r Brats and kick your Doup And play the Deel” and again by John Galt in The Ayrshire Legatees (1821): “Her bits of brats are sairly worn, though she keeps out an apparition of gentility”. In a collection of anecdotes entitled The Laird of Logan (1837), it means a shepherd’s plaid, which suffers a mishap: “I sat as near the organ as I could get, and as they were turnin’ round the wheel, the teeth o’t grippit my plaid, and ere I could say ‘stop your bumming’ my braw brattie was out o’ sicht”. Shepherds also used brat in another context. Henry Stephens in The Book of the Farm (1844) explains: “Tup-hoggs are never allowed to serve ewes or gimmers, not having attained maturity...To prevent him effectually from serving a ewe, a piece of cloth named a brat, or apron, is sewed to the wool below his belly”. A further meaning is scum or skin such as may be found on porridge or milk. In the sense of aprons it may refer to a child’s pinafore, a housewife’s peenie, a hessian apron worn by female manual workers, or a shoemaker’s leather apron. Some employees might like to emulate this example from Hugh Roberton’s Curdies (1931) “I thocht I was entitled to a rise. So I dichts my face wi’ my bratt, an’ I sails up to the boss”.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk

This week's word is read by Avril Nicoll of the Scots Language Centre.