NIFFER n, v barter, exchange

Niffer can be a noun or a verb. Commercial dealings throw light on the workings of society and many of the niffers recorded in the dictionary bring back a bygone age. Most in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue concern horse and cattle trading. If a straight exchange could not be made, the fifteenth century Burgh Laws set down that the ‘buit’ of a niffer was an amount added to make the exchange equal on both side. The fishwife with her creel was once a familiar sight, recalled in a quotation from the People’s Journal (1961): “She niffert some o’ her fish for hame-made cheese an’ butter fae the farmers’ wives”. Of those who drove a shrewd bargain they might be said in the words of John Buchan in Witch Wood (1927) to be, “As keen at a niffer as a Musselburgh wabster”. Some exchanges were less wisely made, like this one described by W. D. Cocker in a poem of 1932: “He has niffer’d his sark wi’ the bogle, His breeks, coat an’ bunnet forby”. It’s weel kent , at least by readers of  A. Hislop’s Proverbs (1862), “He’s fond o’ barter that niffers wi’ Auld Nick”. Expressions for not closing a bargain can be inventive. In J. B. Salmond’s Bawbee Bowden (1894) the reluctant dealer declares “I wudna neefer’t for a brass band”. However, when a bargain is concluded, various rituals may by required. The same source explains “When we made a niffer o’ onything, we wisna feenished till we touched oor heids an’ oor tae caps an’ something made o’ wid”. Niffer for niffer, or like for like, is suggested in George Macdonald’s Sir Gibbie (1879) with some justification: “Gien bein’ a minister gies the freedom o’ puir fowk’s hooses, it oucht in the niffer to gie him the freedom o’ his”.

Scots Word of the Week is written by Chris Robinson of Scottish Language Dictionaries.
This week's Word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbroch.