Stuckie
Stuckie is the common Scots name for the starling. Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) records a colourful example from Peter Mason’s C’mon Geeze yer Patter (1987):
“Glesca’s pure hoachin wi stuckies”.
There are more poetical examples too, as in the following from Raymond Vettese’s The Richt Noise (1988):
“And there’s birds: the mavis, the spug, the corbie, the stuckie, the greenlintie, the bullie, e’en a gow”.
And in another citation from 1997 in Duncan Glen’s Seventeen Poems:
“And the speugies and stookies and craws - and blackies e'en. And waws to sclim to fields for shootin foxes - ae fox - and maukins and rats”
In a recollection from childhood, a writer in the Herald of June 2020 wrote:
“He [father] also used the Scots language names for birds, which caused me some confusion when I started reading my Observer Book of British Birds and learned that the received name for a blue dykie was actually a dunnock. Other Scots names I used for birds when I was growing up included whaup (curlew), peeweep (lapwing), kittieneedle (common sandpiper), stuckie (starling), shelffie (chaffinch), hoolet (tawny owl)”.
Stuckies make a cheeky appearance in Gregor Steele’s 2021 poem Fykie Fleein Things:
“Sam the Stuckie has a freen, Whase name is Shug the Spug, They hae their bath in a big ridd bowl, Aye scunnerin the dug.”
One of my earliest memories of Edinburgh was seeing starlings swirling around making amazing patterns in the sky above the North Bridge, in what I now know was a murmuration.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Cranachan
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) tells us that this word originates from the Gaelic for “a kind of churn” and that it was “a milk-based dish traditionally eaten at harvest-time or Halloween”. Nowadays we know it as “a dessert of whipped cream, toasted oatmeal, fruit etc.”. DSL cites an example from Catherine Brown’s Scottish Cookery (1985), where cranachan is given as an alternative name of the dessert cream crowdie:
“Unique Scottish flavours — whisky, heather honey and oatmeal combine with cream and soft fruits in this versatile creation... The ritual eating was originally a celebration of 'harvest home' when brambles and blaeberries would most likely have been used”.
Although earlier examples of cranachan the dessert have proved elusive, there is an interesting variation in the Aberdeen Press and Journal of December 1968:
“Cranachan, 2 ounces oatmeal, 2 tablespoons whisky, 1 ounce stem ginger, chopped, 1 ounce castor sugar, salt, ½ pint of double cream”.
Interesting that in the dead of winter preserved ginger is substituted for the more traditional soft fruits. However, the following substitution is given in the Belfast Telegraph of November 1978:
“Cranachan, 2 ounces coarse oatmeal, 2 tablespoons whiskey...1 tin of raspberries”.
Raspberries are now most commonly used in cranachan.
In this month comes the celebration of Robert Burns with feasting on oceans of cock-a-leekie soup, ashets full of haggis, neeps and tatties, followed in more modern times by cranachan sometimes served with shortbread on the side. Surely a lighter way to end a Burns Supper than with clootie dumplings and custard.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Pokey hat
Last Sunday was National Hat Day, so my thoughts turned to the many different hats in Scotland. At this time of year, though, perhaps a pokey hat would only be for the hardy. I refer, of course, to an ice cream cone.
The earliest citation in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) is from the Bulletin (July 1958):
“Uncle William is left to suck his pokey-hat on his own”.
Reports of a 1924 court case (Wishaw Press, July) stated being able to buy:
“Three pokey hats for two pence”.
And the Kirkintilloch Gazette recorded an illicit transaction in the same year:
“When he was about the end of the park, two or three youngsters who knew him asked for a ‘pokey hat’ … The constable warned the accused that the sale of ice cream was prohibited in the park.”.
Scots can be a continuing journey of discovery.
“… James Watson thought he had the Scots language licked - until he heard ‘pokey hat’. [He] sells them every day but didn’t know it meant an ice cream cone.”
Daily Record (March 1995).
In July 2021, a writer for The Herald observed:
“The tourists strode, pokey hat in hand, and looked upon the wonders of Campbeltown and rejoiced. At least this one did.”
We have one or two explanations of the origin, one from the Daily Record (August 1999):
“The name ‘pokey hat’ or ‘hokey pokey’ originally came from the early ice-cream vendors who peddled their wares shouting ‘ecco un poco’ - try a sample”.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https ://dsl.ac.uk.
Dub
A dub originally was any stagnant pool of water. In later use it means a puddle – often a dirty one. The origin is obscure, but the Oxford English Dictionary suggests it might have a Danish root, possibly dyb (meaning deep).
An early example in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) comes from Stevenson’s Kidnapped (1886):
“Here he must tramp in the dubs and sleep in the heather like a beggar man”.
In Charles Murray’s Hamewith of 1909, the meaning is extended to mean wet:
“Saft soughin win’s dry the dubby howe [hollow]”.
John Brewster, in New Makars (1991), gives us this poetic gem:
“Dubs glaizie wi nectar, Pocked in drouned waps [wasps]”.
Later, in 2021, Edward Chisnall draws another wonderful picture (Yer Ain, the Young Yins and the Auld Yin):
“James Watt says ‘Aye’; Black, Lister, James Clark Maxwell, they said ‘Aye’ and aw; Hume, the Hunter Brithers, Lord Kelvin, and mair; Than thare is unpollutit starlicht reflectit in a spiral; In ae muddy dub… They aw said ‘Aye’ thegither…”
These dubs, from the Press and Journal (November 2021), are clearly less picturesque though:
“Here in the village, though, we’re a’ for onything that can wheech ye awa tae an exotic location that’s nae dark an caul and far the wind blaws sharny dubs aff the fields and up yer neb”.
The last word goes to Sean Murphy, writing in the Daily Record in August 2022:
“Dubs, a wonderful wee word that refers to puddles (the kind you like to jump in with your wellies on)”.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Birse cup, Birse tea
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) a Birse cup is
“the last cup of tea, with whisky or other spirit added, usually a third cup, an extra. The expression is said to have originated in the parish of Birse. The spirit was put in instead of cream”.
The earliest example in DSL comes from the Scotsman of January 1912:
“What Birse Tea is everyone in Deeside knows ... but no one is apparently able to give me a satisfactory explanation”.
There is an earlier example from the Stonehaven Journal of November 1867:
“… the drinking was such as will now scarcely be credited. It began with a ‘cinder’ in your last cup of tea; this was the birse cup”.
The heading of this article is “Old Fashioned Customs in Dumfriesshire”.
Going back even further, the Aberdeen Herald and General Advertiser of August 1857 gives the following recipe for Birse tea, which seems to bypass the necessity of actual tea:
“no more than the most thorough-going temperance hotel keeper here or elsewhere can prevent you and your friend, reader, from making ‘Birse tea’ (a comfortable compound, be it known, hot water, sugar, and whisky), if you be pleased take your abode in his house, and pay your way”.
More recently, an article about drinking in Scotland in the Daily Record of March 2022 gives us:
“Birse Cup - This term refers to adding whisky (or other spirits) to tea or coffee after dinner instead of milk (also known as a ‘Gaelic Coffee’)”.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.