Simmer dim
With the days lengthening, thoughts drift to the long evenings of summer. The far north of Scotland, and specifically Shetland, experience the Simmer Dim. Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) defines this as:
“the twilight of a summer evening, specifically in Shetland, where there is no darkness”.
Most of DSL’s examples reference Shetland. Here is an early one from J J Haldane Burgess’ Rasmie’s Büddie (1891):
“Hümin dere is still a splendie - Nicht is bit a simmer-dim”.
And, earlier still, (from the Shetland Times, September 1873):
“The sun had now set, the simmer dim … produced a quiet, forming quite a contrast with the noise, bustle, and fearful contest which had been going on a few hours before”.
W Moffat, writing in Shetland: the Isles of Nightless Summer (1934), gives this vivid description:
“The ‘simmer dim’ - those long, lingering summer nights when the sun merely sets to rise again at once”.
Later in the twentieth century, a character in Ian Rankin’s novel Black and Blue (1997) defines it too:
“Forres had told them this season was ‘simmer dim’ - a time of year without true darkness”.
A Shetland bookseller, interviewed by the Press and Journal (June 2003), described the demand for the latest J K Rowling Harry Potter novel:
“We originally ordered 150 books, but have had to order another 50 because they are in such demand. The launch coincides with Shetland’s ‘simmer dim’, when it doesn't get dark all night, so hopefully the Harry Potter fans will be able to read their books outside”.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Grandwean
On Mothering Sunday many mothers look forward to a visit from their grandweans as well as a visit from their grown-up weans.
Grandweans first appear in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) in D E Brown’s 1897 Clydeside Litterateurs:
“Till grand-weans and great-grand-weans, clap and applaud”.
However, DSL does not record the object of their applause.
Our next citation comes from the Herald of September 1992:
“The Use of Language and That: A rare example of verbal talent overheard on a North Sea ferry. A Scottish granny is admonishing her half-German grandwean: ‘Gretchen! If ye dinnae stoap that you'll get yer heid in your hauns to play wi’.’”
A later example perhaps reflects the feelings of some grandparents. Grandwean visits can be exhausting - as in this from History on your Doorstep: The Reminiscences of the Ferguslie Elderly Forum (1993):
“My mother said I like to see my grandweans but I like to see them going away”.
While looking for other examples many were found, among them the following from the Motherwell Times of May 1960:
“Gilchrist’s beat music band, composed mostly of young lads from the scheme, gave the grandads and grannies an insight into what their teenage grandweans enjoy”.
Gregor Steele wrote a poem for DSL in 2021, called When Scotty said “Scunner”, in which our word also appears:
“And the words wull pass tae ma wean’s wean’s wean, And their wean’s grandwean’s wean’s grandwean…”
I hope many grandweans were enjoying the company of their grannies and grandads last Sunday.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Hameower
In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL), hameower is defined as “homewards, towards home” and, “of speech, homely, everyday, simple, in the vernacular, Scots”.
In Poems (1721), Allan Ramsay wrote:
“That is to say in hame o'er Phrases, To tell ye, Men of Mettle praises Ilk Verse of yours when they can light on't”.
And George MacDonald, in his novel of Scottish country life David Elginbrod (1863), described a character fearing someone
“might be offended at what she called her ‘hame-ower fashion of speaking’”.
In the Scots Magazine of April 1945, a mother modestly informs us:
“Och, juist a hameower wee sang I made for Angus. It pits him owre to sleep”.
DSL also widens the definition:
“of habits or manners: plain, simple natural, unaffected…”.
Ian Cameron in his biographical The Jimmy Shand Story (1998) uses the term to good effect:
“For some of us, too, there is an added pride in being accepted to share in the hame-ower family life that surrounds Windyedge at Auchtermuchty”.
The term is still used. For example, from the Press and Journal of July 2020, describing a summer job:
“a student on’s simmer holidays for a season at the eyn o the 1980s an taks in sae weel the hale feelin o anither wye o life fest fadin awa - the lanscape, the hard day’s darg [work], the characters, alang wi the gran use o the hameower Doric tongue in aa its droll humour jist bringin aathing tae life”.
I hope it gave the student some fond memories.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Doo
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) gives a range of definitions for doo, the first being “the Scots form of English dove” followed by the more familiar:
“applied to any species of pigeon, but more especially to the rock pigeon”.
Doos are sometimes unflatteringly referred to as ‘rats wi’ wings’, but only one example in the DSL refers to the creatures in such a derogatory way and is from the Herald of October 1999 describing an inner-city childhood:
“For a Clydebank waif … contact with the natural world among the sandstone canyons in the 1950s was restricted to scabby doos, scruffy cats, three-legged dugs …".
Doos have long pedigree in DSL, with one of the earliest lyrical examples coming from 1789 in David Davidson’s Seasons:
“Auld farmyear stories come athwart their minds, Of bum-bee bykes [hives], pet pyats [magpies] doos and keaws [jackdaws]”.
This is closely followed by a citation from Burns’ Battle of Sherramuir (1790):
“They fled like frighted dows, man!”.
In an article from the Scottish Farmer (January 2022) Andrew Moir writes about sporting activities versus shooting for the pot:
“Like most farmers, I have a licence to possess a shotgun for the purpose of vermin control and the occasional clay shoot. I’m not a brilliant shot and ‘clay doos’ do not make great soup, so the added incentive of protecting my investment and the possibility of having something nice to eat fairly improves my aim”.
Doo can also be used as a term of endearment, but that’s for a different article.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Scots pancake
This delicacy currently makes no appearance in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language, except for a mention in an example from Victor McClure’s Scotland’s Inner Man (1935), describing a ‘clap scone’ as a
“A sort of simple Scots pancake of wheat flour with no flavouring but salt, made with boiling water, patted thin and baked on a hot floured girdle”.
However, the Oxford English Dictionary describes the Scotch pancake as ‘a drop scone’, and I think that’s accurate. A Scots pancake is a small, round, thick pancake. Mairi Williams describes them as clap scones too in a recipe for BBC Food:
“Scotch pancakes, sometimes called drop scones, are traditionally served as a teatime treat with butter and jam, but also make a great breakfast or brunch topped with berries and a dollop of yoghurt.”
Recipes abound and The Glasgow Times of January 2004 recorded some interesting variations on good Scots food found at a Burns Supper:
“Some of the more interesting combinations include mushy pea sushi rice topped with fresh fried haddock nigiri, haggis and pickled neeps roll and scotch pancake sandwich”.
The “Scotch pancake” was even recommended as a healthy snack in the Daily Record of August 2022.
The Scots pancake was also suggested as a healthy mid-morning snack for dieters in the Herald of March 2005:
“Mid-morning snack: milk, mini Scots pancake with margarine, tangerine”.
Not quite sure what a ‘mini-Scots pancake’ would look like. They are, after all, pretty small to start with - unlike its larger, thinner big brother the crepe.
This Scots Word of the Week was written by Pauline Cairns Speitel. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.