Itchy coos
Not bovines with a rash, but:
“anything causing a tickling, specifically the prickly seeds of the dog-rose or the like put by children down one another’s backs”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language gives a further definition from the Glasgow Bulletin of September 1957:
“The childhood game of putting ‘itchy-coos’ down one another’s back”.
Back in February 2003 there was much political wrangling in the Scottish Parliament, leading to this description in the Daily Record:
“Hyperactive ferrets in sacks lined with itchy-coos have quieter social relations than the Scottish Labour party”.
Rosehips have therapeutic uses too (Herald, 2019):
“Known to mischievous children as ‘itchy-coos’ thanks to their seeds’ ability to cause irritation when slipped down somebody’s back, these shiny fruits are so high in vitamin C that during the Second World War they were harvested on a grand scale and made into rosehip syrup”.
Iain Winton described the more mischievous practice in Last of the Lucky Childhoods: Growing up in Glasgow in the 40s and 50s (2022):
“Itchy coos were the seeds of a small garden rose, which when you opened up its seed pods were full of tiny hairs. These seedpods would be pushed down the back of an unsuspecting target, between his shirt and skin and rubbed hard, the result was agony!”.
Finally, a reviewer of Scottish Plant Names: An A to Z (Gregory J Kenicer, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2023) found it
“unexpectedly amusing. We learn the etymology of names like Stink Davie, … foxgloves (witches’ thimbles), bluebells (crow’s toes) and roses (itchy coos).”
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
pee-the-bed
This nickname is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as:
“the dandelion, from its diuretic properties”.
In The Richt Noise (1988), Raymond Vettese mentions them in verse along with other Spring flowers:
“Yon white starns wi gowden core, the gowans, are on the gress aince mair, an’ pee-the-beds, puir craturs, the true suns; dutch-admirals an’ daffens an’ monie as bricht”.
One writer in the John O’Groat Journal (2011) listed these flowers as potential Valentine’s Day gifts:
“Coming in at number one we have the dandelion, a diuretic known as ‘pee the bed’. Dandelion leaves, which are rich in vitamin C and A, make a delicious tea which you could serve to your beau in a heart-shaped cup. What more could you want during a romantic encounter than to have to run to the bathroom every five minutes?”.
In her memoir of Scottish farm life, Leaving the Land (2011), Anne Ewing recounted:
“You picked dandelions at your peril, as playmates would chant, ‘pee-the-bed, pee-the-bed’ in case this would result in a ‘wee accident’ in bed the following night. The diuretic property of these little yellow flowers was unknown to us”.
And finally, in the bleakness of lockdown, the Derry Journal recorded the advent of Spring (April 2020):
“The hedgerows are beginning to fill with a wide variety of flowers. The most obvious is the dandelion, (pee the bed to every Derry child). Much despised by gardeners as a weed but its brilliant yellow is a welcome addition to the colour palate after the dullness of winter”.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Jaggy nettles
JAGGY NETTLES
Dictionaries of the Scots Language references nettles under “jaggie” meaning
“prickly, sharp, pointed, piercing; stinging, of nettles”.
The following, from the Scotsman of July 1834, is one of our earliest citations and comes from a witness at a trial:
“There was an auld petticoat about her when the woman left, and she was not cold. She was laying on the grass beside some jaggy nettles, and she was warm”.
The Sunday Mail of November 1995 revealed an unlikely romantic association:
“... legendary pop group The Small Faces were inspired to write their biggest hit, Itchycoo Park, by courting couples who used to canoodle in a London park... beside bushes full of jaggy nettles”.
Of course, it’s not just nettles that are jaggy. In a letter published in the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald of January 1909 one correspondent writes:
“I am studying ‘amateur gardening’. Until I have mastered it, I shall describe all thistles as jaggy nettles”.
In January 2024, the Perthshire Advertiser reported on another kind of jaggy nettle - Scoone Thistle F.C., otherwise known as:
“The Jaggie Nettles are fresh and raring to go after having the match postponed last weekend due to a frozen pitch.”
There is more than one way to sting.
And finally, in May 2022, Thomas Clark penned this valediction in Eeemis Stane (Ye’re Still Here? It’s Ower. Gang Hame):
“An it’s wi gratitude tae yese aw that we pull up oor stakes an gang oor mony ways. Strike oot intae the knap-hie fields o wheat an jaggy nettles.”
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
White pudding
A white pudding has nothing to do with a dessert. In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) it is defined as
“a pudding or sausage stuffed with oatmeal, suet, salt, pepper and onions”.
It is also known as mealie pudding.
Although the Scots diet has long been maligned by many, if you were working the fields from dawn to dusk a high fat and calorific diet made sense for those lucky enough to afford it.
The dish has a long pedigree. One early example in DSL comes from David Herd’s The Ancient and Modern Scots Songs (1769):
“First they ate the white puddings and then they ate the black”.
What appears to be a shopping list is documented by John Galt in his 1833 Howdie [midwife]:
“Mutton-hams, white puddings, salt fish, and half a cheese”.
DSL then skips a century to give us this from the Herald in December 2000:
“A mission was sent out to the local chipper for a white pudding supper”.
Which perhaps was a challenge given this from the Scotsman (2002):
“Remember when a chip shop sold chips and little else? The choice was cod or haddock or possibly, in the more outré chippies, white pudding.”
The next year a description from a visitor sampling local cuisine was recorded in the Edinburgh Evening News (2003):
“In Snax I was offered a choice of sausage, which included square sausage which was nice… then I think they’re called white pudding which I tried for the first time and liked”.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Partan bree
Partan bree is another Scottish delicacy defined simply in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) as “crab soup”. According to DSL, the type of crab used is “the common edible crab”. (Partan is, of course, the Scots word for a crab.)
The dish was documented in 1909 in the Cookery book of Lady Clark of Tillypronie. DSL also cites this from another cookbook; F Marian McNeill’s The Scots Kitchen (1929):
“Partan Bree with rice and cream intill't [into it]”. It is usually made with crab, crab liquor, rice, cream and/or milk with chives for a garnish.
At what must have been quite a feast, the menu for a dinner given by the Honourable Elizabeth Semple was reported in the Aberdeen Press and Journal of November 1935 and
“… included partan bree, Aberdeen haggis wi’ chappit neep tatties, roast muirfowl, and Scots flummery”.
Another dinner featured in the Aberdeen Evening Express of August 1978, this time described as “A Taste of Orkney”, with the following menu:
“Guests and overseas journalists joined for such traditional Orkney fare as partan bree, Orkney beef, clap shot and bere meal Bannocks”.
And at a Gallowgate pub in January 2020, a Burns’ Night menu was unveiled consisting of:
“Kedgeree Scotch eggs with vinegar peas, locally caught Scottish crab, celeriac and apple on wholemeal bread, served with a mug of partan bree (Scottish crab soup), and sugar-sweet Barras-inspired doughnuts are all on the menu”.
Perhaps partan bree will take over as a starter instead of cockaleekie at some Burns Suppers.
This Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language.
Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.