croon

en-verb

croon (third-person singular simple present croons, present participle crooning, simple past and past participle crooned)

croons (present singular third-person)
crooning (participle present)
crooned (participle past)
crooned (past)
croon (infinitive)
croon (first-person present singular)
crooned (first-person past singular)
croon (present second-person singular)
croonest (archaic present second-person singular)
crooned (past second-person singular)
croonedst (archaic past second-person singular)
croons (present singular third-person)
crooneth (archaic present singular third-person)
crooned (past singular third-person)
croon (plural present)
crooned (past plural)
croon (present subjunctive)
crooned (past subjunctive)
croon (imperative present)
crooning (participle present)
crooned (participle past)

The verb is borrowed from Scots croon (“to utter a deep, long-drawn-out sound; to utter a lament, mourn; to sing in a wailing voice, whimper, whine; to mutter or sing in an undertone, hum”) [and other forms], from Middle English cronen (“to sing or speak softly, hum, croon”) (croyn (Scotland)) [and other forms], probably from Middle Dutch crônen, krônen (“to groan, moan; to lament”) (modern Dutch kreunen (“to moan”)), or Old High German chrônan, krônen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), probably from Proto-Germanic *kraunijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gerH- (“to cry hoarsely”).
The noun is partly:
* borrowed from Scots croon (“a lament, wail; mournful song; low murmuring tune; (obsolete) long-drawn-out sound”), from croon (verb): see above; and
* derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Middle Dutch krônen (modern Dutch kreunen (“to groan, moan; to lament”))
* Middle Low German kroenen (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”), kronen (“to growl; to grumble; to scold”)
* Old High German chrônan, chrônnan (“to babble, prattle; to chatter”)
* Saterland Frisian krȫnen (“to cause to weep”)

listen/core

A person crooning (sense 􂀽2.1).

nb...

creen, crone, cruin, crun, crune, krin, krun, krune, kryn

zümzümə etmək

(transitive, intransitive) to hum or sing (a song or tune) softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner; to sing (a popular song) in a low, mellow voice

broukat

(transitive, intransitive) to speak (words) softly in a low pitch or in a sentimental manner — see also coo

(Northern England, Scotland) To lament, to moan.

Novv Clinkumbell, vvi' rattlin tovv, / Begins to jovv an' croon; […]

1786, Robert Burns, “The Holy Fair”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 51:

Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed, / And murmured and looked with anxious pain / For something the mystery to explain.

1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Second. Kilmeny. The Thirteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 192:

'Thou hear'st that lordly Bull of mine, / Neighbour,' quoth Brunskill then; / 'How loudly to the hills he crunes, / That crune to him again.[']

1838, Robert Southey, “Brough Bells”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Southey. […], volume VI, London: […] [Andrew Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], published 1838, →OCLC, page 227:

Above the marge of night a star still shines, / And on the frosty hills the sombre pines / Harbor an eerie wind that crooneth low / Over the glimmering wastes of virgin snow.

1916, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “[Songs of the Hills and Woods.] A Winter Dawn.”, in The Watchman and Other Poems, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 85:

(Northern England, Scotland) To make a continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; to bellow, to low.

ynistä

to make a continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle — see also bellow, low

(Northern England, Scotland) Of a large bell: to make a low-pitched sound.

kumista

of a large bell: to make a low-pitched sound


croon

listen/core

A person crooning (sense 􂀽2.1).

Amang the brachens, on the brae, / Betvveen her an' the moon, / The Deil, or elſe an outler Quey, / Gat up an' gae a croon: […]

1785 (date written), Robert Burns, “Halloween”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793, →OCLC, stanza XXVI, page 191:

The bittern mounts the morning air; / And rings the sky with quavering croon; […]

1813 January 30, James Hogg, “Night the Third. Mary Scott. The Fourteenth Bard’s Song.”, in The Queen’s Wake: A Legendary Poem, Edinburgh: George Goldie, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 216:

(Northern England, Scotland) A continuous hollow low-pitched moan, as of cattle; a bellow.

(Northern England, Scotland) The low-pitched sound of a large bell.


ravel

The verb is borrowed from Dutch ravelen, rafelen (“to tangle, become entangled; to fray; to unweave”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. It has been suggested that the verb is originally derived from the noun, but the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as “very uncertain”, and instead regards the noun as having derived from the verb (compare Dutch rafel, raffel (“frayed thread”)).
Ravel is a contranym having both the senses of tangling (verb senses 1.1, 1.2, 1.4.1, and 2.3; noun sense 1) and untangling (verb senses 1.3, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, 2.1, and 2.2; noun sense 2). It would appear that the tangling senses predate the untangling ones (as in Dutch), but this is uncertain because the first published uses of both senses of the words occur around the same time.

Mr. Urquhart was in sic a ravel after it that when he gies out the first line o' the hunder and nineteenth psalm for singing, says he, 'And so on to the end.'

1891, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Night-watchers”, in The Little Minister. […], volume I, London, Paris: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, page 47:

There was a lovely ravel of sunflowers in the garden. She looked out the window. "There are my sunflowers!" she said.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Baxter Dawes”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 380:

The savannah valley is shadeless, spotted only with the thorny ravel of mesquite bushes.

1927 June, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Walk to Huayapa”, in Mornings in Mexico, London: Martin Secker, published July 1927, →OCLC, page 31:

A tangled mess; an entanglement, a snarl, a tangle.

(figuratively) A confusing, intricate, or perplexing situation; a complication.


gin

Cognate to Scots gin (“if”): perhaps from gi(v)en, or a compound in which the first element is from Old English ġif (English if) and the second is cognate to English an (“if”) (compare iffen), or perhaps from again.

[…]for pronouncing according as one would ſay at London I would eat more cheeſe if I had it, the Northern man ſaith, Ay ſuld eat mare cheeſe gin ay hadet, and the Weſterne man ſaith Chud eat more cheeſe an chad it.

1605, Richard Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, in Antiquities: Concerning the Most Noble, and Renowned English Nation:

Gin the plough rests on the bank, / The loom, the nation, dies.

An' gin I'm weel and can keep sober / You may look for it in October.

1809, Thomas Donaldson, Poems, section 76:

He's get han' and siller, / Gin he fancies me.

1815, Robert Anderson, Ballads in the Cumberland dialect, page 152:

yon felley at Barleigh has wrote farrantly (fairly) to my naunt; gin Robin could bur see ť letter he'd foind no fawt wi' me.

1860, J. P. K. Shuttleworth, Scarsdale; Or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Border, Thirty Years Ago, page 158:

Wheeah, Ah thinks thee could, gin ye tried.

1870, John Christopher Atkinson, Lost; or, What came of a slip from 'honour bright'., page 19:

"Aw'd never ha slept i' mi bed gin that little un had bin dreawnded, an' me lookin' on loike a stump. Neay; that lass wur Bess, moi wench. We'n no notion wheer th' lad's mother is." Mr. Clough would have pressed the money upon him, but he put it back with a motion of his han.

1876, Mrs. George Linnaeus Banks, The Manchester Man, page 15:

[…] gin schoo sets off in a tantrum an' flaah's t'mistress wiv her blutherin […]

(chiefly Scotland, Northern England, Southern US, Appalachia) If.


och

Compare Early Modern English och, Scottish Gaelic och, Irish och. Compare also Scots ach, Scots ouch.

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland) general interjection of confirmation, affirmation, and often disapproval.

“Och, ooh, it’s so confusing, it hurts my wee head! I’m just a woman, you know, just a pair of ovaries and some bangs! How do I have the mental capacity to pick from one of two options? Put me down for a no, and never trust me with an important decision again!”

2014 September 14, “Scottish Independence”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 17, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland) an expression of anger, frustration, surprise


girn

en-verb

girn (third-person singular simple present girns, present participle girning, simple past and past participle girned)

girns (present singular third-person)
girning (participle present)
girned (participle past)
girned (past)
gurn (alternative)
gurne (alternative)

And Jim was just girning all the time. I telled him to shut it.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 107:

(Scotland, Northern England) To whinge, moan, complain.


vex

From Middle English vexen, from Old French vexer, from Latin vexāre (“disturb, agitate, annoy”). Doublet of quake. Displaced native Old English dreċċan and gremman.


redd

en-verb

redd (third-person singular simple present redds, present participle redding, simple past and past participle redd or redded)

redds (present singular third-person)
redding (participle present)
redd (participle past)
redd (past)
redded (participle past)
redded (past)
red (alternative)

Fusion of Middle English redden (“to save, rescue, deliver, rid, free, clear”), from Old English hreddan (“to save, deliver, recover, rescue”), from Proto-Germanic *hradjaną and Middle English reden (“to clean up, clear”), from Old English ġerǣdan (“to put in order, arrange, prepare”), from Proto-Germanic *garaidijaną (“to arrange”). More at rid, ready.

der

(Scotland and Northern England) To fix boundaries.

(Scotland and Northern England) To comb hair.

(Scotland and Northern England) To separate combatants.

(Scotland and Northern England) To settle, usually a quarrel.

(Scotland and Northern England) To tidy up, clear away.


rocket

From Italian rocchetta, from Old Italian rocchetto (“rocket”, literally “a bobbin”), diminutive of rocca (“a distaff”), from Lombardic rocko (“spinning wheel”), from Proto-West Germanic *rokkō, from Proto-Germanic *rukkô (“a distaff, a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it, used in spinning thread”). Cognate with Old High German rocco, rocko, roccho, rocho ("a distaff"; > German Rocken (“a distaff”)), Swedish rock (“a distaff”), Icelandic rokkur (“a distaff”), Middle English rocke (“a distaff”). More at rock⁴.
For the meaning development, compare fuselage, ultimately from Latin fūsus (“spindle, spinning wheel”).

gloss

"a distaff"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">Rocken</i> (“a distaff”)

Why were the Luddites named efter Ned Ludd? A wee rocket. A wee fucken fairy bampot. A pure hooligan, smashing stuff up. A ned. Ned Ludd.

2014, Alistair Beaton, Rob Drummond, Morna Pearson, Contemporary Scottish Plays:

(Scotland, slang) A stupid or crazy person.

Figurative uses.
A stupid or crazy person.


institute

From French institut, from Middle French, from Latin īnstitūtum.

Substitution is the nomination of substituted heirs, who take place, failing the institute.

1681, Viscount Stair, The Institutions of the Law of Scotland:

(law, Scotland) The person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.


trinket

PIE word
 *tréyes
From trink (“(UK, dialectal, especially Scotland) channel, watercourse; trench”) + -et (diminutive suffix); compare Scots trink. Trink is possibly derived from Occitan trencque, trenque (Picardy), from Old French trenche, tranche (“trench”) (modern French tranche), from trenchier (“to cut”); further etymology uncertain, possibly:
* from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to maim or mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); or
* from Vulgar Latin *trinicāre (“to cut into three parts”), from Latin tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + duplicāre (“to double by dividing, split in two, tear”);
possibly also influenced by Gaulish *trincare (“to cut off (the head)”).

der

It must have been about the same moment that a smack drew through the fine mist in the Firth [of Forth], and, sailing up the trinket, landed Provost Trail on the east pier-head.

1901 September, [David Storrar Meldrum], “The Conquest of Charlotte. Part I.—My Legacy of Family History. Chapter VII.—The Mackerel Election (continued).”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXX, number MXXXI, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 362, column 1:

(Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland) A narrow or small watercourse.


trinket

en-verb

trinket (third-person singular simple present trinkets, present participle trinketing, simple past and past participle trinketed)

trinkets (present singular third-person)
trinketing (participle present)
trinketed (participle past)
trinketed (past)

Possibly borrowed from Scots trinket, trincket; further origin unknown, possibly related to:
* trinket (“item used in a religious rite (also, a religious rite, belief, etc.) regarded as superfluous or trivial”) (see etymology 1); or
* trick (noun) or trick (verb).

And if any one aſkes me, hovv? and if I be of their Cabinet Council? I ſhall onely ſmile, perceiving they doe not knovv me. I am far from that, or having ever to doe vvith Kings or States in that kind, or pragmatically trinketing vvith State affaires, it being a Rule vvhich I live by, never to aſke great men mercy.

1673, H. I. [pseudonym; Joseph Hill], “Sect[ion] 10. Compliance with England the Onely Meanes of the Commonwealths Continuation.”, in The Interest of These United Provinces. Being a Defence of the Zeelanders Choice. […], Middelburg, Zeeland: […] Thomas Berry, […], →OCLC:

[T]he Pharisees were men of business, and that in a very eminent manner, as appears by their behaviour both in the court of Queen [Salome] Alexandra, and afterwards in the court of Herod [the Great]; where by their tricks and trinketing between party and party, and their intriguing it with courtiers and court-ladies, they had upon the matter set the whole court together by the ears; […]

a. 1717 (date written), Robert South, “Sermon I. The Ill Consequences of Misapplying the Words Good and Evil.”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] Thomas Tegg, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 12:

All this I was ready to do for a woman, who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!

1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 210:

[I]t had been better the auld Monkshaugh had withstood the Enemy, and dared the warst, rather than have trinketed and melled wi' witch women for rescue of life or limb.

1827, [Christian Isobel Johnstone], “The Visiter”, in Elizabeth de Bruce. […], volume I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 370:

But although I be bound especially to abhor all trafficking or trinketing with Papists, yet I will not stand in the way of a tender conscience.

1827, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume II (The Surgeon’s Daughter), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 45:

(intransitive, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) To act in a secret, and often dishonest, way; to have secret, and often dishonest, dealings; to intrigue, to scheme.


WS

en-noun

WS (countable and uncountable, plural WSs)

(law, Scotland) Initialism of writer to the signet.


gobble

From Middle English gobben (“to drink or swallow greedily”), of uncertain origin + -le (frequentative suffix). Middle English gobben is perhaps an alteration of Middle English globben (“to gulp down”), related to English gulpen (“to gulp”). However, compare also French gober.

der

Nowadays, he was lucky if his mam's auld drinking cronies gave him a gobble.

(Scotland, slang, vulgar) Fellatio; a blowjob.


doss

Perhaps from Latin dorsum (“the back”), i.e. what one lies on when sleeping; perhaps from English dialect doss (“a hassock”).

Get a hauld o yersel, ya doss cunt!

(Scotland) Useless or lazy. Generally combined with expletive noun, especially cunt.

The place is pure doss, like.


gully

With that I made my mind up, took out my gully, opened it with my teeth, and cut one strand after another[…]

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part IV (The Stockade), page 139:


mains

Though no minister would visit the Skerburnfoot, or, if he went, departed quicker than he came, the girl Ailie attended regular at the catechising at the mains of Sker.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(Scotland) The farm attached to a mansion house.


min

From Middle English min, from Old English min (“less; small, mean”), from Proto-Germanic *minniz (“less”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Scots min (“less, lesser”), West Frisian min (“small, bad”), Dutch min (“less, small”), Low German minn (“small, low, lean”), German minder (“less”), Icelandic minna (“less”), Latin minus (“less”).

myn (alternative)
minne (alternative)
mynne (alternative)

The more and the minne

(obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Less; smaller; lower.


prat

From Middle English prat, from Old English præt, prætt (“trick, prank, craft, art, wile”), from Proto-West Germanic *prattu, from Proto-Germanic *prattuz (“boastful talk, deceit”), from Proto-Indo-European *brodno- (“to wander about”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian prat, Dutch pret (“fun, pleasure, gaity”), obsolete Dutch prat (“cunning, strategem, scheme, a prideful display, arrogance”), Low German prot, Norwegian prette (“trick”), Icelandic prettur (“a trick”). Related to pretty.

cog

(now Scotland) A cunning or mischievous trick; a prank, a joke.


skip

From Middle English skep, skeppe, from Old English sceppe, from Old Norse skeppa, skjappa (“basket, bushel, measure”), perhaps from Middle Low German scheppe (“a unit of weight”), perhaps related to Middle Low German schēpel (“buschel, measurement for grain”), German Scheffel (“bushel”). These could all ultimately be related to *skap (“shape”).

cog

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket.

kas

UK, Scotland, dialect: a skep, or basket, such as a creel or a handbasket


squint

en-verb

squint (third-person singular simple present squints, present participle squinting, simple past and past participle squinted)

squints (present singular third-person)
squinting (participle present)
squinted (participle past)
squinted (past)

Derived from asquint (“obliquely, with a sidelong glance”).

(intransitive, Scotland) To be not quite straight, off-centred; to deviate from a true line; to run obliquely.


Whitsunday

Whitsundays (plural)
Whit Sunday (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English Whitsonday, from whit (“white”) + Sonday (“Sunday”), from Old English hwīt sunnandæg, probably from the white clothes worn by newly baptized Christians as Pentecost was a traditional date of baptism in early medieval England. Doublet of White Sunday.

inh+

(Scotland) A quarter day falling on 15th May.


sassenach

sassenachs (plural)
Sassenach (alternative)
sasanach (alternative)

From Scottish Gaelic Sasannach (“Saxon”).

'I distinctly heard the barman at that pub last night refer to us as Sassenachs.' 'Well, why not?' said Frank equably. 'It only means "Englishman", after all, or at worst, outsider and we're all of that.' 'I know what it means. It was the tone I objected to.'

1991, Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, in Outlander, London: Random House:

(Scotland, derogatory) An English person.

But the Sassenach tried to starve the nation at home while the land was full of crops that the British hyenas bought and sold in Rio de Janeiro.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:


donk

en-adj

donk (comparative more donk, superlative most donk)

more donk (comparative)
most donk (superlative)
dunk (alternative)

From Middle English daunke, danke. More at dank.

(Northern England, Scotland) damp; moist; wet


donk

(Northern England, Scotland) dampness; moistness

(Northern England, Scotland) A dense mist or drizzle

(Northern England, Scotland) A mouldy dampness; mouldiness


donk

en-verb

donk (third-person singular simple present donks, present participle donking, simple past and past participle donked)

donks (present singular third-person)
donking (participle present)
donked (participle past)
donked (past)
dunk (alternative)

(Northern England, Scotland) To moisten; dampen


knag

knags (plural)
knage (alternative)
knagge (alternative)
knagg (alternative)

From Middle English knagge. Cognate with German Low German Knagge, Danish knage, Swedish knagg. Related to knarr and knur.

(Scotland) A small cask or barrel; a keg or noggin


victualler

victuallers (plural)
victualer (alternative)

From Middle English vitailler, from Old French vitaillier; equivalent to victual + -er.

(Scotland) One who deals in grain; a corn factor.


shandy

en-adj

shandy (comparative shandier, superlative shandiest)

shandier (comparative)
shandiest (superlative)

From an extension of dialectal shand (“worthless”), or from shand (“disgrace, dishonour”) + -y.

(Northern England, Scotland) wild, energetic, romping, boisterous, rambunctious

(Northern England, Scotland) unsteady, lacking self-discipline or control, somewhat dissipated

(Northern England, Scotland) empty-headed, crackbrained, half-crazy

(Northern England, Scotland) mild, gentle; shy, bashful, timid, reluctant, unmotivated

(Northern England, Scotland) poor-looking, miserable, broken-down, low, common, mean; shabby, untidy


rutter

(now chiefly Scotland) A tool used in peat cutting or for marking off ground.


beadle

beadles (plural)
bedel (alternative obsolete)
bedell (alternative obsolete)
bedral (alternative Scotland)
bethral (alternative Scotland)
betherel (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English bedel, bidel, from Old English bydel (“warrant officer, apparitor”), from Proto-West Germanic *budil, from Proto-Germanic *budilaz (“herald”), equivalent to bid + -le. Cognate with Dutch beul, German Büttel. More at bid.

inh

(Scotland, ecclesiastical) An attendant to the minister.


toon

Whan I was a callan, I took the play to mysel' for a week, or maybe twa, and gaed wi' a frien' i' the same trade's mysel', to see what was to be seen alang a screed o' the seacoast, frae toon to toon.

1865, George MacDonald, Alec Forbes of Howglen - Volume 2, page 244:

Sic changes owre oor toon hae passed Since Mungo placed thee there — A wee bit slender fragile stem, That needed watchfu' care.

1881, B.C., “The Chestnut Tree”, in The Border Counties' Magazine - Volumes 1-2, number 201:

It tane Bill three month fae the time he pairtit wi Beatrice tae get tae the toon o Shanzi. He stuid on a crest as the sin rase, an saw the fortress toon on the neist ridge, a silhouette lichtenin gradually intae ugly breezeblock buildins.

2011, Wulf Kurtoglu, Caroline Macafee, Braken Fences, →ISBN, page 43:


macaroni

en-noun

macaroni (countable and uncountable, plural macaronis or macaronies)

macaronis (plural)
macaronies (plural)
maccaroni (alternative)
maccheroni (alternative)
mac (alternative)

→ Japanese: マカロニ (makaroni)

→ Korean: 마카로니 (makaroni)

→ Malay:

Arabic script: ماكاروني

Latin script: makaroni

→ Scottish Gaelic: macaroni

From Italian maccaroni, plural of maccarone, obsolete variant of maccheroni (“macaroni, fool”), of uncertain origin. Variously derived from late Byzantine Greek μακαρία (makaría, “food made from barley”), from Ancient Greek μακάριος (makários, “blessed, favored by the gods”), and from maccare (“to bruise, to crush”), archaic variant of ammaccare, from Latin maccāre (“to bruise, to crush”). Compare Sicilian maccarruni (“a single piece of macaroni”). As a fop, apparently from the British Macaroni Club rather than from Italian use of maccarone for fools and bumpkins. As a former form of currency, used to calque Spanish macuquino, 18th-century colonial Spanish slang for a similarly clipped coin.

cog

Lizards are known among Scotchmen as ‘macaronies’.

1876, Robert Linlithgow Wallace, The Canary Book, page 165:

(countable, Scotland, zoology, obsolete) Synonym of lizard canary.


ya

From Middle English ya, from Old English ġēa, iā (“yea, yes”). More at yea.

yaa (alternative)
yaw (alternative)
yah (alternative)
yha (alternative)

'Ya, wilt thou!' said Wallace, 'then tak thee that, […]'

Ya, auld man, ye ken fine ye wad like me.

Ya, bur 'ee did, […]

(UK dialectal, West Country, Northern England, Scotland) yea; yes


um-

From Middle English um-, umbe-, embe-, from Old English ymb-, ymbe- (“around”), from Proto-West Germanic *umbi-, from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about, by, near”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”). Cognate with Dutch om- (“around”), German um- (“around”), Latin amb- (“around, about”), Latin ambi- (“both”), Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “around, about”), Sanskrit अभि (abhi, “against, about”).

cog

(rare, now rarely productive, primarily in dialects, chiefly Scotland) Prefix meaning around, about.


overture

coda

antonym(s) of “opening of a piece of music”

/ˈəʊvətʃ(ʊ)ə/

/ˈoʊvəɹt͡ʃəɹ/

From Middle English overture, from Anglo-Norman, Middle French overture, from Old French overture. Doublet of aperture.

(Scotland) A motion placed before a legislative body, such as the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.


tig

Dialectal variant of tick, from Middle English ticken, tiken. More at tick.

One evening when playing tig she had put her hands over his eyes: long and white and thin and cold and soft.

1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter I, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 36:

(Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) The children's game of tag.


yearn

en-verb

yearn (third-person singular simple present yearns, present participle yearning, simple past and past participle yearned)

yearns (present singular third-person)
yearning (participle present)
yearned (participle past)
yearned (past)

Probably either:
* a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
* a back-formation from yearning (“(Scotland, archaic) rennet; calf (or other animal’s) stomach used to make rennet”).

nb...

(chiefly Middle English from Southwest England and Southwest Midlands, and Early Middle English) eorne, eornen, herne, hurnen, uerne, urne, urnen, hurnen, (Early Middle English, Southwest Midlands) eærne, earnæ, heorne, hirnen, irne, irnen

back-formation

(Northern England, Scotland, intransitive)

Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.

съсирвам се

of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process

Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.

(Northern England, Scotland, transitive)

To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.

съсирвам

to curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process

Also his Honour the Duke will accept ane of our Dunlop cheeses, and it sall be my faut if a better was ever yearned in Lowden.

1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 24:


yearning

en-noun

yearning (countable and uncountable, plural yearnings)

PIE word
 *ḱóm
From earlier yerning, from Middle English yernyng, erning, renning. From Old English rynning and gerunnen, geurnen (“run together, coagulated, curdled”), past participles of gerinnan, geirnan, respectively. Influenced by Middle English yern (“to (cause to) coagulate or curdle”), Old English iernan (“to run, flow”), metathesized forms derived from the same origin. From verbal prefix ge- + rinnan (“to run”). First element is from Proto-West Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Germanic *ga-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“with, by”); second element is from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃r̥-néw-ti, from *h₃er- (“to move”). Doublet of rennet, run.

m+

(Scotland, archaic) rennet (an enzyme to curdle milk in order to make cheese).


granda

My granda would make everything from scratch and it was a wonderful feast of a picky tea. His potatoes deep-fried in batter were amazing.

2017, Sarah Millican, How to be Champion:

(informal, Scotland, Northern England) grandfather


glory hole

(Scotland and Northern England) A deep built-in cupboard under the eaves or stairs of a house used for general storage, particularly of unrelated or unwanted items stored in some disorder.


sheriff

sheriffs (plural)
sherriff (alternative obsolete)
shrieve (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English shirreve, from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to Sharif (شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour that has cognates in other languages including Hindi, Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

(Scotland) A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.


streak

en-verb

streak (third-person singular simple present streaks, present participle streaking, simple past and past participle streaked)

streaks (present singular third-person)
streaking (participle present)
streaked (participle past)
streaked (past)

From Middle English streke, from Old English strica, from Proto-Germanic *strikiz, from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“line”). Related to North Frisian strijck, Old Saxon striki, Middle Low German streke, Low German streek, Danish streg, Swedish streck, Norwegian Bokmål strek, Icelandic stryk, strykr, Dutch streek, Afrikaans streek, Old High German strih, German Strich, Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌺𐍃 (striks).

(obsolete, UK, Scotland) To stretch; to extend; hence, to lay out, as a dead body.


stance

2013 World Fencing Championships
Arianna Errigo
Carolin Golubytskyi
Edinburgh Waverley railway station

From Middle English staunce (“place to stand; battle station; position; standing in society; circumstance, situation; stanchion”), from Old French estance (“predicament; situation; sojourn, stay”) (compare modern French stance (“stanza; position one stands in when golfing”)), from Italian stanza (“room, standing place; stanza”), from Vulgar Latin *stantia, from Latin stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). The word is cognate with Spanish estante (“shelf”) and a doublet of stanza.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

The number of Carriages at each of the Stances or divisions of Stances, and the spaces to be occupied, shall be fixed from time to time as may be found necessary. In the event of any New Stance being appointed during the currency of these Regulations, if said Stance shall be within half a mile of the nearest fixed Stance, the Fares from said New Stance shall be the same as from the Stance nearest to it.

1867, “Stances”, in Bye-laws for the Hackney Carriages of Edinburgh, Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne & Company, →OCLC, pages 11–12:

(Scotland) A place for buses or taxis to await passengers; a bus stop, a taxi rank.

To the action by the proprietor of a tenement in burgh against the proprietor of the adjoining stance to recover one-half the cost of a mutual gable, of which the defender had taken the use, it was pleaded in defence (1) that the mutual gable having been erected by the common author of the parties no claim arose to the proprietor of one stance against the proprietor of the other; […]

1877 June 15, reported by Middleton Rettie [et al.], “Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Respondents (Pursuers).—R. V. Campbell. Rev. Alexander Wylie and Others (Trustees of Bath Street Baptist Church, Glasgow), Appellants (Defenders).—Balfour—Alison.”, in Cases Decided in the Court of Session, Court of Justiciary, and House of Lords, […], volume IV (Fourth Series), Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, law booksellers: London: Stevens & Sons, →OCLC, page 894:

(Scotland) A place where a fair or market is held; a location where a street trader can carry on business.


stance

en-verb

stance (third-person singular simple present stances, present participle stancing, simple past and past participle stanced)

stances (present singular third-person)
stancing (participle present)
stanced (participle past)
stanced (past)

Rob Roy ſtood watch / On a hill for to catch / The booty for ought that I ſa', man, / For he ne'er advanced, / From the place he was ſtanc'd, / 'Till no more to do there at a' man, […]

1776, “Sheriff-Muir”, in [David Herd], editor, Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. […] In Two Volumes, 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by John Wotherspoon, for James Dickson and Charles Elliott, →OCLC, pages 107–108:

(transitive, Scotland) To place, to position, to station; (specifically) to put (cattle) into an enclosure or pen in preparation for sale.


spunk

en-noun

spunk (usually uncountable, plural spunks)

→ Irish: sponc

1530, blend of spark + funk (obsolete, “spark”).
Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-West Germanic *funkō, from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“to shine”), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”).

der

At present, her only means of procuring subsistence for herself and children, is by making spunks or matches, which, either she or her eldest child, a girl about six years of age, sells from door to door.

1829, Society for Relief of the Destitute Sick (Edinburgh), Report, p. 7

“Spunks — spunks — spunks — who will buy my spunks?” — cried an errant voice with a beseeching earnestness[…].

1843, John Wilson, John Gibson Lockhart, William Maginn, James Hogg, The Noctes Ambrosianæ of “Blackwood”, volume IV, page 396:

(countable, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) A piece of tinder, sometimes impregnated with sulphur; a match.


mettle

From figurative use of metal (since 16th century). The two spellings were originally interchangeable variants, but came to be distinguished by sense in the 18th century.

And then one afternoon in the hinder end of April came young Heriotside riding to the Skerburnfoot. His arm was healed, he had got him a fine new suit of green, and his horse was a mettle beast that well set off his figure.

(Scotland) Spirited, vigorous, stout-hearted.


dort

From Middle English dort (found in compound cankerdort), of unknown origin.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A sulky or sullen mood; the sulks.


deas

I could never think of a King but what I supposed him sitting under the high deas, and feasting amid his high vassals and Paladins, eating blanc-manger, with a great gold crown upon his head, or else charging at the head of his troops like Charlemagne in the romaunts, or like Robert Bruce or William Wallace in our own true histories.

1823, [Walter Scott], “The Man-at-Arms”, in Quentin Durward. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 109:


cogue

Of unknown origin, but probably related to cog (“kind of ship, vessel”).

(chiefly Scotland) A small round wooden vessel for holding milk.


wick

From Middle English *wik, from Old Norse vík (“bay”), from Proto-Germanic *wīkō. Cognate with Old English wīc (“bight, creek, inlet”).

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-wick.wav

(obsolete or Northern England, Scotland) An inlet or bay.


twitter

Origin unknown; possibly related to twine, twist, and twirl.

(Northern England, Scotland, weaving, archaic) A knot or other defect in a thread or yarn which hinders spinning or weaving; a twit.


stool

en-noun

stool (countable and uncountable, plural stools)

From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English stōl (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōl, from Proto-Germanic *stōlaz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh₂los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian стол (stol, “table”), Russian стул (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from *steh₂- (“to stand”). More at stand.
The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).

cog

A seat, especially for one person and without armrests.

(now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) A seat with a back; a chair.

(now chiefly dialectal, Scotland, literally and figuratively) A throne.


inglenook

inglenooks (plural)
ingle nook (alternative)
ingle-nook (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-inglenook.wav

/ˈɪŋɡəlˌnʊk/

I ſat me in the ingle nook, / And joked wi my luver, / But a' the jokes that I cou'd crack, / The deel a ane could muve her.

1797 May, E. S. J., “A Song”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume LXVII, part I, number V, London: […] John Nichols, […], →OCLC, page 423, column 2:

The ingle-nook ſupplies the ſimmer-fields, / An' aft as mony gleefu' maments yields.

1799, Robert Fergusson, “An Eclogue. […]”, in The Poetical Works of R. Fergusson, Paisley, Renfrewshire: R. Smith, […], →OCLC, page 80:

Could we find a Hamilton to write a tale in Gaelic, for the ingle-nooks of our cottagers, we might expect a speedy reform. The Highlanders are fond of tales, and there does not seem to be a better method of pointing out to them the advantages of activity and cleanliness, than dispersing among them a few stories drawn up with ability.

1813, George Steuart Mackenzie, “Political Economy”, in General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Ross and Cromarty. […], London: […] Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], →OCLC, section 8 (Healthiness of the Country, Mode of Living, &c.), pages 326–327:

May the Forest still flourish, both Borough and Landward, / From the hall of the Peer to the herd's ingle-nook; / And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standard, / For the King and the Country, the Clan and the Duke.

1815 December 1, [Walter Scott; James Hogg], “The Lifting of the Banner”, in The Ettricke Garland; being Two Excellent New Songs on the Lifting of the Banner of the House of Buccleuch, at the Great Foot-ball Match on Carterhaugh, Dec. 4, 1815, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co., →OCLC, page 5:

[O]ne [chair], distinguished by capacious arms, a high stuffed back, and red cushions, was placed close to the ingle nook, the accustomed seat of the father of the family.

1822 May 1, “The Smuggler”, in The Atheneum; or, Spirit of the English Magazines, volume 11, Boston, Mass.: Munroe and Francis, […], →OCLC, page 103, column 1:

Alice was removed to the residence of the older Noland, where she was welcomed with a rough but honest kindness, and old Margaret was installed in the ingle nook.

1838 December 22, “the Old Sailor” [pseudonym], “Robin Hood’s Bay”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, volume VII, number 360, Edinburgh: […] W[illiam] S[omerville] Orr and Co., […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 378, column 2:

It was remembered but too well how the dragoons had stalked into the peasant's cottage, cursing and damning him, themselves, and each other at every second word, pushing from the ingle nook his grandmother of eighty, and thrusting their hands into the bosom of his daughter of sixteen; [...]

1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 343:

The Cavalier was supported by the assiduous host into a large, comfortable-looking house-place, with a wood fire blazing upon the hearth—deep inglenooks on either side of the chimney—and a couple of cozy benches with high backs calculated to keep off all draught advancing far into the room, with a long and strong oak table between them.

1860, W[illiam] Harrison Ainsworth, “Ovingdean Grange. A Tale of the South Downs.”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XLVII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, 6th part (The Devil’s Dyke), chapter III (Of the Guests at the Poynings’ Arms), page 350:

It is in this old chimney corner, the quaint inglenook of our ancestors—just there in the far angle, where His little stool was placed, and where, I dare say, if we could look close enough, we should find the hearthstone scraped with His little feet—that we see the inconceivable child gazing into the blaze of the old oaken logs and making out there pictures and stories, see Him conning, with curly bent head, His well-worn hornbook, or poring over some scrap of an ancient ballad, some page of some such rudely bound volume of chronicles as lay, we may be sure, in His father's window-seat.

1903 February 26, Henry James, “The Birthplace”, in The Better Sort, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, chapter VII, page 296:

The chimneys are most striking, with the upper part in brickwork, and with fine bold bases of stone, forming inside comfortable ingle nooks.

1914, Philip B. Chatwin, “Kyre Wyard”, in Transactions, Excursions and Report, for the Year 1913, volume XXXIX, Birmingham, Warwickshire: […] Hudson & Son [for the Birmingham Archaeological Society, Birmingham and Midland Institute], […], →OCLC, page 60:

Seated in my barber's chair in the ingle-nook, with a book and a cup of coffee on the table in front of me, I would hear coming down the chimney, as though the village was situated on an island in the sky, a succession of slow, somnolent sounds: [...]

1957, Gerald Brenan, “The High Mountains and Guadix”, in South from Granada, 1st paperback edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 153:

Opposite the old church is a Tudor black-and-white cottage, flanked at one end by the Brocket Arms, a splendid 400-year-old pub with stone-flagged floors, a vast inglenook fireplace and a garden full of oak tables and benches for summer evening meditation.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 45:

In its purest form, the inglenook is distinctly set off, a sort of room within a room. [...] The twin benches of many inglenooks face each other at right angles to the hearth. This arrangement gives the best view of the fire, but space considerations may dictate building seating along the fireplace wall instead.

2000, Judith Knuth, edited by Paula Marshall, Fireplace Decorating & Planning Ideas, Des Moines, Iowa: Better Homes and Gardens Books, →ISBN, page 47:

He [a dog] wants the warmth of our home, to curl up in our inglenook and lap from his water bowl.

2014, Eric Freeze, “Dead Weight”, in Hemingway on a Bike, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 80:

(originally Scotland, architecture, chiefly historical) A nook or corner beside an open fireplace; a chimney corner.

爐邊 /炉边

nook or corner beside an open fireplace; chimney corner


nicher

en-verb

nicher (third-person singular simple present nichers, present participle nichering, simple past and past participle nichered)

nichers (present singular third-person)
nichering (participle present)
nichered (participle past)
nichered (past)

"Aha-ha-ha! Hee-hee-hee!" nichered McMurdie, misconstruing the Laird's meaning.

(Scotland) Alternative form of nicker (“to neigh”).


ware

From Middle English ware, from Old Norse vár (“spring”), from Proto-Germanic *wazrą. Cognate with Icelandic vor (“spring”), Swedish vår (“spring”), Danish vår (“spring”), Scots ware, wair (“spring”).

(Northern England, Scotland) Spring, springtime.


tablet

→ Scottish Gaelic: tablaid

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-tablet.wav

From Middle English tablet, from Old French tablete (Modern French tablette), diminutive of table (“table”).

(Scotland) A confection made from sugar, condensed milk and butter, produced in flat slabs, with a grainer texture than fudge.


haggard

He tuk a slew [swerve] round the haggard http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/am1924/pt_s.htm

(dialect, Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland) A stackyard, an enclosure on a farm for stacking grain, hay, etc.


tabulate

tabulate (third-person singular simple present tabulates, present participle tabulating, simple past and past participle tabulated)

tabulates (present singular third-person)
tabulating (participle present)
tabulated (participle past)
tabulated (past)

From Late Latin tabulātus (“having a floor; floored”), perfect passive participle of tabulō (“to fit with planks”), from tabula (“board, plank”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- (a variant of *steh₂- (“to stand”)) + *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)). Equivalent to table + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

der

The order of Tabulating Summonds is now much alter'd, for no Summonds are Tabulated except Actions of Declarators, Improbations, Contraventions, and other Actions at the King's Advocats inſtance, […]

1687, George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, “King James the Fifth, Parl. 5. [Act 52.]”, in Observations on the Acts of Parliament, …, Edinburgh: Printed by the heir of Andrew Anderson, printer to His Most Sacred Majesty, and are to be sold by Thomas Brown, and other book-sellers, →OCLC, page 134:

(transitive, Scotland, obsolete) To enter into an official register or roll.


baffie

[…]; the inhabitants' benign indifference to idiosyncratic behavior (the way, for example, that you could walk down the street in nothing but a pair of baffies with a budgerigar on your head and no-one would think twice of it).

2000, Kate Atkinson, Emotionally Weird, Macmillan, published 2001, →ISBN, page 40:

[…] put him oot the door in his semmit an his baffies.

2001, Janet Paisley, Not for Glory, Canongate, →ISBN, page 241:

“You can’t be walking about in the muck with naught but your skirts and baffies. […]” ¶ By process of elimination I narrowed the word baffies to mean some sort of footwear.

2003, Katie MacAlister, Men in Kilts, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 87:

(Scotland) A slipper, or a worn, comfortable shoe.


amn't

If anyone thinks that I amn’t divine,
He gets no free drinks when I’m making the wine

1904, Oliver St. John Gogarty, The Song of the Cheerful (but slightly Sarcastic) Jesus:

Amn’t I with you? Amn’t I your girl?

1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, →OL, ch. 15:

2004 An Coimisinéir Teanga, Frequently Asked Questions
I phoned a government office but nobody there had any Irish so I couldn't do my business with them in Irish. Amn't I entitled under the Act to conduct business with any Government office in Irish?

Now, I’m very conscious of what I am or amn’t referencing from those eras, and I’m so comfortable with that – being a reinvention of a retro kind of thing.

2017 November 18, Al Porter, quoted in Patrick Freyne, "Al Porter: ‘After wild sex with a priest, I realised the priesthood was not for me’", The Irish Times


brig

From Scots brig, from Old Norse bryggja, from Proto-Germanic *brugjǭ. Doublet of bridge.

Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg, / And win the key-stane of the brig;

(Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England) Bridge.


upsetting

en-adj

upsetting (comparative more upsetting, superlative most upsetting)

more upsetting (comparative)
most upsetting (superlative)


propone

en-verb

propone (third-person singular simple present propones, present participle proponing, simple past and past participle proponed)

propones (present singular third-person)
proponing (participle present)
proponed (participle past)
proponed (past)

From Latin prōpōnō (“place before; offer, propose”), via Scots.

der

(transitive, Scotland) to propose or put forward for discussion or consideration


repose

en-verb

repose (third-person singular simple present reposes, present participle reposing, simple past and past participle reposed)

reposes (present singular third-person)
reposing (participle present)
reposed (participle past)
reposed (past)
repose (infinitive)
repose (first-person present singular)
reposed (first-person past singular)
repose (present second-person singular)
reposest (archaic present second-person singular)
reposed (past second-person singular)
reposedst (archaic past second-person singular)
reposes (present singular third-person)
reposeth (archaic present singular third-person)
reposed (past singular third-person)
repose (plural present)
reposed (past plural)
repose (present subjunctive)
reposed (past subjunctive)
repose (imperative present)
reposing (participle present)
reposed (participle past)

From Middle English reposen (“to put (something) back, replace”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backwards’) + posen (“to place (something)”), modelled after Latin repōnō (“to put back; to restore; to store”). Posen is derived from Old French poser (“to place, put”) (modern French poser), from Vulgar Latin pausāre, from Latin pausāre, the present active infinitive of pausō (see further at etymology 1), influenced by pōnere, the present active infinitive of pōnō (“to lay, place, put”).

der

(transitive) Senses relating to returning.

(obsolete, rare, chiefly Scotland) To restore (someone) to a position or rank formerly held; to reinstate.


gardyloo

From Edinburgh Scots gardyloo, from a corruption of medieval French gardez l'eau (“mind the water”).

[A]ll the chairs in the family are emptied into this here barrel once a-day; and at ten o'clock at night the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls Gardy loo to the passengers, which signifies, Lord have mercy upon you! and this is done every night in every house at Haddingborough; so you may guess, Mary Jones, what a sweet savour comes from such a number of profuming pans […]

1771, Tobias Smollet, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Dublin: Printed for A. Leathley, J. Exshaw, H. Saunders, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlain [and ten others], OCLC 277265635, republished in The Novels of Tobias Smollett, M.D.: viz. Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey Clinker (Ballantyne's Novelist's Library; II), London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 1821, OCLC 271400557, page 626

It would, in fact, seem as if a tacit agreement existed, that so soon as St Giles' clock struck ten, the windows were simultaneously opened for a general discharge (which, in 1745, must have rather alarmed Prince Charles' followers, when they had possession of the town), and the streets and closes resounded with one universal cry, Gardyloo! Dr Jamieson, in his Dictionary, gives the word as Jordeloo: I doubt if any such word was ever used; but in his Supplement the learned Doctor properly assigns it to the original French phrase, Gare de l'eau—Beware the water […]

1858, David Laing, “Proposals for Cleaning and Lighting the City of Edinburgh (with Original Signatures of a Number of the Principal Inhabitants), in the Year 1735: With Explanatory Remarks”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: Sessions MDCCCLVII.–VIII.—MDCCCLIX.–LX., Edinburgh: Printed for the Society by Neill and Company, published 1862, →OCLC, page 177:

Gardyloo is a word logophiles find irresistible. According to Ms. Sperling, gardyloo was, "in old Edinburgh, a warning cry before throwing dirty water from windows into the street in the 1770s. […]"

The method of garbage disposal in the Old Town was to shout ‘Gardy-loo’ and throw everything out the window. Gardy-loo was a warped version of gardez l'eau (approximately French for ‘watch out for the water’) – except it wasn't just water the warning referred to. […] [A] cry of ‘Gardy-loo’ was greeted by the return screech of ‘Haud yer haun’ (hold your hand). This would give you time to get into a doorway and all you suffered was a few splatters.

1999, Jan-Andrew Henderson, The Town Below the Ground: Edinburgh's Legendary Underground City, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing Company, published 2007, →ISBN:

His eyes grew wide in revulsion when he realized what had just landed on him. His shout ripped through the midnight sky like a knife. "Gardyloo! Gardyloo! You are supposed to yell gardyloo before you throw your chamber pot out the window! You repulsive vermin, come down here so I can bash in your head!"

2015, Marilee Jackson, chapter 37, in Midnight Runner, Springville, Utah: Sweetwater Books, →ISBN:

(Scotland, obsolete) Used by people in medieval Scotland to warn passers-by of waste about to be thrown from a window into the street below. The term was still in use as late as the 1930s and 1940s, when many people had no indoor toilets.


gardyloo

gardyloos (plural)
gardy loo (alternative)

What do the polished inhabitants of Carrubber's close care for all the taunts that can be uttered by the mouths of all the tobacco-chewing, bacon-eating bagmen who chatter no intelligible language of any country, about "gardy loos," and Caledonian cremonas?

1828 October, “Bath. A Satire.”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXIV, page 462:

Notwithstanding the repeated proclamations of successive magistrates against depositing filth on the streets and closes, and against throwing soil and refuse over the windows, – emphasised as these proclamations were by threats of fines, imprisonment, the pillory, whipping, and banishment, – the practice was continued far into the last century; and contemporary writers represent the sounding of ten o'clock from the steeple of St Giles' to have been the signal for a general and simultaneous discharge from the windows of every house, amid a chorus of "Gardyloos."

1865, James David Marwick, Sketch of the History of the High Constables of Edinburgh: With Notes on the Early Watching, Cleaning, and other Police Arrangements of the City, Edinburgh: Printed for private circulation [by J. Grieg and Son], →OCLC, page 74:

In many of the less developed areas, rubbish is left on the streets, and dirty water is still flung from the windows without so much as a "gardyloo."

1964, Charles Abrams, Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →OCLC, page 66:

[…] I began to round up the scattered empties which, without so much as a ‘gardyloo’, I chucked from the window into the backcourt.

1992, Jeff Torrington, Swing Hammer Swing!, London: Secker & Warburg, ISBN 978-0-436-53120-0; republished by Harvill Secker, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84655-673-9, pages 231–232

Granted, the balmy temperatures of these climes may have contributed to the general moral collapse, but the erotic pandemonium of gardyloos, shrieks, halloos, yodels, screams, and fullthroated bellowings cannot be blamed on the weather, and must stand forever as a blot on this otherwise handsomely managed season.

2004, Gilbert Sorrentino, The Moon in Its Flight: Stories, Minneapolis, Minn.: Coffee House Press, published 2012, →ISBN:

(Scotland, historical) A cry of "gardyloo".


flush

Various similar terms are found in dialectal English and Scots as flash and flosh (older Scots flosche), and the variation goes back to Middle English flushe, flosche, flashe, flaske. The DSL suggests a relation between flush, English flash (“pool”), and Middle English flosche, but influence from other water-related senses of flush and flash is also conceivable.

For this point onwards the land slopes gently until it becomes quite low lying, that is, tends to become a "flush" or bog.

1917, Transactions and Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, page 131:

The reason for a "green gair" or flush is the outflow of a spring, and a regular line of these springs may often be traced along a valley slope.

1918, The Scottish Journal of Agriculture, volumes 1-2, page 263:

The pH in water of the hillside soils varied between 3.1 and 6.1 with a mean of 4.2. The pattern of pH variation is complex and does not clearly relate either to cultivation or occupation. The most consistent, though weak, correlation appears to be between higher pH and flushes or bogs, which indicates that the local groundwaters are comparatively basic.

1995, Olwyn Owen, Christopher Lowe, Kebister: The Four-thousand-year-old Story, page 45:

Suddenly a way would open down into a flush or bog, even some extensive ones where snowfed springs rose, and so did Asiatic Golden Plover with their plangent cries, and calling from high circling; and I was home again.

2007, Colin Simms, Gyrfalcon Poems, page 16:

The inland distribution of Plantago maritima in Ireland and Britain is … generally associated with base-rich soils or with flushes in more acidic upland soils. … Many of these inland sites are on uplands of both acidic and basic rock. … associated with calcareous, nutrient-poor flushes, …

2012, M. J. Sheehy Skeffington, D. W. Jeffrey, "Growth performance of an inland population of Plantago maritima in response to nitrogen and salinity", in W.G. Beeftink, A.H.L. Huiskes, Jelte Rozema, Ecology of coastal vegetation: Proceedings of a Symposium, page 264

Lowland heath Fen, marsh, and swamp / Upland flushes, fens, and swamps […] Flushes are gently sloping, often linear or triangle-shaped wetlands; they may include small watercourses.

2016, Ralph W. Tiner, Wetland Indicators: A Guide to Wetland Formation:

[…] Not all the flushes are as basic as might be expected in basalt country, but they do support most of the sedges found in this habitat in the Hebrides. […] in peaty fushes both on Canna and Sanday […]

2017, John Lorne Campbell, Canna: The Story of a Hebridean Island, page xvii:

A groundwater-fed marsh or peaty mire (which may be acidic or basic, nutrient-rich or poor); (originally especially Scotland and Northern England) a (marshy) pool or seep, as in a field.


polis

en-noun

polis (countable and uncountable, plural polises)

Borrowed from Scots polis. Doublet of police.

Even in his Ma's womb, you would have had to define Spud less as a foetus, more as a set of dormant drug and personality problems. He'd probably draw the polis onto them through knocking a saltcellar out of the Little Chef.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 328:

(uncountable, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie) The police.

(countable, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie) A police officer.


chum

en-verb

chum (third-person singular simple present chums, present participle chumming, simple past and past participle chummed)

chums (present singular third-person)
chumming (participle present)
chummed (participle past)
chummed (past)
choom (alternative)

1675–85; of uncertain origin, possibly from cham, shortening of chambermate, or from comrade. Less likely from Welsh cymrawd (“fellow”), compare brawd (“brother”).

I'll chum you down to the shops.

(transitive, Scotland, informal) To accompany.


neuk

(Scotland, Northumbria) A corner; a nook. A fairy fiddler frae the neuk, [nook] - "Robert Burns", by William Allan Neilson (1917)

(Scotland, Northumbria) A bend (e.g. in a coast) …the fleet, after exploring the harbours, had doubled the East Neuk, passed safely through St Andrews Bay, and entered the Firth of Tay. --Chronicles of Strathearn (1896) - Rev. John Hunter.


izzard

desc

Hong Kong English: Z (pronounced as /(j)iˈzɛd/ or /(j)ɪˈzɛd/)

From Middle English izod, ezod, ezed, from Old French et zede (literally “and zed”), as spoken when reciting the alphabet.

der

... [Reading.] Dear Sir,—ay, that's that. Then there's an M, and a T, and an S, but whether the next be an izzard, or an R, confound me, I cannot tell.

1773, [Oliver] Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer: Or, The Mistakes of a Night. A Comedy. […], London: […] F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):

(Scotland, and archaically in England and Ireland) The letter Z; zed, zee.


tryst

From Middle English tryst, trist, from Old French triste, tristre (“waiting place, appointed station in hunting”), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse treysta (“to make safe, secure”), from traust (“confidence, trust, security, help, shelter, safe abode”), from Proto-Germanic *traustą (“trust, shelter”), from Proto-Indo-European *deru-, *dreu-, *drū- (“to be firm, be solid”). Doublet of trust (which see).

inh

(Scotland, historical) A market fair, especially a recurring one held on a schedule, where livestock sales took place.


cock-up

Cockernonie, a gathering up of the hair of women, after a fashion similar to that of the modern "chignon," and sometimes called a "cock-up." Mr. Kirkton, of Edinburgh, preaching against "cock-ups"—of which chignons were the representatives a quarter of a century ago—said: "I have been all this year preaching against the vanity of women, yet I see my own daughter in the kirk even now with as high a 'cock-up' as any one of you all."

1888, Charles Mackay, A Dictionary of Lowland Scotch, page 30:

(obsolete, Scotland) A roll or twist of hair worn at the nape of the neck; a bun.


House of Lords

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-House of Lords.wav

(Scotland, humorous euphemistic slang, uncommon) A urinal.


goo

Well, then, things are settled, an' I'll goo an' finish yond pigs off," said my new employer, rising from his chair, and flapping his crush hat upon his head as if he was killing flies.

1886, w:Benjamin Brierley, Cast Upon the World - The Story of a Waif, Heywood, →ISBN, page 218:

I means to goo to th' mop, 'er sez, fur I waants a chahinge.[…]'T wuz to w:Muckley mop 'er went.

1897, Hamilton Kingsford, Vigornian Monologues: A Series of Papers in Illustration of the Dialect of Worcestershire, page 18:

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(Northern England, West Midlands, Scotland) Pronunciation spelling of go.


lax

From Middle English lax, from Old English leax (“salmon”), from Proto-West Germanic *lahs (“salmon”), from Proto-Germanic *lahsaz (“salmon”), from Proto-Indo-European *laḱs- (“salmon, trout”). Cognate with Middle Dutch lacks, lachs, lasche (“salmon”), Middle Low German las (“salmon”), German Lachs (“salmon”), Norwegian laks (“salmon”), Danish laks (“salmon”), Swedish lax (“salmon”), Icelandic lax (“salmon”), Lithuanian lašišà (“salmon”), Latvian lasis, Russian лосо́сь (losósʹ, “salmon”), Albanian leshterik (“eel-grass”). Doublet of lox.

der

(now chiefly UK dialectal, Scotland) A salmon.


snirt

en-verb

snirt (third-person singular simple present snirts, present participle snirting, simple past and past participle snirted)

snirts (present singular third-person)
snirting (participle present)
snirted (participle past)
snirted (past)

Origin uncertain. Either from Middle English snurten (“to sneer; snort, snore”), a variation of snorten (“to snort”); or from Middle English *snyrten, an alteration of fnyrten, fnerten, from Old English fnǣrettan. Compare also Norwegian snurt (“vexed, peevish”), Middle English snirt (“stern, gloomy”).

inh

"He grins, and snirts, and thraws ye ken —

1833, Anonymous, writing in The Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal, page 575, "Willie and Pate"

"But ye see there was a great deal of blushing and snirting, and bits of made coughs, as if to keep down a thorough guffau."

1837, James Hogg, “Katie Cheyne”, in Tales and Sketches, page 172:

The Whaup grew very red in the face, and ‘snirted’ with laughter."

1871, William Black, A daughter of Heth: A novel, page 160:

(Scotland) To give a suppressed laugh or sharp intake of breath.


snirt

(Scotland) A suppressed laugh; a sharp intake of breath.


quean

queans (plural)
quine (alternative Scotland)
quene (alternative obsolete)
queane (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English quene (“young, robust woman”), from Old English cwene (“woman, female serf”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwenā, from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”). Doublet of gyne and queen.
Cognate with Dutch kween (“a barren woman, a barren cow”), Low German quene (“barren cow, heifer”), German Kone (“wife”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Icelandic kona (“woman”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 (qinō, “woman”), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”).

cog

Forbye the two queans there was the son, John Gordon, as coarse a devil as you'd meet, he'd already had two-three queans in trouble and him but barely eighteen years old.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 30:

(Scotland) A young woman, a girl; a daughter.


ween

en-verb

ween (third-person singular simple present weens, present participle weening, simple past and past participle weened)

weens (present singular third-person)
weening (participle present)
weened (participle past)
weened (past)

From Middle English weinen (“to wail, lament”), from Old English wānian (“to bewail, lament”), from Proto-Germanic *wainōną (“to cry, lament, grieve”). Cognate with Dutch wenen (“to weep, cry”), German weinen (“to weep, cry”), Icelandic veina (“to wail, cry out”), West Frisian weine (“to weep, cry”).

inh

The boy's mother weened day and night.

(Northern England, Scotland, rare) To weep or cry.


paraphrase

en-noun

paraphrase (countable and uncountable, plural paraphrases)

/ˈpæɹəfɹeɪz/

(Scotland) One of a certain number of Scripture passages turned into verse for use in the service of praise.


moyen

moyen (countable and uncountable, plural moyens)

From Middle English moyen, moene, a variation of mene, meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin mediānus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Doublet of mid and mean.

cog

(obsolete, chiefly Scotland) Intercession; intervention.


cuttie

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cuttie.wav

(Scotland) Alternative spelling of cutty (“someone or something common and short or small”).

cutty

(Scotland, archaic) The black guillemot.


cuttie

en-adj

cuttie (comparative more cuttie, superlative most cuttie)

more cuttie (comparative)
most cuttie (superlative)

(Scotland) Alternative spelling of cutty short, shortened or small.


skitter

en-verb

skitter (third-person singular simple present skitters, present participle skittering, simple past and past participle skittered)

skitters (present singular third-person)
skittering (participle present)
skittered (participle past)
skittered (past)

From skite (“to defecate”) + -er (frequentative suffix). The noun is derived from the verb.

suf

"[…] I'd like you to give the calves two heaped tablespoonfuls [of Epsom salts] three times a day." / "Oh 'ell, you'll skitter the poor buggers to death!" / "Maybe so, but there's nothing else for it," I said.

1970, James Herriot [pseudonym; James Alfred Wight], If Only They Could Talk, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN:

(transitive, Northern England, Scotland) To cause to have diarrhea.

As a symptomatic phenomenon, Diarrhœa is skittering, i.e., the discharges are composed of water, intermingled with particles of imperfectly digested food; from two to six or eight discharges may thus take place, and it is an invariable precursor of constipation.

1875 August 3, Thomas Walley, “The Differentiation in the Characters and Symptoms of Gastro-intestinal Affections”, in George Fleming, editor, The Veterinary Journal and Annals of Comparative Pathology, volume I, London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, King William Street, Strand [et al.], published October 1875, →OCLC, page 244:

And when health problems struck, as they inevitably would, no matter how attentive the farmer, the tree had to be nursed until it was better. […] Jeez, and I'd thought mothering week-old orphan calves back in Scotland had been a headache! Still, at least a tree couldn't skitter diarrhoea down the front of your jeans, or bellow to be bucket-fed warm milk in the middle of the night, so that was a bonus.

2001, Peter Kerr, “Wood for Thought”, in Mañana, Mañana: One Mallorcan Summer, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers, →ISBN:

(intransitive, Northern England, Scotland) To suffer from a bout of diarrhea; to produce thin excrement.


skitter

I can't give it my immediate attention, as the cow has the skitter (diarrhoea) and I'm waiting on the Vit (vet).

2013, Cathal McCosker, “Wild Men Appear”, in Man Up and Paddle!: A Wild and Dangerous Circumnavigation around Ireland, [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Lulu, →ISBN, page 43:

Shaking but making herself stand there while skitter ran down the inside of her legs. She learnt German early from Anna. Durchfall easier to spell than Diarrhoea. Falling liquid brown.

2014, Mango Gorman, “God Demands a Holocaust”, in Bone and Blood: A Berlin Novel, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 56:

(Scotland, Northern England, uncountable) Often skitters: the condition of suffering from diarrhea; thin excrement.


kithe

en-verb

kithe (third-person singular simple present kithes, present participle kithing, simple past and past participle kithed)

kithes (present singular third-person)
kithing (participle present)
kithed (participle past)
kithed (past)
cythe (alternative)
kyithe (alternative)
kyith (alternative)
keyth (alternative)
kaith (alternative)
kayth (alternative)
caith (alternative)
cuith (alternative)

From Middle English kiþen, küthen, kithen, from Old English cȳþan, from Proto-West Germanic *kunþijan, from Proto-Germanic *kunþijaną (“to make known”).

der

these lines are sent by me, to keep the law and kithe my love to thee.

1606, Alexander Craig, The Amorous, London: printed by William White, New Year's Gift to Idea, page 96; republished as The Poetical Works of Alexander Craig of Rose-Craig, 1604–1631; Now First Collected, volume II, Glasgow: printed by Robert Anderson for the Hunterian Club, 1873:

I'll kithe a constant Palinurus to thee, […]

1609, Alexander Craig, The Poetical Recreations, Edinburgh: printed by Thomas Finlason, To His Majesty, in Name of his Noble Master, page 10; republished as The Poetical Works of Alexander Craig of Rose-Craig, 1604–1631; Now First Collected, volume III, Glasgow: printed by Robert Anderson for the Hunterian Club, 1873:

(archaic in Scotland, obsolete elsewhere) To make known; to reveal.


trollop

en-verb

trollop (third-person singular simple present trollops, present participle trolloping, simple past and past participle trolloped)

trollops (present singular third-person)
trolloping (participle present)
trolloped (participle past)
trolloped (past)

Origin uncertain; apparently connected with the Middle English trollen (“to go about, stroll, roll from side to side”). Ostensibly influenced, if not derived, in some way by a word from Old Norse trǫll (“troll, witch, mage, monster, etc.”).

der

(Scotland) to dangle soggily: become bedraggled


scourge

en-verb

scourge (third-person singular simple present scourges, present participle scourging, simple past and past participle scourged)

scourges (present singular third-person)
scourging (participle present)
scourged (participle past)
scourged (past)
scourge (infinitive)
scourge (first-person present singular)
scourged (first-person past singular)
scourge (present second-person singular)
scourgest (archaic present second-person singular)
scourged (past second-person singular)
scourgedst (archaic past second-person singular)
scourges (present singular third-person)
scourgeth (archaic present singular third-person)
scourged (past singular third-person)
scourge (plural present)
scourged (past plural)
scourge (present subjunctive)
scourged (past subjunctive)
scourge (imperative present)
scourging (participle present)
scourged (participle past)

From Middle English scourgen (“to whip, scourge; to afflict; to punish”), and then either:
* from scourge (noun) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs); or
* from Anglo-Norman escorger, and Old French escorgier (“to whip, to scourge”), which are either:
** from Anglo-Norman scorge, escorge (noun), etc., or Old French scurge, escourge (noun), etc. + -er (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); or
** from Vulgar Latin *excorrigiō, from Latin ex- (intensifying prefix) + corrigia (“a whip”); or
** directly from Late Latin excoriāre.
See further at etymology 1.

der

(Scotland, agriculture) Of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil).

köyhdyttää

of a crop or a farmer: to deplete the fertility of (land or soil)


ait

From Scots ait, ate, from Middle English ate, from Old English āte. More at oat.

Let husky wheat the haughs adorn,
An' aits set up their awnie horn,


scunner

en-verb

scunner (third-person singular simple present scunners, present participle scunnering, simple past and past participle scunnered)

scunners (present singular third-person)
scunnering (participle present)
scunnered (participle past)
scunnered (past)

Borrowed from Scots scunner, skunner, from Old Scots skunnyr, skowner (“to shrink back; flinch”), from Middle English skoneren (“to feel sick or disgusted”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a frequentative of shun. If so, etymologically shun + -er (frequentative suffix). Compare also Middle English scurnen (“to flinch”), English scare, English scorn.

der

But maybe she'd just got scunnered with Glasgow, fucked off to try her luck someplace else.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 123:

(Scotland, Northern Ireland) To cause to loathe, or feel disgust at.


remanent

From Latin remanens, present participle of remaneō (“I remain”).


whiles

From while (noun) + -s (adverbial suffix); compare whilst.

Man, I've diverted myself whiles with the science of the stars, and can make a shape at calculating a nativity.

1927, John Buchan, Witch Wood, published 1988, page 14:

(archaic or Scotland) sometimes; at times

the good knight whiles humming to himself the lay of some majored troubadour

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:


a

From Middle English a, a reduced form of he (“he”)/ha (“he”), heo (“she”)/ha (“she”), ha (“it”), and hie, hie (“they”).

a’ brushes his hat o’ mornings.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

Well! in a come [in he came]—KING GEORGE to town, / With doust and zweat az netmeg brown, / The hosses all in smoke;

1795, Peter Pindar, The Royal Visit to Exeter, a Political Epistle: by John Ploughshare ... published by Peter Pindar, Esq, page 5:

A do veed amang th' lilies.

"The amoighty's a taakin' o' you to 'issén, my friend," a said, […]

1864, Tennyson, N. Farmer, Old Style, st. 7, version of 1917, Raymond Macdonald Alden, Alfred Tennyson, how to Know Him, page 226

And, by your leave, for all the marvellous rich and sumptuous coat a weareth, he is very like a false jewel in a rich casing.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 8:

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) He, she, they: the third-person singular or plural nominative.

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) He, the third-person singular nominative.

A wanted me to go with her.

Did a do it!

A's getting wambling on her pins [shaky on her legs].

1883, Hardy, Tover, page 124 (edition of 1895)

(obsolete outside England and Scotland dialects) She, the third-person singular nominative.

He've a got a great venture on hand, but what a [it] be he tell'th no man.

1855, Kingsley, W. Ho!, page 120 (edition of 1889)

Doctors, they knaws nowt, fur a [they] says what's nawways true.

1864, Tennyson, N. Farmer, Old Style, st. 2


a

From Northern Middle English aw, alteration of all.


bampot

bampots (plural)
barmpot (alternative)
bam (alternative)

No-one up there really believes Scotland is some kind of terrorism magnet, whatever the bampots in London think.

(Scotland, slang, derogatory) An idiot; an objectionable and foolish person.


Abbey

(Scotland) The precincts of the Abbey of Holyrood.


Lammas

From Old English hlafmæsse (“loaf mass, harvest festival”).


brim

en-adj

brim (comparative more brim, superlative most brim)

more brim (comparative)
most brim (superlative)

(obsolete except Northern England, Scotland or poetic) Synonym of breme (“of the sea, wind, etc.: fierce; raging; stormy, tempestuous”).


kent

en-verb

kent (third-person singular simple present kents, present participle kenting, simple past and past participle kented)

kents (present singular third-person)
kenting (participle present)
kented (participle past)
kented (past)

(Scotland) To propel (a boat) using a pole.


cantle

From Middle English cantle, cantel, from Old Northern French cantel, Old French chantel (Modern French chanteau, Bourguignon chainteâ), from Medieval Latin cantellus, diminutive of Latin cantus (“corner”). Compare cant (Etymology 3).

(Scotland) On many styles of sporran, a metal arc along the top of the pouch, usually fronting the clasp.


ingle

From Middle Scots ingle, ingill, from Scottish Gaelic aingeal (“fire, light”), from Old Irish aingel, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óngʷl̥ (“coal”). Cognate with Irish aingeal.

Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely, / Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely

(obsolete or Scotland) An open fireplace.


cleg

clegs (plural)
clegg (alternative)
gleg (alternative)

From Middle English clege, from Old Norse kleggi, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *glōgʰ-s (“point”); compare with Norwegian Nynorsk klegg, Ancient Greek γλωχίς (glōkhís, “barb”).

Sir Christopher Pack did cleave like a clegg, and was very angry he could not be heard ad infinitum.

Now that was in summer, the time of fleas and glegs and golochs in the fields, when stirks would start up from a drowsy cud-chewing to a wild a feckless racing, the glegs biting through hair and hide to the skin below the tail-rump.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 39:

The clegs continue to swarm all around. I wonder how many there are.[…]Remaining seated on the block, I seize clegs out of the surrounding air at random, and with scissors cut out a tiny triangle from the rear edge of each one's right wing before releasing it.

1998, V. K. Riabitsev, One Season in the Taiga, page 138:

Cattle were grazing languidly on the lush grass and flicking their tails to keep away the clegs that constantly plagued them and, having recently suffered a nasty bite from one, I was wary of them myself.

2007, John T. Wright, An Evacuee's Story: A North Yorkshire Family in Wartime, page 361:

Whilst the swarms which surround you are annoying, they do not bite. It is the midges, clegs and ticks you should be on the lookout for.

2011, Denis Brook, Phil Hinchliffe, North to the Cape: A Trek from Fort William to Cape Wrath, page 49:

(Scotland, England dialect) A blood-sucking fly of the family Tabanidae; a gadfly, a horsefly.


mickle

en-adj

mickle (comparative more mickle, superlative most mickle)

more mickle (comparative)
most mickle (superlative)

From Middle English mickle, michel, mikel, mochel, muchel, mukel (“much; many; large, tall; great”), from Old English miċel, myċel (“big, large; great; much”), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz (“great, large; many, much”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”). The word is cognate with Faroese mikil (“large, great, much”), Icelandic mikill (“large in quantity or number; much; great”), Middle High German michel (“large, much”). Doublet of much and muckle.
For the adverb and noun forms, compare Middle English muchel (“extensively, greatly, much”, adverb) and Middle English muchel (“large amount”, noun).
The noun sense “a small amount” was due to the proverb many a little makes a mickle being incorrectly rendered as many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.

cog

Oh mickle is the powerfull grace that lies / In hearbes, plants, ſtones, and their true qualities: / For nought ſo vile, that vile on earth doth liue, / But to the earth ſome ſpeciall good doth giue: […]

c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

O Jupiter! whose ſtrength is mickle, / Was ever man in ſuch a pickle!

1772, [Thomas Bridges], “Homer’s Iliad. Book VIII.”, in A Burlesque Translation of Homer, London: Printed for S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page 325:

In the Den of Kinraddie one such beast had its lair […] and at gloaming a shepherd would see it, with its great wings half-folded across the great belly of it and its head, like the head of a meikle cock, but with the ears of a lion, poked over a fir tree, watching.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon [pseudonym; James Leslie Mitchell], “Prelude: The Unfurrowed Field”, in Sunset Song: A Novel, London: Jarrolds, Limited, →OCLC; republished Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2008, →ISBN, page 1:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, especially Northumbria) (Very) great or large.


mickle

They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.

1586 January 12, the Master of Gray [i.e., Patrick Gray, 6th Lord Gray], “[Appendix to the Second Volume] To the Right Hon. My Lord Chancellor and Secretary to His Majesty, from the Master of Gray”, in William Robertson, The History of Scotland during the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI. till His Accession to the Crown of England. […] In Two Volumes, 4th edition, volume II, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […], published 1761, →OCLC, page 445:

[…] I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, […]

1778, Thomas Warton, “Section XXVI”, in The History of English Poetry, from the Close of the Eleventh to the Commencement of the Eighteenth Century, London: For, and sold by, J. Dodsley [et al.], →OCLC; republished as The History of English Poetry, from the Eleventh to the Seventeenth Century. […], London: Ward, Lock, and Co., […], 1875, →OCLC, page 424:

[…] I am without fenzeitnes of hart and ſpreit; and of gude reſſoun, thocht [though] my meritis were mickle greiter than of the maiſt profit that ever was, […]

1790, John Whitaker, chapter VI, in Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated. … In Three Volumes, 2nd enlarged and corrected edition, volume I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Murray, […], →OCLC, § IV, page 478:

That I wad wi' a' my heart; and mickle obliged to your honour for putting me in mind o' my bounden duty.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XIX, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 282:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland) To a great extent.


mickle

en-noun

mickle (countable and uncountable, plural mickles)

Many a little makes a mickle.

Neurthelesse little or mickle, something or nothing, substaunce or shadow take all in good part, my meaning is by a fewe wordes to wynne credit to this works, not so much for mine owne Englishe Translation as for the singular commendation of them, challenged of dutie and desart.

1576, Iohannes Caius [i.e., John Caius], “To the Reader”, in Abraham Fleming, transl., Of Englishe Dogges, the Diuersities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties. […], imprinted at London: By [John Charlewood for] Rychard Johnes, […], →OCLC; republished London: Printed by A. Bradley, […], 1880, →OCLC:

In a word, I muſt know what I may gaine, little or much: for the henne layes aſwell vpon one egge as many, and many littles make a mickle, and whilſt ſomething is gotten, nothing is loſt.

1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], “What Passed betwixt Don Quixote and His Squire, with Other Most Famous Accidents”, in Thomas Shelton, transl., The Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-errant, Don Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Edward Blount, →OCLC, page 41:

Many of the great fortunes in this country have been built up of pence and halfpence—I might also say of farthings. The odd halfpenny and three-farthings that you see (if you look close) upon the ticketed article in the shop-window, forms one of the littles; and a profit of hundreds of pounds, or often thousands, at the end of the year, forms the mickle.

1874, P. B. Power, “Two-edged Proverbs: II.—‘Every Little Makes a Mickle.’”, in The Quiver: An Illustrated Magazine for Sunday and General Reading, volume IX, London, Paris: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, →OCLC, page 772, column 1:

(archaic, chiefly Scotland) A great amount.

While we boast of our farming, we must repeat again and again, the secret of our prosperity. It is a regular rotation of crops, making a little out of many articles, rather than attempting to make much of one; remembering the Scotch proverb, that "many a mickle makes a muckle"; […]

1831 December 3, “Improvements”, in Samuel Hazard, editor, Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania: Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents, and Every Kind of Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania, volume VIII, number 23 (issue 205 overall), Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by Wm. F. Geddes, […], →OCLC, page 367, column 2:

(archaic, Scotland, originally erroneous) A small amount.


mickle

There was mickle melody at that Childës [Jesus Christ's] birth, / All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle mirth.

15th century, “O Jesu Parvule”, in Edith Rickert, compiler, Ancient English Christmas Carols: MCCCC to MDCC (The New Medieval Library), London: Chatto & Windus; New York, N.Y.: Duffield & Co., published 1910, →OCLC, part I (Carols of the Nativity), page 67:

Full many wounds in his corrupted fleſh / He did engraue, and muchell blood did ſpend, / Yet might not doe him die, but aie more freſh / And fierce he ſtill appeard, the more he did them threſh.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32, page 503:

Hees forc't to trot with fardle at his backe, / From houſe to houſe, demaunding if they lacke / A poore yong man that's willing to take paine, / And mickle labour, though for little gaine.

1597–1598, T[homas] M[iddleton], “Satyre 2. Prodigall Zodon.”, in Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres. […], imprinted at London: By Thomas Creede, for Thomas Bushell, […], published 1599, →OCLC; republished as [Edward Vernon Utterson], editor, Micro-cynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres, [Ryde, Isle of Wight?]: Reprinted at the Beldornie Press, by G. E. Palmer, for Edwd. V. Utterson, 1842, →OCLC:

Becauſe they did not faithfully believe, and hope that he / Could alwaies help and ſuccor them in their neceſſitie. / Wherefore he did command the clouds, forthwith they brake in ſunder, / And rain'd down Manna for them to eat, a food of mickle wonder.

1675, Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins [et al.], “The Whole Book of Psalms: Collected into English Meeter”, in The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments: […], Oxford: At the Theater, →OCLC, Psalm lxxviij:22–24:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland and Northern England, especially Northumbria) Much; a great quantity or amount of.

[H]e that tellt me saw wi' his ain ee'n, an' heard wi' his ain ears, the mickle part o' what I'm gaun to say—an' what he didna see or hear hissell, he learned frae those wha'd kent a' frae the beginnin'

1861, “Puir Grizel: A Tale o’ Scotland”, in Mrs. S. C. Hall [i.e., Anna Maria Hall], editor, The St. James’s Magazine, volume I, London: Published for the proprietor by W. Kent and Co., Paternoster Row; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, →OCLC, page 74:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland and Northumbria) Most; the majority of.


mickle

meikle (alternative)
michel (alternative)
muchell (alternative)

Seek mickle, and get ſomething; ſeek little, and get nothing.

1721, James Kelly, A Complete Collection of Scotish Proverbs Explained and Made Intelligible to the English Reader, London: Printed for William and John Innys, and John Osborn, →OCLC, paragraph 50, page 291:

(archaic, now chiefly Scotland) A great extent or large amount.


blate

en-adj

blate (comparative blater, superlative blatest)

blater (comparative)
blatest (superlative)

Borrowed from Scots blate (“timid, sheepish”), apparently a conflation of:
* Northern Middle English *blate, *blait (“pale, ghastly, terrified”), from Old English blāt (“pale, livid, ghastly”), from Proto-West Germanic *blait (“pale, discoloured”), from Proto-Germanic *blaitaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyd- (“pale, pallid”);
* Middle English bleth, bleath (“timid, soft”), from Old English blēaþ (“gentle, shy, cowardly, timid; slothful, inactive, effeminate”), from Proto-Germanic *blauþuz (“weak, timid, void, naked”).
Cognate with German blassen (“to make pale”), bleich (“pale, pallid”). More at bleak, bleach.

der

You'd say Not them; fine legs, and Ma struggling into her blouse would say You're no blate. Who told you they're fine?

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 491:

(Scotland, Northern England) Bashful, sheepish.

(Scotland, Northern England) Dull, stupid.


muckle

From Middle English mukel, muchel, from the same source as (perhaps a variant of) mickle.


muckle

en-adj

muckle (comparative more muckle, superlative most muckle)

more muckle (comparative)
most muckle (superlative)

She clorts a muckle piece [sandwich] tae me, wi' different kinds o' jam,

c. 1930, George S. Morris, song A Pair o Nicky-tams

An' tells me ilka nicht that she admires my Nicky Tams.

(archaic outside Northumbria and Scotland) Large, massive.

(archaic outside Northumbria and Scotland) Much.


sneck

Lydia jerked about with the blind, fixing it first in one little sneck and then another, finally pulling it right to the bottom and pressing the button into the little brass hole.

1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 2:

The graveyard wall was in good repair, although, surprisingly, the narrow gate's sneck was smashed and it was held-to by a loop of binder twine.

1980, JL Carr, A Month in the Country, Penguin, published 2010, page 3:

(Northern England, Scotland) A latch or catch.


whisht

From Middle English qwyst, whisht, whist, imitative, though perhaps influenced by other verbs in wh- used in the imperative or by hust (adjective).

onom

imitative

wheesht (alternative)
weesht (alternative)
whish (alternative)
whist (alternative)

“You must have loved him very much,” she said.
“Whisht,” said the old woman, “there’s a word that you must never use until there's marrying between you […]”

1952, Neville Shute, chapter 9, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann:

(Ireland; British, especially Scotland, Northumbria) Shush, silence, be quiet!


billypot

billypots (plural)
billy-pot (alternative)

Scottish, from 19th century. The Australian usage is sometimes claimed to be related to billabong.

c. 1882-1898, Francis James Child, Child's Collected Ballads, 12: Lord Randall,
“What did she boil it in, Willie doo, Willie doo?”
“She boild it in the billy-pot; die shall I now!”


bonnie

en-adj

bonnie (comparative bonnier or more bonnie, superlative bonniest or most bonnie)

bonnier (comparative)
more bonnie (comparative)
bonniest (superlative)
most bonnie (superlative)
bonny (alternative)
bonie (alternative)

From Middle English *bonie (attested only rarely as bon, boun), probably from Old French bon, feminine bonne (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”). See bounty, and compare bonus, boon.

O once I lov'd a bonnie lass, / Aye, and I love her still

1774, “Handsome Nell”, Robert Burns (lyrics), published 1803:

(Scotland, Geordie) Beautiful; pretty; attractive; handsome.

My bonnie friend, come over here.

(Scotland, Geordie) Fine, good (often used ironically).


randan

From a conflation of rand (“to storm, rave”) and obsolete random (“impetuosity, force”).

(Scotland) Riotous or disorderly behaviour.

on the randan (also on the randy)

He was fond of a lass and fond of a glass, and fond of a ran-dan; […]

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Black Andie’s Tale of Tod Lapraik”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 172:

(Scotland) A rowdy celebration; a spree.


oxter

Apparently from Middle English *oxtere, *oxte, from Old English ōxta, ōhsta, related to Old English ōxn (“armpit”), Old English eax (“axis, axle”), and eaxl (“shoulder”). See also axis and axon.

And begob there he was passing the door with his books under his oxter and the wife beside him and Corny Kelleher with his wall eye looking in as they went past, […]

‘It's a small beast,’ he said. ‘I could carry it under my oxter.’

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 90:

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) The armpit.


joe

1836 Joanna Baillie The Phantom, Act 2. Provost, to a maidservant.
I fear, my joe, the good that I can do him,
Or ev'n the minister, if he were here,
Would be but little.

(Scotland) Alternative form of jo (“a darling or sweetheart”).


tatty cake

(Scotland) Alternative spelling of tattie cake.


scoop

From Middle English scope, schoupe, a borrowing from Middle Dutch scoep, scuep, schope, schoepe (“bucket for bailing water”) and Middle Dutch schoppe, scoppe, schuppe ("a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch schop (“spade”)), from Proto-Germanic *skuppǭ, *skuppijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to cut, to scrape, to hack”). Cognate with Old Frisian skuppe (“shovel”), Middle Low German schōpe (“scoop, shovel”), German Low German Schüppe, Schüpp (“shovel”), German Schüppe, Schippe (“shovel, spade”). Related to English shovel.

gloss

"a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">schop</i> (“spade”)


hoose

From a dialectal spelling of house, from Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”). Compare Scots hoose.


ploy

en-noun

ploy (countable and uncountable, plural ploys)

Possibly from a shortened form of employ or deploy. Or from earlier ploye, from Middle English, borrowed from Middle French ployer (compare modern plier), from Latin plicāre.


eid

eids (plural)
ed (alternative)
aith (alternative)

From Old Norse eið (“an isthmus, neck of land”), from Proto-Germanic *aidiją (“isthmus, strait”), of uncertain origin, but probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”). Cognate with Icelandic eið, eiði, Faroese eið, eiði (“isthmus”), Norwegian eid (“isthmus”), Swedish ed. Compare Latin eō (“go, proceed”, verb).

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) An isthmus or narrow neck of land jutting out into the sea; a sandbank cast up by the sea across the head of an open bight or inlet and having a lagoon inside it.


argh

en-adj

argh (comparative more argh, superlative most argh)

more argh (comparative)
most argh (superlative)

From Middle English argh, from Old English earg (“inert; weak; timid; cowardly”), from Proto-West Germanic *arg, from Proto-Germanic *argaz. Cognate with Scots ergh, argh, arch, erf (“timid; reluctant; unwilling”). Doublet of eerie.

inh

(dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Timid; cowardly.


doodle

en-verb

doodle (third-person singular simple present doodles, present participle doodling, simple past and past participle doodled)

doodles (present singular third-person)
doodling (participle present)
doodled (participle past)
doodled (past)

Originally dialectal, from Low German dudeldopp (“simpleton”). Influenced by dawdle. Compare also German dudeln (“to play (the bagpipe)”).
The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. German variants of the etymon include Dudeltopf, Dudentopf, Dudenkopf, Dude and Dödel. American English dude may be a derivation of doodle.
The meaning "fool, simpleton" is intended in the song title "Yankee Doodle", originally sung by British colonial troops prior to the American Revolutionary War. This is also the origin of the early eighteenth century verb to doodle, meaning "to swindle or to make a fool of". The modern meaning emerged in the 1930s either from this meaning or from the verb "to dawdle", which since the seventeenth century has had the meaning of wasting time or being lazy.


whew

whew (third-person singular simple present whews, present participle whewing, simple past and past participle whewed)

whews (present singular third-person)
whewing (participle present)
whewed (participle past)
whewed (past)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To whistle with a shrill pipe, like a plover.


ménage

ménages (plural)
menage (alternative)
menâge (alternative obsolete)

Borrowed from French ménage; compare Middle English menage, a parallel borrowing from an earlier form of the French word.

(now Scotland) A type of cooperative society whereby all members pay a regular sum of savings, or through which goods can be paid for in installments.