speckle

en-noun

speckle (countable and uncountable, plural speckles)

The noun is from Middle Dutch spekkel; the verb was later coined from the noun, in the late 16th century.


assoilzie

en-verb

assoilzie (third-person singular simple present assoilzies, present participle assoilzieing or assoilzying or assoilziing, simple past and past participle assoilzied)

assoilzies (present singular third-person)
assoilzieing (participle present)
assoilzying (participle present)
assoilziing (participle present)
assoilzied (participle past)
assoilzied (past)

A Scottish variant of assoil, from Scottish Middle English assolyhe, assolȝe, retaining the -le- or -li- sounds of Anglo-Norman as(s)oilier and Old French as(s)oille which were dropped in modern English spoken in England.

There is more than mere strength, there seems as if the whole soul and spirit of the champion were given to every blow which he deals upon his enemies. God assoilzie him of the sin of bloodshed!—it is fearful, yet magnificent, to behold how the arm and heart of one man can triumph over hundreds.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 301:

"Cousin," replied Desmond, "one son of York made my father, whose soul God assoilzie! Lord Deputy; another chopped off his head—so much for the White Rose![…]"

1830, [Mary Shelley], chapter [XVI], in The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck, […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 306:

(transitive, Scotland) Synonym of assoil.

(archaic) To absolve or release (someone) from blame or sin; to forgive, to pardon.

The verdict, when in writing, is authenticated by the subscriptions of the chancellor and clerk of the jury, and accompanied with a list of the names of the jurors, and a state of the vote of each individual, "whether condemning or assoilzieing;" Regulations 1672, No. 9.

1826, Robert Bell, William Bell, “CRIMINAL PROSECUTION”, in A Dictionary of the Law of Scotland, 3rd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] John Anderson & Co. […], and Bell & Bradfute, →OCLC, page 334:

In these circumstances, I will uphold the defender’s fourth plea-in-law […] and assoilzie the defender from the craves of the initial writ.

2017, Sheriff Ross, Macdonald v. Clydesdale Bank:

(law) Followed by from or of: to acquit (someone) from a criminal charge; to find (someone) not guilty; to clear.


mends

From mend (noun, verb) + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, regular plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense of verbs).

affix

(chiefly Scotland) Recompense; restoration or reparation, especially (Christianity) from sin.

she has the mends in her own hands.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 69:

(chiefly Scotland) A means of making restoration or reparation; a remedy.

(Northern England, Scotland) Repair, restoration; also, healing, recovery.


yestreen

yestreens (plural)
yestereen (alternative)
yestere'en (alternative)

From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- + e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).

cog

It was the creature Dougal that extricated me, as he did yestreen […].

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 95:

"Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person."

1917, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company:

You have not forgotten our telephone conversation of yestreen, Jeeves?

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Late yestreen I saw the new moon, the old moon in her arms

"Sir Patrick Spens," traditional Scottish ballad

(chiefly archaic, poetic or Scotland) The night before; last night.


knowe

(chiefly Scotland and Ulster) A small hill; a knoll.


crivvens

Borrowed from Scots crivvens. Attested in English from the early 20th century.

Jings, crivvens an' help ma boab!

(Scotland, chiefly Dundee) An exclamation of astonishment or horror.


crine

en-verb

crine (third-person singular simple present crines, present participle crining, simple past and past participle crined)

crines (present singular third-person)
crining (participle present)
crined (participle past)
crined (past)

From Scots crine (“to shrivel”), from Scottish Gaelic crìon (“withered”), from Old Irish crín.

(intransitive, Scotland) To wither, wilt, shrivel.


kecks

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

keks (alternative)
kegs (alternative)
kaks (alternative)

(Northern English dialect, Scotland) Trousers.

- See if the feelings transfer tae yir everyday life, then call it love. Love's no jist for weekenders.
- The things is, Nukes, ah'm changin the keks everyday^([sic]) and cleanin under the helmet.
Nukes raised his eyebrow and smiled, - Must be love then, he said, then he added, - Oan your side, right enough.

1996, Irvine Welsh, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance:

(Northern English dialect, Scotland) Underpants.


tew

tew (third-person singular simple present tews, present participle tewing, simple past and past participle tewed)

tews (present singular third-person)
tewing (participle present)
tewed (participle past)
tewed (past)
tue (alternative)

From Middle English tewen, a variant of tawen (“to taw, prepare”). More at taw.

but having received his orders early that morning from the trainer, accompanied with a warning not to suffer himself to be tewed (Yorkshire patois for worried) by anything Mr. Mellish might say, the sallow-complexioned lad walked about in the calm serenity of innocence

1863, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Aurora Floyd - Volume 1, page 201:

After dinner uncle Joe made off to his piggeries; while aunt Dorothy fell asleep in a capacious old arm-chair by the fire, after making an apologetic remark to the effect that she was tired, and had been a good deal "tewed" that morning in the dairy. "Tewed," I understand, is Yorkshire for "worried."

Mr. Parkinson, I have been as ill done by as that young lady; I have been worried, and tewed, and cheated out of my life and senses .

1800, Francis Lathom, Men and Manners, page 33:

My missis and me liv'd i' peace fifty-three years, Peg wur allus a Chapel goer, bud I wur a careless chap and that tewed her.

1881, Alethea M. Huddleston, John Hazlehurst; or, Original sin, page 182:

(UK, Scotland, obsolete, dialect) To tease; to vex or worry.


forsee

forsee (third-person singular simple present forsees, present participle forseeing, simple past forsaw, past participle forseen)

forsees (present singular third-person)
forseeing (participle present)
forsaw (past)
forseen (participle past)

From Middle English forseen, forsen, from Old English forsēon (“to look down upon, despise”), equivalent to for- + see. Compare Old Saxon farsehan, Old High German farsehan (Middle High German versehen).

inh

Could I forsee the sunken rocks of life?

1882, Victor Roy, A Masonic Poem by Harriet Annie Wilkins:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To neglect; overlook; disregard; despise.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To oversee; superintend; direct.


no

Inherited from Middle English no, na, from Old English nā, nō (“no, not, not ever, never”), from Proto-West Germanic *naiwō, from Proto-Germanic *naiwô (“never”), *ne (“not”), from Proto-Indo-European *né, *nē, *nēy (negative particle), equivalent to Old English ne (“not”) + ā, ō (“ever, always”). Cognate with Scots na (“no”), Saterland Frisian noa (“no”), West Frisian né (“no”), nea (“never”), Dutch nee (“no”), Low German nee (“no”), German nie (“never”), dialectal German nö (“no”), Danish nej (“no”), Swedish nej (“no”), Icelandic nei (“no”). More at nay.

nah (alternative)
nope (alternative)
nay (alternative)

I just want to find out whether she's coming or no.

Can ye no help me?

AS the Devil is not so Black as he is Painted, so neither does he appear in so many Shapes as we make for him; we Dress him up in more Suits of Cloaths, and more Masquerade Habits, than ever he wore; and I question much, if he was to see the Pictures and Figures which we call Devil, whether he would know himself by some of them or no.

1725, Daniel Defoe, An essay on the history and reality of apparitions:

(without adjective, now Scotland, informal) Not.


depute

[…] discharging hereby the said sheriff and his deputes […]

1774, George Dallas, A System of Stiles, page 99:


cuddy

Uncertain. Perhaps a contraction from Dutch kajuit (“cabin”).

folk said the cuddy had bided so long with Pooty that whenever it opened its mouth to give a bit bray it started to stutter.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 31:

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(Scotland, Durham, Northumberland, historical) A donkey, especially one driven by a huckster or greengrocer.


adhibit

en-verb

adhibit (third-person singular simple present adhibits, present participle adhibiting, simple past and past participle adhibited)

adhibits (present singular third-person)
adhibiting (participle present)
adhibited (participle past)
adhibited (past)

From Latin adhibitus (“extended, held out”, past participle of adhibeō), from ad + habeō (“have”).

lbor

The Dictionary of the Scots Language
w:Dictionary of the Scots Language

Scottish Language Dictionaries
w:Scottish Language Dictionaries


dunt

From Middle English dunt, dynt, from Old English dynt (“dint, blow, strike, stroke, bruise, stripe, thud, the mark or noise of a blow, a bruise, noise, crash”), from Proto-West Germanic *dunti, from Proto-Germanic *duntiz (“shock, blow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰen- (“to beat, push”). Cognate with Swedish dialectal dunt (“stroke”). Doublet of dent and dint.

der

He was alive to every creak andd dunt, the thinness of the walls, as if the tenement block was a kind of aural panopticon that funnelled every sound to the other residents, let everyone eavesdrop on their business.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 274:

(Scotland) A stroke; a dull-sounding blow.


dunt

en-verb

dunt (third-person singular simple present dunts, present participle dunting, simple past and past participle dunted)

dunts (present singular third-person)
dunting (participle present)
dunted (participle past)
dunted (past)

Syne he was the king of France, and fought hard with a whin bush till he had banged it to pieces. After that nothing would content him but he must be a bogle, for he found his head dunting on the stars and his legs were knocking the hills together.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(Scotland) To strike; give a blow to; knock.


keks

(Northern English dialect, Scotland) Alternative spelling of kecks.


strunt

en-noun

strunt (countable and uncountable, plural strunts)

Of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots strunt (“spirits, whisky, toddy”).

unk

obscure

Syne, wi' a social glass o' strunt, / They parted aff careerin / Fu' blythe that night.

(Scotland, uncountable) Spirituous liquor; alcoholic drink.

(Scotland, countable) A drink of spirits; a dram.


brewster

Circa 1300, from Middle English brewestere; equivalent to brew + -ster.

(British, Scotland) A brewer (of either sex).


yett

They rode into the outer courtyard, through the muckle faulding yetts and aneath the auld portcullis; […]

The outer yett was closed, and a torch burned in a socket set in the gatehouse wall beside the archway. A guard stepped up, peered through the yett at Guillaume, and nodded to someone off to the side.

2015, Douglas Nicholas, Throne of Darkness, page 126:


rade

FAIRY RADES: Another favored fairy activity is the rade, or ride, a procession of fairies on horseback. The fairy rade takes fairies into the land of the mortals. The most important rades occur on Midsummer Nght's Eve, the Summer Solstice, which occurs June 21 or 22.

2009 November 10, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Fairies, page 54:


drap

en-verb

drap (third-person singular simple present draps, present participle drapping, simple past and past participle drapped)

draps (present singular third-person)
drapping (participle present)
drapped (participle past)
drapped (past)


roaster

From Middle English roster, roostare, equivalent to roast + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (patient suffix). Same formation as roster, although the words have very different meanings.

Person A: Oh look, he's at it again. Person B: What a roaster.

(Scotland, slang, derogatory) An objectionable person; somebody making a fool of themselves.


Senga

The name was relatively common in West Central Scotland until the 1980s, and is sometimes said to derive from Agnes.

(Scotland, derogatory, slang, offensive) A female "ned".


gilravage

galravage (alternative)
gulravage (alternative)


gilravage

gilravage (third-person singular simple present gilravages, present participle gilravaging, simple past and past participle gilravaged)

gilravages (present singular third-person)
gilravaging (participle present)
gilravaged (participle past)
gilravaged (past)
galravage (alternative)
gulravage (alternative)


creach

(regional, Ireland, Scotland) an incursion for plunder, raid, forray


thirlage

en-noun

thirlage (countable and uncountable, plural thirlages)

thirlages (plural)
thrillage (alternative)
thrallage (alternative)
thralage (alternative)

Alteration of earlier thrallage, equivalent to thrall + -age.

(historical, Scotland) The right of the owner of a mill to compel tenants to bring all their grain to that mill for milling.


cailleach

cailleachs (plural)
caillach (alternative)
cailliach (alternative)

From Scots, from Scottish Gaelic cailleach.


yerk

en-verb

yerk (third-person singular simple present yerks, present participle yerking, simple past and past participle yerked)

yerks (present singular third-person)
yerking (participle present)
yerked (participle past)
yerked (past)

From Middle English ȝerken (“to move suddenly, excite, bind tightly, attack”), from Old English ġearcian (“to prepare, make ready”), compare ġearc (“active, quick”), from Proto-Germanic *garwakōną (“to prepare”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to grab, take”). Cognate with jerk; see yare for more cognates.

der

(obsolete, Scotland) To strike or lash with a whip or stick.

(obsolete, Scotland) To rouse or excite.


sorn

en-verb

sorn (third-person singular simple present sorns, present participle sorning, simple past and past participle sorned)

sorns (present singular third-person)
sorning (participle present)
sorned (participle past)
sorned (past)

(Scotland, intransitive, dated) to impose upon another for food and lodging.


true blue

From true (adjective) + blue (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”, adjective). The symbolism of the colour blue as representing constancy, faithfulness, loyalty, and truth may derive from the constant colour of the sky, or the tendency of certain blue dyes to resist fading, especially those made in Coventry.
Adjective senses 1.1.2 (“of or pertaining to the Tory, and now the Conservative, political party”) and 1.1.3 (“of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century”) probably both allude to sense 1 (“steadfastly faithful or loyal”). Sense 1.1.2 may also allude to sense 1.1.3 which is older, and sense 1.1.3 may partly allude to the blue colour of the flag of Scotland.

истински

representing the true essence of something — see also authentic, genuine

For his Religion it was fit / To match his Learning and his Wit: / 'Twas Presbyterian true blew, / For he was of that stubbon Crew / Of Errant Saints, whom all men grant / To be the true Church Militant: […]

1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 8:

This was a tough true-blue presbyterian, called Deans, who, though most obnoxious to the Laird on account of principles in church and state, contrived to maintain his ground upon the estate […]

1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 190:

And werenae the folk guid sound Whigs and true-blue Prebyterians I would hae seen them ayont Jordan and Jeroozlem or I would have set hand to it.

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Bass”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 168:

Steadfastly faithful or loyal; unwavering in loyalty; staunch, true.

(Scotland, historical) Of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century; hence, steadfastly Presbyterian.

jyrkästi presbyteerinen

of or pertaining to the Scottish Presbyterian or Whig political party in the 17th century; steadfastly Presbyterian


Auld Enemy

Two years ago Scotland started against England here, following a rousing rendition of Flower of Scotland, like a deflated set of bagpipes. This time they matched their crowd and were at full bellow as they played with a sustained, controlled fury to record their first victory over the Auld Enemy for 10 years and throw open the championship.

2018 February 24, Paul Rees, “Finn Russell masterminds historic Scotland victory over England”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2018-04-22:

(Scotland) England, or the English people.


fizgig

S[enecio] jacobæa. Ragwort: Yellow-weed: Yellow elshinders, and in the Merse [Berwickshire], Fizz-gigs.—A common weed in old pastures and by road-sides.

1853, George Johnston, “A Flora of the Eastern Borders”, in The Botany of the Eastern Borders, with the Popular Names and Uses of the Plants, and of the Customs and Beliefs which have been Associated with Them (Terra Lindisfarnensis. The Natural History of the Eastern Borders; I), London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, →OCLC, page 111, paragraph 318:

Jacobaea vulgaris
Jacobaea vulgaris#Translingual

Senecio jacobaea
Senecio jacobaea#Translingual

(Scotland, rare) common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea).


inbye

(Scotland) Inside the house; inside an inner room of the house.

(Scotland, Northern England, of farmland) Near or nearest the house.


inbye

(obsolete, Scotland) Towards or into the house; into an inner room of the house.


twistle

en-verb

twistle (third-person singular simple present twistles, present participle twistling, simple past and past participle twistled)

twistles (present singular third-person)
twistling (participle present)
twistled (participle past)
twistled (past)


Pinkerton syndrome

John Pinkerton
Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Named after Scottish antiquarian, author and historian John Pinkerton (1758–1826), coined by J. Derrick McClure: see 1985 quotation.

[page 57] The language of writers who are safely dead, and can be studied without fear of their exerting a subversive influence, bears the respectable label 'old Scots dialect'; the same tongue spoken by the living compatriots of these writers is 'bad grammar'. […] This attitude is of course not new; though perhaps seldom expressed so blatantly. I call it the Pinkerton syndrome, after one of the many memorable figures in out national gallimaufray of scholarly eccentrics. John Pinkerton (1758–1826), poet, critic, historian, dramatist and Celtophobe, in 1786 produced a book, entitled Ancient Scotish Poems, never before in print: […] [H]e wrote: "none can more sincerely wish a total extinction of the Scotish colloquial dialect than I do, for there are few modern Scoticisms which are not barbarisms ... Yet, I believe, no man of either kingdom would wish an extinction of the Scotish dialect in poetry." […] [page 58] This is the Pinkerton syndrome: the practice of paying lip-service, and sometimes much more than this, to the Scottish culture of the past while denigrating the Scots language of the present. And it is still prevalent today.

1985, J. Derrick McClure, “The Pinkerton Syndrome”, in Chapman: Scotland's Quality Literary Magazine, Edinburgh: Chapman Magazine and Publications, OCLC 55590049, pages 2–8; reprinted in Scots and Its Literature (Varieties of English around the World, General Series; 14), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa., John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1996, ISBN 978-90-272-4872-5, pages 57–58

James Beattie personifies the Pinkerton syndrome perfectly, for, while publishing lists of Scotticisms to be avoided, he still found time to write the occasional verse in Scots himself.

1986, Billy Kay, Scots: The Mither Tongue, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, →ISBN:

(literature, Scotland) Having esteem for older Scottish literature but not the modern Scottish tongue.


Prod

Clipping of Protestant, as pronounced in an accent with flapping.

"I don't want my daughter marrying a dirty Prod," he said.

'Could be a lot of things,' McCormack said. 'Still, it narrows things down. Probably a Prod […]'.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 47:

It was sound advice for anyone visiting Northern Ireland in 1999 and remains so today: do not refer to Protestants as “Prods”, or to Catholics as “Fenians” or “Taigs”, and whatever you do don’t refer to your visit as “being out here”.

[2023 August 23, Rory Carroll, “Files reveal terms ministers were warned not to use in Northern Ireland”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(Ireland, UK, slang, sometimes derogatory) A Protestant, (as termed by Roman Catholics), that is in the context of their religious beliefs, or those who have been born in the Protestant tradition, or sometimes those implied to be Protestant by their political ideology of Irish unionism or Ulster loyalism.

Fenian

unionist, Northern Ireland; Irish nationalist or Irish Catholic


laird

The noun is borrowed from Scots laird, from northern or Scottish Middle English lard, laverd, a variant of lord. The verb is derived from the noun. Doublet of hlaford and lord.

Now Wiſe, and Rich, and Worthie, and Wonderful, and Faithful and True, and Rare, & Charitable, and Great Laird of Carnwath, Be not Prowd, altho I Commend you at ſuch a Rate behind your back and yet never ſaw You...

1712 January 1, [William Mitchel], The Tinklars Speech to the Most Loyal Country-man, the Honourable Laird of Carnwath, [Edinburgh?]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 2:

Once I was call'd a great Fife laird,
I dwelt not far from the Hall-yard:
[...]
O! but it's long and many a year,
Since laſt my feet did travel here.
I find great change in old lairds places,
I know the ground, but not the faces,
Where ſhall I turn me firſt about,
For my acquaintance is worn out?

1751, “The Speech of a Fife Laird, Newly Come from the Grave”, in The Speech of a Fife Laird Newly Come from the Grave. The Mare of Collingtoun. The Banishment of Poverty. Three Scots Poems, Glasgow: Printed and sold by Robert & Andrew Foulis, →OCLC, page 2:

[H]e brought with him money enough to purchase the small estate of Monkbarns, then sold by a dissipated laird to whose father it had been gifted, with other church lands, upon the dissolution of the great and wealthy monastery to which it had belonged.

1816, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in The Antiquary. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 27:

Though now entered on the stage of glorious war, the young Laird of Dalbracken remained still the same imaginative and sensitive being who dreamed and loved in the scenes of his boyhood.

1848, [James Kirkland], chapter XV, in The Eerie Laird: Being the Only Authentic History of the Person so Called by Tradition in Scotland; […], London: T[homas] C[autley] Newby, […], →OCLC, page 143:

Lowland lairds allied themselves with Highland chiefs, along with Edinburgh and Glasgow burghers who worried about having to compete for markets with English merchants.

2001, Arthur [L.] Herman, “A Trap of Their Own Making”, in How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, →ISBN; paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Three Rivers Press, 2001, →ISBN, part 1 (Epiphany), page 40:

(chiefly Scotland) An aristocrat, particularly in Scottish contexts and in reference to the chiefs of the Scottish clans.

In Scotland, the traditional term for the owner of an upland estate is the ‘laird’. [...] Well into the post-war period, the lairds of large estates were generally treated deferentially by local people but times have changed, [...] It would be a mistake to equate the title ‘laird’ to a British ‘lord’, as it does not confer any political standing, but the fact that some of Scotland’s lairds sit in the House of Lords can confuse the outsider.

2013, Jayne Glass, Alister Scott, Martin F. Price, Charles Warren, “Sustainability in the Uplands: Introducing Key Concepts”, in Jayne Glass, Martin F. Price, Charles Warren, Alister Scott, editors, Lairds, Land and Sustainability: Scottish Perspectives on Upland Management, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Sustainability in the Uplands), box 1.9 (Who is the ‘Laird’?), page 23:

(chiefly Scotland) A landowner, particularly in Scottish contexts.


laird

laird (third-person singular simple present lairds, present participle lairding, simple past and past participle lairded)

lairds (present singular third-person)
lairding (participle present)
lairded (participle past)
lairded (past)

But cauld was his hearth ere his youdith was o'er, / An' he delved on the lands he had lairded before; / Yet though he beggared his ha' an' deserted his lea, / Contented he roamed on the banks o' the Dee.

1874, George Outram, “The Banks o’ the Dee”, in Henry Glassford Bell, editor, Lyrics Legal and Miscellaneous, 2nd edition, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood & Sons, →OCLC, page 86:

You'd stand with a single malt, / in braces, admiring a Grinling, / while I did a fingertip search of your face, / [...] / discovering the recesses of baronial you, / lairding it in a rental estate / we were about to lose.

2008, Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch, “A Pair of Antlers”, in Not in Those Shoes, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 21:

Declan observed him, analyzing his reaction. He loved to unnerve his lairding brother.

2013, Victoria Roberts, chapter 18, in X Marks the Scot, Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks Casablanca, →ISBN, page 194:

Classic horror movie The Wicker Man is getting an outside airing at Compton Verney. [...] Set on a remote Scottish island lairded over by the incomparable Christopher Lee, the film strands the viewer – and young policeman Edward Woodward – among a neo-pagan community where blood sacrifice, passion and lust collide in the mist.

2017 May 13, Ian Hughes, “Date with The Wicker Man for outdoor screening at Compton Verney”, in Leamington Observer, archived from the original on 2017-05-16:

(transitive, Scotland) Chiefly as laird it over: to behave like a laird, particularly to act haughtily or to domineer; to lord (it over).


Weedjie

Ah've never met one Weedjie whae didnae think that they are the only genuinely suffering proletarians in Scotland, Western Europe, the World.

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

(Scotland, slang) Alternative form of Weegie.


dookie

In Scots, dookie, doukit, and douker (terms related to the British English duck, equivalent to the American English dunk) have all been used to refer to Baptists. Hence a dookie in Scots is, jocularly, someone who ducks or dunks people in water when baptising them.

(Scotland) swimming costume, bathing suit


portioner

(Scotland) The proprietor of a small portion of a larger piece of land; a laird of a small estate


thig

thig (third-person singular simple present thigs, present participle thigging, simple past and past participle thigged)

thigs (present singular third-person)
thigging (participle present)
thigged (participle past)
thigged (past)
theg (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English thiggen, from Old English þiċġan (“to take, receive, accept; ingest; eat or drink, consume, partake of”), from Proto-West Germanic *þiggjan, from Proto-Germanic *þigjaną (“to accept, receive, beg”), from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to receive”).
Cognate with Middle High German digen (“to beg, implore, beseech”), German digen (“to beg, beseech, take, get”), Swedish tigga (“to beg, mooch”), Icelandic þiggja (“to get, receive, accept”).

cog

This is not second clothing. This cloth is not thigged.

1800, Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica:

(transitive, Scotland) To solicit or receive, usually by begging; ask as alms.

(ambitransitive, Scotland) To beg, borrow; cadge.

(intransitive, Scotland or obsolete) To profit by or live on the gifts of others.

(intransitive, Scotland, obsolete) To take alms.

(transitive, Scotland or obsolete) To beseech; supplicate; implore.

"I'll go and the thigged wool demand
From the good ladies of the land. […]"

1912, Duncan Macintyre, George Calder, Gaelic songs of Duncan MacIntyre, page 227:

(ambitransitive, Scotland) To crave; seek (a favour).


brosy

en-adj

brosy (comparative more brosy, superlative most brosy)

more brosy (comparative)
most brosy (superlative)
brosey (alternative)

From brose + -y, from brose (“oatmeal mixed with boiling water”); from the Doric dialect of northeast Scotland.

(Scotland) In rural and farming circles, stout and strong; well-built; well fed with brose.


smiddy

Well, he closed the door next and after a while some folk went over and chapped at the door, but they got not a cheep, and waited for Bruce, he'd gone to the smiddy to borrow an axe.

1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 445:

(Scotland, Northern England) Alternative form of smithy.


great hundred

(historical, Northern England, Scotland) A long hundred: one hundred and twenty (120)


gillie

gillies (plural)
ghillie (alternative)
gilly (alternative)

From Scottish Gaelic gille (“helper”), from Middle Irish gilla (“youth, young man; boy, male child; messenger, page, servant”), possibly borrowed from Old Norse gildr (“brawny, stout; of full worth”). Compare Irish giolla (“boy”).

der

A Highland chief being as absolute in his patriarchal authority as any prince, had a corresponding number of officers attached to his person. […] Our officer of Engineers, so often quoted, has given us a distinct list of the domestic officers, who, […] belonged to the establishment of a Highland chief. These are, […] 4. Gillie-more, or sword-bearer, alluded to in the text. 5. Gillie-Casflue, who carried the chief, if on foot, over the fords. 6. Gillie-comstrain, who leads the chief's horse. 7. Gillie-Thrusha-narinsh, the baggage-man. 8. The Piper. 9. The piper's gillie, or attendant who carries the bagpipe.

1847, Walter Scott, “[Notes to Canto Third.] Note XVI.”, in The Lady of the Lake, a Poem, illustrated edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey and Hart, →OCLC, pages 289–290:

But my good companion had nothing in his mind but kindness; and the next moment, two of the gillies had me by the arms, and I began to be carried forward with great swiftness (or so it appeared to me, although I dare say it was slowly enough in truth), through a labyrinth of dreary glens and hollows and into the heart of that dismal mountain of Ben Alder.

1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:

(Scotland, originally) A male attendant of a Scottish Highland chief.

Every deerstalker will bear witness to the eagerness of Highlanders in pursuit of their old favourite game, the dun deer; the mountaineer shews what he is when his eye kindles and his nostril dilates at the sight of a noble stag; when the gillie forgets his master in his keenness, and the southern lags behind; when it is "bellows to mend" and London dinners are remembered with regret.

1860, “Introduction. The Fairy-egg, and What Came Out of It.”, in J[ohn] F[rancis] Campbell, editor, Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected wih a Translation, volume I, Edinburgh: Edmondston and Douglas, →OCLC, page lxxxviii:

When dinner should be over, supper was to follow with scarcely any interval to speak of; and to partake of this other guests should be bidden—Svengali and Gecko, and perhaps one or two more. No ladies! For, as the unsusceptible Laird expressed it, in the language of a gillie he had once met at a servants' dance in a Highland country house, "Them wimmen spiles the ball!"

1894 March, George du Maurier, “Trilby”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume LXXXVIII, number DXXVI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 325 to 337 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, part third, page 584, column 2:

[T]hough the fish run small, as indeed they all do in these small rivers, the strength of the water and the broken ground along the banks must make playing them an exciting business. Over twenty have been killed by one rod in a single day, and I should say that in most seasons some lucky man gets a bag of ten. But of course this sort of thing has to be paid for. Ten shillings a day is the charge for the river, and in addition to that there is your gillie.

1899, Stephen [Lucius] Gwynn, “Fishing and Golf in Donegal”, in Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, pages 299–300:

Courage and coolness are great qualities in a gillie, and you do not really know your man till you have been with him in a storm. […] Most gillies have cool heads and hearts of oak. They must have these qualities; to be cool and courageous is part of their job.

1994, Jeremy Paxman, Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN:

[H]e said, "I hae the day off tomorrow. I'll take ye out on the Anstey if ye want." This met with Patricia's ideas of what was right or fitting. Fishing on a Scottish river with a policeman as ghillie was socially acceptable to her mind.

1998, M. C. Beaton [pseudonym; Marion Chesney], chapter 1, in Death of a Scriptwriter (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery), New York, N.Y.: Mysterious Press, →ISBN:

Before we knew it, we were on a Fokker, twin engine, jet aircraft out of Copenhagen bound for Stavenger, Bergen and Trondheim, Norway, where we rested up for two days before boarding a four passenger float plane in the tiny Village of Hell. The Land Rover manned by our gilly (guide) waited where the A-Elv River joined the sea at the head of the fjord.

2010, John W. Stevens, “Atlantic Salmon from Hell and Back”, in Memorable Fish and Fishermen, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:

(British, Ireland, Scotland) A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland.


gillie

From gill (“drink measure for spirits”) + -ie; probably a nonce word coined by Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) to maintain the rhyme in a poem entitled On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies, first published in 1786: see the quotation.

suffix

Fareweel, my rhyme-compoſing billie! / Your native ſoil was right ill-willie; / But may ye flouriſh like a lily, / Now bonilie! / I'll toaſt ye in my hindmoſt gillie, / Tho' owre the Sea!

1786 July 31, Robert Burns, “On a Scotch Bard Gone to the West Indies”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire: Printed by John Wilson, →OCLC; reprinted Kilmarnock: James McKie, March 1867, →OCLC, page 184:

(Scotland) A gill of an alcoholic drink.


chitter

en-verb

chitter (third-person singular simple present chitters, present participle chittering, simple past and past participle chittered)

chitters (present singular third-person)
chittering (participle present)
chittered (participle past)
chittered (past)

From Middle English chiteren, chitren, cheteren. Ultimately onomatopoeic; compare didder and teeter as well as German zittern.

Whare wilt thou cower thy chittering wing, / An' close thy e'e?

(obsolete, Scotland) To shiver or chatter with cold.


sook

sooks (plural)
suck (alternative)
suke (alternative)

Probably from suck. Compare sukey (attested 1838), Sucky (1844), Suke (1850); sook from 1906.

(Scotland, rare) Familiar name for a calf.


sook

Mother actually turned her back on that sheep and began dabbling her hand in the milk, saying, “Sook, calfy, sook, calfy!” seductively while the calf gave her the evil eue and walked backward.

1919, Strickland Gillilan, A Sample Case of Humor, page 47:

Sook calf, sook calf, sook calfie,
Sook calf, sook calf! […]

1947, John Avery Lomax, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter, page 265, “You get outside the cowlot gate and start calling like this


prideful

en-adj

prideful (comparative more prideful, superlative most prideful)

more prideful (comparative)
most prideful (superlative)

‘The man is ill-tempered, envious, and above all prideful.’

2000, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 475:

(chiefly Scotland, Canada, US) Full of pride; haughty, arrogant.


sugarallie

From sugar + Scots alicreesh, allacreesh (“liquorice”), earlier alacreische, probably through Dutch lakkeris from Old French licorece, licoresse, whence English licorice, liquorice.

sugarally (alternative)
sugarellie (alternative)
sugarelly (alternative)
sugarolly (alternative)


sugarally

sugarellie (alternative)
sugarolly (alternative)

(Scotland, informal) Alternative spelling of sugarallie.


sugarolly

sugarally (alternative)
sugarellie (alternative)


nebby

nebby (comparative nebbier, superlative nebbiest)

nebbier (comparative)
nebbiest (superlative)
nebbie (alternative)

(Geordie, Western Pennsylvania, Scotland) Overly inquiring; nosey.


sea-parrot

sea-parrots (plural)
sea parrot (alternative)

(Northern Scotland) A puffin (Fratercula spp.)


totty

toaty (alternative)
totey (alternative)
totie (alternative)

She would meet me with a summerbag: shoes and the little black number, though it had a totey hole at the shoulder […].

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 6:


seg

Probably from the root of Latin secāre (“to cut”).

(UK, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A castrated farm animal.


blether

en-noun

blether (countable and uncountable, plural blethers)

Thir isnae an embarrassment in the world that cannae be erased by a bit ay blether and a few bevvies.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, “Bang to Rites”, in Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 220:

(especially Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Alternative spelling of blather.


blether

en-verb

blether (third-person singular simple present blethers, present participle blethering, simple past and past participle blethered)

blethers (present singular third-person)
blethering (participle present)
blethered (participle past)
blethered (past)


beremeal

(Scotland) A wholegrain flour made from bere, a variety of barley grown in northern Scotland, Orkney, and the Shetland Islands. It is commonly used in making bannocks and ale.


probationer

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

(Scotland) One who is licensed to preach, but not ordained to a pastorate.


nigher

nigher (third-person singular simple present nighers, present participle nighering, simple past and past participle nighered)

nighers (present singular third-person)
nighering (participle present)
nighered (participle past)
nighered (past)

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


crowner

From Middle English crouner, variant of coroner.

I tell thee ſhe is, and therefore make her Grave ſtraight, the Crowner hath ſate on her, and finds it Chriſtian buriall.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 276, column 2:


forrit

I was just standin looking about me amang the lang hags that lead out frae the head o' the North Grain, and considering what could be wort of a' the sheep, when I noticed my dog, Reaver, gaun coursing away forrit as he had been setting a fox.

1817, James Hogg, The Brownie of Bodsbeck, published 1833, page 16:

1828, "Mansie Wauch" (David Macbeth Moir), The Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith, page 132,
All o' a sudden I sees a light coming dancing forrit amang the trees; and my hair began to stand up on end. Then, in the next moment, save us a'! I sees anither light, and forrit, forrit they baith cam, like the een of some great fiery monster, let loose frae the pit o' darkness by its maister, to seek whom it might devour.

Lang or that, she had had a wean to a dragoon; she hadnae come forrit^([presented as a communicant]) for maybe thretty year; and bairns had seen her mumblin' to hersel' up on Key's Loan in the gloamin', whilk was an unco time an' place for a God-fearin' woman.

1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men & Other Stories, published 2006, page 67:


registrate

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒɪstɹət/

From the post-Classical Latin registrātus, the perfect passive participle of registrō (“I register”).

(Scotland, obsolete) registered, recorded


registrate

registrate (third-person singular simple present registrates, present participle registrating, simple past and past participle registrated)

registrates (present singular third-person)
registrating (participle present)
registrated (participle past)
registrated (past)

/ˈɹɛd͡ʒɪstɹeːt/

From registrāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of the post-Classical Latin registrō (“I register”).

(Scotland, now rare, transitive) To register.


quickens

From quicken + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense of verbs).

suffix

Quickens are not confined to one species of grass.

1898, Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, Transactions:

Elymus repens
Elymus repens#Translingual

(chiefly Midlands (northern), Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland) Synonym of couch grass (“a species of grass, Elymus repens”); also, the underground rhizomes of this, and sometimes other grasses.


foumart

foumarts (plural)
foulmart (alternative)
fullmart (alternative)

From Middle English fulmard, from Old English fūl (“foul”) + mearþ (“marten”), in reference to its offensive smell.

(chiefly Scotland) A European polecat; a member of the Mustelidae family.


bothy

bothies (plural)
boothie (alternative)
boothy (alternative)
bothie (alternative)

But civilization had changed that completely. Not one criminal in a thousand now fled to the Highlands or to Wales for refuge. A man demanded the means of food and shelter in his retreat nowadays, and a deserted bothy or a cave on the hillside was out of date.

1929, Josephine Tey, The Man in the Queue, The Macmillan Company:

Often Neil sat in their bothy on winter nights and told Calum about seas he had never seen.

1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 106:

Then, in the evening of the second day after I had climbed from the pupil of the right eye, I came upon a shepherd's bothy, a sort of beehive of stone, and found in it a cooking pot and a quantity of ground corn.

1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVII, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 200:

The Bog Creeper came out her wee bothy so I stood on the toilet seat and Lanna whipped her skirt down to her boots and sat.

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 12:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland) A small cottage, especially one for communal use in remote areas by labourers or farmhands, or as a mountain shelter.

Schutzhütte

a small cottage, especially one for communal use in remote areas by labourers or farmhands


goller

en-verb

goller (third-person singular simple present gollers, present participle gollering, simple past and past participle gollered)

gollers (present singular third-person)
gollering (participle present)
gollered (participle past)
gollered (past)

If all this were studied and practised, there would be fewer Preachers, and shorter Preachings, and fewer and shorter Prayers amongst Professors; they would not sleep and wake People, gasping and gollering, and few understanding what they are saying, […]

1837, Patrick Walker, Biographia Presbyteriana, volume 2, page 33:


misset

(Scotland) In a bad temper; out of sorts.


timeously

en-adv

timeously (comparative more timeously, superlative most timeously)

more timeously (comparative)
most timeously (superlative)

We must, of course, diligently and timeously pursue every avenue of investigation occurring in Gzilt space.

2012, Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata, chapter eleven (S −17)

(Scotland and South Africa) In a timely manner.


hain

en-verb

hain (third-person singular simple present hains, present participle haining, simple past and past participle hained)

hains (present singular third-person)
haining (participle present)
hained (participle past)
hained (past)
hane (alternative)

From earlier hayne, from Middle English *haynen, *heynen, from Old Norse hegna (“to protect; defend”), from Proto-Germanic *haginjaną (“to hedge”), equivalent to hedge + -en. Cognate with Icelandic hegna (“to fence; confine; punish”), Swedish hägna (“to fence off; enclose; protect”), Danish hegne (“to enclose; fence in”). Related to hedge.
The noun is from Middle English heyn.

cog

(transitive, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To hedge or fence in; inclose; protect by hedging

(transitive, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To save; spare; refrain from using or spending

(intransitive, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be thrifty; be economical


hain

(obsolete or dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) An enclosure; a park


bigly

en-adj

bigly (comparative more bigly, superlative most bigly)

more bigly (comparative)
most bigly (superlative)
biglie (alternative obsolete)
bygly (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English bygly, biglie, byggly (“comfortable, stately, perfect”), borrowed from Old Norse byggiligr, byggviligr (“habitable”); equivalent to big (“to build, construct, live in, reside, dwell”) + -ly. Cognate with Icelandic byggilegur (“inhabitable, liveable”).

cog

"And steek it weel, thy biglie bower, / And by the rood thee sain; / And tell thy bedes in haly guise, / Till this ae night is gane!"

1806, Robert Jamieson, “Donul and Evir”, in Robert Jamieson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, from Tradition, Manuscripts, and Scarce Editions; with Translations of Similar Pieces from the Ancient Danish Language, and a Few Originals by the Editor, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; Cadell and Davies, and John Murray, London, →OCLC, page 235:

When I was in my bigly bower, / I wore but what I would; / This night I'm lighter 'mang Willie's horse feet, / I fear I'll die for cold.

1828, Peter Buchan, “Burd Helen”, in Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland, hitherto Unpublished. With Explanatory Notes, by Peter Buchan, Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, volume II, Edinburgh: Printed for W[illiam] & D[avid] Laing, and J. Stevenson [et al.], →OCLC, page 35:

(Scotland, now obsolete elsewhere) Habitable, liveable; hence delightful, pleasant, pleasing.


disponer

(law, Scotland, historical) Someone who legally transfers their own property to another.


tasker

(Scotland, historical) A labourer who receives wages in kind.


brocked

(Scotland) variegated, having a mixture of black and white


pass-remarkable

en-adj

pass-remarkable (comparative more pass-remarkable, superlative most pass-remarkable)

more pass-remarkable (comparative)
most pass-remarkable (superlative)

From the phrase pass remark on, i.e. make a comment about, + -able.

Those are gallant shoes, sir, if you'll excuse me being so pass-remarkable. Hand-made jobs.

1980, Benedict Kiely, The state of Ireland:

(derogatory, Scotland, Irish English) Of a person, making belittling or snide remarks.


steek

From Scots steek, from Middle English steke (“to enclose”) and Middle Dutch steken (“to stitch”). Noun from Scots steek (“stitch”), from Middle Dutch steek (“stitch”). More at stick, stitch.

Ake Ogilvie told the tale the next day to Ma Cleghorn, Ma lying at rest in her bed, she'd gone to bed with a steek in her side and as lying fair wearied till Ake looked in.

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 565:


wynd

From Middle English wynde, probably from wynden (“to wind, proceed, go”). Compare also Old English ġewind; Old Norse venda.

Fortune favoured us, and we got home without meeting a soul. Once we saw a man, who seemed not quite sober, passing along a street in front of us; but we hid in a door till he had disappeared up an opening such as there are here, steep little closes, or wynds, as they call them in Scotland.

1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

He flew through the moonlight streets, clattering over cobbles, darting down narrow alleys and up twisty wynds, racing to his love.

1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 637:

Stirling's called an Edinburgh mini-me: the same winding wynds, the same historic core, castle, looming romantic hills. Only a lot cheaper.

2010 July 10, Tom Dyckhoff, The Guardian:

(chiefly Scotland, Northumbria) A narrow lane, alley or path, especially one between houses.


grounds officer

en-noun

grounds officer (plural grounds officers)

(Scotland) A person who looks after a large Scottish estate for a Lord, preventing illegal hunting and fishing, and liaises with tenant farmers.


antiburgher

(historical, Scotland) A member of a faction of the Scottish Presbyterian Church that refused to take the burgess oath in 1747; since reunited.


cautioner

Fourteen Days are only allowed for Sists of Execution, from the Date the Bill was signed, for the Clerks inquiring in the Condition of the Cautioner […]

1693, James Dalrymple Stair, The institutions of the law of Scotland, page 755:


forpet

Now, as I learned afterwards[…]that straw is used each day, which carried six bolls, one firlot, and three forpets of grain; that each bunch of straw yielded something less than one peck and three forpets; and that the extent of ground which produced the straw for one day's consumption, was seventy hundredth parts of an acre, Scotch measure.

1807, Letters from a young Farmer to his Father: The Farmer's Magazine, volume 8, Edinburgh, page 472:

The forpet, or one-fourth part of a peck, contains 3 Scotch standard pints and one choppin, is 7¾ inches diameter at the bottom, 6¾ inches at the mouth, and 9⅛ inches deep.

1816, James Cleland, Annals of Glasgow, volume 2, page 221:

[…]they were gradually disposed of during the winter and ensuing spring, on the Edinburgh street—hawked about in carts, or sold to hucksters, who re-sold them to the town's people, in forpets and half-forpets, at a small advance in price, (about a shilling on a boll,) to reimburse them for their trouble.

1829, George Robertson, Rural Recollections, page 313:

(dated, Scotland) A quarter (fourth part) used especially as a unit of mass or capacity.


firlot

[T]he valuation of lands, tenor of leaſes, the rents, the entails, rent charges, life rents, and payments for or out of land revenue, are all reckoned in Scotland by the chalder, boll, firlot, and lippy, and cannot be altered; [...]

1786, Daniel De Foe [i.e., Daniel Defoe], “Appendix. Part I. Containing an Account of Transactions in both Parts of the United Kingdoms, subsequent to the Union; […]”, in A History of the Union between England and Scotland, with a Collection of Original Papers Relating thereto. […], London: Printed for John Stockdale, […], →OCLC, page 600:

(Scotland) A measure of capacity, once used for corn etc, equal to four pecks.


brank

Compare Gaelic brangus, brangas, a sort of pillory, Irish brancas, halter, or Dutch pranger, fetter.

Your armour gude ye mauna shaw, / Nor yet appear like men o' weir; / As country lads be a' array'd, / Wi' branks and brecham on each mare.

1802, “Jock o’ the Side”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: […], volume I, Kelso, Roxburghshire: […] James Ballantyne, for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, […]; and sold by Manners and Miller, and A[rchibald] Constable, […], →OCLC, 1st part (Historical Ballads), page 158:

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, usually in the plural) A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces.


brank

en-verb

brank (third-person singular simple present branks, present participle branking, simple past and past participle branked)

branks (present singular third-person)
branking (participle present)
branked (participle past)
branked (past)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) To hold up and toss the head; applied to horses as spurning the bit.

Donald came branking down the brae
Wi' twenty thousand men.

1811, Anne MacVicar Grant, Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland:


bailie

From Old French bailli (“land steward; officer of justice”).

der

(Scotland) The chief magistrate of a Scottish barony or part of a county, with functions like a sheriff's.

(Scotland) A municipal officer in Scotland corresponding to an English alderman.


wedsetter

(Scotland) Alternative spelling of wadsetter.


wadsetter

“[…] he had land and living, kept himself close from wadsetters and money-lenders, paid each man his due, and lived on his own.”

1819, Walter Scott, chapter 6, in The Bride of Lammermoor:

The wadsetter was frequently a younger brother or near relative of the chief of the clan, who had made money abroad, or in some calling at home. He lent money to the chief, and in return he was secured by deed in the annual rents of certain specified lands.

1899, Hew Morrison, “The Life of Rob Donn,”, in Songs and Poems in the Gaelic Language by Rob Donn, Edinburgh: John Grant, page xiv:

(Scotland) A person who holds tenure by wadset.


wadset

en-noun

wadset (countable and uncountable, plural wadsets)

wadsets (plural)
wadsett (alternative)
wedset (alternative)

From Middle English wedsetten, equivalent to wed (“pledge”) + set. Wad is a Scottish form of wed.

It was at this time that Rob Roy acquired an interest by purchase, wadset, or otherwise, to the property of Craig Royston already mentioned.

1829, Rob Roy, Walter Scott, Introduction to the 1829 edition:

(obsolete, Scotland) The conveyance of land in pledge for a debt; a mortgage.


wadset

en-verb

wadset (third-person singular simple present wadsets, present participle wadsetting, simple past and past participle wadsetted)

wadsets (present singular third-person)
wadsetting (participle present)
wadsetted (participle past)
wadsetted (past)
wadsett (alternative)
wedset (alternative)

I thought I heard the footstep of the young portioner of Glaiketha; he'll be come to borrow gold and to wadset land.

1822, Allan Cunningham, “Death of the Laird Of Warlsworm”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 2, page 307:


trouse

Apparently partly a variant of trews, and perhaps partly from Irish triús.

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

(Scotland) trousers (or similar garments)


tacksman

... a numerous class of occupiers who cultivated what would now be considered fair-sized crofts, have entirely disappeared, as well as the tenants and tacksmen who were still higher in the scale.

1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History:

MacLeod from Dunvegan, his tacksmen big with vengeance, caught up with the raiders by Ardmore Bay, and none of the MacDonalds was spared.

2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley, published 2009, page 13:

(Scotland) A person who holds a tack from another; a tenant.


souter

Inherited from Middle English soutere, from Old English sūtere, from Latin sūtor (“shoemaker, cobbler”).

There is no work better than another to please God : to pour water , to wash dishes , to be a souter (cobbler) , or an apostle

1527, William Tyndale, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon:

He was a shoemaker, the creature, and called himself the Sutor, an old-fashioned name that folk laughed at.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 31:

(Scotland, Northern England) A shoemaker or cobbler.


scrog

en-noun

scrog (countable and uncountable, plural scrogs)

Compare scrag, or Scottish Gaelic sgrogag (“anything shriveled”), from sgrag (“to compress, shrivel”).

cog

(Scotland, countable) The crab-apple tree.


scroag

en-noun

scroag (countable and uncountable, plural scroags)

(Scotland) Alternative spelling of scrog.


scrag

Perhaps related to Norwegian skragg (a lean person), dialectal Swedish skragge (old and torn thing), Danish skrog (hull, carcass); perhaps related to shrink.


preclare

en-adj

preclare (comparative more preclare, superlative most preclare)

more preclare (comparative)
most preclare (superlative)
preclair (alternative)
preclaire (alternative)

(obsolete, Scotland) illustrious, distinguished


poind

Borrowed from Middle Scots poynd, puynd, from Middle English pynden, from Old English *pyndan (and derived ġepyndan), from Proto-West Germanic *pundijan. Doublet of pind.

(obsolete, Scotland) A seizure of property etc in lieu of a debt; the animal or property so seized


poind

en-verb

poind (third-person singular simple present poinds, present participle poinding, simple past and past participle poinded)

poinds (present singular third-person)
poinding (participle present)
poinded (participle past)
poinded (past)

(obsolete, Scotland) To seize property in this manner.


plenish

plenish (third-person singular simple present plenishes, present participle plenishing, simple past and past participle plenished)

plenishes (present singular third-person)
plenishing (participle present)
plenished (participle past)
plenished (past)

Scots plenish, from pleniss- the stem of Anglo-Norman plenir in certain conjugated form, from plein (“full”). Compare replenish.

By the time they went back to the bar the expressionless peasant behind it had set up two glasses and plenished them with yellow rum and sugar upon which he now poured hot water before pushing them forward and motioning to them with his head to drink.

1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 794-5

(archaic, chiefly Scotland) To fill up, to stock or supply (something).

No man ever saw Alison at any market in the countryside, and yet the Skerburnfoot was plenished yearly in all proper order.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(chiefly Scotland) Specifically, to stock land or a house (with livestock or furniture).


pendicle

From Middle English, probably from Medieval Latin pendiculum (“appendage”), from Late Latin pendiculus (“cord, noose”), from Latin pendere (“to weigh”).

(Scotland) A small property that is a subsidiary part of a larger estate; an appurtenance


mortsafe

(Scotland) An iron frame constructed over a grave as a protection against resurrectionists


knockit

(Scotland) A small loaf of bread; a snack


knaveship

en-noun

knaveship (countable and uncountable, plural knaveships)

(countable, obsolete, Scotland) A quantity of corn or flour due to a miller's servant from each batch in a thirlage mill


gambade

(Scotland or obsolete) The leap of a horse.

He made his hawke to fly, […]
And in the holy place
She mutyd there a chase
Upon my corporas face.
Such sacrificium laudis
He made with suche gambawdis.

c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 63, lines 47, 61–65:

He made his hawk to fly, […]
And in the holy place (altar)
She dropped a fall of dung there
Upon my communion cloth’s face.
Such a sacrifice of praise
He made with such pranks.

How strange and yet how good it was to thread those narrow passages once more! Their suffocating constriction and padded, ladderlike steps summoned up a thousand memories of gambades and trysts: coursing the white wolves, scourging the prisoners of the antechamber, reencountering Oringa.

1987, Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 243–244:

(Scotland or obsolete) A prank or frolic.


feeing

(chiefly Scotland) The hiring of servants for a fee


heugh

From Old English hōh (“promontory”). The southern form is hoe.

(Scotland, Northumbria) A steep crag or cliff, especially one overlooking a river

(Scotland, Northumbria) A glen with steep, overhanging sides; a cleugh

(Scotland, Northumbria) The face of a quarry or mine


hamesucken

hamesucken (usually uncountable, plural hamesuckens)

hamesuckens (plural)
haimsucken (alternative)

From Old English hám-sócn, literally "home-seeking, an attack upon a house; also the fine exacted for this". Compare German Heimsuchung.

(Scotland) An assault on a person in his own home, having broken in for that purpose.


cothouse

cothouses (plural)
cote-house (alternative)
cot-house (alternative)

He was good to look on, brawly dressed, and with a tongue in his head that would have wiled the bird from the tree. Moreover, he was of gentle kin, and she was a poor lass biding in a cot house with an ill-reputed mother.

(Scotland) A small cottage, especially one that was the home of a cottar.


scaur

The crag is high, the scaur is deep, / Yet shrink not from the desperate leap […].

1810, The Lady of the Lake, Walter Scott, 3.XIII:

There are "stags of ten" roaming abroad unstalked; and perchance that is a hart royal swelling his broad front on yonder scaur.

1859, Walter Cooper Dendy, The wild Hebrides, page 67:

(chiefly Scotland) A steep cliff or bank.


couthie

en-adj

couthie (comparative couthier, superlative couthiest)

couthier (comparative)
couthiest (superlative)
couthy (alternative)

she tramped bare-footed the roads to the little school that nestled under the couthy hills.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 37:

(Scotland) Friendly, agreeable, pleasant.


tappit hen

Borrowed and modified from Scots tappit-hen.

Blyth , blyth , blyth was she,
Blyth was she but and ben;
And well the loo'd a Hawick gill,
And leugh to see a tappit hen

a. 1740, unknown author, Andro and his Cutty Gun:

(Scotland) A hen with a tuft of feathers on her head.


lofted

(Scotland) Of a house: having more than one storey.


puggled

puggled (comparative more puggled, superlative most puggled)

more puggled (comparative)
most puggled (superlative)

(Scotland) Fatigued, drained, exhausted.


sederunt

/sɪˈdɪəɹənt/

From Latin sederunt (“there were sitting”).

They held a sederunt, and were filled with tremulous joy, for, in spite of their familiarity with all the other worlds and cycles, they had a very human awe of things sent from Ghostland.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Sending of Dana Da”, in In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 421:

'Tis pity we have not Burn's own account of that long sederunt.

1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

(Scotland) A formal meeting, especially of a judicial or ecclesiastical body.

(Scotland) Those people present at such a meeting.


smirr

Variant form of smur, of unknown origin.

In the November smirr they made his team take off their shirts. He walked up and down the pitch, rubbing at his chest, unsure whether it was frozen or scalding hot from the wind.

2020, Douglas Stewart, Shuggie Bain, page 269:

The man was dead but Kidd aimed the gun once more and a light mist sprayed his cheeks like a cool smirr of rain.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 499:

(Scotland) Fine rain; drizzle. Fine drizzle, lighter than drizzle that hings in the air and does not actually precipitate.


smirr

en-verb

smirr (third-person singular simple present smirrs, present participle smirring, simple past and past participle smirred)

smirrs (present singular third-person)
smirring (participle present)
smirred (participle past)
smirred (past)

The queue was about the size of a small football crowd and in the smirring rain it should have been a formula for misery. But the place was jumping joyously.

2014, William McIlvanney, The Papers of Tony Veitch:

(Scotland, intransitive) To drizzle; to rain finely.

Rain clouds smirred the horizon, but for now the grey mists above were content to drift on.

(Scotland, transitive) To cover with fine rain.


crabbit

en-adj

crabbit (comparative more crabbit, superlative most crabbit)

more crabbit (comparative)
most crabbit (superlative)

Auntie Maureen said how me and Mattie would have liked him but Uncle Eric said, Oh ye would not, he was just a crabbit old b****r.

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 65:


clarty

clarty (comparative clartier, superlative clartiest)

clartier (comparative)
clartiest (superlative)
clartie (alternative)
clerty (alternative)
clorty (alternative)
clurty (alternative)

CLART. To spread, smear, or daub. A flake of snow, when it is large and sticks to the clothes, is called a clart. So we have clarts, mud; clarty, muddy, sticky. Clarty-paps, a dirty sloven of a wife.

[1846, James Orchard Halliwell, “CLART”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. […], volumes I (A–I), London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 252, column 1:

(British, Northern England and Scotland dialect) Sticky and foul; dirty, filthy, muddy.


soger

Pronunciation spelling
pronunciation spelling

(obsolete or Scotland) Pronunciation spelling of soldier, representing nonstandardly-pronounced English, sojer.


blype

(Scotland) A thin membrane or small piece of skin.


shearing

en-noun

shearing (countable and uncountable, plural shearings)

From Middle English scherynge; equivalent to shear + -ing.

(Scotland) The act or operation of reaping.


tane

Would it not grieue a King to be so abuſ’d?
And haue a thouſand horſmen tane away?

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

(archaic or Scotland) Alternative form of taken.


spleet

en-verb

spleet (third-person singular simple present spleets, present participle spleeting, simple past and past participle spleeted)

spleets (present singular third-person)
spleeting (participle present)
spleeted (participle past)
spleeted (past)

Obscurely related to split. Compare the noun and rare Middle Low German spleeten.

Piſcem exdorſuare, […] To ſpleete out, oꝛ part alongeſt the ridge bone iuſt in the midſt.

1585, Adrianus Iunius, translated by Iohn Higins, The Nomenclator, or Remembrancer of Adrianus Iunius Physician, […], London: […] Ralph Newberie, and Henrie Denham, →OCLC, page 62, column 2:

Of the ſpleeting in the ſhoulder, or renting the ſhoulder from the breaſt of the Horſe.

1585, Christ[opher] Clifford, The Schoole of Horsmanship. Wherein Is Discouered What Skill and Knowledge Is Required in a Good Horseman, Practised by Perfect Experience. […], London: […] [Thomas East] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, folio 88, verso:

[I]t offends mee to the ſoule, to heare a robuſtious perwig-pated fellowe tere a paſſion to totters, to very rags, to ſpleet the eares of the groundlings, […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signatures G3, verso – [G4], recto:

[M]ine owne tongue / Spleet’s what it ſpeakes: […]

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], page 351, column 2:

Hurdles, made in form of Gates, either of ſpleeted Timber or of Hazle Rods, they either ſerve for gates in Encloſures or to make Sheep-folds or the like.

1681, J[ohn] W[orlidge], “Dictionarium Rusticum: or, The Interpretations and Significations of Several Rustick Terms, &c.”, in Systema Agriculturæ; the Mystery of Husbandry Discovered. […], 3rd edition, London: […] Tho. Dring, […] Sold by R. Clavel […], →OCLC, page 327:

And at all times it is highly dangerous, for any not experienced with theſe Seas, to paſs through between the Iſles, tho with ſmall Boats, becauſe of the many blind Rocks lying there, upon which sometimes the Inhabitants themſelves do ſpleet, […] The ſignal defeat and overthrow of the Spaniſh Armado […] was eſpecially cauſed by ſtormy Winds and Tempeſts, some thereby ſinking at Sea, others ſpleeting upon the Coaſts both of England and France and eſpecially upon the North of Scotland, Orkney and Zetland; […]

1701, John Brand, A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth & Caithness, […], Edinburgh: […] George Mosman, →OCLC, pages 25 (A Description of Orkney, […]) and 127 (An Account of […] the Isles of Zetland):

[T]here were the men at ease, holding their sides, laughing like to spleet them; […]

1828, Mansie Wauch [pseudonym; David Macbeth Moir], “Volunteering”, in The Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith. […], New York, N.Y.: […] J. & J. Harper. […], →OCLC, page 119:

Da auld axe ta spleet da lamb’s head wi’, Sh[etland] News (Sept. 22, 1900)

1905, “SPLIT, v.”, in Joseph Wright, editor, The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume V (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 676, column 2:

(ambitransitive, later chiefly Scotland) To split.


internationalist

(chiefly Scotland) A player representing their country in a team sport.


spang

spang (third-person singular simple present spangs, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

spangs (present singular third-person)
spanging (participle present)
spanged (participle past)
spanged (past)

Uncertain. Cognate with Scots spang, and possibly related to English spank.

a. 1758, Allan Ramsay, epistle to Robert Yarde
But when they spang o'er reason's fence, / We smart for't at our own expense.

(intransitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To leap; spring.

(transitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To cause to spring; set forcibly in motion; throw with violence.


spang

Set roast-beef and pudding on the opposite side o' the pit o' Tophet, and an Englishman will mak a spang at it—[…]

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 13:


marled

en-adj

marled (comparative more marled, superlative most marled)

more marled (comparative)
most marled (superlative)

The Standing Stones reared up above the two, marled and streaked with snow they were, and a wind came blowing fit to freeze the chilblains on a brass monkey as they stood and glowered one at the other.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 49:

(chiefly Scotland) Mottled, streaked, multicoloured.


clootie

From Scots [Term?]; see cloot (“cloth”).


tassie

From French tasse (“cup”), from Arabic طَاس (ṭās, “bowl, basin”).

(Scotland) A cup or goblet for drinking wine.


proviant

(Scotland) provisions, especially for an army


faring

c. 1798, Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairne), Caller Herrin'
Wha'll buy my caller herrin'?
They're bonnie fish and halesome farin';
Wha'll buy my caller herrin',
New drawn frae the Forth?

(Scotland, obsolete) Alternative form of fairing (“something edible; fare”).


hyte

hyte (comparative more hyte, superlative most hyte)

more hyte (comparative)
most hyte (superlative)


Torquil

Anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Torcall, from Old Norse Þorkell, from older Þorketill, from Þórr (“Thor”) + ketill (“(sacrificial) cauldron”).

af

(rare outside Scotland) A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.


byname

From by- + name. Cognate with Dutch bijnaam (“nickname”), German Beiname (“nickname, epithet”), Swedish binamn, Danish binavn and Norwegian Bokmål binavn.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A pseudonym; nom-de-plume.


barken

en-verb

barken (third-person singular simple present barkens, present participle barkening, simple past and past participle barkened)

barkens (present singular third-person)
barkening (participle present)
barkened (participle past)
barkened (past)

The poor patient knew at once his master's tongue, and lifting up one of his eyes, the other being stiff and barkened down, said in a melancholy voice, "Ah, master, do you think I'll get better?"

1828, David Macbeth Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch:

"The best way's to let the blood barken upon the cut — that saves plasters, hinney."

1908, Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, or, The astrologer:

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To become hard or form a crust, like bark.


doon

This "impressive" 1893 James Miller railway terminus was, according to Canmore, "designed in a grand style in order to cope with the large volume of holidaymakers arriving from Glasgow to travel 'doon the water' at the height of the summer season".

2023 March 22, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Grand buildings on the list... and lost: Greenock Princes Pier”, in RAIL, number 979, page 52:


yaup

yaup (third-person singular simple present yaups, present participle yauping, simple past and past participle yauped)

yaups (present singular third-person)
yauping (participle present)
yauped (participle past)
yauped (past)


sneckdraw

(obsolete, Scotland) One who is sly, cunning, devious.


kenspeckle

en-adj

kenspeckle (comparative more kenspeckle, superlative most kenspeckle)

more kenspeckle (comparative)
most kenspeckle (superlative)

'It [the gold coin] is sae bonny and sae kenspeckle,' said she, 'that I think I'll keep it for the sake of the giver.'

(Scotland, northern British) Easily recognized, distinctive, conspicuous.


loaning

From loanin, an alternative spelling of the Northern English noun lonnen + -ing.

She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.

1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 231:

(Northern England, Scotland, Ulster) A lane.


sorra

en-noun

sorra (countable and uncountable, plural sorras)


sorra

'Sorra a friend I have - sorra a friend, Masther Richard; and I did not spake to the priest this year or more, and I darn't go near him,' said the poor Palmerstown lass that was once so merry.

1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

Sorra a bite she ates but she drinks the mixture with it.

1879, Chambers's Journal, volume 56, number 2, page 589:

(Scotland, Ireland, dialect) nary (a); no; not one


gome

From Middle English gome (“man”), from Old English guma (“man”), from Proto-West Germanic *gumō, from Proto-Germanic *gumô (“man”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”), shortened variant of *dʰǵʰm̥mō (“earthling”). Cognate to Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma) and Latin homō. Doublet of hombre, homo, ombre, and omi. See also human.

A gome gais to ane garet.

a. 1500, The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane:

The King was glade of that golde, that the gome brought.

Whan the stalwart gome strade ower the spait An' clasp'd me in the flude.

(obsolete, Scotland, Northern England) A man.


blackfish

blackfish (plural blackfishes or blackfish)

(chiefly Scotland) An Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, especially a female after spawning.


saule

(Scotland, obsolete) A hired mourner at a funeral.


cutty

en-adj

cutty (comparative more cutty, superlative most cutty)

more cutty (comparative)
most cutty (superlative)
cuttie (alternative)

(Scotland, Northern England) Short, shortened, or small; curtailed.


cutty

I'm no sae scant of clean pipes as to blaw wi' a brunt cutty.

1750, Allan Ramsay, A Collection of Scots Proverbs, page 51:

(Scotland) A short tobacco pipe; a cutty-pipe.

“And me coming a this way out o' my gate to pleasure you, ye ungrateful cutty,”

1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC:

(Scotland, archaic) A wanton or unchaste woman.

(Scotland, archaic) A girl with a short, dumpy figure.


stravaig

en-verb

stravaig (third-person singular simple present stravaigs, present participle stravaiging, simple past and past participle stravaiged)

stravaigs (present singular third-person)
stravaiging (participle present)
stravaiged (participle past)
stravaiged (past)
stravaige (alternative)

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

Whenever we came to any habitations now he would not call at back doors, nor go stravaiging in yards for odd pieces to eat, but he would go gallantly into an inn and offer his payment for the things we would like.

1921, A. E. Coppard, “Marching to Zion”, in Adam & Eve & Pinch Me:

It is tedious work, training clematis over low posts, so that its beauty does not stravaig up the walls but lies open under the eye; but on the edge of the town many gardeners grew it thus.

1946, Rebecca West, “Greenhouse with Cyclamens”, in A Train of Powder, page 22:

Michael, stop stravaiging along behind.

1964, Bill Walsh, Don DaGradi, Mary Poppins, spoken by Mary Poppins:


smatchet

(Scotland) A small, nasty or insignificant person.


pomate

From Medieval Latin pomatum (“cider, ointment”) either directly or via slightly earlier English pomatum, from Latin pōmum (“fruit, apple”) + -ātum (“-ate: forming nouns”). Doublet of pomatum, pomade, and pomace.

der

Patient he sits, while Master Puff, with pomate, tongs, and powder-pluff... gives each hair its proper station...

1774, Archibald Bruce, The Kirkiad..., Canto I, 18:

(now chiefly Scotland) Synonym of pomade, a kind of thick waxy hair product used as a styling gel.


shanks' nag

Traced back to shanks-nag, 1758; The expression -- believed to be Scottish in origin (i.e. shanks-naig 1774), refers to the use of shank to refer to the part of the human leg between the knee and ankle.

He took shanks-naig, but fient may care.

1774, Robert Fergusson, Poems on Various Subjects:

(idiomatic, Scotland, archaic) Transportation by foot. To "take a shanks' nag" means using one's own legs to walk.


dyke

A variant of dike, from Northern Middle English dik and dike (“ditch”), from Old Norse díki (“ditch”). Influenced by Middle Dutch dijc (“ditch; dam”) and Middle Low German dīk (“dam”). See also
ditch.

The Galloway Dyke / In southwest Scotland there is a local style of dry stone dyke that is now recognized as 'the Galloway dyke', although when this pattern of was first developed, it was simply described as 'the sheep dyke'.

2023 February 21, Nick Aitken, Dry Stone Walling - Materials and Techniques, The Crowood Press, →ISBN:

(now chiefly Scotland) A low embankment or stone wall serving as an enclosure and boundary marker.


dyke

en-verb

dyke (third-person singular simple present dykes, present participle dyking, simple past and past participle dyked)

dykes (present singular third-person)
dyking (participle present)
dyked (participle past)
dyked (past)
dike (alternative)

(transitive, Scotland) To surround with a low dirt or stone wall.


skift

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

From Scots skift (“light shower of rain or snow”), related to skiff (“light rain, snow, etc”) (which see for more) and skiffle.

der

Last night we had a little skift of snow.

1834, record quoted in 1956, Norman E. Eliason, Tarheel Talk, page 294

Well, there was a little skift of snow on the ground, and I follered up a ridge of the mountain […]

1857, “A Winter in the South”, in Harper's Magazine, page 726:

It was quite cold that morning; just a little skift of snow. We had not gone a mile from camp before we were overtaken by a score or more of boys going home to Missouri. They had been up to the Wakarusa camp — the pro-slavery troops were ...

1915, Ed Blair, History of Johnson County, Kansas, page 61:

A “Skift” of Snow
LAST night we had a “skift” of snow, and it was interesting to notice the effect on the summer-born creatures of the farm. A plump young kitten that had not seen the pesky stuff before came to meet me from the stable ...

1919, Peter McArthur, The Red Cow and Her Friends, Createspace Independent Pub, page 244:

We just got out on the top and there was a little skift of snow a-fallin'.

[...] money from the Appalachian Community Development Association and from Cincinnati's Tall Stacks Festival, so I rented a car and stayed in a motel instead of sleeping on somebody's floor. There was just a little skift of snow on the ground.

A skift of snow had fallen overnight on the ski trails, and Paul had yet to groom them and erase the tracks in the new snow.

2010, Mark Parman, A Grouse Hunter’s Almanac: The Other Kind of Hunting, page 84:

(dialectal, including Scotland, Shetland and Appalachia) Synonym of skiff (“light shower of rain or snow; light dusting of snow or ice (on ground, water, etc)”).


crowdie

en-noun

crowdie (countable and uncountable, plural crowdies)

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

Alteration of Early Scots crud (“curd”), cognate with Early Modern English and Middle English crud, crudde (14th c.), crodde, of unknown origin.

The old woman shuffled out from the back room with a handful of coal and a bowl of crowdie for the boy.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 270:

(Scotland, now historical) Gruel or thin porridge.


quey

Of Scandinavian origin, ultimately from Old Norse kvíga.

So I sent away the two queys, one of them is pranded and the other plack.^([eye dialect, meaning: branded... black])

1875, William Robertson, Sketches of Highland Character: Sheep-farmers and Drovers, Edmonston and Douglas, page 13:

The blue ribbon in the section for two-year-old queys in calf was carried away by a sweet little animal owned by Mr. Frame, Blantyre Park, which had never been shown at any other exhibition.

1878, The Farmer's Magazine, Volume 53: January-June 1878, page 461:

Ewan, who with others was giving friendly help to the manager and herds, was in charge of the queys, which were disposed of and driven out while Mary was still taking instructions from the executor at the auctioneer's stand.

1890, The Highland Monthly, Volume 1, page 584:


junt

Apparently a figurative extension of Early Scots junt (“joint”), Middle English joynt, junte (“joint (of the body, where the bones meet)”), perhaps influenced by junk. Compare jawn.

Whare ancient poets us'd to dine / On junts o' rhymin skill; / Ye might to latest ages shine, An' countless pages fill,[…]

1808, Walter Watson (of Chryston.), Miscellaneous Scotch Poetry, page 71:

When they were partin with Lady Killdun, she called Ned Burke aside, an (as Donald said) gave him a junt of butter betwixt two fardles of bread, which Ned put into a wallet they had for carrying some little baggage.

1834, The Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, volume 25, page 138:

She helped her mother now and then to junts of salt meat out of her master's barrel.

1894, Donald Macleod, Past worthies of the Lennox, a garland of their droll sayings and doings, page 176:

"Throw a couple of turf and a junt of fir on the fire, Dinny, a thaisge, afore ye sit down," he said.

1903, Seumas MacManus, A Lad of the O'Friels, page 43:

A fine bowl of tea and a junt of flour bread.

(Scotland, obsolete) A fair-sized piece or amount; a chunk (of anything, especially meat or other food).


bunnet

(Scotland, New Zealand) A style of flat cap traditionally made from wool, commonly worn by farmers and country gentlemen in cool climates.


threety

He hath threety-six votes of the greatest barrons of the shyre to ninteen very mean ones, wherof syv have no right to vote; there is not so much as doubt of that matter heir.

1690, Letters and state papers chiefly addressed to George, Earl of Mellville

Kecept Paid to Andrew Marshall Smith in Gorballs for Threety howes and tuo Axes at 12"1 p. pss. p.

1696-1707, Papers relating to the ships and voyages of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies

To James Jaffray for threety young plantin bought at Monimusk at 3/4 per piece.

… who made shose of Neill Campbell, servitor to Collin Campbell younger of Glendarule, to be his clark compeared personally Archibald McKellar now in Glenlean of the age of threety years …

1705-1742, The Justiciary Records of Argyll and the Isles

(UK dialectal, chiefly Scotland, obsolete or nonstandard) Thirty.


wintle

en-verb

wintle (third-person singular simple present wintles, present participle wintling, simple past and past participle wintled)

wintles (present singular third-person)
wintling (participle present)
wintled (participle past)
wintled (past)

Perhaps from a Flemish dialect of Dutch windtelen (“to reel”); compare wentelen.

c. 1688-1746, Author not recorded, Cumberland and Murray's Descent into Hell, 1861, Charles Mackay (editor), The Jacobite Songs and Ballads of Scotland from 1688 to 1746, page 266,
The worm of hell, which never dies, / In wintled coil writhes up and fries.

1974, Austin Clarke, quoted in 1981, G. Craig Tapping, Austin Clarke: A Study of His Writings, page 282,
Along the cliffs a breeze wintled.

At a quick turn o' the road they wintled owre, and there they were, sitting on their doups in the atoms o' the gig, and glowering frae them!

1901, George Douglas Brown, The House with the Green Shutters, published 2011, page 214:

Miss Radford wintled across the floor on her bottom until she slumped beside Eloise, who rolled her eyes and bared her lower teeth.

2002, Micaela Gilchrist, The Good Journey, US, page 222:


ramps

(England, Scotland, Ireland) Alternative form of ramson.


bonnyclabber

Said to be from Irish bainne (“milk”) + clábair (“muddied”) (see English clabber) or Scots Gaelic cognates thereof, with the anglicization of the first element influenced by bonny.

(Scotland and US dialects) Sour, soured, fermented or curdled milk; acidophilus milk.


-and

From Middle English -and, -end, -ant, -nd, from Old English -ende, -ande, present participle ending of verbs, and -end, -nd, agent ending, both from Proto-West Germanic *-andī, from Proto-Germanic *-andz (present participle suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *-onts. More at -ing.

inh

-ant (alternative)
-nd (alternative)
-on (alternative)

livand, nurischand, ravand, snipand, goand

(now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) Used to form the present participle of verbs, equivalent to -ing.


agley

en-adv

agley (comparative more agley, superlative most agley)

more agley (comparative)
most agley (superlative)
aglee (alternative)
agly (alternative)
gley (alternative)

X tells of cavalry; of Sheridan, Hampton and Fitz Lee;
Of Early’s Valley march, that Sheridan long held agley!

1932, Rosewell Page, The Iliads of the South: an epic of the War Between the States, Garrett and Massie, p. 165

“I don't know if you know the meaning of the word ‘agley’, Kipper, but that, to put it in a nutshell, is the way things have ganged.”

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XII AND XV”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

"You bastard."
"I beg your pardon Miss Martin. What did you say."
"You heard me."
All I need. For Miss Martin to go agley on me. Pout, stamp and generally upstage my authority. When they learn about your inner life, wham they take liberties with the outer. Until one is driven to putting on the stone face with creases downturned around the eyes and mouth. Scowl.

1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 125:

We meant to sail from Charleston, but things went agley there, and so we’re bound for Portsmouth now, as fast as we can make speed.

2002, Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross, p. 29

(chiefly Scotland) Wrong, awry, askew, amiss, or distortedly.

the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry


agley

But though the bear in the picture was a disguised man he appeared so naturally calm, so benignly strong, that beside him Pete […] looked comparatively shifty and agley.

1983, Alasdair Gray, “The Great Bear Cult”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 57:


hirsel

There are two full hirsels worked on the land that forms the Creag Mhòr Estate.

(Scotland, Northern English) The entire stock on a farm or stock under the charge of a shepherd.


wark

From Middle English werk, warch, from Old English wærc, wræc (“pain, suffering, anguish”), from Proto-Germanic *warkiz (“pain”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make, work, act”). Cognate with Swedish värk (“ache, pain”), Icelandic verkur (“pain”). Related to work.

der

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Pain; ache.


wark

That September (1582) in time of vacance, my uncle Mr. Andrew, Mr. Thomas Buchanan and I, hearing that Mr. George Buchanan was weak, and his history under the press, passed over to Edinburgh anes errand to visite him, and to see the wark.

1819, Malcolm Laing, The History of Scotland, page 141:

We'dn done a pratty day or two's wark afore t' sodgers geet at us.

1860, Sir James Phillips Kay- huttleworth, Scarsdale; or, Life on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border, page 85:

“Mair wark," replied Tibbie, looking round on her well-kept pans and candlesticks.

1864, Eliza Tabor, St. Olave's: A Novel, page 18:

Uprose anither fearsome cry, Uprose exultingly; He couldna hear the words they spak', Yet corpse-pale turned he. The awsome flames had dune their wark, Nae form was left to see, Nought but a grim and blackened stake, A ghastly vacancy.

1868, Eneas Sweetland Dallas, Once a Week, page 317:

'Yet this imposition,' says Nicoll, 'seemed not to thrive; for at the same instant God frae the heavens declared his anger by sending thunder, and unheard tempests, and storms, and inundations of water, whilk destroyed their common mills, dams, and warks, to the town's great charges and expenses.' Eleven mills belonging to Edinburgh, and five belonging to Heriot's Hospital, all upon the Water of Leith, were destroyed on this occasion, 'with their dams, water-gangs, timber and stone- warks, the haill wheels of their mills, timber graith, and haill other warks.'

1858, Robert Chambers, Domestic Annals of Scotland, page 253:

They speak in high terms of "his extraordiner panes and grait cair he had in that Wark, baith by his advyce, and in the building of the same.

1859, William Steven, Frederick William Bedford, History of George Heriot's hospital, page 54:

And because the said Thomas Fallisdaill and John Semple ar alreddy enterit to the said wark, [ and ] coft materiallis as thai declairit, and ressauit ane pairt of the said taxatioun;

1870, Sir James David Marwick, Records of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, page 265:

(obsolete, chiefly Scotland) A building.


kelt

ye've a very raggit kelt on

1725, Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd:

(Scotland) Cloth with the nap, generally of native black wool.


tawpie

Of Scandinavian origin, akin to Norwegian tåpe 'simpleton'

Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks, and fools, / Frae colleges and boarding-schools,

1787, Robert Burns, Epistle to William Creech:

(chiefly Scotland) foolish or awkward youngster


cadgy

en-adj

cadgy (comparative more cadgy, superlative most cadgy)

more cadgy (comparative)
most cadgy (superlative)

(UK, Scotland, dialect) cheerful or mirthful, as after good eating or drinking

(UK, Scotland, dialect) frolicsome; wanton


pooer

pooer (comparative more pooer, superlative most pooer)

more pooer (comparative)
most pooer (superlative)

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


kittle

en-verb

kittle (third-person singular simple present kittles, present participle kittling, simple past and past participle kittled)

kittles (present singular third-person)
kittling (participle present)
kittled (participle past)
kittled (past)
kittel (alternative)

From Middle English kitelen, from Old English citelian (“to tickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *kitilōn, from Proto-Germanic *kitilōną, frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *kitōną (“to tickle”), from Proto-Indo-European *geid- (“to stick, jab, tickle”).
Cognate with Dutch kittelen, kietelen (“to tickle”), Low German kettelen, ketelen (“to tickle”), German kitzeln (“to tickle”), Icelandic kitla (“to tickle”), Swedish kittla, kittsla, Danish kilde and perhaps Old Armenian կիծ- (kic-, “to sting, bite”). Compare tickle.

der

(transitive, Scotland and Northern England) To tickle, to touch lightly.


kittle

en-adj

kittle (comparative kittler, superlative kittlest)

kittler (comparative)
kittlest (superlative)
kittel (alternative)

(Scotland and Northern England) Ticklish.

(Scotland and Northern England) Not easily managed


kittle

kittles (present singular third-person)
kittling (participle present)
kittled (participle past)
kittled (past)

From Middle English kitelen, from Old Norse kjetla (“to bring forth young”), equivalent to kit + -le.

der

(intransitive, Scotland and Northern England) To bring forth young, as a cat; to kitten; to litter.


snuffy

en-adj

snuffy (comparative snuffier, superlative snuffiest)

snuffier (comparative)
snuffiest (superlative)

I must now let you know what sort of a personage this same First President is; you imagine that he is a disagreeable snuffy old fellow

May 27 1680, Marchioness de Sévigné, letter to her daughter, published in English in 1745

The postchaise contained a snuffy old dowager of seventy, with a maid, her contemporary.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

(obsolete, Scotland) Sulky; angry; vexed.


thame

...And to charge thame hereto under the pain of rebellion and putting of thame to thr horne...

1797, Edinburgh Magazine: Or Literary Miscellany, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 180:

...that we communicat with thame in nathing that may appeir to manteane or defend thame...

1846, Thomas M'Cri et al., Lives of the Scottish Reformers, page 190:


pawk

So blyth was he , and fou ' of pawks; -- But yet he's dead!

1749, An Elegy on the Late Mass John T-, Minister of the Gospel at M--, page 16:

and a laird May find a beggar sae prepar'd, Wi pawks and wiles, whar pith is wantin, As soon will mak him rue his tauntin.

I guess, that yours has no the art To win about a husband's heart, Nor kens the gate wi' saftening sound, And pawks, to bring ilk project round.

1811, Hector Macneill, Bygane Times, and Late Come Changes:


beastie

(informal, now chiefly Scotland, Northern England) Beast, animal.