ken

en-verb

ken (third-person singular simple present kens, present participle kenning, simple past and past participle kenned or kent)

kens (present singular third-person)
kenning (participle present)
kenned (participle past)
kenned (past)
kent (participle past)
kent (past)

Northern English dialects and Scots language from Middle English kennen, from Old English cennan (“make known, declare, acknowledge”) originally “to make known”, causative of cunnan (“to become acquainted with, to know”), from Proto-West Germanic *kannijan, from Proto-Germanic *kannijaną, causative of *kunnaną (“be able”), from which comes the verb can.
Cognate with West Frisian kenne (“to know; recognise”), Dutch kennen (“to know”), German kennen (“to know, be acquainted with someone/something”), Norwegian Bokmål kjenne, Norwegian Nynorsk kjenna, Old Norse kenna (“to know, perceive”), Swedish känna (“to know, feel”), Danish kende (“to know”). See also: can, con.
The noun meaning “range of sight” is a nautical abbreviation of present participle kenning.

cog

It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

Johnny: Is your name Maggie? / Maggie: How'd you ken that? / Johnny: It's just a hunch. Are you looking for the, uh, petulant dwarf?

1993, Mike Leigh, Naked (motion picture):

Ah thought he wis being harsh, flippant and show-oafy, until ah got sae far in. Now ah ken precisely what the cunt meant.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 6:

(transitive, chiefly Scotland) To know, perceive or understand.

'Tis he. I ken the manner of his gate, / He riſes on the toe:

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 IV, scene v], line 14:

I proposed to the Mariners, that it would be of great benefit in Navigation to make use of [the telescope] upon the round-top of a ship, to discover and kenne Vessels afar off.

1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Dialogue 2:

We ken them from afar.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:

(obsolete, chiefly Scotland) To discover by sight; to catch sight of; to descry.


den

From Middle English den, from Old English denn (“den, lair (of a beast), cave; a swine-pasture, a woodland pasture for swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *dani (“threshing-floor, barn-floor”). Cognate with Scots den (“den, lair”), Middle Dutch denne (“burrow, den, cave, attic”), Dutch den (“ship's deck, threshing-floor, mountain floor”), Middle Low German denne, danne (“threshing-floor, small dale”), German Tenne (“threshing-floor, barn for threshing”).

cog

I have made several visits of late to the Den of Rubislaw

1806, Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., including many of his Original Letters:

(UK, Scotland, obsolete) A narrow glen; a ravine; a dell.


lire

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old English līra (“any fleshy part of the body, muscle, calf of the leg”), from Proto-Germanic *ligwizô, *lihwizô (“thigh, groin”), from Proto-Indo-European *lekʷs-, *lewks- (“groin”). Cognate with Dutch lies (“groin”), Swedish lår (“thigh”).

inh

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Flesh, brawn, or muscle; the fleshy part of a person or animal in contradistinction to the bone and skin.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) The fleshy part of a roast capon, etc. as distinguished from a limb or joint.


lire

From Middle English lire, lyre, from Old Norse hlýr (“cheeks”, plural). Compare Middle English lere, from Old English hlēor (“cheek, countenance, complexion”). More at leer.

cog

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Face; appearance of the face or skin; complexion; hue.


lire

From Old Norse líri. Cognate with Norwegian lira.

(UK dialectal, Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, ornithology) The Manx shearwater (bird).


tale

en-verb

tale (third-person singular simple present tales, present participle taling, simple past and past participle taled)

tales (present singular third-person)
taling (participle present)
taled (participle past)
taled (past)

From Middle English talen, from Old English talian (“to count, calculate, reckon”), from Proto-West Germanic *talōn, from Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count”), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon, aim, calculate, adjust”).
Cognate with Dutch talen (“to long, care”), German zahlen (“to pay”), Swedish tala (“to speak, talk”), Icelandic tala (“to talk”).

der

(dialectal, chiefly Scotland) To reckon; consider (someone) to have something.


stale

From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“place, something placed”) (compare French étal), from Frankish stal, from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, earlier *staþlaz. Related to stall and stand.

Neveryeles I knaw asweill by Englisemen as Scottishmen that their stale was no les then thre thowsand men.

1532, State Papers Henry VIII, published 1836, IV 626:

(Scotland, military, obsolete) The main force of an army.


shackle

From Middle English shakel, schakkyl, schakle (“a fetter, shackle; coupling used to connect a plough or wagon to a draft chain”), from Old English sċacul, sċeacel, sċeacul (“fetter, shackle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakul, from Proto-Germanic *skakulaz (“shackle”), possibly from *skakaną (“to shake; to swing; to escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeg-, *skek- (“to shake; to stir”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary because *skeg-, *skek- lack the meaning of attaching or fastening.
Sense 3 (“length of cable or chain equal to 12½ or 15 fathoms”) derives from the original distance between two shackles (sense 1.1.2) connecting lengths of cable or chain together.
Cognates
* Danish skagle (“carriage trace”)
* Dutch schakel (“clasp; link; shackle”)
* German Schäckel (“shackle”)
* Icelandic skökull (“carriage pole”)
* Swedish skakel (“loose shaft of a carriage”)

kahleet

restraint on one’s action, etc. — see also restraint

(usually in the plural) A restraint fitted over a human or animal appendage, such as an ankle, finger, or wrist, normally used in a pair joined by a chain.

(Scotland, archaic) Ellipsis of shackle-bone (“wristbone, carpal; wrist”).


public

en-verb

public (third-person singular simple present publics, present participle publicing, simple past and past participle publiced)

publics (present singular third-person)
publicing (participle present)
publiced (participle past)
publiced (past)

The adjective and noun are derived from Late Middle English publik, publike (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public or public affairs; (noun) a generally observable place or situation”), from Anglo-Norman public, publik, publique, Middle French public, publique, and Old French public (“(adjective) generally observable, public; relating to the general public; official; (noun) community or its members collectively; nation, state; audience, spectators collectively”) (modern French public, publique (obsolete)); and from their etymon Latin pūblicus (“of or belonging to the community, people, or state; general, public”), an alteration of poplicus (influenced by pūbēs (“adult men; male population”)), from poplus (“community; the people, public; nation, state”) (later populus; from Proto-Italic *poplos (“army”); further origin uncertain, possibly from Etruscan or from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -icus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Doublet of people.
The Middle English word displaced native Old English ceorlfolc and folclic.
The verb is derived from the adjective.

der

[H]e is such a barefooted rubber with my supersocks pulled over his face which I publicked in my bestback garden for the laetification of siderodromites and to the irony of the stars.

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 160:

(transitive, originally Scotland, archaic) To make (something) openly or widely known; to publicize, to publish.


rip

(Scotland) A handful of unthreshed grain.


carte

Borrowed from French carte, from Latin charta. See card and chart.

We’ll take a dram for luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we’ll dine and take a hand at the cartes as gentlemen should.

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:

He had been to the supper of the Forest Club at the Cross Keys in Gledsmuir, a clamjamphry of wild young blades who passed the wine and played at cartes once a fortnight.

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 242:


chap

en-verb

chap (third-person singular simple present chaps, present participle chapping, simple past and past participle chapped)

chaps (present singular third-person)
chapping (participle present)
chapped (participle past)
chapped (past)

From Middle English chappen (“to split open, burst, chap”), of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English choppen (“to chop”), Dutch kappen (“to cut, chop, hack”). Perhaps related to chip.

inh

And then it seems that through the open door there came the chapping of a clock.

The door was shut into my class. I had to chap it and then Miss Rankine came and opened it and gived me an angry look […]

2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 35:

(Scotland, Northern England) To strike, knock.


asshole

Esshole, Asshole, the hole under the fire to hold ashes.

1775, Tim Bobbin [John Collier], The Miscellaneous Works of Tim Bobbin, Esq., →OCLC, page 68:

(obsolete, Scotland and Northern England) A receptacle under a fire grate for collecting ashes.


nap

From Middle English nap (“a bowl”), from Old English hnæpp (“a cup, bowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnapp, from Proto-Germanic *hnappaz (“a cup, bowl”). Cognate with Dutch nap (“drinking cup”), Low German Napp (“bowl, cup”), German Napf (“bowl”), Icelandic hnappur (“button, key”). Doublet of hanap. See also nappy.

(Northern England, Scotland) A cup, bowl.


single

→ Dutch: single

→ Finnish: sinkku

→ German: Single

→ Indonesian: singel

→ Japanese: シングル (shinguru)

→ Korean: 싱글 (singgeul)

→ Polish: singiel

From Middle English single, sengle, from Old French sengle, saingle, sangle, from Latin singulus, a diminutive derived from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Akin to Latin simplex (“simple”). See simple, and compare singular.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A handful of gleaned grain.


provost

From Middle English, from late Old English prōfost, prāfost, from Late Latin prōpositus, variant of Latin praepositus (“[one] placed in command”). In some senses, via Anglo-Norman provolt; via Anglo-Norman and Old French provost (modern French prévôt). As a Central European ecclesiastical office, via German Propst, Danish provst, etc.

steward

deputy overseeing medieval estates or fees

police officer

deputy overseeing medieval law enforcement; military police

The repairs were completed in the summer of last year, more than ten months after the line had been closed, and the branch was re-opened on June 29, when Mr. T. F. Cameron, Chief Regional Officer, Scottish Region, received Provost J. S. Collin, of Eyemouth, at the station. The 12.42. p.m. train to Burnmouth was signalled out of the station by the Provost, after he had been introduced to the crew.

1950 January, “Re-Opening of the Eyemouth Branch”, in Railway Magazine, page 52:

One placed in charge: a head, a chief, particularly:

A mayor: the chief magistrate of a town, particularly (Scotland) the head of a burgh or (historical) the former chiefs of various towns in France, Flanders, or (by extension) other Continental European countries.

pormestari

equivalent of mayor in some Scottish cities


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

vrapues

somebody who runs, who moves at a fast pace

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

(Australia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland) A type of soft-soled shoe originally intended for runners.


whisky

en-noun

whisky (countable and uncountable, plural whiskies)

Variant of usque, abbreviation of usquebaugh (compare obsolete whiskybae), from Scottish Gaelic uisge-beatha (“water of life”), calque of Medieval Latin aqua vitae. Compare akvavit, aquavit, aqua vitae, eau de vie, and water of life from the same source.

der

That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(Scotland, Canada, Australia) Alternative form of whiskey, an alcoholic liquor distilled from fermented grain, usually aged in oak barrels, (particularly) Scotch; a drink of this liquor.


fish supper

The working class cannot afford to buy fish suppers nowadays; Scottish beef and venison are for export only, so midgieburgers are going to become Britain's fastest new food – our economy will depend upon it.

2012, Alasdair Gray, “Midgieburgers”, in Every Short Story, Canongate, page 846:


swarf

en-verb

swarf (third-person singular simple present swarfs, present participle swarfing, simple past and past participle swarfed)

swarfs (present singular third-person)
swarfing (participle present)
swarfed (participle past)
swarfed (past)

From Middle English swarven, swerven (“to go; to deviate, turn aside; to stagger, be unsteady; to swerve”), from Old English sweorfan (“to wipe; to polish; to rub, scour; to file”), from Proto-Germanic *swerbaną (“to mop, wipe; to rub off”). The word is cognate to Middle Dutch swerven (“to rove; to stray”) (whence Dutch zwerven (“to roam”)), Low German swarven (“to rove; to stray; to riot”), Old Norse svarfa (“to sweep; to be agitated, upset”), Norwegian svarva (“to agitate”), sverva (“to whirl”). See swerve.

cog

Meg, rinnin like a flae in blanket, / Her coats upon a lang nail hanket, / That gart her coup the creels [i.e., fall head over heels] an' ſqueel, / "Ah! Sirce, I'm gruppet by a de'il!" / An' as ſhe near the threſhold lay, / Wae's me! ſhe near hand ſwarf'd away!

1796, “G.” [i.e., Richard Gall], “The Tint Quey;^([sic – meaning Cow]) or Thrawart Maggy”, in Archibald Steel, Richard Gall, The Twa Cuckolds; and The Tint Quey, or Thrawart Maggy. Two Tales, in the Scottish Dialect, Edinburgh: Printed for and sold by the booksellers, →OCLC, page 20:

Moreover, the evil reputation of the master, and his strange and doubtful end, or at least, sudden disappearance, prevented any, excepting the most desperate of men, to seek any advice or opinion from the servant; wherefore, the poor vermin was likely at first to swarf for very hunger.

1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 235:

But afore her volumes fell into my hauns, my soul had been frichtened by a' kinds of traditionary terrors, and mony hunder times hae I maist swarfed wi' fear in lonesome spats in muirs and woods, at midnicht, when no a leevin thing was movin but mysel and the great moon.

1826 July, John Wilson, “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. XXVII.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XX, number CXIV, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, Strand, London, →OCLC, page 107:

(intransitive, Scotland, obsolete) To grow languid; to faint.


diet

diets (plural)
diët (alternative)
diate (alternative)

From Middle English diet, dyet, from Old French diete, from Medieval Latin diēta, diaeta (“a public assembly; set day of trial; a day's journey”), from Ancient Greek δῐ́αιτα (dĭ́aita, “way of living, living space; decision, judgement”), influenced by Latin diēs (“day”).

der

Normally the diet begins towards the end of April.

“Coronavirus: School exam timetable could be put back next year”, in BBC News website, BBC, 2020 June 14, retrieved 3333-06-23

a diet of worship

(Scotland) A clerical or ecclesiastical function in Scotland.


turnip

→ German: Turnip

→ Irish: tornapa

→ Russian: турнепс (turneps)

From Middle English turnepe, probably from turn + Middle English nepe, from Old English nǣp, from Latin nāpus. The component turn may be due to the round shape of the plant as though turned on a lathe, or because it must be turned and twisted to be harvested. Cognate to neep. See also parsnip.

Brassica napus
Brassica napus#Translingual

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England, Cornwall, Atlantic Canada) The yellow root of a related plant, the swede or Brassica napus.


closet

→ Czech: klozet

→ Polish: klozet

→ Spanish: clóset

→ Welsh: closet

From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos (“private space”) + -et (diminutive suffix), from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close + -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.

cupboard

storage area set into a wall, used for storing food or dishware

wardrobe

piece of furniture, used for storing clothes

cupboard

piece of furniture, used for storing food or dishware

(now chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Any small room or side room.

(US, Philippines) One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.

(obsolete) Clipping of closet of ease, (later, UK) clipping of water closet: a room containing a toilet.


Hogmanay

en-noun

Hogmanay (countable and uncountable, plural Hogmanays)

Hogmanays (plural)
Hogmoney (alternative)

/ˈhɒɡməˌneɪ/

/ˌhɒɡməˈneɪ/

/ˈhɑɡməˌneɪ/

/ˌhɑɡməˈneɪ/

From Scots Hogmanay, probably from Old French aguillanneuf (“last day of the year”).

der

Each year the Hogmanay celebration and the Christmas market on Princes Street Gardens that accompanies it, together with the ever-growing international festival and fringe, eats up more and more of our public spaces.

2020 January 5, Kevin McKenna, “Rebel alliance ready to put a halt to the ‘disneyfication’ of Edinburgh”, in The Observer, →ISSN:

(Scotland) A celebration or gift for New Year's Eve.


roost

From Middle English roste (“chicken's roost; perch”), from Old English hrōst (“wooden framework of a roof; roost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōst, from Proto-Germanic *hrōstaz (“wooden framework; grill”); see *raustijan.
Cognate with Dutch roest (“roost”), German Low German Rust (“roost”), German Rost (“grate; gridiron; grill”).

inh

the highest branch is not the safest roost

(Scotland) The open cross-joists or inner roof of a cottage or living space.


quicken

en-noun

quicken (countable and uncountable, plural quickens)

From Middle English quiken (“couch grass (Elymus repens); a leguminous plant, vetch”) [and other forms], a variant of quich, quik (“couch grass (Elymus repens); a leguminous plant, vetch”) [and other forms] (whence modern English quick, quitch (“couch grass, quitchgrass”); the -en element remains unexplained), from Old English cwiċe (“couch grass”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive; lively; quick”); see further at etymology 1.

nb...

(Late Middle English) quechyn, quyken, qwyckyn, (Middle English) quechen

inh

Quickens-bog may at first seem to derive its name from the plant Quicken, by which, Scotticé, we understand couch-grass, dog-grass, or the Triticum repens of [Carl] Linnæus, and the common English monosyllable Bog, by which we mean, in popular language, a marsh or morass; in Latin, Palus.

1816, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in The Antiquary. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 139:

Elymus repens
Elymus repens#Translingual

couch grass

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


like

en-adj

like (comparative more like, superlative most like)

more like (comparative)
most like (superlative)
lak (alternative)

Adjective from Middle English lik, lyk, lich, like, from Old English ġelīċ by shortening, influenced by Old Norse líkr, glíkr; both from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“like, similar, same”). Related to alike; more distantly, with lich and -ly. Cognate with West Frisian like (“like; as”), Saterland Frisian gliek (“like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German gleich (“equal, like”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”) Swedish lik (“like, similar”)
Adverb from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, from Old English ġelīċe (“likewise, also, as, in like manner, similarly”) and Old Norse líka (“also, likewise”); both from Proto-Germanic *galīkê, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“same, like, similar”).
Conjunction from Middle English like, lyke, lik, lyk, from the adverb Middle English like.
Preposition from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, lijc, liih (“similar to, like, equal to, comparable with”), from Middle English like (adjective) and like (adverb).

der

But it is like the jolly world about us will scoff at the paradox of these practices.

1668, Robert South, The Messiah's Sufferings for the Sins of the People (sermon, March 20, 1668)

Many were […] not easy to be govern'd, nor like to conform themselves to such strict rules.

1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our Sprit-ſail, and ſtood by to hand the Fore-ſail; but making foul Weather, we look'd the Guns were all faſt, and handed the Miſſen.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 151:

She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

(archaic or Scotland, Southern US) Likely; probable.

He seems like to run from any semblance of hard work.

1920 [1843], Charles Dickens, “Stave three: The second of the three spirits”, in A Christmas Carol, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, page 96:

(Scotland, Southern US, otherwise archaic, usually with to) inclined (to), prone (to).


like

ပေါ့

colloquial: used to precede paraphrased quotations

He was so angry, like.

(colloquial, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie, Teesside, Liverpool) A delayed filler.


aliment

en-noun

aliment (countable and uncountable, plural aliments)

From French aliment, from Latin alimentum (“food”).

(Scotland) An allowance for maintenance; alimony.


skull

skulls (plural)
scull (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English sculle, scolle (also schulle, scholle), probably from a dialectal form of Old Norse skalli (“bald head, skull”), itself probably related to Old English sċealu (“husk”). Compare Scots scull, Danish skal (“skull”) and skalle (“bald head, skull”), Norwegian skalle, Swedish skalle and especially dialectal Swedish skulle.
Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse skoltr, skolptr (“muzzle, snout”), akin to Icelandic skoltur (“jaw”), dialectal Swedish skult, skulle (“dome, crown of the head, skull”), Middle Dutch scolle, scholle, Middle Low German scholle, schulle (“clod, sod”), and Scots skult, skolt. Compare also Old High German sciula, skiula (“skull”).

(Scotland) A shallow bow-handled basket.


reed

From Middle English rede (“abomasum”), from Old English rēada, from Proto-West Germanic *raudō.

(UK, Scotland, dialect) The fourth stomach of a ruminant; rennet.


bane

From Northern Middle English ban, from bon (“bone”), from Old English bān, from Proto-West Germanic *bain (“bone; leg”), from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone; leg”), from *bainaz (“straight”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to glow, shine”) (in the sense of a straight beam of light), or *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, strike”) (in the sense of an object for striking), or *bʰeyH-n- (“pole; straight line”).

inh

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

If meate or drinke thou never gavest nane, / Every night and alle: / The fire will burn thee to the bare bane; / And Christe receive thye saule.

a. 1600 (date written), “A Lyke-Wake Dirge”, 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 234:

(chiefly Scotland) Alternative spelling of bone.


bere

From Middle English bere (“barley”), from Old English bere (“barley”), from Proto-West Germanic *barī, from Proto-Germanic *baraz (“barley”). Compare Welsh bara (“bread”), Latin far (“emmer”), Serbo-Croatian бра̏шно/brȁšno (“flour”), Albanian bar (“grass”), Ancient Greek Φήρον (Phḗron, “plant deity”). See also: barley.

cog

(chiefly Scotland) Barley, especially four-rowed barley or six-rowed barley.


grieve

From Middle English greve, greyve, grave, grafe, from Old Norse greifi, from Middle Low German grēve, grâve,
related to Old English grœfa, groefa, variants of Old English ġerēfa (“steward, reeve”). More at reeve.

1559-1566, John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland
[A prince] is nothing but a servant, overseer, or grieve, and not the head, which is a title belonging only to Christ.

[T]heir children were horsewhipped by the grieve when found trespassing; […]

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 110:

(chiefly Scotland) A manager or steward, e.g. of a farm.


moot

en-verb

moot (third-person singular simple present moots, present participle mooting, simple past and past participle mooted)

moots (present singular third-person)
mooting (participle present)
mooted (participle past)
mooted (past)

From Middle English moten (“to speak, talk, converse, discuss”), from Old English mōtian (“to speak, converse, discuss”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet, encounter”), a suffixed derivative of *mōtą (“meeting”). Related to etymology 1. See also mutter (which is a frequentative of moot).

inh

(Scotland, Northern England) To say, utter, also insinuate.


moot

en-noun

moot (countable and uncountable, plural moots)

(Scotland, Northern England) A whisper, or an insinuation, also gossip or rumors.

(Scotland, Northern England, rustic) Talk.


brand

From Middle English brand, from Old English brand (“fire; flame; burning; torch; sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *brand, from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“flame; flaming; fire-brand; torch; sword”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to bubble forth; brew; spew forth; burn”).
Cognate with Scots brand, West Frisian brân (“fire”), Dutch brand, German Brand, Danish brand, Swedish brand (“blaze, fire”), Icelandic brandur, French brand (< Germanic). More distantly cognate with Proto-Slavic *gorěti (“to burn”).

der

(Scotland, Northern England) A torch used for signaling.


unco

en-adj

unco (comparative more unco, superlative most unco)

more unco (comparative)
most unco (superlative)

It was noted by them that kenned best that her cantrips were at their worst when the tides in the Sker Bay ebbed between the hours of twelve and one. At this season of the night the tides of mortality run lowest, and when the outgoing of these unco waters fell in with the setting of the current of life, then indeed was the hour for unholy revels.

And the second quean was Hope and she was near as unco as Faith, but had right bonny hair, red hair, though maybe you'd call it auburn […].

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 18:


unco

‘Ye should tear up this carpet, Robbie,’ Uncle Peter called back over his shoulder. ‘It's most unco wearisome when a body′s leg-weary.’

1920, Tod Robbins, “Who Wants a Green Bottle?”, in Freaks And Fantasies, published 2007, page 70:

Jamie has met only two kids of women: the mainly elderly and unco good who belong to his father's congregation, and those who drink in pubs and shebeens used by nearly penniless medical students.

1996, Alasdair Gray, “The Story of a Recluse”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 267:


gate

Borrowed from Old Norse gata, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ. Cognate with Danish gade, Swedish gata, German Gasse (“lane”). Doublet of gait.

I was going to be an honest man; but the devil has this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate.

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:

"Stand out o' my gate, wife, for, d'ye see, I am rather in a haste, Jean Linton."

(now Scotland, Northern England) A way, path.

(Scotland, Northern England) A street; now used especially as a combining form to make the name of a street e.g. "Briggate" (a common street name in the north of England meaning "Bridge Street") or Kirkgate meaning "Church Street".

(British, Scotland, dialect, archaic) Manner; gait.


outcast

From Middle English outcaste, outecaste, equivalent to out- + cast.


coup

en-verb

coup (third-person singular simple present coups, present participle couping, simple past and past participle couped)

coups (present singular third-person)
couping (participle present)
couped (participle past)
couped (past)

From Middle English coupen (“to buy; (figuratively) to pay for”), from Old Norse kaupa (“to buy, bargain, barter, exchange”).

der

How that he had been couped from hand to hand, ſometimes kept againſt his will as Captive, ſometimes beſieged, ſometimes brought to battle againſt his will by the Duglaſſes to fight againſt the Earl of Lenox, […]

c. 1610, James Melvil, edited by George Scott, The Memoires of Sir James Melvil of Hal-hill: Containing an Impartial Account of the Most Remarkable Affairs of State during the Last Age, Not Mention’d by Other Historians: […], London: […] E. H. for Robert Boulter […], published 1683, →OCLC, page 2:

[W]hen he had gotten, beſide twelve chalder of victuall, a hundred pound ſterling a-year, from the Engliſh, out of the ſtipends of other kirks, all contented him not; but he made almoſt a trade of couping horſes.

1656 September 11 (Gregorian calendar), Robert Baillie, “For Mr. Spang, at Middelburgh”, in David Laing, editor, The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Robert Ogle, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 323:

Now after Tom’s return to Scotland, he got a wife, and took a little farm near Dalkeith, and became a very douse man, for many years, following his old business the couping horses and cows, and feeding veals for the slaughter, and the like.

[1848?], “Part V.”, in The Comical Tricks of Lothian Tom, with a Selection of Anecdotes, Glasgow: […] [T]he booksellers, →OCLC, pages 20–21:

There’s Billy the Barber for coupin’ see cliver, / Wiv his linties, an’ greenies, gowldspinkies an’ a’— / For a pig or a pup he wad lowp i’ the river, / Still wi’ Fishers an Pilots he likes for to jaw.

[1849], J[oseph] P[hilip] Robson, “The Stars o’ Hartlepool. ‘Barbara Bell.’”, in J. P. Robson, editor, Songs of the Bards of the Tyne; or, A Choice Selection of Original Songs Chiefly in the Newcastle Dialect. […], Newcastle upon Tyne: […] P. France & Co., […], →OCLC, page 356:

To Coup, to exchange. “I’ll coup thee,” I will give you this for that. “Will you coup seats with me?” exchange seats. See To Swap.

1855, an Inhabitant [pseudonym; Francis Kildale Robinson], A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood. […], London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 37:

Mod[ern] Sc[ottish] I’ll coup knives with you.

1884–1928, “Coup, cowp (kɑup), v.¹”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II, London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1082, column 1:

(Scotland, Northern England) To exchange, barter.


press

en-noun

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

From Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and from Old French presse (Modern French presse) from Old French presser (“to press”), from Latin pressāre, from pressus, past participle of premere (“to press”). Displaced native Middle English thring (“press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þring (“a press, crowd, anything that presses or confines”)).

cog

Put the cups in the press.

Put the ironing in the linen press.

But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

(countable, especially in Ireland and Scotland) An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard).


fou

en-adj

fou (comparative more fou, superlative most fou)

more fou (comparative)
most fou (superlative)

Borrowed from Scots fou. Compare full, a doublet.

Shand's father had missed the whole thing — getting fou in the pub, more than likely—but his mum had been there, in her best green twinset, her court shoes polished to a shine as high as Shand's.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 110:


doona

“I doona ken how he found us,” he muttered darkly.

2005, Karen Marie Moning, Spell of the Highlander, page 122:

“Are you talking to those cats again? Do you really think they listen? Do you really think they understand?”
“I doona know, Grandma. And I doona care.”

2005, Harold Cheney, Jack of Tabbyshire: Jack of Tabbyshire and Other Grandfather Tales, page 9:

“Oh, and doona go near the ruins or the castle when I leave,” he said, picking up the book and heading for the door.

2007, Margo Maguire, A Warrior′s Taking, page 286:


flay

en-verb

flay (third-person singular simple present flays, present participle flaying, simple past and past participle flayed)

flays (present singular third-person)
flaying (participle present)
flayed (participle past)
flayed (past)
fla (alternative)
fley (alternative)
flee (alternative)
fly (alternative)
fleg (alternative)
flae (alternative)
flea (alternative)

From Middle English flayen, flaien, fleien, from Old English *flīeġan ("to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: āflīeġan), from Proto-Germanic *flaugijaną (“to let fly, cause to fly”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”).

gloss

"to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">āflīeġan</i>

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).

If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape

1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd:

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To frighten; scare; terrify.

(intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be fear-stricken.


flay

flays (plural)
fla (alternative)
fley (alternative)
flee (alternative)
fly (alternative)
fleg (alternative)
flae (alternative)
flea (alternative)

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A fright; a scare.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fear; a source of fear; a formidable matter; a fearsome or repellent-looking individual.


nip

en-verb

nip (third-person singular simple present nips, present participle nipping, simple past and past participle nipped)

nips (present singular third-person)
nipping (participle present)
nipped (participle past)
nipped (past)
gnip (alternative)
knip (alternative)

From late Middle English nippen, probably of Low German or Dutch origin, probably a byform of earlier *knippen (suggested by the derivative Middle English knippette (“pincers”)), from Middle Low German knîpen, from Old Saxon *knīpan, from Proto-West Germanic *knīpan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *knīpaną (“to pinch”).
Related to Dutch nijpen, knijpen (“to pinch”), Danish nive (“pinch”); Swedish nypa (“pinch”); Low German knipen; German kneipen and kneifen (“to pinch, cut off, nip”), Old Norse hnippa (“to prod, poke”); Lithuanian knebti.

(Scotland, Northern England) To squeeze or pinch.


eejit

eejits (plural)
eedjit (alternative)
eegit (alternative)
eejut (alternative)
ijjit (alternative)
ijut (alternative)

Hiberno-English and Scottish English pronunciation of idiot.

(Ireland, Scotland, Mid-Ulster, derogatory) An idiot; a fool; an imbecile.


tumbler

(UK, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A kind of cart; a tumbril.


pant

(Scotland and northeast England) Any public drinking fountain.


lass

term-label

(archaic except UK, dialectal, informal or poetic)

From Middle English las, lasce, lasse (“female infant or child; young woman”), probably from Proto-Norse *laskwa (“unmarried”, adjective).
Cognates
Scots lass, lassie

col

Cognates

[…] I'll tell ye that after we are done wi' our supper, for it will may be no be sae weel to speak about it while that lang-lugged limmer o' a lass is gaun flisking in and out o' the room.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 101:

[…] I'll tell you that after we are done with our supper, for it will maybe not be so well to speak about it while that long-eared rogue of a maidservant is going capering in and out of the room.

[S]ure aneugh, the lass washed clottered blood aff the carpet the neist day.

[1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter XI. The Same [Darsie Latimer] to the Same [Alan Fairford].”, in Redgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 234:

She fleyed Johnnie awa' frae the door when he was for daffin' wi' the serving lasses.

[1927 July, John Buchan, “The Black Wood by Day”, in Witch Wood, London: Hodder and Stoughton, published August 1927, →OCLC, page 90:

(Northern England, Scotland) A female servant; a maid, a maidservant.

As fair art thou, my bonie laſs, / So deep in luve am I; / And I will luve thee ſtill, my Dear, / Till a' the ſeas gang dry.

[1794, Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose”, in Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume IV, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 210:

"Hi, Juno, lass—hi, old girl; down, Daph, down," said Wardle, caressing the dogs.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “A Pleasant Day, with an Unpleasant Termination”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 188:

(Scotland, familiar) A term of address for a woman, or a female animal.


haaf

From Old Norse haf (“the sea”). Cognate with Danish hav, Old English hæf (Etymology 2).

The banks to which they repair for the haaf fishing, are often many miles distant from the station where the fish is dried; so that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, frequently longer; and under unfavourable circumstances of wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems extremely slender, for two or three days, and are sometimes heard of no more.

1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

The haaf-boat was as well maintained as any vessel in the islands; her master had a reputation for thoroughness, for all he was barely twenty years of age.

2003, Juliet Marillier, Foxmask (Saga of the Light Isles; 2), page 28:

(fishing, Shetland, Scotland) the open sea, especially as a place to fish


pow

he'd snuffle round the door till the few remaining hairs on the bald pow of Munro would fair rise on end.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 24:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Alternative form of poll.


ay

From Middle English ai, from Old Norse ei, from Proto-Germanic *aiwaz (“eternity, age”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyu- (“vitality”); cognate with Old English ā, Ancient Greek ἀεί (aeí, “always”), and Latin aevum (“an age”).

O he that hath ay lived free, …

1670, John Barbour, The Acts and Life of the most victorious Conquerour Robert Bruce King of Scotland, as cited in 1860, Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-poetica, page 160

(archaic, poetic or Northern England or Scotland) Always; ever; continually; for an indefinite time.


ayont

How he escaped a broken neck in that dreadful place no human being will ever ken. The sweat, he has told me, stood in cold drops upon his forehead; he scarcely was aware of the saddle in which he sat, and his eyes were stelled in his head so that he saw nothing but the sky ayont him.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

Ayont the windows in the waning of the afternoon, Chris could see the frozen glister of night on the Grampians […].

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 485:


aver

From Middle English aver, avere (“workhorse; any beast of burden (?); things which are owned, possessions, property, wealth; state of being rich, wealth; ownership, possession”) [and other forms], and then either:
* from Old French aver, aveir, avoir (“possession, property; (collectively) beasts of burden; domestic animals; cattle”) (modern French avoir (“asset, possession”)), from aveir, avoir (“to have”), from Latin habēre (“to have, hold; to have, own (possessions)”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-, *ǵʰeh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”); or
* from Old English eafor (“workhorse; tenant’s obligation to transport goods”), further etymology uncertain.

nb...

auer, auere, aueyr, auoir, auoyre, aveer, aveir, avoir, avour, hauoir, hauour, hauoyr, haveour, haver, havoir, havoire, havour, havur, havyor, havyour, havyoure, hawere, hower

inh

[…] Gilbert has but two half-starved cowardly peasants to follow him, and but an auld jaded aver to ride upon, fitter for the plough than for manly service; […]

1820 March, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Monastery. A Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 214:

(Northern England, Scotland, dialectal, archaic) An old, useless horse; a nag.


hurl

en-verb

hurl (third-person singular simple present hurls, present participle hurling, simple past and past participle hurled)

hurls (present singular third-person)
hurling (participle present)
hurled (participle past)
hurled (past)

Inherited from Middle English hurlen, of onomatopoeic origin; compare hurry, hurtle.

(Scotland, transitive, obsolete) To convey in a wheeled vehicle.


hurl

en-noun

hurl (countable and uncountable, plural hurls)

Maybe you can give me a hurl in the Bentley one day, when you're in the vicinity.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 413:

(Ulster, Scotland, slang, countable) A conveyance in a wheeled vehicle; a ride in a car, etc.


supper

supper (countable and uncountable, plural suppers)

→ Japanese: サパー (sapā)

→ Maori: hapa

→ Welsh: swper

→ Zulu: îsápha

From Middle English sopere, from Old French soper, from sope (“soup”). Compare French souper.

a fish supper

Roisin the savior paraded into the front room with three fish suppers, one sausage supper, one single fish, one single chips, a single sausage, a chicken and chips, and three curry and chips.

2014, Gerald Hansen, An Embarrassment of Riches:

(Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England, slang) A meal from a chip shop consisting of a deep-fried food with chips.


having

having (countable and uncountable, plural havings)

(obsolete, Scotland, chiefly in the plural) Good manners.


lair

From Middle English leir, leire, lair, lare, from Old English leġer (“couch, bed”), from Proto-Germanic *legrą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

[…] but few knew the reason, and some thought it was because the deceased were strangers, and had no regular lair. I dressed the two bonny orphans in the best mourning at my own cost […]

1821, John Galt, Annals of the parish, or, The chronicle of Dalmaling, xlix (page 205 in the 1908 edition)

This is one of the 'lairs' of the Harknesses of Holestain and Haprig.

1849, The Edinburgh topographical, traditional and antiquarian magazine, page 114:

[…] I would purchase a lair in the Necropolis, and have wee Johnnie removed from his humble resting-place, and laid down [there].

1862, George Roy, Generalship; a Tale, page 58:

We appreciate that this is a sensitive issue for lair owners and would like to assure them that the maintenance of the cemetery is carried out in a sensitive and dignified manner.

2018 August 2, BBC News, quoting Aberdeen City Council, “Dad 'will sleep by son's grave' to stop council clearing mementoes”, in BBC News:


lair

From Old Norse leir (“clay, mud”). Compare Icelandic leir (“clay”).


lair

en-verb

lair (third-person singular simple present lairs, present participle lairing, simple past and past participle laired)

lairs (present singular third-person)
lairing (participle present)
laired (participle past)
laired (past)

(intransitive, Scotland) To become mired.


bannock

en-noun

bannock (usually uncountable, plural bannocks)

From Middle English bannoke, from Old English bannuc, from Old Irish bannach, based on Latin pānicum (“millet”). Doublet of bonnag.

dog bread

US terms for specific breads which would all be called bannock in Canada

So she baked two oatmeal bannocks, and set them on to the fire to harden. After a while, the old man came in, and sat down beside the fire, and takes one of the bannocks, and snaps it through the middle.

1894, Joseph Jacobs, “More English Fairy Tales”, in The Wee Bannock, D. Nutt:

(especially Scotland, Northern England) An unleavened bread, usually made with barleymeal, wheatmeal, or oatmeal; sometimes of peasemeal or otherwise.


bairn

Borrowed from Scots bairn, from Middle English bern, barn, from Old English bearn, from Proto-West Germanic *barn, from Proto-Germanic *barną. Doublet of barn. Compare West Frisian bern.

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

They say that a shag is good for an unborn child, they get the circulation of blood, or some shite. The least ah kin dae is take an interest in the bairn’s welfare.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 219:

Bobby Shaftoe's getten a bairn
For to dandle in his arm;
In his arm and on his knee,
Bobby Shaftoe loves me.

1998, Jonathan Langley, Collins Bedtime Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Tales, Bobby Shaftoe, page 87:

(Scotland, and parts of Northern England) A child or baby.


bairn

en-verb

bairn (third-person singular simple present bairns, present participle bairning, simple past and past participle bairned)

bairns (present singular third-person)
bairning (participle present)
bairned (participle past)
bairned (past)

Go and kick the man that bairned your Nancy.

1992, Robin Jenkins, Happy for the Child, page 108:

Just because he's signed up fir the fuckin army again, six bastard years this time, and bairned some slag.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 171:

(transitive, Scotland) To make pregnant.


plat

en-adj

plat (comparative more plat, superlative most plat)

more plat (comparative)
most plat (superlative)

From Middle English plat, plate, platte (“flat; smooth; blunt, plain”), from Anglo-Norman, Middle French, and Old French plat (“(adjective) flat, level; calm; blunt, plain; (adverb) in a flat position; directly, straight; bluntly, plainly”), from Vulgar Latin *plattus (“flat; smooth”); further etymology uncertain, but possibly from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat; wide”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”).
The English word is cognate with French plat, Italian piatto, Middle Dutch plat (modern Dutch plat (“flat”)), Middle High German blat, plat, Middle Low German plat (modern German platt (“flat”)), Old Danish plat (modern Danish plat), Old Occitan plat (modern Occitan plat), Old Swedish plat (modern Swedish platt); and is a doublet of flat and pleyt.

der

But else, hold alway^([sic]) your tail fast between your legs that he catch you not thereby; and hold down your ears lying plat after your head that he hold you not thereby; and see wisely to yourself.

1889, Henry Morley, Early Prose Romances: The history of Reynard the Fox, page 149:

But now, youngster, I have answered you freely, and I trow it is time that you answered me. Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots straight at his mark.

1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

The whirling wheel and speedy swift axle-tree / Smat down to ground, and on the earth lay plat.

2011, Gordon Kendall, MHRA Tudor & Stuart Translations, volume 7.II: Gavin Douglas, The Aenid (1513) →ISBN, page 638

(obsolete except Scotland) Flat; level; (by extension) frank, on the level.


plat

Fourth, see [that] thou hide nothing, nor dissemble, but speak plat, and plainly as much as thou knowest.

c. 1547‒1555, John Hooper, A Declaration of the Ten Commandments, published by the Parker Society in 1843

But single out, and say once plat and plain / That coy Matrona is a courtesan;

(obsolete except Scotland) Flatly, plainly.


daff

en-verb

daff (third-person singular simple present daffs, present participle daffing, simple past and past participle daffed)

daffs (present singular third-person)
daffing (participle present)
daffed (participle past)
daffed (past)

From Middle English daffen (“to render foolish”), from daf, daffe (“fool, idiot”). See above.

inh

We'll hauld our court mid the roaring lins, And daff in the lashan' tide

1820 May, unknown author, “Marmaiden of Clyde”, in Edinburgh Magazine:

They admired and loved each other—enjoyed easy circumstances—had duties to discharge which they did not neglect; and, clear in conscience as light of heart, laughed, sung, danced, daffed the world aside, and bid it pass.

Left thus for long spaces in the company of Betty and the child, that daffed and croddled about her, and even became warmly friendly with me for the sake of my Paris watch and my glittering waistcoat buttons, I made many gallant attempts to get on my old easy footing.

1898 July, Neil Munro, “John Splendid: The Tale of a Poor Gentleman and the Little Wars of Lorn”, in The Living Age, volume 218, page 185:

As the afternoon progressed, we become 'daffed' out.

2011, Kevan Manwaring, Turning the Wheel:

(intransitive, Scotland) To be foolish; make sport; play; toy.


mink

mink (plural)
minks (plural)
minx (alternative)

From Late Middle English mynk (“fur of the European mink”), apparently from Swedish mink, mänk, menk (“stinking animal in Finland, mink”). Compare Danish mink (“mink”), Icelandic minkur (“mink”).

der

(Scotland, slang, derogatory, plural minks) A person with poor personal hygiene; a smelly person.


nappy

en-adj

nappy (comparative nappier, superlative nappiest)

nappier (comparative)
nappiest (superlative)


nowt

nowts (plural)
nolt (alternative dialectal obsolete)

From Middle English nowte, noute, nawte, naute, borrowed from Old Norse naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą. Cognate with Old English nēat, English neat.

(Scotland and Northern England) A herd of cattle.

A hunner guineas for the heid o' that nowt Renwick, and him no' sae very far awa' frae your very nose at this meenit.

1929, James William Marriott, editor, The Best One-act Plays of 1931, G.G. Harrap, published 1932, page 162:

(figurative, Scotland and Northern England) A dumb, crass, or clumsy person, or a person who is difficult or stubborn.


scuttle

From Middle English scuttel, scutel, from Old English scutel (“dish, platter”), from Latin scutella, diminutive form of Latin scutra (“flat tray, dish”), perhaps related to Latin scutum (“shield”); compare Dutch schotel and German Schüssel.

(obsolete, Northern England and Scotland) A dish, platter or a trencher.


wallop

en-noun

wallop (countable and uncountable, plural wallops)

From Middle English wallopen (“gallop”), from Anglo-Norman [Term?], from Old Northern French walop (“gallop”, noun) and waloper (“to gallop”, verb) (compare Old French galoper, whence modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”) from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from Proto-Germanic [Term?] (“dead, victim, slain”) from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”). Compare the doublet gallop.

der

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A quick rolling movement; a gallop.


fang

From Middle English fang, possibly from Old English fang, feng (“grasp, catch”); alternatively borrowed from Old Norse fang (“catch”) or formed anew from the verb fangen, all from Proto-Germanic *fangą (“catch, catching, seizure”), from the verb *fanhaną (“to catch, capture”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach”).
Compare Scots fang (“catch”), Dutch vang (“a catch”), Low German fangst (“a catch”), German Fang (“a catch, capture, booty”), Swedish fång, fångst, Icelandic fang. Related also to Latin pangere (“to solidify, drive in”), Albanian mpij (“to benumb, stiffen”), Ancient Greek πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “to stiffen, firm up”), Sanskrit पाशयति (pāśáyati, “(s)he binds”).

cog

(now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) A grasping; capture; the act or power of seizing; hold.


fang

en-verb

fang (third-person singular simple present fangs, present participle fanging, simple past and past participle fanged)

fangs (present singular third-person)
fanging (participle present)
fanged (participle past)
fanged (past)

(Scotland, transitive) To supply (a pump) with the water necessary for it to operate.


herd

herd (third-person singular simple present herds, present participle herding, simple past and past participle herded)

herds (present singular third-person)
herding (participle present)
herded (participle past)
herded (past)

From Middle English herde, from Old English hirde, hierde, from Proto-West Germanic *hirdī, from Proto-Germanic *hirdijaz. Cognate with German Hirte, Swedish herde, Danish hyrde.

(intransitive, Scotland) To act as a herdsman or a shepherd.


coupon

From French coupon, from couper (“to cut”).


kite

Uncertain; possibly:
* from Middle English kit, kitte (“wooden bucket or tub; (figuratively) belly”), possibly from Middle Dutch kitte (“wooden vessel of hooped staves”) (modern Dutch kit (“metal can used mainly for coal”)), further etymology unknown; or
* from Old Norse kýta (“bag, stomach (of a fish)”), from Proto-Germanic *kūtiz.
* from Middle English *kid (attested only in compounds such as kide-nẹ̄re (“kidney; region of the kidneys, loins”)), possibly from Old English *cyde, *cydde (“belly”), cwiþ (“belly; womb”), from Proto-Germanic *kweþuz (“belly, stomach”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-, *gut- (“rounding, swelling; entrails, stomach”), from *gʷu-, *gū- (“to bend, bow, curve, distend, vault”). The English word is cognate with Icelandic kviði (“womb”), kviður (“stomach”), kýta (“stomach of a fish; roe”), Middle Low German kūt (“entrails”), West Flemish kijte, kiete (“fleshy part of the body”).

inh

"You know my father's name?"
 "It would be strange if I didnae," he returned, "for he was my born brother; and little as ye seem to like either me or my house, or my good parritch, I'm your born uncle, Davie, my man, and you my born nephew. So give us the letter, and sit down and fill your kyte."

1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Make Acquaintance of My Uncle”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 17:

Don't live like vegetarians
 On food they give to parrots,
 Blow out your kite, from morn 'til night,
 On boiled beef and carrots.

1909, Charles Collins, Fred Murray, “Boiled Beef and Carrots”, performed by Harry Champion; republished in John Mullen, “The Songs and Their Content”, in The Show Must Go On!: Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2015, →ISBN, page 102:

(Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) The stomach; the belly.


keel

Probably from Scottish Gaelic cìl (“ruddle”).


keel

en-verb

keel (third-person singular simple present keels, present participle keeling, simple past and past participle keeled)

keels (present singular third-person)
keeling (participle present)
keeled (participle past)
keeled (past)

(Scotland, transitive) To mark with ruddle.


messenger

From Middle English messengere, messingere, messangere, from Old French messanger, a variant of Old French messagier (French messager), equivalent to message + -er. Doublet of messager.
Displaced native Old English boda (“messenger, envoy”) and ǣrendraca (“messenger, ambassador”).
For the replacement of -ager with -enger, -inger, -anger, compare passenger, harbinger, scavenger, porringer. This development may have been merely the addition of n, or it may have resulted due to contamination from other suffixes such as Middle English -ing and the rare Old French -ange, -enc, -inge, -inghe (“-ing”) for Old French -age (“-age”).


skink

Possibly from Middle Low German schink, schinke, schenke (“leg; shank; shin bone; ham”), from Old Saxon skinka, from Proto-West Germanic *skinkō (“shank; thigh; that which is bent”), from Proto-Germanic *skinkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (“to limp; to be crooked, slant”).
The word is cognate with Danish skinke (“ham”), Middle Dutch schenke, schinke (“shin; hough; ham”), Icelandic skinka (“ham”), Norwegian skinke (“ham”), Old English ġesċincio, ġesċinco (“kidney fat”), Old High German skinka, skinko (“shank; shin bone”) (Middle High German schinke (“shank; shin bone; ham”), modern German Schinken (“ham; pork from the hindquarters”)), Old Saxon skinka (“ham”), Old Swedish skinke (modern Swedish skinka (“ham”)).

cog

lean sirloin, skink and pot-roast

(Scotland, Northern England) A shin of beef.

For there are in the Flesh , Bones , Skinnes , organs , and the severall limbes of the living body : such spirits as are in the Flesh , Bone , and Skinke , beeing separated

1623, Francis Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis:

(chiefly Scotland, obsolete) A soup or pottage made from a boiled shin of beef.

Cullen skink

(chiefly Scotland, by extension) Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a soup or pottage made using other ingredients.


skink

en-verb

skink (third-person singular simple present skinks, present participle skinking, simple past and past participle skinked)

skinks (present singular third-person)
skinking (participle present)
skinked (participle past)
skinked (past)

From Middle English skinken, skynken, skenken, from Middle Dutch scinken, scenken, schenken and/or Old Norse skenkja, both from Proto-Germanic *skankijaną. Cognate with German schenken (“to give as a present”), Dutch schenken (“to pour, give as a present”). See also the inherited doublet shink.

cog

Such wine as Ganymede doth skink to Jove, / When he invites the gods to feast with him / On Juno's wedding-day.

1640 November 20 (date licensed, Gregorian calendar; published 1652), James Shirley, “The Imposture”, in William Gifford, Alexander Dyce, editors, The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, […], volume V, London: John Murray, […], published 1833, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 246:

[W]hile he would spit beyond the table, he all-to-bespawleth him who skinketh at the feast.

1900, Theophrastus, “Of Foulness”, in [anonymous], transl., edited by David J[osiah] Brewer, Edward A. Allen, and William Schuyler, The World’s Best Essays from the Earliest Period to the Present Time […], royal edition, volume X, St. Louis, Mo.: Ferd[inand] P. Kaiser, →OCLC, page 3769:

(ambitransitive, Scotland) To serve (a drink).

(transitive, Scotland, Northern England, obsolete) To give (something) as a present.


toy

Inherited from Middle English toye (“amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment”), probably from Middle Dutch toy, tuyg (“tools, apparatus, utensil, ornament”) as in Dutch speel-tuig (“play-thing, toy”), from Old Dutch *tiug, from Proto-West Germanic *tiugī̆, *teug, from Proto-Germanic *teugą (“stuff, matter, device, gear, lever”, literally “that which is drawn or pulled”), from Proto-Germanic *teuhaną (“to lead, bring, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with German Zeug (“stuff”), Danish tøj (“stuff”), Norwegian tøy (“equipment, riggings, stuff”). Related to tug, tow, taw, tew.

cog

Having, moreover, put on her clean toy, rokelay, and scarlet plaid.

1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

(Scotland, archaic) A headdress of linen or wool that hangs down over the shoulders, worn by elderly women of the lower classes.


high jinks

highjinks (alternative)
hijinks (alternative)
hi-jinks (alternative)
hijinx (alternative)
hi-jinx (alternative)
hijinxs (alternative)

Probably related to jink (“(verb) to make a quick evasive turn; to whirl about when dancing, to dance; (noun) a quick evasive turn”), probably originally onomatopoeic, expressing quick movement.

[T]he frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of High Jinks. This game was played in several different ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain, for a time, a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned, or if their memory proved treacherous in the repetition, they incurred forfeits, which were either compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper, or by paying a small sum towards the reckoning.

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 264–265:

(Scotland, games, historical) An old Scottish parlour game in which people were chosen, usually by throwing dice, to perform some humorous act or drink a large amount of an alcoholic beverage, with a forfeit if they were unable to do so.


hope

From Middle English hope (“a valley”), from Old English hōp (found only in placenames). More at hoop.

(Northern England, Scotland) A hollow; a valley, especially the upper end of a narrow mountain valley when it is nearly encircled by smooth, green slopes; a combe.


hope

From Icelandic hóp (“a small bay or inlet”). Cognate with English hoop.

Being by contrarie winds driuen to staie against Erith, at Grauesend, in Tilberie hope.

1587, Abraham Fleming, Holinshed's Chronicles:

A little hamlet which straggled along the side of a creek formed by the discharge of a small brook into the sea[…]It was called Wolf's Hope (i.e. Wolf's Haven).

1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

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

(Scotland) A small bay; an inlet; a haven.


doll

en-noun

doll (plural dolls or (Internet slang) dollz)

desc

→ Kashubian: dolka (Canada, United States, New Zealand)

Green's Dictionary of Slang
Valley of the Dolls (film)
Valley of the Dolls (novel)
doll

From Doll, pet form of the given name Dorothy.
The drug sense was coined and popularized by American writer Jacqueline Susann in 1966 through her book Valley of the Dolls (1966) or the film Valley of the Dolls (1967).

coinage

"They didn't sell cigarettes where you were, doll?" Palmer asked.

(US, Australia, slightly dated, Scotland) A term of endearment: darling, sweetheart.


quaich

quaichs (plural)
quaiches (plural)
quaigh (alternative)
quegh (alternative)

From Scots quaich, from Scottish Gaelic cuach (“bowl, goblet”), from Old Irish cuäch (“goblet”), from Proto-Celtic *kaɸukos (“cup, bowl, vessel”).

der

The quaighs were deep, the liquor strong, / And on the tale the yeoman throng, / Had made a comment sage and long, [...]

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XXVIII, page 101:

Every evening through all the summer Lampusa put out for them before her rock-hewn kitchen a silver quaich of milk; then she summoned the creatures with a low call.

1947 [1939], Ernst Jünger, translated by Stuart Hood, On the Marble Cliffs, New Directions, translation of Auf den Marmorklippen (in German), →LCCN, →OCLC, page 13:

1994, John A. Hyman, Silver at Williamsburg: Drinking Vessels, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, page 48,
A quaich was an ideal gift when made from the timber of the fifteenth-century Alloway Kirk, which, "as you will have read in 'Tam O'Shanter', was a ruin in [Robert] Burns day but had the roof nearly intact until the turn of that century, (18th-19th). The rafters and other load bearing beams were ideal for souvenir makers" (letter, Nov. 19, 1991).

(Scotland, historical) A traditional shallow, two-handled cup of Scottish origin symbolizing friendship, originally used to toast the arrival or departure of a visitor.

क्वेख

(Scotland, by extension) Any two-handled drinking vessel or trophy.


slot

From Middle English slot, from Middle Low German slot or Middle Dutch slot, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *slot, from Proto-Germanic *slutą, related to the verb *sleutaną (“to lock”). Cognate with Dutch slot, German Schloss (“door-bolt”).
The verb is probably from Middle Dutch sluten (“to close, to lock”) (Modern Dutch sluiten (“to close”)).

(Scotland, Northern England) An implement for barring, bolting, locking or securing a door, box, gate, lid, window or the like.


slot

en-verb

slot (third-person singular simple present slots, present participle slotting, simple past and past participle slotted)

slots (present singular third-person)
slotting (participle present)
slotted (participle past)
slotted (past)
slote (alternative)

(obsolete, Scotland, Northern England) To bar, bolt or lock a door or window.


scarf

scarfs (plural)
scart (alternative)
skart (alternative)


mortal

en-adj

mortal (comparative more mortal, superlative most mortal)

more mortal (comparative)
most mortal (superlative)

From Middle English mortal, mortel, from Old French mortal, and their source Latin mortālis, from mors (“death”). Partly displaced native deadly, from Old English dēadlīċ.

Thats^([sic]) nothing, says Tequila Sheila, who told how the summer she was housemaid in The Saint Columba she took this guy back to the staff flats while mortal on slammers and crashed out on him before anything could happen.

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 13:


corrie

Fleet foot on the correi, / Sage counsel in cumber, Red hand in the foray, / How sound is thy slumber!

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

We spanned the dogs high up a corrie to the south of the ridge […]

(Scotland) A bowl-shaped geographical feature formed by glaciation.


busk

en-verb

busk (third-person singular simple present busks, present participle busking, simple past and past participle busked)

busks (present singular third-person)
busking (participle present)
busked (participle past)
busked (past)

From Middle English busken, from Old Norse búask, reflexive of búa (“to prepare”); compare bound for a derivation from búa's past participle and basken for a similar formation from an Old Norse reflexive.

Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride.

c. 1724, William Hamilton, The Braes of Yarrow 2:

The watch stert up and drew their weapons bright / And busk'd them bold to battle and to fight.

1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

(transitive, Northern England, Scotland) To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.

Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.

c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes:

(Northern England, Scotland) To go; to direct one's course.


gad

gads (plural)
ged (alternative)
gade (alternative)

From Middle English gade (“a fool, simpleton, rascal, scoundrel; bastard”), from Old English *gada (“fellow, companion, comrade, associate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gadō, from Proto-Germanic *gadô, *gagadô (“companion, associate”), related to Proto-West Germanic *gaduling (“kinsman”). Cognate with Dutch gade (“spouse”), German Gatte (“male spouse, husband”). See also gadling.

der

Get over here, ye good-for-nothing gadǃ

Ye greedy ged, ye have taken the very breath out o' me.

1913, George Gordon, The Auld Clay Biggin:

(Northern England, Scotland, derogatory) A greedy and/or stupid person.


shite

en-verb

shite (third-person singular simple present shites, present participle shiting, simple past shited or shit or shat, past participle shited or shitten)

shites (present singular third-person)
shiting (participle present)
shited (past)
shit (past)
shat (past)
shited (participle past)
shitten (participle past)

From Middle English schiten, from Old English sċītan (“to defecate, shit”), from Proto-West Germanic *skītan, from Proto-Germanic *skītaną (“to defecate”), from Proto-Indo-European *sḱeyd-, *skeyt- (“to vomit, retch, shit”, literally “to shed”). Cognate with Dutch schijten (“to shit”), German scheißen (“to shit”), Swedish skita (“to shit”), Irish sceith, sgeith (“act of spewing, vomiting, shedding”), Albanian shqit (“to tear, separate”).

inh

[…] it still softened my heart to see a man hurt so badly he sobbed and shited on himself.

2004, Robert Morgan, Brave enemies, page 38:

He would probably have a head full of locks. Who has time to be pretty when people are hurting? Crying. Shiting on themselves trying to beat heroin.

2007, Talonie Starr, Growth Manifesto, page 173:

I have eaten a dishful of curds,
And I have shitten your mouth full of turds.

2011, Douglas Bruster, Eric Rasmussen, Everyman and Mankind:

(UK, chiefly Scotland, Ireland, vulgar) To defecate.


strand

strands (plural)
strond (alternative obsolete)

* From Middle English strand, strond, from Old English strand (“strand, sea-shore, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic *strand, from Proto-Germanic *strandō (“edge, rim, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)trAnt- (“strand, border, field”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to broaden, spread out”). Cognate with West Frisian strân, Dutch strand, German Strand, Danish strand, Swedish strand, Norwegian Bokmål strand, Icelandic strönd.
* (street): Perhaps from the similarity of shape.

der

(British dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A passage for water; gutter.


haver

en-verb

haver (third-person singular simple present havers, present participle havering, simple past and past participle havered)

havers (present singular third-person)
havering (participle present)
havered (participle past)
havered (past)

To business, and no more havers.

1897, Stanley John Weyman, chapter XIV, in Shrewsbury:

And if I haver, yeah I know I’m gonna be / I’m gonna be the man who’s havering to you.

1988, The Proclaimers, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles):

She havers on about her "faither" and "mirra" and the "wee wean," her child, and "hoo i wiz glaiket but bonny forby."

2004, James Campbell, “Boswell and Mrs. Miller”, in Wendy Lesser, editor, The Genius of Language, page 194:

(Scotland) To talk foolishly; to chatter.


haver

Borrowed from Scots haver, from Middle English haver, from Old Norse hafri (“oat, oats”), from Proto-Germanic *habrô (“oat, oats”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapro- (“goat”). Cognate with Dutch haver (“oats”) and German Hafer (“oat”).

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Oats (the cereal).


haver

From Middle English haver, havere, equivalent to have + -er.

(law, Scotland) The person who has custody of a document.


dottle

en-adj

dottle (comparative more dottle, superlative most dottle)

more dottle (comparative)
most dottle (superlative)

When days and years proclaim you’re old —
 A dottle, cripple, gouty fellow,
Then for support you can lay hold
 O’ the upright of your umberella.

1893, David Herschell Edwards, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, volume 15, page 403:


shield

From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognate with West Frisian skyld, Dutch schild (“shield”), German Schild (“shield”), Danish skjold (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”) and Faroese skjøldur (“shield”).
Compare Latin scūtum (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Latgalian škīda (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Russian щит (ščit, “shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover, protect”), *skey- (“to cut, split”).

noncog

A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.

(Scotland, euphemistic, obsolete) A toilet seat.

(figuratively, Scotland, euphemistic, obsolete) A place with a toilet seat: an outhouse; a lavatory.


target

→ Japanese: ターゲット (tāgetto)

From Middle French targette, targuete, diminutive of targe (“light shield”), from Old French, from Frankish *targa (“buckler”), akin to Old Norse targa (“small round shield”) (whence also Old English targe, targa (“shield”)) from Proto-Germanic *targǭ (“edge”), from Proto-Indo-European *derǵʰ- (“fenced lot”). Akin to Old High German zarga (“side wall, rim”) (German Zarge (“frame”)), Spanish tarjeta (“card”).

cog

(Scotland, obsolete) A tassel or pendant.


loot

Borrowed from Middle Dutch loet or loete (“scoop, shovel, scraper”), from reconstructed Old Dutch *lōta, from Old Frankish *lōtija (“scoop”), from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō (“scoop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂- (“to lay down, deposit, overlay”).
Related to lade and ladle, and cognate with Dutch loet, Scots lute or luyt (“scoop”), West Frisian loete or lete, Middle Low German lōte (“rake”), and French louche (“ladle”).

der

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A scoop used to remove scum from brine pans in saltworks.


repeat

en-verb

repeat (third-person singular simple present repeats, present participle repeating, simple past and past participle repeated)

repeats (present singular third-person)
repeating (participle present)
repeated (participle past)
repeated (past)

From Middle English repeten, from Old French repeter, from Latin repetō, repetere, from the prefix re- (“again”) + peto (“attack, beseech”).

(law, Scotland) To repay or refund (an excess received).


income

en-noun

income (countable and uncountable, plural incomes)

→ Irish: ioncam

→ Welsh: incwm

From Middle English income, perhaps continuing (in altered form) Old English incyme (“an in-coming, entrance”), equivalent to in- + come. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Íenkúumen (“income”), West Frisian ynkommen (“income”), Dutch inkomen, inkomst (“income, earnings, gainings”), German Low German Inkumst (“income”), German Einkommen, Einkunft (“income, earnings, competence”), Danish indkomst (“income”), Swedish inkomst (“income”), Icelandic innkváma (“income”).

inh

(archaic or dialectal, Scotland) A newcomer or arrival; an incomer.

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A disease or ailment without known or apparent cause, as distinguished from one induced by accident or contagion; an oncome.


Jimmy

(Scotland, informal) A colloquial (potentially unfriendly or disparaging) way of addressing any male whose name is unknown to the speaker.


lassie

I had been on a message for my father, and was walking home along the road, when I saw a tall, fine lassie coming over the bogland on the right hand side of the road.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 27:

It was the day of warlocks and apparitions, now happily driven out by the zeal of the General Assembly. Witches pursued their wanchancy calling, bairns were spirited away, young lassies selled their souls to the Evil One, and the Accuser of the Brethren, in the shape of a black tyke, was seen about cottage doors in the gloaming.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

She was caught in this git-a-man, git-a-bairn, git-a-hoose shite that lassies git drummed intae them, and hud nae real chance ay defining hersel ootside ay they mashed-tattie-fir-brains terms ay reference.

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

Green grow the rushes, oh
Green grow the rushes, oh
The sweetest hours that e'er I spent
Are spent among the lassies, oh

2012, “Green Grow the Rushes”, performed by Celtic Woman:

(chiefly Scotland, Northern England, Geordie, Northumbria) A young girl, a lass, especially one seen as a sweetheart.


willy

en-adj

willy (comparative willier or more willy, superlative williest or most willy)

willier (comparative)
more willy (comparative)
williest (superlative)
most willy (superlative)

From Middle English willy, willi, equivalent to will + -y. Cognate with Dutch willig (“obedient, hearsome”), German willig (“willing”), Swedish villig (“willing, agreeable”).

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Self-willed; willful.


nippy

nippy (comparative nippier, superlative nippiest)

nippier (comparative)
nippiest (superlative)

(Scotland, informal) Annoying; irritating.


jo

From Scots jo (“joy”), from Middle English joye, from Old French joie, from Late Latin gaudia, neuter plural (mistaken as feminine singular) of Latin gaudium (“joy”), from gaudēre (“to be glad, rejoice”). Doublet of joy and gaudy (“Oxford college reunion”).

doublet

On Old long syne my Jo,
on Old long syne,
That thou canst never once reflect,
on Old long syne.

1711, traditional, published by James Watson, Old Long Syne

Keek into the draw-well, Janet, Janet;
There ye'll see your bonnie sel',
My jo, Janet.


hostie

Borrowed from Middle French hostie, from Latin hostia.

1694 August 9, James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth, Letter XII, in 1845, William Jerdan (editor), Letters from James, Earl of Perth, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, &c, to His Sister, Countess of Erroll, and Other Members of His Family, page 40,
This Hostie* is carryed about the streets in procession : and really it is very fine to see the solemnity.

But he went to another Prieſt, that lived in the Court, who gave him the pix with an hoſtie in it.

1725, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reign of King Charles II: Bishop Burnet's History of His Own Time, page 1011:

The confessor gave him an hostie,* with a piece of wood, that was, as he pretended, a true piece of the cross, and by these he was to be fortify himself, if any other apparition should come to him, since evil spirits would certainly be chained up by them.[…]The friar presented the hostie to them, which gave them such a check, that he was fully satisfied of the virtue of this preservative.

1836, Church of England, Extraordinary Instance of Romish Imposition: The Church of England Magazine, volume 1, page 349:

(obsolete, Catholicism, Scotland) the consecrated bread or wafer of the Eucharist, host.


bole

"Open the bole," said the old woman firmly and hastily to her daughter-in-law, “open the bole wi' speed, that I may see if this be the right Lord Geraldin[…].

1816, Walter Scott, The Antiquary, Adam and Charles Black, published 1862, page 220:

(Scotland) An aperture with a shutter in the wall of a house, to admit air or light.


brae

From Middle English bro, bra (“bank of a stream; raised edge of a ditch or pit”), from Old Norse brá (“eyebrow; eyelash”) (probably in the sense of the brow of a hill), from Proto-Germanic *brēwō (“eyebrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“eyebrow”).
The English word is cognate with Old English brǣw, brēaw (“eyelid”), Old High German brāwa (Middle High German brā, modern German Braue (“eyebrow”)), Old Saxon brāwa, brāha (“eyebrow; eyelash”); and is a doublet of bree (“(Scotland) brow; forehead; (obsolete or dialectal, Scotland) eyebrow; eyelid”) and brow.

Was it not Wat the Devil, who drove all the year-old hogs off the braes of Lanthorn-side, in the very recent days of my grandfather's father?

1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 77:

Ye banks, and braes, and ſtreams around / The caſtle of Montgomery, / Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, / Your waters never drumlie!

1791, Robert Burns, “Ye Banks, and Braes, and Streams around. Air.—Katharine Ogie.”, in Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume IV, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, published 1886, →OCLC, page 77:

Degged with dew, dappled with dew / Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, / Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, / And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

1881, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Inversnaid”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, stanza 3, page 53:

By yon bonnie banks, and by yon bonnie braes, / Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomon', / Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae, / On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'.

1899, “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond”, in Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland: With Many Old and Familiar Melodies […], Paisley, Renfrewshire, London: Alexander Gardner […], →OCLC, page 161:

(Northern England, Scotland) The sloping bank of a river valley.

You are directed to the particular part of the brae where the Covenanters stationed themselves, (at the time of my visit it was a field of pasture, on which some cows were quietly feeding,) and the eminence behind, [...]

1828 August 1, “A.”, “A Visit to the Covenanters. (Concluded.)”, in The Paisley Magazine, volume I, number 8, Paisley, Renfrewshire: David Dick, →OCLC, page 392:

The party was in a big bungalow with an enormous brae for a garden.

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2015, →ISBN, page 19:

(Northern England, Scotland) Any hillside or slope.


brant

en-adj

brant (comparative more brant, superlative most brant)

more brant (comparative)
most brant (superlative)
brent (alternative)

From Middle English brant, from Old English brant (“high, steep”), from Proto-West Germanic *brant, from Proto-Germanic *brantaz (“steep, towering”). Cognate with Scots brent, Old Norse brantr, brattr (Faroese and Icelandic brattur, Danish brat, Norwegian Bokmål bratt, Swedish brant).

inh

Your bonnie brow was brent.


bumble

en-verb

bumble (third-person singular simple present bumbles, present participle bumbling, simple past and past participle bumbled)

bumbles (present singular third-person)
bumbling (participle present)
bumbled (participle past)
bumbled (past)

Onomatopoeia. Compare bungle, jumble, and fumble.

(originally Scotland and Northern England, transitive) To carry out (a task) clumsily, incompetently, or with many careless mistakes; to bungle, to botch.


canna

I canna' change the laws of physics.

1966, “The Naked Time”, in Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Scotty (James Doohan):

(Scotland, Cumbria, Jamaica) Contraction of can not: cannot.


carl

From Middle English carl, from Old English carl, a borrowing from Old Norse karl (“man, husband”), from Proto-Germanic *karilaz. Doublet of ceorl, churl, and karl.

(Scotland, obsolete) A stingy person; a niggard.


cole

Father saw the happening from high in a park where the hay was cut and they set the swathes in coles, and he swore out Damn't to hell! and started to run […]

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


cosh

en-adj

cosh (comparative more cosh, superlative most cosh)

more cosh (comparative)
most cosh (superlative)


crump

crump (comparative more crump, superlative most crump)

more crump (comparative)
most crump (superlative)

a crump loaf

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Hard or crusty; dry baked


dey

deys (plural)
daie (alternative)
deie (alternative)
deye (alternative)

From Middle English deye, deie, daie, from Old English dǣġe (“maker of bread; baker; dairy-maid”), from Proto-West Germanic *daigijā, from Proto-Germanic *daigijǭ (“kneader of bread, maid”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to knead, form, build”). Cognate with Swedish deja, Icelandic deigja (“dairy-maid”); compare dairy, dough, lady.

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A servant who has charge of the dairy; a dairymaid.


dole

From Middle English dole (“grief”), from Old French doel (compare French deuil), from Late Latin dolus, from Latin doleo.


duff

en-noun

duff (countable and uncountable, plural duffs)

Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

der

Forest fires have often been started from wantonness; for the sake of making a big blaze, fires will be carelessly left by guides, or will be smouldering in the duff,* where it will burn for weeks. I have seen the smoke from fires in the duff even after the snow has fallen.
* Local term for the vegetable growth covering the forest ground of the Adirondacks. under the spruce trees, the falling needles accumulate to considerable depth, forming the "spruce duff," a peculiar and interesting variety of forest humus.

1886, Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York:

These methods also make it possible for the forest officer to describe and to record his observations in precise terms such as “6% percent duff moisture” rather than in generalities such as “pretty dry duff.”

1935, "New Equipment for Obtaining Host Material for the Mass Production of Trichogramma Minutum, an Egg Parasite of Various Insect Pests" by Herbert Spencer, Luther Brown, Arthur M. Phillips (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Depth of litter and duff under the crown of each tree was measured at a point that appeared to represent average depth. Bulk samples of litter (including duff) were taken under four pinyons and three junipers, and ovendried.

1979, "Estimating pinyon and juniper fuel and biomass from aerial photographs" by Richard O. Meeuwig, Elwood LaVern Miller, Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station (USDA Forest Service)

1991, "Woody Fuel and Duff Consumption by Prescribed Fire in Northern Idaho Mixed Conifer Logging Slash" from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The moisture content of the deep pockets of rotten wood was much greater than of the litter-derived duff layer.

Out under the trees, some rangers had found enough duff and dry wood to start a fire beneath a slanting ridge of slate.

1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 366:

The underfooting is mostly duff and sand, through alternating forest and meadow.

2006, Kathy Morey, Mike White, Stacey Corless, Sierra South: Backcountry Trips in Californias Sierra Nevada, page 250:

Their task was to carry out a prescribed burn--a carefully controlled, low-intensity fire that clears duff and deadwood, reducing the risk of a catastrophic wildfire.

2019, Nicola Twilley, “Trailblazers”, in The New Yorker:

(Scotland, Northwestern US, British Columbia) Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.


fard

And ſone as he perſavys quhar that went / Forganyſt him, cumand throu greſy ſward, / Hys derreſt ſon Ene with hasty fard, / Baith his handys joyfull furthſtracht he than;[…]

[a. 1522, Virgil, chapter XI, in Gawin Douglas [i.e., Gavin Douglas], transl., edited by [George Dundas], The Æneid of Virgil: Translated into Scottish Verse (Bannatyne Club, Publications; 64, no. 1), volume I, Edinburgh: T. Constable, printer, published 1839, →OCLC, page 355, lines 14–17:

(chiefly Scotland, obsolete) Alternative form of ferd (“force of movement; impetus, rush; hence, a violent onset”).


fray

en-noun

fray (countable and uncountable, plural frays)

From Late Middle English frai (“an assault, attack; a brawl, fight; disturbance, uproar; fine for assault or breach of the peace”), an aphetic variant of affrai, effrai (“an assault, attack; a brawl, fight; disturbance, uproar; public disturbance, riot; dismay; fear; something frightening”), then:
* from affraien (verb); and
* from Anglo-Norman affrai, affrei [and other forms], a variant of effray, effrei, esfrei, esfroi, Middle French effray, esfroi, and Old French effrei, esfrei, esfroi (“breach of the peace, disturbance; noise; dread, terror”) (modern French effroi (“(literary) dread, terror”)), from Old French effreer, esfreer (verb).
See further at etymology 2.

cog

Thus that fray vvas over, and vve came aſhore again: recovered of the fright vve had been in.

1699, William Dampier, Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, part I (His Voyage from Achin in Sumatra, to Tonquin, […]), page 148:

(except Scotland, uncountable) Fright, terror; (countable) an instance of this.


ganger

From Middle English ganger, from Old English gangere (“a ganger, footman”), equivalent to gang + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gunger, West Frisian gonger, Dutch ganger, German Gänger, Danish gjænger, ganger, Swedish gängare, Icelandic gangari.

inh

(chiefly Scotland) One who or that which walks or goes; a goer; a walker.


hap

(UK, Scotland, Western Pennsylvania) A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.


happed

en-adj

happed (comparative more happed, superlative most happed)

more happed (comparative)
most happed (superlative)

All happed with flowers in the green wood were.


hoagie

Known as a "hoagie", the combination of chips, doner kebab meat and cheese - which contains 136g of fat and 1224 calories - has been identified as the unhealthiest fastfood meal served to pupils in a recent survey.

2005 August 20, “Forget turkey twizzlers... the 1200-calorie hoagie has arrived Takeaways used by school pupils to be told how to make their food more healthy”, in The Herald:

Many of my early paychecks from waitressing at 15 were spent on hoagies; fat and sauce dripping down my chin as the beige delights in the wrap merged together to create a wrong-but-right finished product.

2018 August 24, Jessica Lindsay, “Central Scotland’s hoagie wrap is a thing to behold”, in Metro:

(Scotland, chiefly Central Belt) A tortilla or chapati wrap filled with meat (usually doner kebab meat; seasoned lamb or mutton), chips and cheese.


hod

en-verb

hod (third-person singular simple present hods, present participle hodding, simple past and past participle hodded)

hods (present singular third-person)
hodding (participle present)
hodded (participle past)
hodded (past)

Borrowed from Scots hod (“to jog along on horseback”), probably related to hotch (“(verb) to move up and down jerkily, bob; to jog along on horseback; to hop like a frog; to fidget; to shrug; to heave with laughter; to cause to move jerkily; to shift in a sitting position to make room for others; to be overrun with; to swarm; (figuratively) to be angry; (noun) a jerk, jolt; a shrug; a fidget, twitch; a swarm of vermin; large, ungainly woman; untidy woman (figuratively) a hostile encounter, clash; state of disorder and filth, mess”) (whence English hotch (“to move irregularly up and down; to swarm”) (chiefly Scotland)), from Late Middle English hotchen (“to move jerkily, jolt; to attack (someone) (?)”), from Anglo-Norman hocher (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to attack”) and Middle French hocher, Middle French, Old French hochier (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to be unstable or wobbly, shake”) (modern French hocher (“to nod the head”)), from Frankish *hotsōn, *hottisōn, from *hottōn (“to shake; to toss”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ket- or *kwēt- (“to rock back and forth; to shake”), probably originally onomatopoeic.
Compare Scots hotter (“(verb) to move in a jerky, uneven manner; to jolt; to shake; to walk unsteadily, totter; to shiver, shudder; to shake (with laughter); of liquid, etc.: to boil, bubble, seethe, sputter; to crowd, swarm; (noun) jolting or shaking; rattling sound; bubbling of boiling liquid; a shake, shiver; crowd, seething mass; motion or noise of such a crowd; jumbled heap”)).
Cognates
* Middle Dutch hutsen (modern Dutch hutsen (“to jog, jolt; to shake”)), Middle Dutch hotsen (modern Dutch hotsen, hossen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”))
* German hotzen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”) (Southern Germany)
* Low German hūdern (“to shake; to shudder”)
* Middle High German hozzen (“act of swinging someone to and fro to punish them (?)”)
* Old English hūdenian (“to rock back and forth, shake, sway”)

cog

To have caught young wild ducks—a dozen— / So we "hodded" them in a hat to town, / To get them "pot-luck"—at least a "shake down," / With some tame, domestic cousin.

1851, J. de Jean [i.e., John de Jean Fraser], “The Wild Ducks”, in Poems, Dublin: James McGlashan, […]; London; Liverpool: W[illia]m S. Orr and Co., →OCLC, stanza 2, page 144:

They hodded off the furniture, moth-eaten, cracked, and old, / For iron old the swords and helms and dish-covers they sold; […]

1879 October 4, C. G., “The Legend of Doppelganger Tower”, in Young Ireland. An Irish Magazine of Entertainment and Instruction, volume V, number 40, Dublin: Published at the offices of the “Nation” and “Weekly News,” […], →OCLC, page 632, column 2:

Hoddin gray, a coarse grey woollen cloth, called "hoddin" from country people wearing it, who "hodded," that is, jogged along on carthorses.

[1884], “For a’ That, and a’ That”, in Sonnenschein’s Special Merit Readers. Standard III, London: W[illiam] Swan Sonnenschein & Co., […], →OCLC, page 8:

It was decided we should travel on all night; […] The bright lamps, shining forth into the mist and on the smoking horses and the hodding post-boy, gave me perhaps an outlook intrinsically more cheerful than what day had shown; or perhaps my mind had become wearied of its melancholy.

1889, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Mr. Mackellar’s Journey with the Master”, in The Master of Ballantrae. […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 229:

(intransitive, Scotland, obsolete) To bob up and down on horseback, as an inexperienced rider may do; to jog.


holm

holms (plural)
holme (alternative obsolete)

From Middle English holm, holme, from Old English holm (“wave, ocean, water, sea, islet”) and Old Norse holmr, holmi (“islet”), both from the Proto-Germanic *hulmaz (“rising ground, hill, island”), from Proto-Indo-European root *kelH- (“to rise, be elevated, be prominent; hill”).
Cognate with Old Saxon holm, Middle Low German holm, German Holm, Middle Dutch holm, Danish holm, Swedish holme, Norwegian Bokmål holme, Icelandic hólmur.

der

(dialect, chiefly West Yorkshire(?), Scotland, Orkney) Any small island, but especially one near a larger island or the mainland, sometimes with holly bushes; an islet. Often the word is used in Norse-influenced place-names.


kemp

From Middle English kempen, from Old English *cempan (“to do battle, fight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kampijan (“to campaign, do battle”), ultimately from Latin campus.

inh

(Scotland, archaic) A contest in work, etc.


kirk

kirks (plural)
kyrk (alternative obsolete)

Inherited from Northern Middle English kyrke, from either Old Norse kirkja or Old English ċiriċe. Doublet of church.

inh+

When she sang in the kirk, folk have told me that they had a foretaste of the musick of the New Jerusalem, and when she came in by the village of Caulds old men stottered to their doors to look at her.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

But long, long ago an enthusiastic reporter called it a "fairy palace," and the office building on the west side was once a church. Hence, in North British phraseology, to "gang tae the Kirk" meant to be had up on the carpet.

1941 January, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The Scottish Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 3:

(Northern England and Scotland) A church.