fey

en-adj

fey (comparative feyer or more fey, superlative feyest or most fey)

feyer (comparative)
more fey (comparative)
feyest (superlative)
most fey (superlative)

From Middle English fey (“fated to die”), from Old English fǣġe (“doomed to die, timid”), from Proto-West Germanic *faigī, from Proto-Germanic *faigijaz (“cowardly, wicked”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyk- (“ill-meaning, bad”).
Akin to Old Saxon fēgi, whence Dutch veeg (“doomed, near death”), Old High German feigi (“appointed for death, ungodly”) whence German feige (“cowardly”), Old Norse feigr (“doomed”) whence the Icelandic feigur (“doomed to die”), Old English fāh (“outlawed, hostile”). More at foe.

cog

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland) Possessing second sight, clairvoyance, or clairaudience.


tosh

en-adj

tosh (comparative tosher, superlative toshest)

tosher (comparative)
toshest (superlative)

Compare Old French tonce (“shorn, clipped”) and English tonsure.

Tosh, tight, neat.

1776, D. Herd, Ancient & Modern Scottish Songs:

I gang ay fou clean and fou tosh
As a' the neighbours can tell.

We were a very tosh and agreeable company.

1821, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 10 4:

(Scotland) Comfortable, agreeable; friendly, intimate.


tosh

en-adv

tosh (comparative more tosh, superlative most tosh)

more tosh (comparative)
most tosh (superlative)

Shouther your arms!—O! had them tosh on, And not athraw!


tosh

en-verb

tosh (third-person singular simple present toshes, present participle toshing, simple past and past participle toshed)

toshes (present singular third-person)
toshing (participle present)
toshed (participle past)
toshed (past)

Hoo she wad try to tosh up... her breest.

1826 November, J. Wilson, Noctes Ambrosianae, xxix, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 788

(Scotland) To make ‘tosh’: to tidy, to trim.


PRT

en-noun

PRT (countable and uncountable, plural PRTs)

(Scotland) Initialism of private residential tenancy.


tatty

tatties (plural)
tattie (alternative)
tatie (alternative)

I'm buying fucking tatties.

2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 245:

(Scotland, Northern England, Geordie) A potato.


sprote

en-adj

sprote (comparative more sprote, superlative most sprote)

more sprote (comparative)
most sprote (superlative)

Of German origin, meaning "to be fashionable"; made popular during the reign of King George III of England in the 1780s.


regent

/ˈɹiːd͡ʒənt/

From Middle English regent, from Anglo-Norman regent, Middle French regent, and their source, Latin regēns (“ruling; ruler, governor, prince”), present participle of regō (“I govern, I steer”).

der

(Scotland, Canada, US) A member of governing board of a college or university; also a governor of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.


bestial

From Middle Scots bestiall, from Middle English bestaile, from Old French bestaille, from Late Latin bēstiālia; later reinforced and remodelled on Middle French bestial, itself from Late Latin bēstiālis.

[…] much must depend upon the way in which bestial are bought or reared, and the state of the markets when they are sold.

1845, The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Forfar, Kincardine, page 94:


schemie

(Scotland, derogatory) Someone who lives in a council house estate or "scheme".


lib

Inherited from Middle English libbe, from Old English lybb, lyb (“medicine, drug, potion, poison, charm”), from Proto-West Germanic *lubi, from Proto-Germanic *lubją (“wort, herb, drug, poison”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ-, *lewb- (“to peel, break, damage”), from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (“to cut, remove, prune, separate”). Cognate with German Luppe, Lüppe (“salve, ointment, plant juice, medicine, magic”), Icelandic lyf (“medicine, drug”).

der

(UK dialectal, Scotland) A potion; magic potion; charm; concoction.


lib

en-verb

lib (third-person singular simple present libs, present participle libbing, simple past and past participle libbed)

libs (present singular third-person)
libbing (participle present)
libbed (participle past)
libbed (past)

From Middle English *libben (suggested by libbyng (“gelding”), lybbere (“gelder”)), related to Dutch lubben (“to castrate, emasculate”), Dutch libbe (“a steer”), lubbert (“a eunuch”). Further relation uncertain. Possibly related to Old English *lybban (“to doctor”), from Proto-West Germanic *lubbjan; or perhaps related to Old English lappa, læppa (“lappet, piece, section, lobe, portion, district”). More at lop.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To geld; castrate; emasculate (usually said of animals).


floss

Origin obscure. Perhaps of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian flos, flus (“rind, scale, strip peeled off”).

unk

obscure

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

Juncus effusus
Juncus effusus#Translingual

(Northern England, Scotland) The common rush (Juncus effusus).


royalty

en-noun

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

→ Danish: royalty

→ German: Royalty

→ Italian: royalty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: royalty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty

→ Portuguese: royalty

→ Swedish: royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty. Doublet of regality.

(Scotland, historical) The bounds of a royal burgh.


bree

From Middle English brewe, bre, bregh, from Old English brēġ (“eyelid”) (Anglian dialect). Compare West Saxon brǣw, brēaw, brēaġ (“eyelid”), from Proto-Germanic *brēwō. Cognate with Dutch (wenk)brauw, German Braue. Compare brae from the same source. Apparently related to brow.

(obsolete or dialectal, Scotland) The eyelid.

(obsolete or dialectal, Scotland) The eyebrow.


bree

From Middle English bre, breie (“broth; gravy”), apparently from Old English brīw, brīġ (“pottage; porridge”), from Proto-West Germanic *brīw (“porridge; mash”), whence also German Brei, Dutch brij. Alternatively, the word could be a cognate of German Brühe (“broth”), from Middle High German brüeje, from the verb brüejen (“to scald, boil”), from Proto-Germanic *brōaną, whence modern German brühen, Dutch broeien, Middle Low German brȫjen. This is less likely, however, since the verb is not attested in English nor in Old Norse. Both paths eventually lead to the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil, toss, cook, brew”), whence also English broth and brew.


scallion

scallions (plural)
scullion (alternative)

From Middle English scaloun (“shallot”), from Anglo-Norman scalun (variant of Old French eschaloigne), from a Proto-Romance derivation of Vulgar Latin *escalonia, from Latin Ascalonius (in caepa (“onion”) Ascalonius, "shallot"), from Ascalo (“Ascalon”), from Ancient Greek Ἀσκάλων (Askálōn, “Ascalon, an ancient port city in the Levant”), borrowed from Biblical Hebrew אַשְׁקְלוֹן (ʾašqəlôn).


grill

en-verb

grill (third-person singular simple present grills, present participle grilling, simple past and past participle grilled)

grills (present singular third-person)
grilling (participle present)
grilled (participle past)
grilled (past)
girl (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English grillen (“to anger, provoke”), from Old English grillan, griellan (“to annoy, vex, offend”), from Proto-West Germanic *gralljan (“to shout, make angry”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian grulje (“to make angry”), Dutch grillen (“to shudder, shiver”), Low German vergrellen (“to anger, provoke”), German grollen (“to rumble”) and perhaps also with French grouiller (“to swarm”).

cog

(transitive, Scotland, US, obsolete) To make angry; provoke; offend, incite.

(transitive, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) To terrify; make tremble.

(intransitive, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) To tremble; shiver.

(intransitive, Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) To snarl; snap.


heeze

en-verb

heeze (third-person singular simple present heezes, present participle heezing, simple past and past participle heezed)

heezes (present singular third-person)
heezing (participle present)
heezed (participle past)
heezed (past)

From Middle English hissa! (a cry used by sailors in pulling or hauling). Compare Dutch hijsen.


bindle

Unknown; compare Old English bindele (“a binding, a tying”) from bindan (“to bind”), and bundle. Additionally, compare mister from master.

cog

(now Scotland) Any given length of cord, rope, twine, etc, used to bind something.


bing

en-noun

bing (countable and uncountable, plural bings)

From Middle English bing, binge, benge (also as Middle English byngger, bengere (“grain bin, hopper”)), from Old Norse bingr (“heap of corn; bed; bolster”), cognate with Scots bing, Swedish binge (“heap”), Danish bing (“bin; box; compartment”).
Compare also Scottish Gaelic binnean meaning a small hill or slag heap.

der

(chiefly Scotland) A slag heap, i.e. a man-made mound or heap formed with the waste material (slag) as a by-product of coal mining or the shale oil industry

(chiefly Scotland) The waste by-product from a foundry or furnace, formed into such a mound

(British, chiefly Scotland) A heap or pile, especially of metallic ore


outfield

(Scotland, agriculture) Arable land continually cropped without being manured.

(Scotland, agriculture) Any open field at a distance from the farmsteading.


bursar

Borrowed from Medieval Latin bursārius, from bursa (“purse”) (English purse).

(Scotland, education) A student funded by a bursary.


haft

(Northern England, Scotland) Alternative spelling of heft (“piece of pastureland which farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) have become accustomed to; flock or group of farm animals (chiefly cattle or sheep) which have become accustomed to a particular piece of pastureland”).


haft

en-verb

haft (third-person singular simple present hafts, present participle hafting, simple past and past participle hafted)

hafts (present singular third-person)
hafting (participle present)
hafted (participle past)
hafted (past)

[…] I hae heard him say, that the root of the matter was mair deeply hafted in that wild muirland parish than in the Canogate of Edinburgh.

1818 July 25, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of My Landlord, Second Series, […] (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), volume IV, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Company, →OCLC, page 28:

[…] I had heard him say, that the root of the matter was more deeply hafted in that wild moorland parish than in the Canongate of Edinburgh.

(ambitransitive, Northern England, Scotland) Alternative spelling of heft (“(transitive) to accustom (a flock or group of farm animals, chiefly cattle or sheep) to a piece of pastureland; to establish or settle (someone) in an occupation or place of residence; to establish or plant (something) firmly in a place; (intransitive, reflexive) of a thing: to establish or settle itself in a place”)


carryout

en-noun

carryout (countable and uncountable, plural carryouts)

carryouts (plural)
carry-out (alternative)

(Midland US, Scotland) Food that is intended to be eaten outside the establishment from which it is bought.

(Midland US, Scotland) An establishment that prepares and sells food to be taken away on demand; a takeaway.


slump

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”), dialectal Dutch slompen (“to walk clumsily”).

cog

(Scotland) The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.

Plumps

noise made by anything falling into a soft, miry place

(Scotland) The gross amount; the mass; the lump.


tawse

Apparently a plural form of taw, though attested earlier.

I lay about me with the taws
 That night and morning I may thrash
 Greek Alexander from my flesh, […]

1919 March, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, “The Saint and the Hunchback”, in The Wild Swans at Coole, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, pages 104–105:

[W]hile James Murray might punish a late comer by a stroke on the palm of the hand, the children found his lessons so interesting that he had no need to resort to the "tawse", the traditional leather strap, that descended on the shoulders of Mr Dodds' pupils at the United school.

1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 31:

(chiefly Scotland) A leather strap or thong which is split into (typically three) tails, used for corporal punishment in schools, applied to the palm of the hands or buttocks.


tawse

en-verb

tawse (third-person singular simple present tawses, present participle tawsing, simple past and past participle tawsed)

tawses (present singular third-person)
tawsing (participle present)
tawsed (participle past)
tawsed (past)

(transitive, chiefly Scotland) To beat with a tawse.


bicker

en-noun

bicker (countable and uncountable, plural bickers)

From Middle English bikeren (“to attack”), from Middle Dutch bicken (“to stab, thrust, attack”) + -er (frequentative suffix), from Proto-Germanic *bikjaną (compare Old English becca (“pickax”), Dutch bikken (“to hack”), German picken (“to peck, pick at”), Old Norse bikkja (“to plunge into water”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“to smash, break”). Compare also German Low German bickern (“to nibble, gnaw”).

cog

Even if he did not take part in the fighting himself, he was no doubt familiar with those who had been taught, ass Darsie Latimer was by Alan Fairford, to "smoke a cobbler, spin a lozen, head a bicker, and hold the bannets" - in other words, to break a window, head a skirmish with stones, and hold the bonnet[…]

1773, R. Ford, “Biographical Introduction”, in The Poetical Works of Robert Ferguson:

(countable, Scotland, obsolete) A fight with stones between two parties of boys.


bicker

From Scots bicker, from Middle English biker. Doublet of beaker.

…the liquors were handed around in great fulness, the ale in large wooden bickers, and the brandy in capacious horns of oxen.

1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 6:

(Scotland) A wooden drinking-cup or other dish.


highlander

(Scotland) A person who inhabits the Scottish Highlands.


hade

hades (plural)
had (alternative Scotland)
haid (alternative Scotland)
hod (alternative)
hode (alternative)

From Middle English hade, had, hod, hed, from Old English hād (“person, individual, character, individuality, degree, rank, order, office, holy office, condition, state, nature, character, form, manner, sex, race, family, tribe, choir”), from Proto-West Germanic *haidu, from Proto-Germanic *haiduz (“appearance, kind”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kāy- (“light, bright, shining”). Cognate with Old Saxon hēd (“condition, rank”), Old High German heit (“person, personality, sex, condition, quality, rank”), Old Norse heiðr ("honour, dignity") (whence Danish hæder (“honour”), Swedish heder (“honour”)), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍃 (haidus, “way, manner”). Same as -hood.

cog

And I tolde the of the good hade of my God which was vpo me:

1838, The Holy Scriptures, Faithfully and Truly:

My name was alle that I there gate, To wynne honour was onely the purpose Whiche that I tooke ; or that I come thereate, Other good hade I none than riche lose ;

1860, Thomas Occleve, De regimine principum:

And I said it was don he wolde not cum in in that furme, for a mon of his hade met me be ye way withe an endenture was not like to be fulfillet.

1882, Great Britain. Public Record Office, Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, page 584:

(now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) State; order, estate, rank, degree, or quality.


linn

linns (plural)
lin (alternative)
lyn (alternative)
lynn (alternative)

From Middle English *linne, from Old English hlynn (“torrent”).

What seek we here / Amid this waste where desolation scowls, / And the red torrent, brawling down the linn, / Sings everlasting discord?

1814, J. H. Craig [pseudonym; James Hogg], The Hunting of Badlewe: A Dramatic Tale, London: H[enry] Colburn; Edinburgh: G. Goldie, →OCLC, page 1; quoted in “The Hunting of Badlewe, a Dramatic Tale. 8vo. Edin. 1814. [From the Scottish Review.]”, in The Analectic Magazine, Containing Selections from Foreign Reviews and Magazines, together with Original Miscellaneous Compositions, volume V (New Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Published and sold by Moses Thomas, […], May 1815, →OCLC, pages 353–354:

"For it's o'er the bank, and it's o'er the linn,
"And it's up to the meadow ridge—"
"Ay," quo' the Stumpie hirpling in,

1844 December, “The Legend of Stumpie's Brae”, in The Dublin University Magazine, page 720:

And the roaring of the linn.

1866, John Harland, Lancashire Lyrics: Modern Songs & Ballads of the County Balatine, section 85:

Hear! now, Yon linn's melodious thunder!

1896, Lewis Proudlock, The Borderland Muse, page 51:

(Scotland, Northern England, Wales) A waterfall or cataract (torrent of water running over a rocky bed), or a ravine down which such a waterfall rushes.


linn

From Scottish Gaelic or Irish linn (“pool, pond”), or else a Brythonic source such as Cumbric llyn, all from Proto-Celtic *lindos (“lake, liquid”). Conflated to some extent with linn (“waterfall”).

There frisks the freckl'd finny tribe,
In linns both wide and steep.

In the clear linn the trouts shuttled from stone and crevice.

The pool is there — the true linn, in the original acceptance of the word — dark and bottomless.

1868 September 24, James Hardy, addressed delivered at Chirnside, quoted in the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volume 5, page 386

A trellised path led down into the valley of the brook, and he turned to follow it. The stream was a breakneck, boiling Highland river. Hard by the farm, it leaped a little precipice in a thick grey-mare's tail of twisted filaments, and then lay and worked and bubbled in a linn. Into the middle of this quaking pool a rock protruded, shelving to a cape; and thither Otto scrambled and sat down to ponder.

1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Prince Otto:

His successful angler landing the linn-lier [fish that inhabits a pool of water].

The running of deep water in a linn.

(Scotland, Northern England, Wales) A pool of water, especially one formed and agitated by the water from a cascade.


rug

en-verb

rug (third-person singular simple present rugs, present participle rugging, simple past and past participle rugged)

rugs (present singular third-person)
rugging (participle present)
rugged (participle past)
rugged (past)

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough.
Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

cog

“this was a job in the auld times o'rugging and riving through the hale country[…]”

1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], 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) To pull roughly or hastily; to plunder; to spoil; to tear.


brose

en-noun

brose (usually uncountable, plural broses)

From the Doric dialect of North East Scotland, from earlier browes, from Old French broez, nominative of broet (“stew, soup made from meat broth”) (French brouet) diminutive of breu, from Medieval Latin brodium, from Proto-Germanic *bruþą (“broth”). See broth.

I had not far to seek for him: he stood waiting in the passage, for the cooling of his brose.

(Scotland) Oatmeal mixed with boiling water or milk.


schelm

schelms (plural)
schellum (alternative)
shelm (alternative)
skellum (alternative)
skelm (alternative)

Of her parents he knew nothing, except that "her father must have been a damned hundsfoot, and a schelm, for selling his own flesh and blood to Adrian Brackel;" […]

1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 201:


ug

ug (countable and uncountable, plural ugs)

ugs (plural)
ugg (alternative)
oug (alternative)

From Middle English ugge, from Old Norse uggr (“fear, apprehension, dread”), related to Old Norse ógn (“terror, threat, dispute”) and agi (“terror, strife, fear, punishment”). More at awe.

cog

He took an ug at's meht.

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) A feeling of fear, horror or disgust.

What an ug ye've myed yorsel.

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) An object of disgust.

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) Vomited matter.


ug

en-verb

ug (third-person singular simple present ugs, present participle ugging, simple past and past participle ugged)

ugs (present singular third-person)
ugging (participle present)
ugged (participle past)
ugged (past)
ugg (alternative)
oug (alternative)

From Middle English uggen, from Old Norse ugga (“to fear”), see above.

Wha weds a cankert thriftless wife, / Weds to his days eternal strife, / For, like the Tron-Kirk bell, / She ever hammers on his lugs, / Till her an' hame at last he uggs / As the dire door o' hell!

1822, Robert Wilson, “Answer to an Epistle from a Friend”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, page 71:

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) To dread, loathe or disgust.

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) To fear, be horrified; shudder with horror.

(Northern England and Scotland, obsolete) To vomit.


ug

(Caithness, Scotland) The pectoral fin of a fish.


timeous

From earlier timous, from Middle English tymous, *tymwos, *tymwis (“early”), equivalent to timewise. Cognate with Scots timeous (“timely”).

We sincerely hope, however, that a timeous and speedy adoption of energetic and conciliatory measures will waft such a dreadful calamity far distant from our homes, and restore that confidence in society so necessary for the welfare of a commercial community.

1831, The Radical Reformer's Currycomb; Or, Scrub for Scrub, page 2:

Now, the pursuer avers that he sent timeous notice, in terms of the conditions, to the defender, the seller. Be it observed that the words are that the objection must be intimated to the auctioneers not later than 7 p.m. on the following Friday, not that the intimation must be received by them not later than that hour.

1919, The Scottish Law Review and Sheriff Court Reports, page 93:

(especially Scotland, South Africa) In sufficient time; timely; in (its) proper time or season.


steamer

From steam + -er. The steamer duck or steamer (sense 6.2) is apparently named for its resemblance to a paddle steamer when swimming rapidly.

(British, Scotland, slang) A drinking session.


bramble

From Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel, from earlier brǣmel, brēmel, from dialectal Proto-West Germanic *brāmil, diminutive of *brām (English broom).

Rubus fruticosus
Rubus fruticosus#Translingual

(chiefly Scotland) The soft fruit borne by the species Rubus fruticosus formed of a black (when ripe) cluster of drupelets.


rowan

en-noun

rowan (countable and uncountable, plural rowans)

(Scotland) Dated form of roving (“an elongate bundle of fiber”).


rowan

(archaic, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) Alternative form of rown (“fish-eggs”).


bein

en-verb

bein (third-person singular simple present beins, present participle beining, simple past and past participle beined)

beins (present singular third-person)
beining (participle present)
beined (participle past)
beined (past)
been (alternative)
bene (alternative)
bien (alternative)

From Middle English been, beene, bene (“gracious, generous, pleasant”), of unknown origin. Perhaps from Old Norse beinn (“straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen”), from Proto-Germanic *bainaz (“straight”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to hit, beat”).
Cognate with Scots bein, bien (“in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cosy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen”), Icelandic beinn (“straight, direct, hospitable”), Norwegian bein (“straight, direct, easy to deal with”). See also bain.

cog

(transitive, Scotland) To render or make comfortable.


collation

en-noun

collation (countable and uncountable, plural collations)

From Middle English collacioun, collation, from Old French collation, from Latin collatiō, from the participle stem of cōnferō (“to bring together”).

(civil law, inheritance, Scotland) An heir's right to combine the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.

civil law; inheritance; civil law; inheritance


wite

en-verb

wite (third-person singular simple present wites, present participle witing, simple past and past participle wited)

wites (present singular third-person)
witing (participle present)
wited (participle past)
wited (past)
wyte (alternative)

From Middle English wīten (“to accuse, reproach, punish, suspect”), Old English wītan (“to look, behold, see, guard, keep, impute or ascribe to, accuse, reproach, blame”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītan, from Proto-Germanic *wītaną. Connected to Old English wīte, see below.

inh

(chiefly Scotland) To regard (someone) as guilty, to accuse, to blame, to fault.


wite

From Middle English wite (“guilt, blameworthiness, blame, wrongdoing, misdeed, offense, punishment, retribution, fine, bote, customary rent”), from Old English wīte (“punishment, pain, torment”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītī, from Proto-Germanic *wītiją, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, find, behold”).

der

Nor I will not suffer mine indignation so to witwanton with fair justice as persuade me to put the wite on Witchland.

1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, chapter 209, in The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC:

(obsolete outside Scotland) Blame, responsibility, guilt.


neep

From Middle English neep, from Old English nǣp (“turnip, rape”), borrowed from Latin nāpus. Compare Icelandic næpa (“turnip”).
Cognate with English turnip.

Poor Mr Piddle with his long think neck and his long thin head, as bald as a neep and something the shape […]

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 494:

(chiefly Scotland) The swede (rutabaga); turnip.


neeps

(chiefly Scotland) mashed swede (called "turnip" in Scotland), especially when served with tatties (potatoes) and haggis.


get off at Haymarket

en-verb

get off at Haymarket (third-person singular simple present gets off at Haymarket, present participle getting off at Haymarket, simple past and past participle got off at Haymarket)

gets off at Haymarket (present singular third-person)
getting off at Haymarket (participle present)
got off at Haymarket (participle past)
got off at Haymarket (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-get off at Haymarket.wav

Edinburgh Waverley station
Haymarket railway station

Haymarket railway station is the last station shortly before arrival into Edinburgh Waverley station when travelling from Glasgow.

John looked at a woman standing further down the carriage in bridal headdress surrounded by her hen party acolytes.
‘She's got the wrong aisle. At least she chose Virgin Trains. All train guards can marry folk you know. But the vows are only valid for the duration of the journey. You can always get off at Haymarket, know what I mean?’
The women shrieked as the inflatable male doll her friends had stowed in the overhead luggage rack idly dangled a leg.

2014, Stuart Campbell, John McPake and the Sea Beggars:

The thought that Lizzie and her man knew about getting off at Haymarket and other ways of delaying pregnancy occurred to Peggy for the first time.

2014, Mary Easson, Black rigg, page 157:

[…]he tenderly whispered, 'Now, my sweet, don't you worry because I was careful and got off at Haymarket every time, so I did.' This remark meant nothing to Kate but to others in Leith who were acquainted with the facts of life it meant that Hugh had been careful not to go full steam ahead into Waverley and therefore put her in the family way.

'[…]Do you and Bill sleep in separate rooms now?'
Anna roared with laughter. 'No, darling! I just tell him to get off at Haymarket.'
It was not till many years later that Olivia worked out what she meant! She didn't dare to ask Anna there in the middle of the tea room.

2017, Mary Contini, Dear Alfonso: An Italian Feast of Love and Laughter:

(euphemistic, Scotland) To practise coitus interruptus, the withdrawal method of contraception.

stå af i Roskilde

to practise coitus interruptus, the withdrawal method of contraception


cockle

cockle (third-person singular simple present cockles, present participle cockling, simple past and past participle cockled)

cockles (present singular third-person)
cockling (participle present)
cockled (participle past)
cockled (past)

Israel Wilde arrived last, his ankle swollen and already berry-blue after cockling at the top of Hatherself Scout.

2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 32:

(Scotland, Northern England, Midlands) To wobble, shake; to be unsteady.


fraught

en-noun

fraught (usually uncountable, plural fraughts)

From Middle English fraught, fraght, freght (“transport of goods or people (usually by water); charge for such transport; facilities for such transport; cargo or passengers of a ship; ballast of a ship; goods in general; (figurative) burden; charge”), from Middle Dutch vracht, vrecht, or Middle Low German vracht, vrecht (“cargo, freight; charge for transport of goods”), from Proto-Germanic *fra-aihtiz, from *fra- (intensifying prefix) + Proto-Germanic *aihtiz (“acquisition; possessions, property”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to come into possession of, obtain; to own, possess”)). Doublet of freight.
Cognates
* Danish fragt
* Old English ǣht (“livestock; property; possession; power”)
* Old High German frēht (“earnings”) (modern German fracht)
* Swedish frakt

cog

The manse […] is reached […] by a wide, straight path, so rough that to carry a fraught of water to the manse without spilling was to be superlatively good at one thing.

1891, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Night-watchers”, in The Little Minister. […], volume I, London, Paris: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, pages 32–33:

(obsolete except Scotland)
Two bucketfuls.

Thoſe morning haunts are vvhere they ſhould be at home, not ſleeping, or concocting the ſurfets of an irregular Feaſt, but up and ſtirring, […] in Summer as oft vvith the Bird that firſt rouſes, or not much tardier, to reade good Authors, or cauſe them to be read, till the Attention be vveary, or Memory have its full fraught: […]

1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually London: s.n.], 1698, →OCLC, page 175:

His fraught vve ſoon ſhall knovv, he novv arrives.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 65, line 86:

(obsolete except Scotland)
(figurative) A burden, a load.


fraught

en-verb

fraught (third-person singular simple present fraughts, present participle fraughting, simple past and past participle fraught or fraughted)

fraughts (present singular third-person)
fraughting (participle present)
fraught (participle past)
fraught (past)
fraughted (participle past)
fraughted (past)
fraught (infinitive)
fraught (first-person present singular)
fraughted (first-person past singular)
fraught (present second-person singular)
fraughtest (archaic present second-person singular)
fraughted (past second-person singular)
fraughtedst (archaic past second-person singular)
fraughts (present singular third-person)
fraughteth (archaic present singular third-person)
fraughted (past singular third-person)
fraught (plural present)
fraughted (past plural)
fraught (present subjunctive)
fraughted (past subjunctive)
fraught (imperative present)
fraughting (participle present)
fraughted (participle past)

The verb is derived from Middle English fraughten, fraghten, freghten (“to hire (a ship, etc.) for transporting goods; to load (a ship, etc.) with cargo or passengers; to store, stow away; (figurative) to provide an ample supply of (goods, income, etc.)”), from Middle Dutch vrachten, vrechten, from vracht, vrecht (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming infinitives of verbs).
The adjective is derived from Middle English fraught, fraght (“burdened, loaded”), the past participle of fraughten, fraghten (verb) (see above).

(Scotland, nautical, obsolete) To hire (a vessel) to transport cargo or passengers.

(Scotland, nautical, obsolete) To transport (cargo or passengers) in a vessel; to freight.


ain

Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair,
He's my ain for evermair,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

1998, Jonathan Langley, Collins Bedtime Treasury of Nursery Rhymes and Tales, Bobby Shaftoe, page 86:


titty

titties (plural)
tiddy (alternative)
tittie (alternative)

(Scotland, colloquial) A sister or girl.


scree

A contract of lease was entered into between the pursuer, who is the proprietor of the estate of Bargaddie, on the one part, and William M'Creath and others, carrying on business under the firm of the Bargaddie Coal Company, on the other part, […] and the lessees becoming bound to pay to the pursuer the sum of £500 sterling of fixed yearly rent, or, in his option, a lordship of 5½d. per cart of the gross output of coals, such cart weighing 13 cwt., and the coals being riddled through a riddle or scree of the customary size.

1859 March 15, John Lorimer, William E[llis] Gloag, James Paterson, “The Bargaddie of Bartonshill Coal Company (Robert Paterson, J. B. Neilson, &c.), Appellants, v. Robert Wark, Respondent”, in Geo[rge] Dingwall Fordyce, editor, The Scottish Jurist: Being Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, and in the House of Lords on Appeal from Scotland, volume XXXI, Edinburgh: Thomas Constable and Co. and all booksellers, →OCLC, page 324, column 1:


dawing

(obsolete outside Scotland) Dawn, daybreak.


daw

daw (third-person singular simple present daws, present participle dawing, simple past and past participle dawed)

daws (present singular third-person)
dawing (participle present)
dawed (participle past)
dawed (past)

From Middle English dawen, from Old English dagian (“to dawn”), from Proto-West Germanic *dagēn, from Proto-Germanic *dagāną (“to become day, dawn”), from *dagaz (“day”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”). More at day, dawn.


dreich

en-noun

dreich (countable and uncountable, plural dreiches)

The adjective is borrowed from Scots dreich (“hard to bear, dreary, tedious, wearisome; interminable, long-winded; dull, uninteresting; slow, tardy; doleful, gloomy; baffling, difficult; difficult to reach, inaccessible”), from Middle English dregh, dri, drie (“burdensome; depressing, dismal; large, tall; lasting, long; long-suffering, patient; tedious; of blows: hard, heavy; of the face: unchanging, unmoved; of a person: strong, valorous”) [and other forms], from Old English *drēog, drēoh (“earnest; fit; sober”), and then probably partly:
* shortened from Old English ġedrēog (“calm, quiet; sober; fit, suitable”, adjective), from ġe- (prefix forming adjectives of association or similarity) + Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (“enduring, lasting”) (from *dreuganą (“to serve, be a retainer”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to serve one’s tribe; loyal”)); and
* influenced by Old Norse drjúgr (“sufficient; excessive, very; great; strong”), from Proto-Germanic *dreugaz (see above).
The noun is probably partly derived:
* from the adjective; and
* borrowed from Scots dreich (“dreariness, gloom”) (rare), probably from Middle English dri, drie (“annoyance, trouble; grief; period of time”) [and other forms], possibly from dri, drie (adjective) (see above).
(Compare Old English ġedrēog (“seemliness; seriousness, sobriety; something appropriate or required”, noun), which did not survive into Middle English.)
Cognates
* German Low German drēg, drēge
* Icelandic drjúgur (“ample; heavy, substantial; long”)
* North Frisian drech
* Old Danish drygh (modern Danish drøj (“heavy; solid, tough”))
* Old Swedish drygher (modern Swedish dryg (“ample, liberal; hard; large; lasting”))
* Saterland Frisian drjooch
* Scots dreich
* West Frisian dreech, drege (“extensive; long-lasting”)

nb...

dreghe, drei, dreiȝ, dreiȝe, drey, dreȝ, dreȝe, dreȝghe, drie, driȝ, driȝe, drye, dryȝ, dryȝe, (Early Middle English) drih, druye

nb...

dre, dregh, dreghe, dreh, drei, dreigh, dreiȝe, dreȝe, driȝe, dryhe, dryȝe

cog

(uncountable, Scotland) Bleakness, gloom; specifically, gloomy (cold, overcast, rainy, etc.) weather.


throng

en-adj

throng (comparative more throng, superlative most throng)

more throng (comparative)
most throng (superlative)

From Middle English throng, thrang, from Old English þrang, ġeþrang (“crowd, press, tumult”), from Proto-Germanic *þrangwą, *þrangwō (“throng”), from *þrangwaz (“pressing, narrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *trenkʷ- (“to beat; pound; hew; press”). Cognate with Dutch drang, German Drang. Compare also German Gedränge (“throng”).

inh

Earth, sweet Earth, sweet landscape, with leavès throng / And louchèd low grass, heaven that dost appeal / To, with no tongue to plead, no heart to feel; / That canst but only be, but dost that long— […]

1882, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Ribblesdale”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 54:

(Northern England, Scotland) Filled with persons or objects; crowded.

Mr Shaw was very civil; he said he was rather throng just now, but if Ernest did not mind the sound of hammering he should be very glad of a talk with him.

1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 59, in The Way of All Flesh:

[P]eople were having holidays all round the world, though the Glasgow shops and offices and factories were as throng with business as ever.

1992, Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 200:

(Northern England, Scotland) Busy; hurried.


doit

en-verb

doit (third-person singular simple present doits, present participle doiting, simple past and past participle doited)

doits (present singular third-person)
doiting (participle present)
doited (participle past)
doited (past)

Borrowed from Scots doit, apparently a Scots cognate of dote.

I trembled with astonishment; and on my return from the small window went doiting in amongst the weaver's looms, tillI entangled myself, and could not get out again without working great deray amongst the coarse linen threads that stood in warp from one end of the apartment unto the other.

1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

(Scotland, rare) To stumble; to blunder.


moggy

Unknown, but probably originally Mog + -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

...expect not so fair an enemy as Cromwel, nor such fair quarter as now is given thee: Jockey, Jemmy, and Moggy thy she-souldier, must than all to the sword...

1648, William Lilly, An Astrologicall Prediction of the Occurrances in England, Part of the Yeers 1648, 1649, 1650, page 60:

...in another Hut, a parcel of Scoth Pedlars and their Moggies,
Dancing a Highlanders Jig...

1699, Edward Ward, The London Spy, volume I, page 15:

(Scotland and Northern England regional, obsolete) Synonym of girl: a female child or young woman.


paddock

paddocks (plural)
padock (alternative)
puddock (alternative)

From Middle English paddok, paddoke (“frog; toad”) [and other forms], from pad, pade (“frog; toad”) + -ok (diminutive suffix). Pad, pade is derived from Old English *pada, *padda, padde, from Proto-West Germanic *paddā, from Proto-Germanic *paddǭ (“toad”); further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to swell”). The English word is analysable as pad (“(Britain, dialectal) frog; toad”) + -ock (suffix forming nouns, originally with diminutive senses).
Sense 2 (“sledge”) is probably from the supposed resemblance of the object to a frog or toad.

suffix

Cold as a paddock.

Also the Lord seide to Moises, Entre thou to Farao, and thou schalt seie to hym, The Lord seith these thingis, Delyuere thou my puple, that it make sacrifice to me; sotheli if thou nylt delyuere, lo! Y schal smyte alle thi termys with paddoks; and the flood schal buyle out paddokis, […]

[c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, […], volume I (in Middle English), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, Exodus VIII:1–3, page 208, column 2:

Also the Lord said to Moses, enter thou to Pharaoh, and thou shalt say to him, The Lord saith these things, Deliver thou my people, that it make sacrifice to me; soothly [truly] if thou nilt [wilt not] deliver, lo! I shall smite all thy terms [lands] with paddocks; and the flood shall boil out paddocks; […]

It is apparent that there be three kinds of Frogs of the earth, the firſt is the little greene Frog: the ſecond is this Padocke, hauing a crooke back, called in Latine Rubeta Gibboſa, and the third is the Toade, commonly called Rubotax, Bufo. […] As ſoone as theſe Paddocks come once into the ayre, out of their cloſe places of generation and habitation, they ſvvell and ſo die.

1608, Edward Topsell, The Historie of Serpents. Or, The Second Booke of Liuing Creatures: […], London: […] William Jaggard, →OCLC, pages 186–187:

The vvater-Snake, vvhom Fiſh and Paddocks fed, / VVith ſtaring Scales lies poyſon'd in his Bed: […]

1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 120, lines 812–813:

Ower mony maisters—ower mony maisters, as the paddock said to the harrow, when every tooth gae her a tig.

[1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter [XIV], in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 307–308:

He put out his hand with repulsion; it lay like a cold paddock on her knee.

1938, Graham Greene, chapter 3, in Brighton Rock, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, page 111:

(chiefly Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland)

Where I was wont to ſeeke the honey Bee, / Working her formall rowmes in Wexen frame: / The grieſlie Todeſtoole growne there mought I ſe / And loathed Paddocks lording on the ſame.

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “December. Ægloga Duodecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 49, verso:

Where I was wont to seek the honey bee, / Working her formal rooms in waxen frame: / The grisly toadstool grown there might I see / And loathed paddocks lording on the same.

Padock calls anon: faire is foule, and foule is faire, / Houer through the fogge and filthie ayre.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 131, column 1:

[F]rom the hall wherein the mourners died / A grey wolf glared, and o'er his head the bat / Hung, and the paddock on the hearth-stone sat.

1870, William Morris, “October: The Man Who Never Laughed Again”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, part III, London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 240:

[T]here was grandfaither's siller tester in the puddock’s heart of him.

1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Black Andie’s Tale of Tod Lapraik”, in Catriona, London; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, →OCLC, page 182:

(derogatory) A contemptible, or malicious or nasty, person.

(Scotland) A simple, usually triangular, sledge which is dragged along the ground to transport items.

ahkio

simple sledge, usually triangular, which is dragged along the ground to transport items


scud

en-adj

scud (comparative more scud, superlative most scud)

more scud (comparative)
most scud (superlative)
skud (alternative)

From Middle English scud (“incrustation, scurf, scab, peel, shedding”), perhaps from Old Norse skjóta (“to shoot, push, throw off, shed”).


scud

en-noun

scud (countable and uncountable, plural scuds)

(slang, uncountable, Scotland) Pornography.

a bottle of scud

(slang, uncountable, Scotland) The drink Irn-Bru.


whillywha

whillywhas (plural)
whilly-wha (alternative)
whilly-whaw (alternative)


slink

slink (countable and uncountable, plural slinks)

From Middle English slynken, sclynken, from Old English slincan (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Germanic *slinkaną (“to creep; crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleng-, *slenk- (“to turn; wind; twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to sneak; crawl”).
Cognate with West Frisian slinke, Dutch slinken (“to shrink; shrivel”), Low German slinken, Swedish slinka (“to glide”). Compare also German schleichen (“to slink”). More at sleek.

der

(UK, Scotland, dialect) A thievish fellow; a sneak.


slink

en-adj

slink (comparative more slink, superlative most slink)

more slink (comparative)
most slink (superlative)


loon

From Middle English louen, lowen (“rascal; rogue”), probably of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin. Compare Dutch loen (“simpleton”). Or, related to sense 2, due to the bird's loud cry. Folk etymology associates it slang-wise with lunatic, though the latter may have influenced it; see loony.

(chiefly Scotland, Ulster) A boy, a lad.


blooter

(slang, Scotland) An unattractive woman.


back end

back ends (plural)
back-end (alternative)
backend (alternative)
backen' (alternative)
back-en' (alternative)

I'll see you on the back end of tomorrow.

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) The latter end of any given time, especially the latter part of the year; autumn; late autumn.


oxgang

From Middle English oxegang, from Old English oxangang (“¹⁄₈ hide or ploughland”), equivalent to ox + gang.

inh

<small>¹<big>⁄</big>₈</small> hide or ploughland

(historical, Scotland) The similar Scottish concept, ¹⁄₈ of a ploughgate and notionally 12+¹⁄₂ or 13 Scottish acres.


quisquis

Shared with quisquous and quiscoskos; from Latin quisquis (“whosoever”) or by reduplication of Latin quis (“of what kind”).


quisquis

en-adj

quisquis (comparative more quisquis, superlative most quisquis)

more quisquis (comparative)
most quisquis (superlative)
quis-quis (alternative)

A drastic method this last to make sere of a full meeting and no shirkers of a “quisquis” business—evidently meaning a delicate and difficult one; a rare expression not found elsewhere in these papers.

1909, William Macgill, “Topography and Local History”, in Old Ross-Shire and Scotland, As Seen in the Tain and Balnagown Documents:


boak

en-verb

boak (third-person singular simple present boaks, present participle boaking, simple past and past participle boaked)

boaks (present singular third-person)
boaking (participle present)
boaked (participle past)
boaked (past)

From Middle English bolken (“to belch, vomit”), from Old English bealcian (“to belch, utter, bring up, sputter out, pour out, give forth, emit, come forth”), from Proto-Germanic *belkaną (“to belch”), ultimately imitative. Cognate with Dutch balken & bulken (“to bellow”), German bölken (“to roar”). See also belch.

onomatopoeic

imitative

— God sake... god sake... Mr Houston repeated as Mrs Houston boaked and I made a pathetic effort to mop some of the mess back into the sheets.

1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 94:

I was going to boak: I made the window and opened it but most of the sickness hit the window-sill in a heap.

He’d skipped breakfast—didn’t like the idea of boaking it back up on the flight.

I think it was at this moment that Patricia lurched from the table, informing everyone that she was going to be sick and indeed was as good as her word, throwing up before reaching the door (‘Heinrich, fetch a clout — the lassie’s boaked!’).

1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

She had to keep stopping to spit gobbits of rising boak into sinks and old tea mugs.


birr

From Middle English bir (“favorable or strong wind”), from Old English byre (“strong wind, storm”); cognate with Norwegian bør, Icelandic byrr (“sailing winds”), Albanian borë (“snow”), and Polish burza (“storm, thunderstorm”).

inh

Ye'll be sae kind as let me see How this same bird o' yours can flee. T'oblige ye, friend, I winna stand — Syne loos'd the falcon frae his hand. Unhooded, up she sprang wi' birr, While baith stood staring after her.

1720, Allan Ramsay, “The Lure”, in Poems:

Then steer thro' life wi' birr an' vigour

Your chanter sets us a ' a-steer, Get out your pipes and blaw wi' birr, We'll dance the Highland fling

1851, William Mitchison, Hand-Book of the Songs of Scotland, page 202:

The congregation sang them with such ' birr and go.'

The late David Kennedy, the eininent Scottish vocalist, sang it with great birr.

1901, Robert Ford, Vagabond songs and ballads of Scotland, page 108:

Bleak winter reigns, ilk hill's o'erlaid wi' snaw, Cauld frae the north wi' bir the tempests blaw.

1777 October, Marion, “Marion: A Pastoral”, in Weekly Magazine or Edinburgh Amusement, volume 31, page 63:

A chaise in full birr came upon her and knocked her down.

And away down, in full birr, to the Duke's gate.

With what a birr he made it flee from his hand along the ice.

The tither hole, the tither eik, To bang the birr o' winter's anger, And had the hurdies out o' langer.

1976, David Craig, Scottish Literature and the Scottish People, 1680-1830, page 244:

(Scotland) The force of movement; rush, impetus, momentum, driving force

O' the sounds o' love and joy, There's nane sae pleasant as the birr o' Scotland's spinnin' wheel.

Close by the ingle sat his widow Elsie enjoying its warmth, and listening to the birr of her wheel.

1851, James Grant, The Scottish Cavalier: An Historical Romance, page 88:

When the British Tommies heard the "birr" of the five-inch Canadian shells they all asked whose they were.

1916, Colonel J.A. Currie, “XVII The Battle of Neuve Chapelle”, in The Red Watch, With the First Canadian Division in Flanders, Reprint edition, Project Gutenberg, published 2009:

The boom of her large, and the birr of her small, wheel were music to my young ear on awakening in the mornings.

1969, Alexander Durand Cameron, Living in Scotland, 1760-1820, page 18:

The birr of the spinning wheel , the clack and thump of the handloom are no longer to be heard, linen-spinning on the wheel – once a staple occupation for so many women – is now virtually a forgotten art.

1979, Alastair J. Durie, The Scottish Linen Industry in the Eighteenth Century, page 1:

A birr! a whirr! the salmon's out, Far on the rushing river; Onward he holds with sudden leap, Or plunges through the whirlpool deep, A desperate endeavour!

2012, Michael Balfour, Mysterious Scotland: Enigmas, Secrets and Legends:

Nae mair he will wi' rattlin' birr, Sing to his soul-inspirin' girr, The dormant Gothamites to stir, His powers to heed;

1865, Peter Mackenzie, Reminiscences of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, page 213:

[…] can only be accounted for on the supposition that they recognise the resemblance it bears to their national pipe, and believe in nothing without a "sough", whether it be the "birr" of the drone, or the more dissonant but characteristic falsetto that governs the higher notes of the "chaunter".

1993, Scottish Studies - Volumes 31-33, page 59:

At all events, the vocabulary of Scots is not only the key to much of our literature, but an asset we should cherish and use to give smeddum and birr to our fushionless English.

1993, Paul H. Scott, “A Rich Vocabulary”, in Books in Scotland - Issues 45-56:

Gray possesses an unfortunate East of Scotland birr that suggests a 21-year-old student interviewing for his first job.

2011 April 24, Kevin McKenna, “Labour needs to challenge Alex Salmond – and quickly”, in The Guardian:


birr

en-verb

birr (third-person singular simple present birrs, present participle birring, simple past and past participle birred)

birrs (present singular third-person)
birring (participle present)
birred (participle past)
birred (past)

if it is ordained that ye must forget him, ye will banish him from your mind the mair easily that ye ken nae mair o' him than ye do o' the bird that birrs past ye in the wood—that it has a bonny feather in its tail."

1869, John Mackay Wilson, Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII:

The gudewife birrs wi ' the wheel a' day, Three threeds an' a thrum, Three threeds an' a thrum,

1883, Edwin Paxton Hood, Scottish Characteristics, page 336:

The muircock birrs at yer snell ha' door , An' fyles blawin' drift yer sheep will smore,

1925, Charles Stewart Black, The Scots Magazine - Volume 4, page 256:

(Scotland) To make a whirring noise; make a noise like that of revolving wheels, or of millstones at work.

His cowt grew reezy, its lang tail 'Twad swash, and lugs wad birr up, At length it cuist him, and did trail Him hame, by fit i'e stirrup,

1824, “The Burning O' The Bible”, in John Mactaggart, editor, The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia, page 499:

She's bow't i' the bacck, has a growth on her shouther, And hirples in daytime when steerin ' frae hame ; But nichtly birrs aff like a rocket o ' puother, And reels ' mang the staurs on a broomstick o ' fame .

1889, David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets, page 192:

When wark had ceased - fiel', Lads knitted, lassies trig an' clean, Did birr the spinnin' wheel;

1885, Charles Stewart, “Auld Granny Mucklejohn's View of the Times”, in David Herschell Edwards, editor, One Hundred Modern Scottish Poets:

The swankies lap thro' mire and slike, Wow ! as their heads did birr: They yowph'd the ba' frae dike to dike, Wi ' unco' speed and virr,

1999, Duncan Glen, Scottish Literature: A New History from 1299 to 1999, page 54:


sixth form

en-noun

sixth form (countable and uncountable, plural sixth forms)

sixth forms (plural)
6th form (alternative)

Earlier educational naming conventions in public schools termed every two years of education "forms" (itself sometimes said to be from form (“bench”), where students of certain ages would sit together, though disputed, or alternatively from form (“established method of expression or practice”)), where Years 12 and 13 (i.e. ages 16 to 18) was the "sixth" and final form. State schools adopted the term "sixth form" and retained it when the rest of the form structure was dropped.

Nathaniel: Maister, there is nobody to teach in the sixth form.
Maister: What a thing is this?
N: He is sick in bed.
M: How do you know?
N: One of the scholars in his house told me so.

1653, Corderius, Colloquia scholastica Anglo-Latina, […] 1653, page 220:

(UK except Scotland, education) The final two years of secondary education, during which students of about 16 to 18 years of age prepare for their A-level examinations or equivalent qualifications.


cottar

Here, then, we have a description which, with the exception of what relates to the reciprocal services, would be applicable to the modern cottar where he is not an unlicensed squatter

1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History:

(Scotland) Alternative form of cotter (“peasant inhabiting a cottage”).


bawbee

(Scotland, historical) A coin originally worth six pennies Scots, and later three; held equivalent to an English halfpenny.


gey

Originally a variant form of gay, now associated with distinct senses.

I am nae believer in auld wives' stories about ghaists, though this is gey like a place for them - But mortal, or of the other world, here they come! - twa men and a light.

1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary, Oxford University Press, published 2002, page 207:

But I'll put a gold chain around his neck, An' a gey good chain it'll be.

2001, David Thomson, The People of the Sea: Celtic Tales of the Seal-folk, Canongate Books, page 213:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Very.


gey

en-adj

gey (comparative geyer, superlative geyest)

geyer (comparative)
geyest (superlative)

They were married next New Year's Day, and Ellison had begun to think himself a gey man in Kinraddie, and maybe one of the gentry.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 16:

(Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) Fairly good; considerable.


foison

From Middle English foisoun, from Old French foison, from Latin fūsiōnem. Doublet of fusion.


lippy

From leap (“trap or snare for fish made from twigs; (obsolete) basket”) + -y (diminutive suffix).

I ſowed on this Ground, without any Dung or Manure, a Lippy of Oats, from which I had a Boll wanting a Chopin.

1742, Virgil, “Appendix to the Georgicks”, in James Hamilton, transl., Virgil’s Pastorals Translated into English Prose; as also His Georgicks, […], Edinburgh: Printed by W. Cheyne, […]; [s]old by J. Traill and G. Crawford, […]; and by J. Barry […], →OCLC, page 43:

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

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

A miniſter's ſtipend is paid by the heritors as follows: James Speers pays 3 bolls 3 firlots 1 peck 3 lippies oats, 2 bolls barley, and L. 3 : 15 : 4; [...]

1798, Robert Hamilton, “Subtraction”, in An Introduction to Merchandise. […], 2nd corrected and revised edition, Edinburgh: Printed for Charles Elliot, […]; and for C. Elliot, T. Kay, and Co. […], →OCLC, §19, paragraph XIII, page 19:

You good Pastors, [...] you who can prevail upon your parishioners to pay the last lippy of your modified tithes, [...]

1825 May, “Statistical Sketch of the Present State of the Established and Dissenting Churches in Scotland. Spring-meeting of the United Associate Synod 1825.”, in The Edinburgh Magazine, and Literary Miscellany, being a New Series of the Scots Magazine, volume XVI, Edinburgh: Printed [by J. Ruthven & Son] for Archibald Constable & Company, →OCLC, page 598, column 1:

A Scotch barley boll contains 5 bushels, 3 pecks, 2 lippies, and a little more, according to the Winchester gallon. A Scotch barley boll, according to the legal measure, contains 6 bushels, wanting a little more than ½ lippie.

1852, “BRUCE, Robert”, in Robert Chambers, editor, A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, new edition, division II (Brown–Dalrymple), Glasgow, Edinburgh: Blackie and Son, →OCLC, page 365:

It was sowens she had in her hand for our supper, when a little old woman walked in and begged a lippie of meal of her.

1860, Thomas Pattieson, “The Smith and the Fairies”, in J[ohn] F[rancis] Campbell, transl., Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected: With a Translation, volume II, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, →OCLC, page 61:

Now there are perhaps 24 hogsheads sown yearly, every tenant and crofter having from one to four lippies. The increase is about one stone from the lippie.

1871 March, “Three-quarters of a Century Ago. Fortingal.”, in The Poor Law Magazine and Journal of Public Health, volume IV, number IV (New Series), Glasgow: Published for the promoters by N. Adshead, […], →OCLC, page 290:

(Scotland, historical) An old dry measure amounting to one quarter of a peck (for goods sold by weight, 1¾ pounds or about four-fifths of a kilogram); also, a container of that capacity.


myrrh

en-noun

myrrh (usually uncountable, plural myrrhs)

From Middle English mirre, from Old English myrre, from Latin myrrha, from Ancient Greek μύρρα (múrrha), from Semitic. Compare Arabic مُرّ (murr, “myrrh”, literally “bitterness”), Hebrew מור / מֹר (mōr, “myrrh”, literally “bitterness”). Compare מרור : maror.


sark

From Middle English serk, sark, serke, from Old English serċ, sierċ m; and serċe, sierċe f (“sark, shirt, shift, smock, tunic, corselet, coat of mail”), from Proto-West Germanic *sarki, from Proto-Germanic *sarkiz (“shirt, armour, hauberk”), from Proto-Indo-European *swerg-, *swerk- (“clothes worn outside”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to arrange, tack, tie, unite”).
Cognate with Scots sark, serk (“shirt, shift”), North Frisian serk (“shirt”), Danish særk (“gown, shirt”), Swedish särk (“shirt, chemise”), Icelandic serkur (“nightshirt”).

der

The next thing the watchers saw was the laird struggling up the far bank and casting his coat from him, so that he rode in his sark.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

Then lorek's rear claws dug into the links of Iofur's chain-mail sark and ripped downward. The whole front came away, and Iofur lurched sideways to look at the damage, leaving lorek to scramble upright again.

2007, Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials, Bluefire, →ISBN, page 259:

(Scotland and Northern England) A shirt or smock.


blaeberry

blaeberries (plural)
bleaberry (alternative)

From Middle English bloberi; equivalent to blae (“bluish gray”) + berry.

Vaccinium myrtillus
Vaccinium myrtillus#Translingual

(Northern England, Scotland, dialect) The bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus.


clink

en-verb

clink (third-person singular simple present clinks, present participle clinking, simple past and past participle clinked)

clinks (present singular third-person)
clinking (participle present)
clinked (participle past)
clinked (past)

(transitive, Scotland) To clinch; to rivet.


intromission

en-noun

intromission (countable and uncountable, plural intromissions)

From Latin intro-, "into", + mission', "sending", from Latin missio, from perfect passive participle missus, "sent", from verb mittere, "send", + noun of action -io. Commonly used to refer to the instant at which sexual intercourse begins, when the penis first slides into (enters) the vagina.

(law, Scotland) An intermeddling with the affairs of another, either on legal grounds or without authority.


clod

en-verb

clod (third-person singular simple present clods, present participle clodding, simple past and past participle clodded)

clods (present singular third-person)
clodding (participle present)
clodded (participle past)
clodded (past)

From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Old English clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to kloot (“clod”).
Alternatively, Middle English clod may derive from Old English *clod (found in Old English clodhamer (“a kind of thrush”) and Clodhangra (a placename)), from Proto-West Germanic *kloddō (“lump, clod”), from *gel- (“to ball up, become lumpy”), related to West Frisian klodde (“clod, lump”), Dutch klodde (“lump, blob”).

inh

"So, sir, she grippit him, and clodded him like a stane from the sling ower the craigs of Warroch-head"

1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

(transitive, Scotland) To throw violently; to hurl.


gegger

The street was, for a moment, in confusion; when no sooner did the geggers see that the fall would be broken, […]

1864 January 10, John Strang, Glasgow and Its Clubs: Or Glimpses of the Condition, Manners, Characters, and Oddities of the City, During the Past and Present Centuries, page 342:

(Scotland, archaic) One who tricks someone else.


yar

en-verb

yar (third-person singular simple present yars, present participle yarring, simple past and past participle yarred)

yars (present singular third-person)
yarring (participle present)
yarred (participle past)
yarred (past)
yarr (alternative)

From Middle English ȝaren, ȝurren, ȝeorren, from Old English ġeorran, ġirran, gyrran (“to sound, chatter, grunt, creak, grate”), from Proto-Germanic *gerraną (“to creak”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to make a noise, rattle, gurgle, grumble”). Cognate with Scots yarr, yirr (“to snarl, growl, quarrel, cause trouble”), Middle High German girren (“to roar, cry, rattle, chatter”).

cog

(intransitive, chiefly Scotland) To growl, especially like a dog; quarrel; to be captious or troublesome.


snifter

The verb is derived from Middle English snifteren, snifter, snyfter (“to sniffle”), possibly from *snift (possibly derived from a Old Norse word—compare Old Danish snifte and Swedish snyfta (“to sniffle; to sob”); probably ultimately imitative) + -er- (frequentative suffix) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).
The noun is derived from the verb.

(chiefly Northern England, Scotland) A sniff.

(chiefly Northern England, Scotland) A strong or severe wind.


pish

en-adj

pish (comparative more pish, superlative most pish)

more pish (comparative)
most pish (superlative)

Expressive; perhaps partly from Scots pish (“piss”).

(vulgar, colloquial, chiefly Scotland) Of poor quality; very bad.


walloper

(Scotland, slang, derogatory, vulgar) penis; (by extension) an idiot, a stupid person.


janitor

janitors (plural)
janitress (feminine)
janitrix (feminine rare)

→ Bikol Central: dyanitor

→ Cebuano: dyanitor

→ Hiligaynon: dyanitor

→ Ilocano: dyanitor

→ Tagalog: dyanitor

(chiefly US, Philippines) Someone who looks after the maintenance and cleaning of a public building.

(Scotland, Hong Kong) A caretaker or custodian; someone who maintains a school building specifically and may serve other administrative roles.

curator

One who maintains a collection, especially in a museum


footer

en-verb

footer (third-person singular simple present footers, present participle footering, simple past and past participle footered)

footers (present singular third-person)
footering (participle present)
footered (participle past)
footered (past)

18th century. From fouter, foutre (“valueless thing”), possibly from French foutre (“to lecher”), from Latin futuere (“to fuck”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to hit”).

(Ireland and Scotland, slang) To meddle with or pass time without accomplishing anything meaningful.


fash

fash (third-person singular simple present fashes, present participle fashing or fashin, simple past and past participle fashed)

fashes (present singular third-person)
fashing (participle present)
fashin (participle present)
fashed (participle past)
fashed (past)

From early modern French fascher (now fâcher), from Latin fastus (“disdain”).

"I wouldn't fash masel' about them, miss. Them things be all wore out."

1897, Bram Stoker, “Chapter 6”, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

(transitive, Scotland, Geordie, Northern England) To worry; to bother, annoy.

“They,” said he, meaning the collops, “are such as I gave his Royal Highness in this very house; bating the lemon juice, for at that time we were glad to get the meat and never fashed for kitchen. Indeed, there were mair dragoons than lemons in my country in the year forty-six.”

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:

(intransitive, Scotland, Geordie, Northern England) To trouble oneself; to take pains.


fash

(Scotland, Geordie, Northern England) A worry; trouble; bother.


nether

nether (third-person singular simple present nethers, present participle nethering, simple past and past participle nethered)

nethers (present singular third-person)
nethering (participle present)
nethered (participle past)
nethered (past)
nither (alternative)

Alteration of earlier nither, from Middle English nitheren, from Old English niþerian (“to depress, abase, bring low, humiliate, oppress, accuse, condemn”), from niþer (“below, beneath, down, downwards, lower, in an inferior position”). See above.

inh

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To constrict; straiten; confine; restrict; suppress; lay low; keep under; press in upon; vex; harass; oppress.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To pinch or stunt with cold or hunger; check in growth; shrivel; straiten.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To shrink or huddle, as with cold; be shivery; tremble.

(transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To depreciate; disparage; undervalue.


nether

(UK dialectal, Scotland) Oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.


breme

From Middle English brem, breme, from Old English brēme (“famous, glorious, noble”), from Proto-West Germanic *brōmi, from Proto-Germanic *brōmiz (“famous”). Cognate with Latin fremō (“I murmur; I roar”), Ancient Greek βρέμω (brémō, “I roar”), Polish brzmieć (“to be heard”).

Let me, ah! lette me in your folds ye lock, / Ere the breme winter breede you greater griefe.

1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

The same to him glad Summer or the Winter breme.

1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

(obsolete except Northern England, Scotland or poetic) Of the sea, wind, etc.: fierce; raging; stormy, tempestuous.


clart

clarts (plural)
clairt (alternative)
clort (alternative)

From Middle English *clart, found in the verb biclarten (“to cover or smear with dirt”). Cognate with Scots clart, clairt (“to besmear”), Scots clarty (“dirty”). Further origin uncertain.

I’m but a county Surveyor,– not really at m’ best upon the grand and global type of expedition, content here at home, old Geordie a-slog thro’ the clarts […].

(now Scotland, Northern England) Sticky mud, mire or filth.


clart

en-verb

clart (third-person singular simple present clarts, present participle clarting, simple past and past participle clarted)

clarts (present singular third-person)
clarting (participle present)
clarted (participle past)
clarted (past)
clairt (alternative)
clort (alternative)

Chris boiled water in kettles for hours and hours and then towels came down, towels clairted with stuff she didn't dare look at, she washed them quick and hung them to dry.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 43:

(transitive, now Scotland, Northern England) To daub, smear, or spread, especially with mud, etc.; to dirty.


kist

Possibly borrowed from Old Norse kista (“chest”); but see also English cist (“crypt”).

the spear he killed the gryphon with was locked in a kist there, or so some said […]

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair; 1), page 17:


kist

kist (third-person singular simple present kists, present participle kisting, simple past and past participle kisted)

kists (present singular third-person)
kisting (participle present)
kisted (participle past)
kisted (past)

(Scotland, transitive) To place in a coffin.


strut

en-adj

strut (comparative more strut, superlative most strut)

more strut (comparative)
most strut (superlative)

Probably an archaic past participle of strut (“to (cause something to) bulge, protrude, or swell”), now replaced by strutted: see etymology 1.

(Scotland, obsolete) Drunk, intoxicated; fou.


chucks

(Scotland) The game of jacks or jackstones.


humble

humble cattle

(Northern England, Scotland, also attributive) Alternative form of hummel.


gowk

From Middle English goke, gowke, from Old Norse gaukr (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Germanic *gaukaz (“cuckoo”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰegʰuǵʰ- (“cuckoo”).


gowpen

From Old Norse gaupn (“hollow made by cupped hands”). Doublet of yepsen.

der

it was ordered by Marina, who had it framed and set up in her bedroom next to a picture of her brother at twelve or fourteen clad in a bayronka (open shirt) and cupping a guinea pig in his gowpen (hollowed hands) […]

1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 313:

(chiefly Scotland) A bowl made of the two hands cupped together.


gralloch

From Scottish Gaelic grealach (“entrails”), from Proto-Celtic *gre-lach, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“bowels”).

(Scotland, rare) The entrails or offal of a dead deer.


gralloch

en-verb

gralloch (third-person singular simple present grallochs, present participle gralloching, simple past and past participle gralloched)

grallochs (present singular third-person)
gralloching (participle present)
gralloched (participle past)
gralloched (past)

On our mattress in the secret nights, the girls whispered to me how he’d been watching her in a revival of Emma Bovary in an art-house in Berkeley and Tristessa’s eyes, eyes of a stag about to be gralloched, had fixed directly upon his and held them.

1977, Angela Carter, The Passion of New Eve:

Then the beasts were prised apart at the breast,
 and they went to work on the gralloching again,
 riving open the front as far as the hind-fork,
 fetching out the offal, then with further purpose
filleting the ribs in the recognised fashion.

2012, Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, page 64:


gree

From Middle English gre, from Old French gré, from Latin gradum (“step”). Compare degree. Doublet of grade.

And thenne the kynge lete blowe to lodgynge
and by cause sir Palomydes beganne fyrste
and neuer he went nor rode oute of the feld to repose
but euer was doynge merueyllously wel outher on foote or on horsbak
and lengest durynge Kynge Arthur and alle the kynges gaf sir Palomydes the honour and the gree as for that daye

1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lxxj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:

(now Scotland) Pre-eminence; victory or superiority in combat (hence also, the prize for winning a combat).


gree

From (pre-reform) Scottish Gaelic gré, from Old Scottish Gaelic gray.

bycause Sir Palomydes beganne fyrste, and never he wente nor rode oute of the fylde to repose hym, but ever he was doynge on horsebak othir on foote, and lengest durynge, Kynge Arthure and all the kynges gaff Sir Palomydes the honoure and the gre as for that day.

1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book X:


harl

harl (third-person singular simple present harls, present participle harling, simple past and past participle harled)

harls (present singular third-person)
harling (participle present)
harled (participle past)
harled (past)

(transitive, Scotland) To drag along the ground.

(intransitive, Scotland) To drag oneself along.


streek

streek (third-person singular simple present streeks, present participle streeking, simple past and past participle streeked)

streeks (present singular third-person)
streeking (participle present)
streeked (participle past)
streeked (past)

Hae, there's a key, gang in your way
At the neist door there's braw ait strae;
Streek down upon't, my lad and learn
They're no ill lodg'd that get a barn."

1802, anonymous author, Four Funny Tales, The Monk and the Miller's Wife:

(archaic, dialect, UK, Scotland, transitive) To stretch.

Ye'll make a grave for my fair body,"
Running rain in the mill-water;
"And ye'll streek my brother at the side of me,"
The pains of hell for the king's daughter.

1866, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Poems and Ballads, The King's Daughter:

(archaic, dialect, UK, Scotland, transitive) To lay down, as a dead body.


limmer

Uncertain; perhaps from limb, or French limier; see leamer.

Thieves, limmers, and broken men of the Highlands.

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:


lunt

lunt (third-person singular simple present lunts, present participle lunting, simple past and past participle lunted)

lunts (present singular third-person)
lunting (participle present)
lunted (participle past)
lunted (past)

18th c, Robert Burns, The Twa Dogs, 1822, The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, page 28,
The lunting pipe, and sneeshing mill, / Are handed round wi' right gude-will;

My conscience! ye lent a ready hand in the brulzie; but what can ha'e set the Magazines a-lunting? it's a mystery o' mysteries.[…]Especially as it's their game to set everybody a-lunting, and keep out of the conflagration themselves.

1832, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 2, page 377:

2014, Robert P. Wills, Tales From A Second Hand Wand Shoppe, Book 1: They Were the Best of Gnomes, They Were the Worst of Gnomes, page 278,
“Lunting?” interrupted Julie, eyebrow raised.
Grimbledung shrugged, “It's a good and proper word”, he raised an eyebrow back, "it just doesn't get used that much."
Julie smirked, “Go on then, with your lunting.”
He let out a sigh. "As I was saying, I was sitting there when a Minotaur came lunting up." He paused for a moment, "Pipe in mouth, walking along", he winked at Julie, […] .

(Scotland) To walk while smoking a pipe.


malkin

malkins (plural)
maukin (alternative)
maulkin (alternative)

From Malde, an early form of Maude or Matilda + -kin (diminutive ending). Compare grimalkin.

There was milk punch and spiced whisky, a smell of goose and maukin roasting on the spit.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 158:


nief

niefs (plural)
nieves (plural)
neif (alternative)
nieve (alternative)
nef (alternative Scotland)
nefe (alternative Scotland)
neff (alternative Scotland)
neiff (alternative Scotland)
neaf (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English neve (“the clenched hand, fist”), from Old Norse nefi, hnefi (also knefi) ("hand, fist, handful"), from Proto-Germanic *hnefô, from Proto-Indo-European *knep- (“to scrape, scratch, grind”), from Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“to scratch, scrape”). Cognate with Scots neif (“fist”), Norwegian neve, Danish næve, Swedish näve, Middle High German nevemez (“handful”).

der

Ake thought if ever he was walking alone on a dark-like night and Jimmy came on him, he with his bare nieves and Jimmy with a knife, he'd stand as much chance of getting home safe as a celluloid cat that had strayed into hell[…].

1934, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Grey Granite, Polygon, published 2006, A Scots Quair, page 597:

Nestorius exploded at that and hit out. He roared and dismissed the class, hitting out with his old mottled gnarled niefs.

1989, Anthony Burgess, The Devil's Mode:

"But t' Maister can stop and hit rarely. Happen he'll mak' him joomp when he gets his nief upon him."

2004, Jeff Silverman, The Greatest Boxing Stories Ever Told, page 160:

(chiefly Scotland, Ireland, Northern England) A fist.


tittle

en-verb

tittle (third-person singular simple present tittles, present participle tittling, simple past and past participle tittled)

tittles (present singular third-person)
tittling (participle present)
tittled (participle past)
tittled (past)

From Middle English titillen, tytyllen, perhaps variants of Middle English tutelen (“to whisper, chatter”), from tutel (“mouth”), from Old English *tūtel, *tȳtel, related to Old Frisian tūte (“mouth”). Compare Middle English touten (“to jut out, project, protrude”), Middle English toute (“projection, mound, hill”), Middle Dutch tûte (whence modern Dutch tuit (“spout, nozzle, nose, point, peak, summit”)), Old Norse túta (“a teat-like prominence”), Danish tude (“spout”).


AS-level

AS-levels (plural)
AS level (alternative)
AS Level (alternative)

(UK, except for Scotland) Initialism of Advanced Subsidiary level, an exam sometimes taken in the first year of sixth form, as a first stage in completing an A-level qualification.


rift

en-verb

rift (third-person singular simple present rifts, present participle rifting, simple past and past participle rifted)

rifts (present singular third-person)
rifting (participle present)
rifted (participle past)
rifted (past)

(obsolete outside Scotland and northern UK) To belch.


slant

slant (third-person singular simple present slants, present participle slanting, simple past and past participle slanted)

slants (present singular third-person)
slanting (participle present)
slanted (participle past)
slanted (past)

Late Middle English, from a variant of the earlier form dialectical slent, from Old Norse or another North Germanic source, cognate with Old Norse slent, Swedish slinta (“to slip”), Norwegian slenta (“to fall on the side”), from Proto-Germanic *slintaną. Probably influenced by aslant.

cog

(Scotland, intransitive) To lie or exaggerate.


airt

en-verb

airt (third-person singular simple present airts, present participle airting, simple past and past participle airted)

airts (present singular third-person)
airting (participle present)
airted (participle past)
airted (past)


airt

He looked the airt the rain was coming from, and he saw it was the airt the Sker flowed.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:


high school

en-noun

high school (countable and uncountable, plural high schools)

high schools (plural)
highschool (alternative proscribed)
HS (alternative)

Inherited from Middle English hyȝ scole (“school for higher education”), equivalent to high + school. Cognate with Dutch hogeschool (“academy, university, graduate school”), German Hochschule (“academy, college, university”).

cog

(Canada, US, Australia, Scotland) A secondary school.


couth

en-adj

couth (comparative more couth, superlative most couth)

more couth (comparative)
most couth (superlative)

From Middle English couth (“familiar, known; evident, true; famous, respected, well-known; genteel, having good manners”), from Old English cūþ (“familiar, intimate, known, usual; certain, plain, manifest; famous, noted, well-known; excellent; friendly; related”), past participle of cunnan (“to be familiar with, know; can, to be able, know how”), from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to be familiar with, know, recognize; to be able, know how”) (compare *kunþaz (“known”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”). The word is cognate with Dutch kond (“known”), Saterland Frisian cut (“known”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs, “known”), Icelandic kuður, kunnur (“known”), Latin gnosco (“to know”), Old High German kund, chund, chunt, Middle High German kunt (modern German kund (“known”)), Old Saxon kūth, cûth, cuð (“known; famous, renowned”), Scots couth (“familiar, known”); and is a doublet of could.

inh

(Scotland) Variant of couthie.
Agreeable, friendly, pleasant.

Squad leaders were responsible for doing periodic checks to make sure soldiers were living a couth lifestyle, as Joes would compete regularly to see whose room was nicer.

2012, La’Vez Robinson Sr., “Deutschland”, in On My Own: Putting the Past behind Me, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 203:

(Scotland) Variant of couthie.
Comfortable; cosy, snug.


strath

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

From Scottish Gaelic srath, from Old Irish srath, from Proto-Celtic *stratos, from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃-. The meaning was likely influenced by a Cumbric/Pictish cognate (cf. Welsh ystrad). Doublet of stratus.

The place of exit from the hills of one or other of the Punjab rivers could generally be pointed out to me; the straths and gorges that opened upon the plains would often afford a peep into the interior of the mountains...

1874, Bayard Taylor, chapter IV, in Central Asia. Travels in Cashmere, Little Tibet, and Central Asia:

Agatha and Inga rode their horses with style across the strath.

1972, George Mackay Brown, Greenvoe, Polygon, published 2019, page 237:


head-the-ball

From the supposed effect of repeatedly heading a football.

(idiomatic, chiefly Scotland, Ireland, Liverpool, slang) a stupid person; a nutcase


steven

stevens (plural)
steaven (alternative)
stevvon (alternative)

From Middle English steven (“voice, command, constitution”), from Old English stefn (“voice”), from Proto-West Germanic *stebnu, from Proto-Germanic *stebnō (“voice”), earlier *stemnā, derived from Proto-Indo-European *stómn̥ (“mouth, muzzle; (originally) hole?”). Cognate with Old Frisian stifne, stemme (“voice”), Old Saxon stemna (“voice”), Dutch stem, Old High German stimma, stimna (“voice”) (German Stimme), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌱𐌽𐌰 (stibna, “voice”), and more distantly Ancient Greek στόμα (stóma, “mouth”), Avestan 𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬨𐬀𐬥 (staman, “maw”), and possibly Hittite 𒅖𒋫𒈪𒈾𒀸 (iš-ta-mi-na-aš /stāminas/, “ear”). See also stevvon. Displaced by voice.

cog

1566, William Addlington, translator, The Golden Asse, Apuleius
[…] whereby the little birds weening that the spring time had bin come, did chirp and sing in their steven melodiously […]

When Little John heard his master speake, / Well knew he it was his steven.

Then could her Sangsters loud their steven raise.

a. 1801, Richard Gall, Poems & Songs (1819) 93

All nature roar'd in one dire steven; Heaven cried to earth, and earth to heaven.

1826, James Hogg, Queen Hynde vi, in Poems (1865) 262

Thah's a rare stevven, lad.

1865, William Stott Banks, List Provinc. Words Wakefield:

Then Sir Launcelot said with dreary steeven [voice], “Sir bishop, I pray you give to me all my rights that longeth to a Christian man.”

1880, Sidney Lanier, Sir Thomas Malory, Alfred Kappes, The Boy's King Arthur:

He […] lifted up his steven To keep the bulwarks of his faith secure.

a. 1886, Eric Mackay, Love Lett. Violinist (1895) 197

Thomas's steven roughened and rose.

2019, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time:

(Northern England, Scotland, obsolete) Voice, especially when loud or strong.


irritant

From French irritant, equivalent to irritate + -ant.

The states elected Harry, Duke of Anjou, for their king, with this clause irritant; that, if he did violate any part of his oath, the people should owe him no allegiance.

1603, Hayward, An Answer to the first part of a certaine conference concerning succession:

(law, Scotland) Rendering null and void; conditionally invalidating.


tippet

From Middle English tippet, Old English tæppet, from Latin tapete (“cloth”).

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

(Scotland, obsolete) A length of twisted hair or gut in a fishing line.

The school constituency[…]provded “tippets” of straw to repair the thatch

(Scotland, obsolete) A handful of straw bound together at one end, used for thatching.


stirk

From Middle English stirk, sterke, styrke, from Old English stīrc, stȳrc, stȳric, stīorc (“calf, a stirk, a young bullock or a heifer”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiurik, from Proto-Germanic *stiurikaz (“bullock”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *steuraz (“steer”), equivalent to steer + -ock. Cognate with Middle Low German sterke (“stirk”), Middle Dutch stierick ("stirk"; compare Modern Dutch sterke (“young cow”)), German Sterk, Stärke, Stark (“stirk”). More at steer.

gloss

"stirk"; compare Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">sterke</i> (“young cow”)

But beware of MacPhadraick, my son; for when he called himself the friend of your father, he better loved the most worthless stirk in his herd, than he did the life-blood of MacTavish Mhor.

1827, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I (The Highland Widow), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 197:

Comprising eleven calved and in-calf cows and heifers, three barren cows, four fat cows and heifers, two sturks and three yearlings; fifteen in-lamb ewes and theaves, […]

1843 March 3, “To Be Sold by Auction, By B. Cheatle & Son”, in Leicester Journal, and Midland Counties General Advertiser, volume 92, number 4895, Leicester: James Jackson, page 2:

he could stop a running stirk by the horns, so strong he was in the wrist-bones.

1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 20:

(British, Scotland, dialectal, dated) A yearling cow; a young bullock or heifer.


deacon

Inherited from Old English diacon, from Ecclesiastical Latin diāconus, from Ancient Greek διᾱ́κονος (diā́konos, “servant, minister”).

der

(Scotland) The chairman of an incorporated company.


give over

en-verb

give over (third-person singular simple present gives over, present participle giving over, simple past gave over, past participle given over)

gives over (present singular third-person)
giving over (participle present)
gave over (past)
given over (participle past)

Give over with your nonsense, will you!

While he was declaring the truth, a constable came in with his great staff, and bid him give over, and come down: but William Penn held on, declaring truth in the power of God.

1681, George Fox, A journal or historical account of the life, travels, sufferings, […], published 1831, page 247:

Amelia, I wish you would give over with your reading and your information, it's not for ladies to be literary; people don't like it, you silly thing!

1890, Mary Taylor, Janet Murray, Miss Miles: Or a Tale of Yorkshire Life 60 Years Ago, page 212:

She was getting very heavy, and could run but slowly. Once, in the pursuit of a rabbit, which she ordinarily would have caught with ease, she gave over and lay down and rested.

1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:

My mother told him to give over and let me alone, and said she was sure it would be a lovely suit, and that Aunt Jack would never buy poor material, but stuff that would last forever.

1962, Brendan Behan, Brendan Behan's island: an Irish sketch-book, page 151:

According to Homer, the rest of the Trojan army drew away from Troy pretending to retreat and give over with the siege in order to confuse the Trojans.

2005, Anatoly T. Fomenko, History: Fiction Or Science?, page 245:

"Get yourself seen to, Isaac. For God's sake. Before it's too late," Sarah would chastise him. / "Och, Sarah, would you give over with your bargeing. It's just a wee cough. It'll get better itself."

2009, Eugene McEldowney, The Faloorie Man, page 143:

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland, intransitive) To give up; abandon; stop.


reclaim

reclaim (third-person singular simple present reclaims, present participle reclaiming, simple past and past participle reclaimed)

reclaims (present singular third-person)
reclaiming (participle present)
reclaimed (participle past)
reclaimed (past)

From Middle English reclaymen, recleymen, reclamen, from Anglo-Norman reclamer (noun reclaim and Middle French reclamer (noun reclaim), from Latin reclāmō, reclāmāre.

(intransitive, law, Scotland) To appeal from the Lord Ordinary to the inner house of the Court of Session.


messages

/ˈmɛsɪd͡ʒɪz/

I was going up the town to buy some messages.

1983, Raymond McClean, The road to Bloody Sunday, page 119:

A South African woman, just married to an Irishman and newly arrived in this country, was shocked when her husband told her, "I just saw yer man in the shop when I was getting the messages (groceries)." "My what?" "Yer man. […]"

A woman with a well-to-do south voice told me to wash my soily hands before touching her messages.

1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 9:

(Ireland, Scotland and Northern England) Shopping, groceries, errands.


hooley

Unknown. In the second sense, it may be an alteration of Orkney Scots hoolan, "strong gale" (of Norse origin).

It's blowing a hooley out there.


quat

quat (third-person singular simple present quats, present participle quatting, simple past and past participle quatted)

quats (present singular third-person)
quatting (participle present)
quatted (participle past)
quatted (past)

Ye hae grown proud since ye quatted the begging. — Scottish proverb, said satirically.

'Mang mis'ry's posts, whar I did sit, My tongue took sic a faltrin' fit, I thought the wee remains o' wit I had, was quat me

1813, Hugh Porter, Poetical attempts, page 35:

They seem to our ears indeed to have "quat their roaring play."

1868, John Wilson, Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2:

(Scotland, dialectal, transitive) To relinquish, forsake, give up.


quat

My word, I gie him nae encouragement ! I canna bide the sicht o' him, and wad gie the best gown I hae to be quat o' him."

There it is, sir—Im blythe to be quat of it; pitch it from ye furder than I can see.

1861, Mrs. Oliphant, The House on the Moor:

HECH me, but I'm weary, I'm heart-sick and sad ; O' my kinsfolk I've got quite a wamefu', I wush I was quat o' the d — nable squad — Forgi'e me for sweerin' sae shamefu'.

1895, William Stewart, Lilts and Larks Frae Larkie, page 177:

(Scotland, dialectal, with "of") Free; no longer involved with; quit.


onde

en-noun

onde (usually uncountable, plural ondes)

ondes (plural)
aand (alternative)
aind (alternative)
and (alternative)
ande (alternative)
aynd (alternative)

From Middle English onde, ande, from Old English onda, anda (“zeal, indignation, anger, malice, envy, hatred”), from Proto-West Germanic *anadō, from Proto-Germanic *anadô (“breath, spirit, zeal”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- (“to breathe, blow”).
Cognate with Scots aynd, eind, end (“breath”), German Ahnd, And (“pain, anguish”), Danish ånd, ånde (“breath, spirit”), Swedish anda, ande (“spirit, breath”), Icelandic andi (“spirit”), Latin anima (“breath, spirit”). More at animal.

der

(UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) breath


rax

en-verb

rax (third-person singular simple present raxes, present participle raxing, simple past and past participle raxed)

raxes (present singular third-person)
raxing (participle present)
raxed (participle past)
raxed (past)

From Middle English raxen, rasken (“to stretch oneself”), from Old English raxan, racsan (“to stretch oneself after sleep”), probably alteration, with formative s, of Old English rǣċan, ræċċan, reċċan (“to stretch, extend”), from Proto-Germanic *rakjaną (“to stretch”), from Proto-Indo-European *reǵ- (“to make straight”). Related to Dutch rekken (“to stretch”), German recken (“to stretch”), Swedish räcka (“to suffice, reach, pass, last”).

cog

Shoeless, he stood naked on his toes, his arms raxed upwards.

(UK, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To stretch; stretch out.

(UK, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To reach out; reach or attain to.

Please rax me the pitcher.

Wha the mischief set him on reading me? I'm sure he could never read onything in a dacent-like way since he was cleckit—rax me the Queen, and I'll let you hear a bit that will gar your hearts dinnle again—rax me the Queen, I say.

1825, John Wilson, Robert Shelton Mackenzie, James Hogg, William Maginn, John Gibson Lockhart, “Noctes Ambrosianæ No. XVIII”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 17:

(UK, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, transitive) To extend the hand to; hand or pass something.

(UK, dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, intransitive) To perform the act of reaching or stretching; stretch oneself; reach for or try to obtain something

(UK, dialectal, chiefly Scotland, intransitive) To stretch after sleep.


ruckle

Probably cognate with Dutch rogchelen (“to hawk”).

(Scotland) A rattling noise in the throat, as from suffocation.


ruckle

en-verb

ruckle (third-person singular simple present ruckles, present participle ruckling, simple past and past participle ruckled)

ruckles (present singular third-person)
ruckling (participle present)
ruckled (participle past)
ruckled (past)

(Scotland, intransitive) To make a rattling noise in the throat.


scutch

scutch (third-person singular simple present scutches, present participle scutching, simple past and past participle scutched)

scutches (present singular third-person)
scutching (participle present)
scutched (participle past)
scutched (past)

From Middle English *scucchen, from Anglo-Norman escucher, from Vulgar Latin *excuticāre.

(obsolete, UK, Scotland, Northern England, dialect) To beat or whip; to drub.


burlin'

en-adj

burlin' (comparative more burlin', superlative most burlin')

more burlin' (comparative)
most burlin' (superlative)


sitootery

sitooteries (plural)
sitooterie (alternative)

From sit + oot + -ery, perhaps modelled on conservatory.

(Scotland) A small patio or sheltered area outside a house suitable for sitting in for relaxation or socialising.


furth

(obsolete or Scotland) Alternative form of forth.


syboe

(Scotland) A spring onion or green onion.


jap

en-verb

jap (third-person singular simple present japs, present participle japping, simple past and past participle japped)

japs (present singular third-person)
japping (participle present)
japped (participle past)
japped (past)
Jap (alternative)

From or related to Scots jaup, jap (“of liquid: dash, splash”).

m+

[…] the yelp of the girl as the hot water japped her legs. I The big fellow bore me across the kitchen.

The oilcloth on the kitchen table / an olive green thing - retro surface / japped with little bits of water / or if you like with bits 'v watter / […]

(Scotland, Northern Ireland, transitive) (of a liquid) To spatter or splash over a surface.


rance

en-noun

rance (countable and uncountable, plural rances)

From Old French ranche, from Latin ramex, ramus.


rance

en-verb

rance (third-person singular simple present rances, present participle rancing, simple past and past participle ranced)

rances (present singular third-person)
rancing (participle present)
ranced (participle past)
ranced (past)

(Scotland, transitive) To prop or shore up.


King Billy

(Ireland, Scotland, informal) King William III of England.


lealty

en-noun

lealty (countable and uncountable, plural lealties)

From Anglo-Norman lealté, one of the variants of Old French loiauté.

[…] and kissed King Hasan's hands and did homage to him, and swore lealty to him.

1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume V, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:

1886, Francis de Sales, The mission of the Church, part 12, translated by Rev. Henry Benedict Mackey
[…] to lead away Christian lealty into rebellion and revolt


month's mind

months' minds (plural)
month mind (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-month's mind.wav

From Middle English monethes mynde under influence from Medieval Latin dies mensis (“day of the month”) and Old English ġemynd, whose principal sense was "memory".

der

(Christianity, now chiefly Ireland and Scotland) A requiem mass or other commemoration of a deceased person held one month after burial.