I had intended only doing one Scottish word each week but this week it will have to be two as they go together like fish and chips.
Skelp.
A skelp is the Scots word for a good old fashioned smack. I know that it is all terribly unPC and such but who cares. There are times when small children just have to be skelped because they are too young to reason with.
Nothing works better than a quick skelp, especially when you have just about had a heart attack as you have caught the wee darling doing something completely mental like sticking a screwdriver into an electric socket. And don’t say that the sockets should have had safety covers over them. We tried that and the kids could remove them in a second, in fact their dad had to ask them to remove the safety covers for him when he wanted to use a socket as his big fingers couldn’t get a grip on the covers to prise them off.
The word which skelped is usually followed with is the lovely word,
Bahookie.
I think that it will be obvious what this word means. It’s a bottom or bum of course – or a backside if you prefer.
So the phrase – If you don’t watch it you’ll get a skelped bahoukie was probably one of the most used threats when I was growing up and I’m pleased to say that it hasn’t quite died out yet.
You have to be careful though as there is a cut off age – after which the threat might be used but not actually administered, especially if you have boys. After all, you don’t want them to grow up paying some “lady” to skelp their bahoukies for them.
>If you don’t watch it you’ll get a skelped bahoukie
This is definitely entering our family’s vocabulary. My teenagers will absolutely love it if I threaten them in this Scottish manner 🙂
I’ll be back for more words!
I’m glad you like it. I’ll have to edit the post to explain that bahoukie is pronounced to rhyme with cookie. Have fun.
I used to say bahoochie (ch as in loch (not lock)
Robin,
Yes, I swithered about which it should be, I know people who pronounce it both ways, depending on their mood I suppose, and sometimes it’s written ‘hou’ instead of ‘hoo’. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
After 10+ years of using what I thought was my own non-swear word for bullshit, I decided to plug it into Google. Turns out I didn’t create a word as a wee lad, and it didn’t even mean quite what I wanted it to. Great article, I enjoyed the read.
Xavior,
These old Scots words do often end up being used by non Scots, I’m happy about that as at one time words were in danger of being lost to us. Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment.
Katrina
I’m reading a 2018 James Bond novel by Anthony Horowitz-in it a Scottish housekeeper refers to Joseph Stalin as ‘a skelped bahoochie’ different spelling but I get the idea- here in the U.k. its equivalent is an smacked arse’ !!
Phil Byrne,
Yes, that’s exactly it. Anthony Horowitz must have done a wee bit of research to find the right words for his Scottish housekeeper, or he knows a Scot quite well! Thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment. Of course Scotland IS in the UK – at the moment anyway.
We used to refer to one’s bahootnie – probably derived from same.
Angela,
Yes bahootnie is obviously a variation. I’m interested in where you were brought up, presumably somewhere in Scotland.
Thanks for dropping by.
Katrina