Category Archives: Scottish words

Scottish words: dree my own weird

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Joan and Peggy Ann were both wondering about the phrase ‘dree my own weird’ which appeared in the previous blogpost. It’s more likely to be pronounced ‘dree ma ain weird’ really but anyway, if you look up the word dree in the Oxford dictionary it’ll tell you that it’s a verb which is either archaic or Scottish and it means – to endure.

Weird is also in that dictionary and its meaning is – destiny or fate. So the whole thing means to submit to your destiny.

Nowadays people tend to use that phrase to mean that they will plough their own furrow, in other words – do their own thing, which is a slightly different meaning altogether.

It’s a very fatalistic view of things which could be peculiarly Scottish for all I know. We’re also very fond of saying – What’s for you will no’ go by ye. In other words – if it’s meant to be, it will be.

It stems from the belief that when you are born your whole future is already mapped out and nothing can change your destiny. For some people it’s a religious thing – it is a form of Calvinist predestination really; in Scotland it’s difficult to escape Calvinism – but people who follow astrology must have a similar outlook.

The Old Scottish Alphabet

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Have you ever wondered why so many Scottish names are pronounced entirely differently from how they look? Well in the case of words with a Y or a Z in them it’s quite simply because the letter of the alphabet which was originally used to spell it is now no longer in use because it’s archaic.

Think of the names Dalziel, Dalyell (both of which are pronounced Dee-ell).

Then there’s Culzean (Cull-ane)

The name MacKenzie comes originally from MacConnachie/MacKennie/MacKinney …

Then of course there’s Menzies which should be Ming-iss.

There are a lot more I’m sure but I can’t think of them at the moment. Anyway, you get the idea.

The letter of the alphabet which is no longer in use, and causes the confusion is yogh and you can read about it here in an article about Scottish handwriting.

Yogh looked like the letter z with an extra loop on the bottom, or sometimes like a 3 slightly below the line. I’m sure you’ll probably remember seeing it on old documents if you like perusing things like that.

I’m mentioning it because when we went to visit Culzean Castle recently the guide told us that he had no idea why it was pronounced Cull-ane, I suppose it was originally Cull-yane. Anyway, we enlightened him after the tour and he was going to add it to his explanations. I thought it was something which was commonly known, but maybe not.

Scottish words: Hameldaeme

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It’s a frequently asked question – Where are you going for your holidays? – and the answer is quite often Hameldaeme. No it isn’t a picturesque village or a scenic area, it translates as home will do me – and it means that there’s no travelling involved in this year’s holiday as you’re staying at home.

Hameldaeme is a great place if you get some good weather too but I don’t think anywhere is enjoying that this year.

Hameldaeme – hame rhymes with tame, then there’s a short ‘l’ sound, dae rhymes with say, and the sound dae is where you put the emphasis, then finish it off with a quick me sound, more like mi really. Does that make sense?

Scottish words: clype

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Clype is a word which is often used by schoolchildren in quite a menacing way. At other times it’s used teasingly.

If you are accused of being a clype (it rhymes with type) it simply means that you’re being called a tell-tale, a grass, a sneak, that most despised of things – an informer.

At primary school every class seemed to have one of them, always a goody goody girl for some reason, who would shout: You’re aa-ported. Why did they always say aa-ported, when what they meant was – I’m going to report you to the teacher, for whatever small misdemeanour you had committed.

I well remember being aa-ported to the teacher for having my eyes open during the Lord’s Prayer!! Thankfully, Mrs Wilson told Jackie that she must have had her eyes open too.

Jackie of course was a clype, and we all told her so. No other words are required, just that one wee word which you can put plenty of feeling into as you say it.

Scottish words: widdershins

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Evee mentioned recently that she loved the Scottish word widdershins and I agreed with her, but I realised that I didn’t explain what it means, so here goes.

Widdershins or as it is sometimes written withershins is Scottish for anti-clockwise or counter-clockwise as some people say it. It’s sometimes used in astronomy as it literally means against the course of the sun.

Anything widdershins is deemed to be bad luck as witches were supposed to walk round their cauldrons that way, but we always go widdershins round the local park because it just doesn’t feel right going clockwise.

It was once used if you wanted to say that something is the opposite way of what is deemed to be normal, or as people tend to say nowadays – something which is counter-intuitive.

Scottish words: tapsalteerie

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I had intended doing a book post tonight but if I want to get any actual reading done – which I do – it’ll just have to be a quick Scottish words post.

While I was painting the other day I had the TV on in the background, just for the company, if you can call it that. It was an old episode of the original Upstairs Downstairs and World War I was just about to be declared. Young men were worried that they might miss the whole ‘show’ if they didn’t join up.

Good old Mr Hudson, the Scottish butler was exasperated by everything and he said “Everything’s tapsalteerie today,” meaning everything’s upside down. I don’t know if it was because I was just listening to it but it came to me that the word must derive from topsail and so it originally meant that the topsail was at the bottom or certainly not where it should be on a ship if all is well.

Nobody else seems to have put this forward as a possibility of the derivation. What do you think? Do you have any other theories?

Scottish words: jiggered

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I was watching TV a couple of weeks ago and there was a programme on about Scottish words. They asked Jackie Stewart the 1960s/70s Formula 1 racing driver – and several times World Champion – what his favourite word was and he said jiggered. It’s a good long while since I heard anyone using the word and I have to say that it isn’t really one that you look forward to using. It describes something that is broken and an online dictionary says that jiggered is used in the place of a profanity or something rude.

I remember though that we used to say that we were jiggered when we were exhausted and for some reason I had it in my mind that it was used because jigging (dancing) was always so tiring. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever been to a Scottish country dance!

Anyway I had a look on You Tube to see if there was anyone using the word jiggered but couldn’t find anything, I did however see this video of women (and a man who shouldn’t have been there) ‘waulking’ tweed and singing in Gaelic. Do you remember way back in the 1960s BBC Scotland used things like this as fillers, except the women were wearing ordinary clothes? It passed for entertainment then. Then there’s a ceilidh band called Jiggered tacked onto it, they’re not bad though. They seem to have been at the Viking Festival in Largs.

Scottish words: poor wee scone

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My recent scone failure reminded me of this one. Okay so it’s a Scottish phrase rather than a word and I hadn’t heard it before moving to the east of Scotland so I associate it with the Edinburgh area, but I love it.

In the west of Scotland we normally just say ‘poor wee soul’ – which is universal really so nothing very interesting about that and ‘poor wee scone’ is just a more striking way of expressing the same sentiment. Sometimes scone is used as a term of endearment in the way that ‘hen’ is used. I quite like being called hen but I have a horrible feeling that the usage is dying out.

In France they use the word cabbage as a sort of term of endearment really. Who said the French were romantic?!

In Germany I think it’s usually just babies which are described as little snails. Well I’ve seen some scary looking babies in my day but that’s taking it a wee bit too far.

I think I’d rather be described as a scone than either of those words, even if I’m a poor wee scone!

Scottish words: corporation

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A very good and old friend of mine now sadly no longer with us once said to me that she liked a man with a corporation, because they always look so well set up and wealthy. I had never heard the word used in that way before but I knew exactly what it meant.

It isn’t the same as the English usage of the word corporation although I think it might originate from the borough or town council meaning, as those types tend to get a corporation from being on the council and having lots of beanfeasts at the expense of the rest of us.

A corporation in Scotland is a man’s large stomach. It was seeing our First Minister Alex Salmond’s large corporation looming around a door, stately as a galleon, as he entered a room for an interview on TV the other day which brought to my mind that I hadn’t posted about that Scottish use of the word yet.

Strangely I’ve known a few women who have confided to me that they like their men to have a good corporation. It’s just as well really as so many men have them!

Scottish words: trauchle

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I am still deeply mired in domestic carnage. In fact the past couple of weeks have been one big trauchle. The best way I can describe the pronunciation is – the ‘auch’ bit is the same as the ‘och’ of loch.

A trauchle is a long, drawn out, weary experience and that’s what I’ve had recently – what with gardening mayhem, destructive removal men, an electrician who didn’t complete his job, another one who turned up to fix his work and today it was the carpet fitters.

Emptying the dining-room of all the furniture and pulling up the carpet was a helluva trauchle, but had to be done. Then as I was giving the floorboards a last sweep this morning the carpet men turned up. They were supposed to come in the afternoon. That’s the first time anyone like that has been early. I had been planning on taking before and after photos but I couldn’t as they got stuck into the work immediately. I might take a photo of the carpet though, just so you can see what it’s like. I have to say the carpet fitters were great.

Tonight we’ve been putting all the furniture back in and after the third electrician comes tomorrow I can start thinking about pulling out the Christmas decorations. That’ll be another trauchle! I’m not complaining – honestly!