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!