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Cornell University Library
PE 2121.S7C72
I itudles in Lowland Scots /
3 1924 026 538 920
Si
C7Z
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM GREEN AND SONS
EDINBURGH
August 1909
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tine Cornell University Library.
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STUDIES
IN
LOWLAND SCOTS
BY
JAMES CpLVILLE
M.A., D.Sc, IN CoMP. Phil. (Edin.)
AUTHOR OF
"By-ways of History." Edin.: Douglas
"Some Old-fashioned Educationists." Edin.: Green
EDITOR OF
'Coolcburn Letters" and " Ochtertyre House Book" (Scott. Hist Soc, Vols. 45 and 55)
CONTRIBUTOR OP
Art. "Scotland" to "Social England," 6 Vols. Cassells
WITH FOUR PLATES
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
WILLIAM GEEEN AND SONS
1909
H.
^?/«/
Jr
INTEODUCTION
These " Studies," as the title indicates, lay no claim to be a
final or exhaustive treatment of the Scots vernacular in respect
of its origin, character, and contents. They are the outcome of
an early and sustained predilection for the subject, and testify
to an interest in it not alone on its linguistic side, but also
as illuminating the track of racial culture. The bulk of the
matter has, from time to time, appeared in contributions to the
Eoyal Philosophical Society of Glasgow and to the " Glasgow
Herald," to both of which I shall ever owe a debt of gratitude.
Its appearance in its present form is due to the support and
countenance of the Carnegie Trust, which is doing so much for
original research that would otherwise remain little more than
a personal hobby.
It would be a scholarly and patriotic task to trace the
historical development and decline of the Scots vernacular, and
to base, on an analysis of its literary remains on the one hand
and of its living usages on the other, a scientific statement of
its morphology and phonology, and of its affinities and character-
istics. But I have contented myself with opening up, in
independent fashion, suggestive lines of investigation, and with
the recording of words and features now fast passing out of
recognition. Within the peculiarly debatable sphere of the
history of the words referred to, the interpretations offered are
tentative and in no sense final. The text was first completed
from my own point of view and resources, but I have taken the
opportunity in the " Glossary " of checking all such statements,
and frankly indicating any divergence these present from the
conclusions of recognised authorities. It is hoped that the text
will be read in the light of this annotated " Glossary."
Though the work has been presented in a series of " Studies,"
it is hoped that the reader will not fail to see in the whole a
unity of design. Nothing has been introduced which had not
naturally a place within the central theme — the antiquity,
continuity and persistency of the Scots vernacular. With this
principle in view such apparently remotely connected subjects
as Aryan Culture and the Gothic Gospels have been treated at
length. The former places the Scots vernacular ^ithin the
vi INTEODUCTION
great Indo-Germanic unity of speech ; the latter shows its un-
mistakable kinship with a band of brothers, following a serious,
rural life so remote in time and space as Bulgaria in the fourth
century of our era. The treatment is novel in so far as it is
done from this Scots point of view. While we are all Indo-
Germanic, it is impossible to affirm, in any precise sense, that
the Lowland Scot is a lineal descendant of the Moeso-Goth, but
what I have tried to make good is, that the speech of Bishop
Wulfila's flock is as intelligible to the Scot now as, say, that of
the Cumberland dalesman. Among the Low-German tribes —
Dutch, Frisian, Norse — who must have early made themselves
free of both shores of the North Sea, I do not venture to affirm
which formed the link of connection and blood-brotherhood
between Lowlander and Goth. That there was such a vital link
is indubitable on the evidence of speech. Within these extremes
will be found a mass of illustrative matter drawn from com-
parison with the kindred dialects of Cumberland and the Scots
Border, and from the South African Taal, which has preserved
so much of what was once the common stock of shrewd, Bible
and home-loving Hollander and Scot.
Finally, and forming the kernel of the whole, the section
entitled "Field Philology" gathers up the reminiscences, in
phrase, folklore, and social customs, of a mid- Victorian rural
Scotland at a time when home industries still lived, when
railways were a wonder, and scientific inventions a dream.
Here will be found much in idiom and vocable that has never
yet been recorded.
To the genuinely patriotic Scot, at home and abroad, I
venture to appeal for recognition of the fact that this is, at
least, a praiseworthy effort to preserve somewhat of his rare
bi-lingual inheritance, and to offer an incentive to kindred
workers in the field. Nor should it fail to interest also the
student of English, which, on historical lines, owes so much
to comparison with Northern speech. Such comparison the
philological expert might also fitly welcome as the true method
of scientific progress.
JAMES COLVILLE.
14 Newton Place,
GLAfSGOW, Aiigust 1909.
CONTENTS, SOURCES, AND AUTHOEITIES
CONSULTED
I.— THE DAWN, 1-58
1. Codex Argenteus and its Story, 1-2 ; Bishop Wulfila and his Work,
2-4 ; The Goths in History, 4-7 ; Their Place in the Indo-Eur.
Family, Grimm's Law, 7-9 ; Gothic and Runes, 9-11 ; Gothic
Phonology, 11-14 ; Lacunce in the Go. MSS., 15 ; Social Life of the
Goths in their Vocables, 15-28 — (a) Personal Environment, 16-19,
(b) Natural Environment, 19-21, (c) Activities, 22-28 ; Survivals in
Sc, Eng. and Ger., 28-34 ; Value of Gothic in Compar. Grammar,
specially for Scots, 34-42.
2. Specimens of WuMla's " Gospels " — Grammatical Introduction, 43-46 ;
Transliteration of Mark iv. 1-10, 46-48 ; Same Passage in Lowland
Scots of 1520, 49 ; Luke ii. 4-20, 49-52 ; Same Passage in Lowland
Scots, 52-3 ; Luke xv. 1 1-32, 53-56 ; Same Passage in Lowland
Scots, 56-58.
Sources, &t.: — Stamm's Ulfilas, Text. Worterhuch u. Grammatik neu
herausgegeben von Dr. Moritz Heyne, 1872. Gotische Grammatilc
mit einigen Lesestiicken u. Wortverzeichnis von Wilhelm Braune,
1887. Moeso-Gothic Glossary and Grammar by Professor Skeat,
1868. Moeso-Gothic Gospel of St. Mark by Professor Skeat (Clar.
Press). Introduction to the Gothic of Ulfilas, 1886. Bosworth
— Gothic, A.Saxon, WycHf and Tyndale's Gospels. Purvey's Re-
vision of Wycliflfe's Version turned into Scots by Mtirdoch Nisbet,
c. 1520, ed. T. G. Law, LL.D. (Scott. Text Soc). Die Vier
Evangelien in Alt Nordhumbrisoher Sprache von Bouterwek, 1857.
Die Heliand (Saviour) oder das Lied vom Leben Jesu, Kone, 1855.
IL— IN DECADENCE, 59-108
1. Scots Vernacular on its Literary Side, 59-63 ; Survival in Dialect,
63-66 ; in Proverbial Sayings, 66-71 ; in Law and Church Life,
71-76.
2. Scots and English, 76-95 ; English and Scots contrasted in Phonetics,
78-84 ; in Vocables, 84-87 ; in Grammar and Idiom, 87-95.
3. Dialect and Vernacular compared, 95-99 ; Lowland Dialects and their
Study, 99-101 ; Scots in the English Dialect Diet, 101-104 ; Mis-
interpretations of Scots Scholars, 104-108 ; Contrast with the
Intelligent Foreigner, 108.
Sources: — Author's Observation and Reading. Quotations from Sir J.
Murray's "Dialects of the South of Scotland," and Stevenson's
" Underwoods."
viii CONTENTS
III.— FIELD PHILOLOGY, 109-164
1. Village Life in Fifeshire, 109-141 ; Influence of Books and Education
on a Vernacular, 109-113; A Campbeltown Ballad, 113-116;
Dialect of the "Kailyard," 117-8; Village Sketch in Time and
Place, 118-121 ; the Natural, Human Boy's Attitude to Rural Life,
121-125 ; the Skylark, 126 ; Pleasures of Garden, Play, and Farm-
yard, 126-133 ; Pleasures of "Winter Evenings, 133-136 ; Social
Virtues and Manners, 136-139 ; Results and Lessons, 139-141.
2. Farm Life in Moray, 141-164 ; Value of Field Philology, 141-143 ;
Scene of Sketch, 143-145 ; Farm Work, 145-6 ; Domestic Animals,
147-8 ; Plant and Animal Names, 148-9 ; Social Life, 149-153 ;
Folklore, 154-156 ; Ross Narrative, 157-160; Cissy Wood and Cottar
Life, 160-164.
Sources: — Gregor's Glossary of the Buchan Dialect. Edmonston's
Orcadian and Shetland Glossary. Jakohsen's Old Shetland Dialect.
Shaw's Nithsdale. Author's Observations and Researches. Remini-
scences of Old Inhabitants.
The Bub-section No. 2 was very kindly and sympatlietically annotated by the Rer.
James Cooper, Litt.D., Profes<ior ol Church History, University ol Glasgow. As a native of
Morayshire, profoundly interested in all departments of Soots lore, he was pectdiarly fitted
to supply valuable annotations.
IV.— SIDE-LIGHTS, 165-225
1. Vernacular of the Lake District, 164-189 ; Cumbria and Strathclyde,
165-6 ; Affinities in Idiom and Grammar, 167-171 ; Archaisms in
Common, 171-173 ; Border Parallels, 173-4 ; Comparison of Cu. and
Scots in Vocables, 174-180 ; Social Customs, 180-2 ; Affinities in
Scott and Burns, 182-3 ; Folklore, 183-187 ; Rural Pursuits, 187-9 ;
Weather Lore, 189.
Sources : — Glossary of Cumberland Dialect — Dickinson and Prevost. Phon-
ology and Grammar of Cumberland Dialect — Dickson Brown. Sup-
plemenf>-E. W. Prevost, Ph.D., F.R.S.E. Dialects of the South of
Scotland — Murray. Glossary of Nithsdale Words — Shaw.
2. Braid Scottis in the Transvaal, 190-225.
(a) The Taal, 190-212— Dutch, the Taal, and Scots, 190-193 ;
Familiar Affinities in Vocables, Idioms, Sayings, Social Customs,
193-198 ; Rural Surroundings of Boer and Scot in Comparison and
Contrast, 198-204 ; Social Life, 204-212.
(V) Duncan Gray, in Taal, 212-217 — Burns in Boer Land, 212-3 ;
Dantjie Groiiws, 214-5 ; Annotations, 215-6 ; As a Translation,
216-7.
(e) The Cottar's Saturday Night, 217-220 — Scene in Comparison
and Contrast as between Boer and Scot, 217-220.
(d) Tam o' Shanter, 220-225 ; Defects of the Translation, 220-1 ;
Conviviality, 222-3 ; Superstitious Elements, 223-225.
Sources: — How to Speak Dutch — Logeman and Van Oordt. A Veldt
Official — Musgrave. Article, "Blackwood's Magazine," 1880-1.
Burns in Other Tongues — Wm. Jacks, LL.D. Reitz's Renderings of
" Burns " in Dr. Jacks' volume. Notes by Afrikanders.
CONTENTS ix
v.— FARTHER AFIELD, 226-263
1. Scoto-Frenoli in the Lowland Vernacular, 227-243 ; the "Auld
Alliance," 237 ; Dutch Trading Influences, 227-8 ; the " Scot
Abroad," 228.
Sources: — Ledger of Andrew Halyhurton, 1492, 229-30. Exchequer
Accounts, 1538, 230. Tariff of Custom Dues, 1612, 231. James
Bell's Pocket-Book, 1621, 231-3. Latin Grammars, 1587-1693,
233-6. Seventeenth Century Diaries, 236-8. Glasgow Burgh
Records, 1691-1717, 238-9. General Usage, 239-41. Burns's Poems,
241-243.
2. Primitive Aryan Civilisation, 243-263 ; Aryan a Linguistic, not a Racial,
Unity, 243-4 ; Discovery of Sanskrit and its Consequences, 244-5 ;
How to Estimate the Primitive Stock of Culture, 246 ; Common
Vocables for (1) Family Ties, 246-248 ; (2) Man Generally, 248-9 ;
(3) Home, 249-50 ; (4) Domestic Animals, 250-1 ; (5) Animal and
Plant Life, 251-2 ; (6) The Homestead, 252-3 ; (7) Food, 253 ; (8)
Occupations, 253-4 ; (9) Seasons, 254 ; (10) Civil Life, 254-5 ; (11)
Mind and Myth, 255-6 ; Results, Mental and Material, 256-7 ; the
Primitive Dispersal, 257 ; " Gothic Gospels," the Veda of the
Teutons, 258 ; Traces of the Indo-Germanic Schism, 258-260 ; Home
of the Aryas, 260-262 ; Views of Professor Sayce, 262-3.
Sources : — Enumerated, 246.
VI.— GENERAL INDEX, 264-271.
VII.— GLOSSARY, 272-331.
COEEIGENDA
Page 19. 12 lines from top, for " wasi," read wasti.
„ 23. 14 lines from top, for " dringan," read driugan.
„ 46. Bead Verses 1-9 ; do. p. 49.
„ 53. Middle, /or "liftus," read luftus.
„ „ Middle, for " waljan,'' read walwjan.
„ 70. 10 lines from foot, for " ill-sets," read ill-set's (as).
„ 72. 9 lines from top, /or "At the head of," &c., read The head of.
„ 129. 11 lines from top, /or "laidlick, a loath (tadpole and leech),"
read laidliok, applied to the tadpole and leech.
„ 142. 7 lines from top, for " A Mr. Eoss," &c., read This typical Scot,
John Eoss by name, was spending, &c.
„ 143. 5 lines from top, for " Heldon," read Keldon ; and, again,
page 145.
„ „ 14 lines from top, " Cistercians," see Index sub voce.
„ 144. 6 lines from top, for " The nave," &c., read The nave was begun
but never was finished.
„ 148. 7 lines from top, for " Grigor," read Gregor ; and, again, pages
151, 153.
„ 148. 8 lines from top, for " rimin-mink," read rinnin-mink.
„ 207. Middle, for " Ger. nephew,'' read Ger. Nichte.
„ 220. 4 lines from top, /or "die Cristen-vader, the gray -haired sire),"
read die Cristen-vader), the gray -haired sire.
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
L— THE DAWN
An Introduction to the Gothic Version of the Gospels
BY Bishop "Wulfila and its Connection with Lowland
Scots
The tourist on the Ehine, looking down from the deck of his
steamer as it breasts the tawny stream, will frequently pass in
his course a slow procession of barges deeply laden with coal. If
of an inquiring turn of mind, he will learn that these hail from
the Euhr, a tributary that enters the great river near Diissel-
dorf, the valley through which it flows enjoying a brisk trade
in coal-mining and its allied industries. Three centuries ago,
in an obscure monastery of this side-valley, in the little town
of Werden, an inquisitive German — one Arnold Mercator —
rummaging among the dusty tomes of its library, perhaps in
search of plunder for his master, the Landgraf of Hesse, dis-
covered a manuscript of rare beauty. As the Lutheran Ee-
formation was then making havoc of monastic stores, the prize
was removed for greater security to Prague. It had been
written by some careful scribe in characters of silver on a
purple or mulberry-tinted parchment.^ The letters of a few
words at the beginning of each paragraph were in gold. How
it had come to Werden no one could tell, but experts are agreed
1 The accompanying facsimile is taken from Dr. Bosworth's edition of
the " Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, WycliiTe, and Tyndale's Gospels." In Roman
type it reads thus : — Unte jabai afletith mannam missadedins ize, afletith
jah izvis atta izvar sa ufar himinam. Ith jabai ni afletith mannam mis-
sadedins ize, ni than atta izvar ailetith missadedins izvaros. Aththan bithe
fastaith, ni vair [thaith]. The Authorised Version (Matt. vi. 14-15) wUl
furnish the reader with a translation.
Professor Skeat ("St. Mark in Gothic") says : "The student who has
1
2 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
that it must have been made in Italy towards the end of the
fifth or the beginning of the sixth century, i.e. during the rule
of the Goths under Theodorie the Great. It was, indeed, a
version of the Gospels in the language of the Goths. Towards
the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Count Konigsmark,
having captured Prague, carried off the MS. to Stockholm.
Thereafter it had further adventures, having been for a time
in Holland, but it was ultimately restored in 1669 to the royal
library at Upsal, where it still remains. It contained the
Gospels in 339 leaves, of which 177 are preserved, and is known
as the Codex Argenteus. While in Holland it was printed for
the first time at Dort, 1665, by Francis Junius, well known to
literary students as the first to give the Anglo-Saxon poem of
Csedmon ^ to the world, just as Milton was meditating his great
epic. Junius prepared types which were a close facsimile of
the Gothic characters. These types he afterwards presented to
the University of Cambridge, where they are still preserved.
What was the origin of this unique relic ? The early Church
historians throw some light, unfortunately obscure, on its
author. His name is variously spelt, but is best known as
Ulfilas or Ulphilas, the Greecised form of the genuine Gothic
Wulfila or Wolf -ling, showing the common diminutive suffix —
ila as in att-ila, little father {atta, father); barn-ilo, bairnie
{barn, child); maw-ilo, maiden, girlie (mawi, girl, Ger. Magd,
our Maisie), the talitha or damsel, addressed to Jairus' daughter.
The parents of Wulfila had been carried off from Cappadocia,
near the end of the third century, in a raid of the Goths into
Asia Minor, and formed part of a small colony that appear to
have introduced Christianity among their captors. Born 311 a.d.
already some knowledge of Middle English and Anglo-Sa^con will not
experience much difficulty in gaining, in a short time, some elementary
and very useful knowledge of Gothic." If he can supplement this or sub-
stitute for it a knowledge of Lowland Scots, both profit and progress will
be vastly enhanced. I warmly endorse what he adds : " A knowledge of
Gothic ought to be as common among Englishmen"— and all Scotsmen —
" as it is now rare ; and I trust, for the sake of English scholarship, that
the present attempt to smooth the way for those who wish to understand
more about the formation of the Teutonic part of our own language may
meet with some success."
1 Csedmon appeared in 1655. See Masson's Cambr. Milton I., 39.
THE DAWN 3
he became at an early age a leader among his countrymen,
was much connected with Constantinople, where he was held
in honour, was, after having been a lector or reader, consecrated
bishop at the age of thirty by Eusebius of Nicomedia, and, after
having held office for forty years, he died at Constantinople
about 381. Wulfila was involved in the first great schism of
the Church — he was an Arian — and had come, along with other
bishops, to Constantinople on the last occasion, to procure from
the Emperor the promise of a new Council to settle the faith.
The rival party of Athanasius ultimately triumphed, and the
name and work of the good missionary suffered in consequence,
and speedily sank into obscurity. But in his own age his
reputation was of the highest ; he wrote in Greek, Latin and
Gothic ; and was spoken of as the Moses of his devoted people,
having led his persecuted tribesmen through the Balkan passes
and planted his colony of Goths in Moesia, the modern king-
dom of Bulgaria. Byzantium was then the centre equally of
the culture and philosophy of ancient Athens as of the Chris-
tian faith, and in the midst of it all had this intellectual Goth
been reared. His pupil and successor,^ Auxentius, has left a
brief but touching account of his beloved master, reminding us
of that more complete picture that has come down to us, under
similar circumstances, of the last moments of his old English
parallel, the Venerable Bede.^
Wulfila is said to have translated the entire Scriptures, with
the exception of the Book of Kings. The reason given for this
omission is that, knowing too well the warlike tastes of his
countrymen, he hesitated to lay before them a part of the sacred
narrative that spoke so much of battles and bloodshed. One
might easily in these days fail to realise the full import of his
great achievement. Here is a rude tribe, but little removed
from barbarism — to the Greek and Eoman undoubted barbarians.
Open though they might be to the ennobling influences of
■Christianity, what is to be said of the courage, originality, and
1 For a very full account of Wulfila, aud especially of what Auxentius
has recorded of him, see Max Miiller's Lectures, Vol. I. ch. 5.
2 To complete the parallel, it was ^Ifric who sketched for us how he
wrote down the closing verses of St. John's Gospel to the dictation of his
master as the light of his life was sinking into eternal night.
4 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS '
confidence in their future that led their bishop to let them hear
the Gospel story in their own vulgar tongue ? Ever since the
beginning of literature there has existed a well-marked dis-
tinction between the language of the vulgar and that of the
learned — the lewed man and the clerk. The latter is the exclu-
sive privilege of the educated, and specially of the priestly class ;
the former is the vernacular, the speech of the verTM or house-
hold slave, that which children may pick up from a nurse, but
which they will be half-ashamed of soon as they cross the
vestibulum of the grammar school and learn the language of
books. Knowing the influence of our Authorised Version on
the development of modern English, we can better appreciate
the wisdom and foresight of Wulfila. That his efforts failed to
effect a similar result for his native G-othic was due to the cruel
destiny of his people, a destiny over which he could have had
no control. A somewhat bewildering chapter in Gibbon, and a
half-contemptuous application of the name in art, alone preserve
the memory of the Goths. Obscure Teutonic tribes — Alemanni,
Suevi, Balti, Belgians, Franks, Lombards — these survive in some
form, but the name of the Goth is well-nigh effaced from the map
of Europe. Let me hurriedly glance at the history of this people,
our own kith and kin, as their language shows them to have been.
The races that have played the chief part in the history of
Europe fall into two distinct groups — the Latin and the Teutonic.
The physical configuration of the Continent explains the divi-
sion. Imagine oneself in a balloon in lat. 50° N., and what
will be seen by the eye whose horizon is created by the imagina-
tion? Southwards a great inland sea bathed in the golden
light of a sub-tropical sky, lofty snow-clad mountains shut out
the arctic blasts, long rugged spurs push their giant arms far
into the blue waters, lovely valleys skirt the shores or lose
themselves in the deep recesses of the foot-hills, winding bay
and receding creek bring the sea-breeze that fills the social sail
and tempts to a larger trade and a wider knowledge. North-
wards, on the other hand, stretches an almost sub-arctic sea,
broken into two irregular halves by peninsulas, its shallow
waters washing dreary sandy shores, on every side a vast plain
covered for ages with a dense forest through which mighty
rivers pour their sluggish waters into storm-tossed seas, and
THE DAWN 5
ever overhead a changeful sky, now vexed with the drifting
cloud-rack, now hid behind a pall of murky fog. Southern
mountain-land, northern plain — these have ever been the
respective homes of the Eoman and the Teuton. The Goths
swooped down upon the eastern peninsula, the Vandals upon
the western, where the name Andalusia still marks their foot-
steps, while the fierce Viking Ber-serkr sailed his dragon prow
through ^gean seas, but in time they lost their identity amid
the orange groves and beneath, the blue skies of the south.
Equally marked is the contrast between the pleasures, the
business, and the thoughts of the two races. South of the Alps
the unit of national life is the polis or the urbs — a busy city-
life, quick-witted, eloquent, artistic, thronging agora and forum
under the shadow of each rocky acropolis. In the huge, form-
less, northern plain, on the other hand, man is lost in the world
of mingled wood and water. His clearing in the forest is his
homestead, the centre of social life. Eound it he plants his
prickly hedge and calls the whole his tun (Ger. zaun, a hedge),
the most general Teutonic place-name. In Gothic tains is a
branch of the thorn-bush, tain-Jo the woven basket that received
the fragments after the feeding of the five thousand. Here the
family and not the bazaar is the social unit.
In the ancient world the Eoman and the Teuton met again
and again in conflict. The Empire held its own for a time
when, across the Ehine and the Danube, securely flaunted the
eagles of the legions. But decay set in and the Danube became
the scene of danger. By the middle of the third century the
Goths overran the whole country between the Baltic and the
Black Seas. Eound the Carpathians they swarmed, seized
Dacia (the modern Wallachia), crossed the Danube, and in 251
they met in battle and slew the Emperor Decius. Then, sweep-
ing over the Balkan Peninsula, they crossed into Asia, ravaging
as far as Trebizond and Cappadocia. But in 269 they suffered
a check at the hands of the Emperor Claudius, and for ninety
years there was peace. Those north of the Danube came to be
known as East Goths, those on the south side as West or
Visigoths. Ermana-ric, or Herman-ric, made of the former a
powerful dominion that had ultimately to succumb to that
terrible scourge of Eastern Europe — the Tartar Huns.
6 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
Meanwhile, the West Goths were torn by internal dissensions.
A patriotic and apparently conservative party under Athana-ric
was opposed to the Christian and Arian party under Frithigern,
with whom Wulfila sympathised. The latter, to avoid persecu-
tion, led a colony through the Balkan passes and settled within
the Empire in what is now Bulgaria. This peaceful movement
was, however, thwarted by cruel treatment that resulted in a
rising in which the Emperor Valens was slain at Adrianople in
378. His successor, Theodosius, made terms with the Goths,
and many of them joined the legions. In subsequent Gothic
history great names appear; — Alaric, the hero of national
independence and unity, strong enough to sack Eome itself;
Ataulf, the loyal ally and son-in-law of the Emperor Theodoric,
who fell in battle with Attila, the Hun, on the Frankish plain
of Chalons ; and, finally, Theodoric the Great, the protector of
the peaceful Eoman against the Gaulish Odoacer, and Emperor
of the once more united Western Empire. Therefore it is that
in the Italy of the fifth century we find the last reliable traces
of the Goths — the Codex Argenteus, other fragments of the
Wulfilic translation discovered as- late as 1817 and preserved at
Milan, a Gothic calendar, and a business document, the owner of
which lived at Arezzo, near Naples. In Italy, however, the Goth
was but a temporary invader ; in Gaul and Spain he held his
own for long, ultimately succumbing to the Frank and the Moor.
On what is known as the Bucharest ring is a Eunic inscrip-
tion consisting of three genuine Gothic words — Gut annom
hailig — dedicated to the Goths' treasures. Eacb of these words
occurs in the Wulfilic Gospels. From this we learn that the
Goths called themselves Gut-os, in the singular Guts ; to the
classical writers they were the Gothones. There seems to be a
real confusion between the sounds of il and 5. Wulfila speaks
of the Epistle Du Bumonim to the Eomans, and calls Eome
Ruma. Shakspere, too, rhymes Eome with doom and groom,
and in " Julius Caesar " Casdus says, —
" Now is it Eome, and room enough
When there is in it but one only man."
The Wulfilic form survives to this day in the name Eoumania.
The fuller name for the Gothic people is Gut-thiuda. The
GRIMM'S LAW
of
Consonantal Change.
1 >Le3 ?.
H
To laco page 7.
THE DAWN 7
latter part of this term is the German national name Deutsch
for Deut-isch, in Gothic Thiud-isk; it is from a root widely
diffused in all the Indo-European tongues, to which, of course,
Gothic, as a Teutonic speech, belongs.
The branches of the Indo-European family fall into three
distinct groups :— I. Sanskrit, Old-Persian, Greek, Latin, Keltic,
Slavonic; II. Low German (Frisian, Dutch, Norse, Scotch,
English) ; III. High German. Of these the first to appear in
Europe must have been the Keltic; the outstanding physical
features of our continent — mountains, rivers, valleys — bear
Keltic names. The last to appear, and the lowest in the scale
of culture, is the Slavonic. The affinities of these tongues have
long been established, and the principles involved are formulated
in the well-known Grimm's Law. The most striking illus-
trations of the law are to be found in such familiar and
widely-diffused words as numerals, pronouns, and terms for
relationships, common natural phenomena, domestic animals,
and the like. The law affects merely the nine mutes, as
arranged in three sets, viz. : — Hards, Aspirates, Softs, the
initials of which form the mnemonic H. A. S. Any word
common to the three groups stated above will change, as far as
its mutes are concerned, from group to group in the order of
the groups and the order of the sets of mutes. These changes
can be shown diagrammatically, thus : — A circular disc,^ divided
into three arms corresponding to the three groups above, is
made to revolve from left to right within a circle or outer rim,
which latter is divided into three compartments corresponding
to the three sets of mutes — H. A. S.
The typical illustrations of the law in the three positions of
the disc are these : —
1st Position. — Group I. Hard.
Sanskrit, Grseco-Latin, Keltic,
Slavonic.
K. T. P.
Ca p i t (is) (Latin).
Tres ( „ ).
Group 11.
Aspirate.
Low German.
Kh. Th. Ph.
h. f. V.
/H au b i th (Gothic).
\H ea f d (Anglo - SaxonV
/Th ree (English).
I.Th reis (Gothic).
See diagram facing this page.
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Group in.
High-Gerraan.
Soft.
G. B. D.
/H aup t (German).
iDrei ( „ ).
2nd Position.— Group I.
Aspirate.
vydr-ijp (Greek).
„ II.
Soft.
/ D auhtar (Gothic).
\D ochter (Scotch).
„ III.
Hard.
T ochter (German).
3rd Position. — Group I.
Soft.
/Fa g us (Latin).
\Duo ( „ ).
„ II.
Hard.
Bo c (Anglo-Saxon).
Beech (English).
Bo k a (Gothic).
T wai ( „ ).
T wo (English).
„ III.
Aspirate.
Bu ch (German).
Z wei ( „ ).
We should not expect too much of this law, for it applies
merely to a few consonants, and even here there are many
exceptions. High-German has been, for instance, immensely
influenced by Low-German, and has accordingly often changed
its original hard lip mute p for b. The Celt regularly reverses
the process. This latter must itself have been very imperfectly
individualised before the great break-up of the common stock.
The law, indeed, is very imperfect as regards German, not only
in the lip, but also in the guttural series. In the middle or
dental position, however, the groups are clearly distinguished.
Each tongue has, in these respects, as in others, developed on
its own lines, and produced idiosyncrasies due to the most
powerful agent in linguistic variation — dialectic growth. Of
far more value are the laws regulating the internal develop-
ment of each language, and all that gives it character and
individuality. The consonants are but the hard unyielding
bones of a word; the vowels, on the other hand, body forth
those subtler influences of tone, accent, and quantity that form
the covering of flesh, complexion, and feature, differentiating
the individual, the tribe, and the nation. True progress in
philology lies in a mastery of phonetics as applied to the vowel-
system of a language, and especially of its dialects.
ALPHABET.
Runic. Gothic
< r
(O) u
/ z
H h,
I If
(Kk. K
h A
Greek or ^a^
Latin.
r-e
Runic.
Gothic.
•1,10,
1.30.
M m^c
N
•IJ
Greek or |1^
Latin. | i|
3,60.
SO
rjoo,
w
a
CO OJOO
900.
To face page 9.
THE DAWN 9
Our own language, that is to say, English and Lowland
Scots — for the latter is but the Northern or Northumbrian
variety of the former — is more nearly related to Gothic than
any other Indo-European speech, brought as it was to our
shores by the English folk, those Low-German tribes that had
spread westwards to the dreary Frisian shores when their
brothers, the Goths, roamed towards the banks of the blue
Donau, to waste their strength in a life-long struggle with the
mighty power of Eome. The study of these Gothic remains
therefore constitutes not merely a unique field of linguistic
research, but is of practical value in helping to a right appre-
ciation of the history of our own tongue in its English, much
more in its Scottish aspect.
In all probability Wulfila reduced his native Gothic to
writing for the first time, and for this purpose constructed his
alphabet on a basis of Eunic, Greek and Latin characters. As
to which of the three formed the primary basis, scholars are
not agreed. German writers, whose views are endorsed by
Mr. Douse, assign this position to the Eunic alphabet, while
Prof. Skeat discusses the whole point without the slightest
reference to Eunes. The question is a difficult, but not very
momentous one. Written symbols of every kind are peculiarly
liable to change. We all use the same conventional set of
cursive characters, and yet in practice these assume endless
varieties of form. Further, it is more than likely that both
Eunic and Greek, i.e. Phoenician characters, diverged from a
common source. Eunes form an undoubted relic of Teutonic
antiquity. Widely diffused over northern and western Europe,
they acquired a mystic force from their extensive use in charms
and divination. They have not come down to us in connection
with literary remains, but merely in incised inscriptions on
stones, crosses, weapons, &c. The word rune (Go. runi and
A.-S. run) means a mystery, not a letter, for which Wulfila uses
boka {cip. Ger. Buchstahe). In O.Eng. and Sc. the verb to roun
or round means to whisper, and its cognate Lat. rumor properly
means a whisper, while in its Sanskrit form — hru — the word
means to speak, and is very commonly used. It may here be
noted that Eunic letters are formed almost entirely of combina-
tions of straight lines, generally in threes. All writing is in-
10 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
deed a variety of printing or graving that has become more and
more cursive. Thus s, which has now its familiar serpentine
form, shows, as a Eune, three lines en zigzag, as in the oldest
form of the Gr. sigma. Again, the Eunes had names attached
to them, showing their pictorial or hieroglyphic origin. Thus
the first is / = faihu, the Go. cattle ; Sc. fee, Ger. vieh, just as
in Heb. al-eph is the ox. is othal an heirloom, inheritance,
not extant in Gothic, but in Orkney applied as udal to a form
of land tenure, and as iidaller familiar to readers of Scott's
" Pirate." The Norsemen in Ireland made it O'Dell. T again
is Tins (Tues-day), the Northern Jove, wielder of the thunder-
bolt, which indeed the character symbolises, for it is nothing
but the Government broad arrow. Wulfila significantly eschews
the use of this heathen name. But that his people must have
been familiar with Eunes and their names, is believed to be
proved from a curious Viennese MS. of the ninth century con-
taining the Gothic alphabet, with the recognised Eunie names
for the letters. Not many of the Eunes, however, were adopted
by Wulfila without modification under Greek influence. A is
more Eunie than Greek ; b, i, r, are common to both systems.
The Eune u seems clearly repeated in Gothic, yet Prof. Skeat
regards it as a Lat. u inverted. He is equally determined to
ignore Eunes in the case of o, which symbol reproduces a Eune
very fairly, yet some see in it Gr. omega, and Skeat the inver-
sion of a Gr. contraction for ou y. Some of the symbols are cer-
tainly Greek : — g (hard), e, k, 1, n, p, w (upsilon), and ch, used
merely in such proper names as Christos. Wulfila does not
give ch its Eunie nasal force, for which he doubles g as in
Greek, e.g. hriggan, to bring. From the Latin alphabet he
borrowed, it is thought, d, h, m, s, t, and f, of which the two
first are not at all Eunie, but m is equally Eunie and Latin,
though with a different phonetic value, and s, t, and f can be
easily traced to Eunes. Gothic j (as y in yes) Skeat gets from
Lat. g, yet this, too, looks like a modified Eune of similar value.
There remain the characteristically Gothic kw, hw, and th.
The first Mr. Douse regards as a Eune for qu, used as a number
= 90, but Prof. Skeat the Lat. u. Hw cannot be accounted
for ; but Prof. Skeat considers it Gr. theta, while to explain the
thoroughly Teutonic th-symbol he resorts to the far-fetched
THE DAWN 11
device of inverting Gr. phi. The Anglo-Saxon thorn-letter
closely follows the Fames. Lastly, Wulfila uses his letters as
numbers, hence we know their sequence, which is that of Greek,
not Eunic, where the alphabet was known as fvihorh from its
first six letters, viz., f, u, th, o (for a), r, k.
It is interesting to know the phonetic value Wulfila pro-
bably attached to his symbols. This we ascertain from two
sources, a comparison with the general Teutonic vowel and con-
sonantal system, and a study of Wulfilic transliterations of Greek
proper names. His vowel system is : —
Short a, as in manna = So. man. Long a, rarely used.
,, 6 as g%hhn (gayvoon), they
gave.
„ ei (i) as weis (weece), we.
„ 6 as w&k, I woke.
,, H as sids (soots, Ger. siisz),
sweet.
ai for 6 as air/Aa = earth. ^
i as_;?sfc = fish.
au for 6 Amur = door,
u as SM9is = soon.
The Greek transliterations for the most part bear out these
values, but it is probable that Wulfila found his vowel system
different from the Greek. It seems strange that, having adopted
Gr. eta as a symbol, he should have given it the long sound
of upsilon, and chosen to use ai for the short sound, thus —
Baiailzaibul = l3eeX^e/3ovX, Gaiainna = Teewa, Gehenna. Simi-
larly, is always long, and au represents its short sound, as
Apaustaulus, airoo-ToAos. These short sounds ai = e and au = 6,
are almost restricted to those cases in which these vowels are
followed by r or h. A somewhat similar disturbing effect of r
is still seen in clerk, Derby, and less correctly in servant (sar-
vent), and sergeant (sargent). The combination ai and au else-
where have the values of Ger. Kaiser and Haus respectively-
Long i is ei = ee in seen, but the transliteration varies, Go. ei
representing Gr. i, et, and rj, e.g. Aileisabeth = EXia-a/SeT, Jaeirus
= Ia£t/3os, and Atheineis = A^^vat. The consonants do not call
for much remark ; g has always its hard sound, j, which has
now its palatal sound under the influence of French, has the
sound of y in yes ; p seldom appears in Gothic words except in
the middle position, and b has the force of f or v between
1 Preserved still better in the pronimciation of " earth " in Lowland"
Scots.
12 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
vowels. In course of time the Go, consonants have become
greatly altered. Thus Go, s is often Eng. and Ger. r, e.g. raus,
a reed = Ger. Eohr, dius, a beast = deer, auso = ear, huzd =
hoard, gazd, a goad = yard, haus-jan, to hear. This change is
common in the declension of Latin nouns. Go. b is f in laub =
leaf, giban, to give.
The guttural series offers the greatest difficulty to the
modern Englishman, but none at all to the Scot. To the latter,
as to the Goth, the guttural is familiar. Nowhere has he any
tendency to alter its face value. His " heech " is as decided as
the German's hoch or the Goth's hauh-s. His bocht is the Gothic
bauhta, pret. of bugjan, to buy. The Gothic bairhts (bright),
nahts (night), are followed in his bricht, nicht. Even where the
guttural is strengthened by a following dental, the older h has
been squeezed out in English, though preserved in Scotch, as in
waihts, a thing, Eng. wight, and whit for an older wiht, com-
pared with Sc. aacht = ae-waiht, property. The guttural suffers
in compounds as nought and not, for Go. ni-whait, compared
with Sc. nocht and noehtie (paltry). The strong German nicht
becomes in dialects nisht and nit. Dutch makes the positive
form of Go. waihts into lets and negative niets, with which
compare Sc. bait and " Deil bait " (Devil a bit ! ). Scotch
writers of the seventeenth century often put a t after a gut-
tural as publict for public. This may explain an occasional
corruption of the original guttural as in bauths, deaf, heard
in Sc. bauch, applied to anything dulled, such as ice that is
not keen. The Gothic phrase bauth wairthan is said of the
salt that had "lost its savour, or become bauch (wersh)."
Gothic distinguishes where Eng. and Sc. fail equally, as liu-
hath = light and leihts (not heavy). In Sc. these words show a
strong guttural as in-lichten for Go. in-liuhtjan (en-lighten).
But the most interesting example, common to Gothic and
Scotch, is tiuhan, to tow, tug, and its variant tahj'an, to tear or
rend, which Prof. Skeat further explains as expressing the
action of the teeth. Taw is used in connection with the
preparation of leather, in which primitive process, among the
Eskimo at least, the teeth of the women play a part. Perhaps
we have here a side-light on the culture of the Goths. The
primitive guttural, lost in Eng. tough, from tiuhan, is heard in
THE DAWN 13
the A.S. toh, and Se. tyueh or tchuch. A similar survival is
e-nyuch (enough), compared with Go. ga-nohs, sufficient.
But the strongest changes appear, as is natural, in double
consonants, for here we encounter a potent factor in phonetic
change, human laziness. To the favourite initial guttural the
liquids r, 1, w, or v attach themselves with persistence. In
these cases the guttural has a tendency to disappear in favour
of the weaker parasitic sound. This feature may be illustrated
in JiTiigga, a staff (Sc. rung), hrot, a roof (0. Fris. hrof ; Du. roef),
hrukjan, to crow — " suns hana hrukida," soon the cock crowed.
Scotch sometimes uses this strong initial as in Go. hropjan, to
call, for which we find not only roup, an auction, but hraep,
sometimes heard as thraep, to argue — " He thraepit it doon my
throat." Hropei, a call or harsh cry, is seen in Sc. roopie, croaky,
croupie. Another instance is hrains, pure, Ger. rein and our
rinse. Hrishjan, again, to shake, passes through A.S. hrysian
to our " rush." A derivative is Sc. reeshle, rustle, a stronger
form of rush, as in " I'll reeshle yer riggin " (back Ger. Eiicken).
Of the loss of h before 1 our laugh is an example, for it is Go. hlah-
jan, though the Sc. lach better preserves the original guttural.
A favourite initial in Gothic, sk, has generally been softened
in cognate tongues to sh, Ger. sch. The South African Taal
consistently preserves the hard form where the home Dutch
softens it, as in Taal skap, sheep. We see this change in shreitan
= shred, but contrast Sc. screed, scart (scratch), skiuhan = shove,
skura = shower, Sc. shoor. When Christ stilled the tempest
Mark says, "warth skura windis mikila," a muckle shoor of
wind arose. As we usually find in Scots, s has the hard sound
regularly in Gothic, where un-weis, unlearned, un-wise, sounds
quite like Sc. on-weiss. The English cousin often sounds
ciiss-in on a North-country tongue. A striking example of the
hard s is where Matthew, telling of the stilling of the tempest
(viii. 26), says, " jah warth wis mikil," and there was a muckle
wheesh. If followed by i, it must be softened, as siujan, to sew.
Like Sc, Gothic distinguished between sew = siujan (Se. shoo),
and sow = saian (Sc. saw). The Gothic laus with s hard has
exactly the Scotch sound of loose, though the sense is somewhat
different, viz., empty, of no effect. The difficult th is often
changed to d, as Go. maurthra = murder, sinthan, go, wander
14 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
= send, hlethra = ladder, but Sc. lether, sneithan, to cut = Se.
sned, snod, Ger. schneiden, balths = bold, Sc. bauld, kiltheis =
child. In Sc. th is often heard for Eiig. d, e.g. shoother =
shoulder, poother = powder, bethel = beadle (Lat. bedellus).
English characteristically weakens initial hw, in contrast to
Sc. and the original Go., into w, as hwaiteis, wheat, Sc. hwait ;
hwairpan, to throw, warp; hwairnei, brains, Sc. harns, Ger.
Ge-hirne. Whet preserves its original sense of cutting in Sc.
as, "to white a stick." It has several forms in the Gospels.
Wulfila shows a striking metaphorical usage as when the
crowd " hwotidedun " blind Bartimseus for addressing Jesus,
rendered by our " rebuked." The guttural in Latin is, according
to rule, the hard k, as in quis, Sanskr. kas, compared with Go.
hwas, Sc. whaw, who. In this and its derivatives, on the other
hand, the guttural disappears in English. Our which is a good
illustration of such changes — Go. hwi-leiks, Sc. whi-lk, compared
with which or witch. A countryman, sauntering near the Strand,
on asking a passer-by, " What street is this ? " was answered,
" Wych Street." This, meaningless to him, made him repeat the
query, whereupon the Londoner testily said, " W'y, Wych Street,
of course," and walked on, doubtless mentally forming his own
opinion of Doric dulness. On the road to Calvary the mob
railed on Jesus, " wagging their heads," withondans hauhida seina.
This withon, to shake, is for an older hwithon, as seen in Lat.
quatere, to shake. As expressing a rapid movement, whid,
whidding, withon has many representatives in Scotch. Among
the powers promised by the Master is that of treading on
serpents, "trudan ufaro waurme," where the word has its
original sense of dragon, "monster of the prime," as in the
Welsh cape, christened by the Norsemen Great Orme's Head.
The original is hwaurms, which again is the Sansk. krimi, and
this, through early Arab traders, has given us carmine and
crimson.^
If we turn now to the Wulfilic remains as we find theip,
it may be asked. With what degree of completeness do they
present the Gospel narrative ? The second Gospel is almost
^ Greek translated the Arabic hermes by kokkos, hence our cochineal
the JRomans by vermis, hence vermilion.
Chap. MATT.
MARE.
LUKE.
JOHN.
•"■
■
A
■
^
1
i 1
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
HI
^1
1
^H
1^1
1^1
^H
^1
To face page 15.
THE DAWN 15
.complete, the others show numerous and extensive lacunm}
Of not one of the Gospels is the concluding portion preserved.
The last words of the narrative, as a whole, form the report of
Mary Magdalene, that she had seen her risen Lord on the first
day of the week. We miss the marriage supper at Oana, the
interviews with Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, the good
Samaritan, the Agony, and the institution of the Lord's Supper.
But we have the story of our Lord's birth and early life, the
episodes of the Baptist and the Temptation, the great miracles,
the best discourses, such as the Lord's Prayer, Sermon on the
Mount, and the farewell to the disciples, the most familiar
parables, the entry into Jerusalem, the trial, crucifixion, and
resurrection. A closer scrutiny of this unique relic ought to
proceed on three lines — (a) What are its merits as a transla-
tion ? (6) what does it reveal of the material, social, and
intellectual condition of the Goths at the time ? (c) what are
its affinities with Scotch, English and German ? — the modern
languages with which it is intimately connected. From the
philologist's point of view the first may be passed over. Wulfila
keeps faithfully to the Greek text, and in the spirit of Old-
English, and the prevailing practice of modern German, he
refrains from adopting a foreign word, but prefers, if possible,
to translate it. In this respect we have long enjoyed Free
Trade, and readily admit within our shores an unlimited
number of foreign words, not unfrequently ousting good native
products in the process. Many terms, however, Wulfila adopts.
The Greek borrowed words include those connected with the
church services, dress, and articles of utility or refinement, such
as paska (old Scotch ]pash, Easter), purple-dye, sackcloth, olive-
oil, myrrh, linen, mustard. The Latin borrowings, on the other
hand, refer to war, government, money, and the like, such as
CcBsar (Kaisar), pretorium, militare, regere, cumbere (to sit at
meat), fascia. Of these native equivalents the following may
be taken as samples : — bokareis = scribes, figgra-gulth = ring
(finger-gold),[hunsla-staths = altar, i.e. (Sc. hansel)-place ; weina-
basi = grape (wine-berry), hunda-faths = centurion, hleithra-
stakins = tabernacles (properly a "wattled cot"), hams-stead,
1 The accompanying diagram shows the gaps in the MS. referred to.
The passages awantiug are shown in black.
16 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
i.e. brains-place = Golgotha, the place of a skull, of. Sc. harn-
pan and Fr. tete from Lat. testa, a pot.
Of more vital interest is the evidence these remains afford of
the condition of life among the Goths. In one respect they have
the advantage of preserving in transverse section a petrifaction,
as it were, of contemporary speech. On the other hand, the
limited range of subjects in the Gospels excludes many depart-
ments of social and intellectual activity. We miss the language
of war and the chase, of the social pleasures, of folk-lore. But
it must be admitted that the Gospel narrative comes very near
to our " business and bosoms," so we should expect to find in
the language of Wulfila no lack of homely and intelligible
terms. A glossary arranged, as it is, alphabetically, conceals
the evidence it bears of social and intellectual status. More
instructive would it be to have the words classified under
subjects. The main heads might be — (1) Man and his personal
environment (man generally, parts of the body, relationships,
dwellings, dress, feelings) ; (2) Man's remoter natural surround-
ings (plant and animal life, the weather, time, &c.) ; (3) Man's
forms of activity (occupations, war, civil life, education, and
religion). Under these heads a mass of most interesting words
are to be found in Gothic, most of which are still in use among
us, the rest are quite familiar to a Scotchman, and in a large
degree to a German. All of them have a history in themselves
and in the affinities they suggest.
Here follow some specimens of this instructive catalogue : —
1. Man and His Personal Environment.
Man generally. — Wair = Lat. vir, the strong one, the hero,
obsolete but seen in O.Eng. wer-old = world, Sc. wardle, e.g.
" Eh, sirs ! sic a weary wardle " ("Johnny Gibb o' Gushetneuk "),
wer-geld. It is found, but obscurely, in Canterbury = Eoman
Cant-uarius = bury or town of the men of Kent. In this word
er represents A.S. warn = wair, common in old place-names.
In Gael, wair is fear, as in Earintosh = clansman. Chima =
homo, the earthy one (bride-g(r)oom, yeoman). Manna is used,
like German man, in an indefinite, pronominal sense. Queins
THE DAWN 17
= yvvrj,.the producer, stands for woman generally, our queen,
Sc. quean.
Farts of the Body. — Zeik = body generally, dead or alive,
very common in older Eng. as in lich-gate, lyke-wake. Hwwirnei
= brains, Sc, hams, Ger. Ge-hirne, renders Golgotha = hwairnei-
staths, place of a skull. Lof-a = Sc. loof, cf. die flache Hand,
the open palm. " Some standing by struck Jesus with the lofa
(loof)." — John xviii. 22. In A.S. it is lof. Beowulf has g-16f,
our glove, an almost solitary trace of the prefix ge, so common
with nouns in Gothic and German. Gothic shows that our
gallop has also a trace of it in verbs, for it is Go. ga-hlaupan, to
run, our leap, Sc. lowp, Ger. laufen, Eng. loafer and inter-loper.
Kinnus— the cheek, our chin. Sc. keeps k in kin-cough for
chin-cough, Du. kink-hoest. Literally it is the curved, crooked,
as in kink, a twist in a rope, Sc. kinch. Taihs-wa = dexter,
the pointer or right hand (also in teach and token). Gothic has
a word for one-handed = hamfs, in the general sense of maimed,
" If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; good is it for thee to enter
into life one-handed than to enter Gehenna having two hands "
= "Jabai marzjai thuk handus theina, afmait tho; goth thus
ist hamfamma in libain galeithan, than twos handuns habandin
galeithan in gaiainnan."— -Mc. ix. 43. Haihs = one-eyed, a
curious compound, according to Bopp, of the -ce of Lat. ec-ce
hic-ce, e-ka (Sanskrit one), along with the common Aryan. word
for the eye. Go. augo, Lat. oc-ulus. The whole is therefore in
the Eoman name Horatius Codes = the one-eyed. By Grimm's
Law the syll.-ha = ka (Sans.) is in both hamfs and haihs.
Hamfs = ha-nifa, Sc. neive, fist. In haihs and hamfs the
syllable ha is prefixed. It has been dropped in Sc. neive, cf.
knife = nife.
With few exceptions terms for parts of the body can be
recognised with little difficulty. Some interpret themselves
at once — brusts (breast), hairto (heart), hups (hip), fotus (foot),
suljo (sole), auso (ear), kniu (knee, with k sounded as in Scotch).
Others are archaic, as fill, skin (fell, felt, pelt), amsa, shoulder.
If, as Prof. Skeat suggests, this be a mis-reading for ahsa, it is
the Sanskrit uhsan, the bearer, the Ger. Achsel, and Sc. oxter,
the arm-pit. Several are to be referred to A.S., as haubith,
head (A,S. heafod), wairilo, the lip (A.S. weler), waggari, a pillow
2
18 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
(Ger. and O.E. Wange, the cheek, A.S. wangere). Tooth itself is
tunthus, showing the older n as in Lat. dent — Du tand. The
isolated peak, Tinto, in Lanarkshire, was so named by the Norse-
men. Wlits and (w)ludja, the countenance, are A.S. wlite, now
lost. Finger and hand are found almost unchanged. The former
has its So. and Ger. sound. The So. wime (belly) is exactly Go.
wamba (Eng. womb). The mouth = munths, and the heel =
fairzna, are more like their German cognates, Mund and Ferse.
Stamms (stammerer), daubs, blinds (pron. as in Sc), halts
(halt), explain themselves. The Go. for neck, hals, was at one
time common in Sc, as hause, but still lives in the Orkneys.
Here is the experience of an Orcadian in the Canongate of
Edinburgh : " Ae wife luckid oot at a muckle apstair window ;
the meenit the Laird saw a heed i' a window atween him an'
de licht, he stend stock still, an' says he tae me — ' Po' me sal,
there's a muckle bauckie!' (cf. Sc. for bat, ghost, bogle, and
Burns's "bauckie bird"). 'Eobbie, gie me me gun, and I'll
lay him deed as seur as his heed's on his hass.' " — " Orcadian
Sketches."
Belationships. — Our woid father is not in Go. except in fadr-
eins = parents or family (Joseph was of the house of the /amily
of David), and " abba, fadar ! " (Gal. iv. 6). Its stem is in hund-
faths = master of a hundred, and bruth-faths = lord of the
bride. Faths is /ode = a man, in our old ballads such as Cheild
Kowland and Burd (bride) Ellen, e.g. " God rue on thee, poor
luckless fode, what hast thou to do here ? " The root of these
means the protector, and is in sense classical rather than Teu-
tonic (cf. Lat. pater). Gothic fodr is a sheath, i.e. the protecting
one. Mother is nowhere in Gothic. The place of these two
terms is taken by the onomatopoetic atta, aithei. Such child
words are common, e.g. abba, papa, tata (Vaidic and Greek), and
dad, hence Att-ila, the Hun = the little father. The Czar is
still to the Slavs the little father. Atta in Sans, is mother or
aunt = Go. aithei. Widuwo = widow, the bereaved one, really
an adj. as viduus ager, a fallow field, in Lat. This is also its
force in Go. and Sc. The woman of Sarepta is " quinon widuwon "
= a widow (woman or quean).
Such terms as brothar, swistar, dauhtar (Sc. dochter), sunus
(son), lauths (lad), call for no remark. Barnilo, child, what is
THE DAWN 19
lorn, is the Sc. bairn, bairnie, and occurs in many forms.
Another term, well represented but now obsolete, is magus,
magula, a lad, and the feminine forms mawi, mawila, and
magathei = maidenhood, and applied by Luke to Anna, the
prophetess. Magaths, of which the form magathei is the abstract,
is A.S. maeg-eth, our maid, maiden, Maisie (Meg-sie). The
root notion is that of a " growing " lad or lass, cf. might, main.
It is substantially same as maik, a " fitting " companion, very
common in old Scots. Thus Barbour's " Brus " has —
" Walter Stewart with him tuk he,
His maich, and with him great menye." — X. 827.
Dress in general is wasi = Lat. vestis. Paida, a coat of
skins, to this day the dress of Slavonic shepherds, is said to be
in ^ea-jacket, which has come through Dutch. Another hint of
a national peculiarity in dress we get. When Mary wiped Our
Lord's tear-moistened feet, Wulfila uses for our phrase, " the
hairs of her head," Skufta haubidis seinis. Skuft is the top-knot,
•Ger. Schopf. The Greek here simply says Opt^lv t^s Ke<j>aX^i.
The pre-historic top-knot is still dear to the feminine world
from Lapland to Paris.
2. Man's Natueal Surroundings.
Natural Phenomena. — To Wulfila heaven and earth, sun,
moon and stars, sea and land, berg and dale, stone, fen, flood,
water, burn, gold, silver, iron, salt, were known by precisely the
same names as to ourselves. The sun was known by two names,
.sunno, fem., and sauil, Lat. sol. neut. The sea was the saiwa,
the tossing one, the lake marei, the O.Eng. mere. A country
district was a gawi, still heard in Ehein-gau and (perhaps) Miln-
gavie ; a field was hugs, a haugh, or akrs = acre, Lat. ager. Ahwos,
torrents of rain, is aqua, the universal Aryan word for water.
Plant Life. — Grass is Go., but not in its strictest sense,
rather herb. The mustard seed is the greatest of all the grasses,
cf. gorse and Sc. gers. In our sense of grass hawi = hay, is used,
s.g. " If God so clothe the hay of the field." For fruit generally,
especially of the fields, we have akran (akrs = field), our acorn,
jiow restricted in sense. The New Philological Dictionary
20 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
traces it to Go. akran, fruit, probably a derivative of Go. akrs,
and originally " fruit of the unenclosed land, natural produce of
the forest." Tree generally is hagm = beam, Ger. baum. Timber
is triu = tree (cf. Sc. a tree or wooden leg). The band that
came to the garden to seize Christ were armed with trees
(staves). This explains the expression " nailed upon the tree,"
spoken of the Crucifixion. Strange to say. Go. supplies no native
tree-names. Of grains, three bear the modern names — Atisk
= Old Sc. aitis, oats, lit. what is eaten,^ but used for the field of
corn (a-TTopinov) through which Our Lord walked on the Sabbath-
day. In the A.S. Bible we read "Tha Noe ongan him aetes
tilian " = then Noah began to get him food. Hvjaiteis = wheat,
sounds quite homely to us (hwate in Scots), so also does haris
= here, barley. Ahs, an awn or ear of corn, and ahana, chaff',
mean, literally, the little sharp thing, Lat. acus, a needle.
Animals. — Beast in general is dius = deer ("rats and mice
and such small deer," Shak.) ; wolf and fox (fauho) occur under
these names. Waurms, as in O.Eng., means a serpent or dragon,
cf. Great Orme's Head, and " Where the worm dieth. not " in the
Bible. Bird (f ugls) in general is the Bible word fawl. Sparrow
(sparwa), dove, and eagle are named, the first two, as in Eng.,
but in the passage, "Where the carcase is there are the eagles
gathered together," eagle is ara. This word, now lost, is the
O.Eng. and Sc. earn or erne and Ger. Adler = Adel-aar, the
noble bird. The O.Eng. erne exists as a surname, e.g. Dr. Arne,
the famous musician. Thomas the Ehymer says, —
" The raven shall come, the erne shall go,
And drink the Saxon bluid sae free."
The golden eagle in Gaelic is the iol-air. The iol here is just
our yel-low. For the domestic animals, cattle generally is
faihu, a widely diifused word, lit. the tethered ; it is our fee.
In Barbour's " Brus " it has its original meaning, —
" In the contrie tbar wonnyt ane
That husband wes and with his fe
Oft-syss (times, Chaucer's oft^-sithes) hay to
the peile led he." — Book x. 150.
1 Cf. Sans. Anna, lit. what is eaten for ad-na (root ad), food in general,
rice.
THE DAWN 21
Ox, the carrier (cf. veho), is auhsa, retaining the original gut-
tural. Our ewe, Lat. ovis, is found in awe-thi, a shepherd, and
awi-str, a fold. Wuliila uses in " Behold, the Lamb of God ! "
the word vnthrus (awi-thrus), our wether, Ht. a yearling. Fula
and kalbo, gaits and gait-eins (goat-ling), and stiur (steer) explain
themselves. Horse is not in the Gospels, but the Kunic aihwus
(horse) is in aihwa-tundja, the burning-bush, the first member
of which is cognate with <!>kvs, swift, acer, and the latter part
our tinder. The horse is originally the eager, mettled one. In
O.Norse ehwa and in A.S. ehu, Gael, ech, mean horse. In such
a compound it should be noted that horse simply means large,
cf. horse-chestnut, and iTnro-KavOapo^, horse-beetle or monstrous
beetle. Burns's term aiver for horse is derived from O.Fr.
aver; Low Lat. averium, habere, hence average, cf. cattle and
" goods and chattels."
One other singular animal name is in Wulfila. The Baptist
was clad in camel's hair (Ga-wasiths taglam ulbandaus). The
Go. for hair is tagl, our word tail. Ulbandits renders Kafji,-^\oi,
and the wonder is how such a word came into the language.
It has a long and interesting history. In Greek it is eXe<j>as,
our elephant, in A.S. olfend, the camel, in Lat. ebur, ivory,
for this was known in the west long before the animal.
The first part of Alphabet leads us to the Semitic form, Heb.
aleph and eleph, the ox, and Sans, ibh^, the elephant. For the
old alphabets were hieroglyphic or pictorial in origin. The true
Teutonic alphabet — the Eunes — was of this nature, and the
letters had names. Wulfila based his characters on Runes, as
modified by Greek and Latin. The first letter-name in these
was, as in the Phoenician alphabet, the ox, the Go. faihu, and
its two horns in symbol can still be seen in our Y. Another
is called Tius = f = T, the Teutonic Jove, wielder of the
thunder-bolt, and still in Tues-day. The symbol is just the
broad arrow or sapper's mark. What was struck by his bolt
must be deo-datum, confiscated, and thus Government serves
itself heir to his thunder. But, to return to Ulbandils, el-eph
contains the Arabic article el or al. The second syllable is one
of many Sanskrit names for the elephant, ibhd = the strong one,
and the appearance of the term in the west is due to the Arab
traders who from the very early times shipped the animal and
22 STUDllES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
ivory from Ceylon. Ihha, again, is the (Jr. adverbial suflix and
adv. w/k, and it does the same duty in (U>., where udvorbH are
regularly formed from adjectives by adding — alia, «.//. baitr-aba
= bitterly, abr-aba = ably. The A.S. olj'mul moans a camel.
The Romance form, olifaunt, survives as a Hiirnaino. Chaucor,
in the tale which he tells in his own characLor as i)oet of the
Canterbury pilgrimage, sends the Quixotic knight Sir Thopa»
to do battle with the giant Sir Oliphaunt.
'.'<. Man AN7) iiiH Activities.
One looks with interest on any light the Cothic fragments
shed on the life of the jieoplo. Do they show ovun the rudi-
ments of a social organisation? They called themselves (Jnl,-
thiuda, a compound of the national name and a derivative; fiom
an Indo-Europ. root tu, to swell, be large or mighty, and yrmmi
in our English thu-mb, the thick, swoln onc!. The notion is akin
to that in Lat. plebs, the many, the masses. J<"i'om it is thiudans,
the king. Jerusalem is the haurgs of the mikilins thiudanis.
On the other hand, Pontius Pilate, the iioraan governor, is only
the kindins, akin to Idv/j, whereas reiles, honi which oonio Lat.
rex, Ger. Keich, and -rio in bishoyjric, is applied to Jairus, rulor
of the synagogue. Apart from the idea of rulo tho inost fre-
quent tenn of respect, and uniformly appliru! to Our Lord, is
frauja, rendering Cr. Kv^mo«, but now (^uite lo.st. It is, how-
ever, common in the ballads as, free, —
"No longer durst I for him let (hinder, halt).
But furth I futidit (went) with that free."
— Ab I went on ae Monday.
The editor of the ballad remarks : — Free, fey, lord, or fairy, and
thus gets over a difficulty with a little courage. It is also in
Ger. Frau, and may be the curious Norse surname Krid^i!, secMi
on tombstones in the nortli. its Norse f^nuivalent is //-'//r,
probably preserved in the surname i''rior.
There is evidence of a self-govcniing community of kindnsd
interest and origin in dhja, long most familiar in Ix)wland Soots
as s'vb, related, relationship. The village commune is the ijnm
or country district (cf. Khein-gau), whon; lived the 'jon-ja or
THE DAWN 23
peasant, perhaps the gudge or homely Buchan ploughman in
" Johnny Gibb." The boundary of the commune is marko, the
Mark, and So. march, found in ga-marko, a neighbour marching
with one. The essence of free government, the right of popular
discussion, is mathl, the market-place, analogous to the agora
and the forum, when we remember that fmira-mathkis is a chief
speaker, and mathljan, to speak, is the Old Eng. mele, talk. Akin
to this is the duty of public giving, implied in mota, toll or
custom (of. O.Eng. mote or village council), mota-staths, the
receipt of customs, and a motareis, a publican. The same word
is in our meed and Ger. ver-miethen, to let, be hired. Public
defence is, of course, but little represented, though we have
terms for army (harjis, Ger. Heer, Eng. herr-ing), sword and
war (from weigan, to fight, whence Eng. vie). Ga-drauhts, a
soldier, is from a verb, dringan, to serve, be pressed into service,
still preserved in the old phrase, to dree one's wyrd or fate.
It is possible to construct a Gothic landscape out of the
words of that far away time, words perfectly intelligible still.
Overhead stretches the heavens (himins, Ger. Himmel), above
the clear air (liftus, Sc. lyft), now swept by the wind (winds^
now thick with the rains (rign) or the snow (snaiws) when the
frost (frius) of winter (wintrus) breathes over the land (land).
The sun (sunna) lights the day (dags), the moon (mena, Sc.
mune) the night (nahts). All round lies the open heath (haithi)
and the woodland (timrjan, to build), with thorns (thaurnus) and
wild Howers (blowans haithjos = lilies of the field) by the wayside
(wigs), deep in mire(fani, fen = mud) or rough with stones (stains).
In moist hollows one sees the fields (hugs, Sc. haugh land),
where the peasant (gauja) ears (arjan, Lat. arare) his gawi with
his hoe (hoha) — the plough came later — among his roots (wort,
aurtja, a husbandman), driving (dreiband) his oxen (auhsa, Sc.
owsen)at the goad(gazd) point, sowing(saiand) his wheat(h waits),
oats (at-isk, Sc. aits) or barizeins (Sc. bere), or cutting (snethand,
Sc. sneddin) his grass (gras) and hay (hawi) with the sickle (giltha,
geld, geld-ing = the castrated one) when harvest (asans) comes
round, and the corn (kaurn) is to be winnowed (winthi-skauro, a
' Where Go. is identiciil with Eng. or Sc. it follows the reference within
lu'.'U'kots.
24 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
winnowing fan), or the meal (malan) to be ground in the mill
(asilu-quairnus = ass-quern) and stored in the meal-ark (arka.Lat.
area) for the bread (h-laibs ^ = loaf) that the good-wife will turn
out of the oven (auhns, Se. oon) to grace the table (biuds, booth,
the board, always movable) at the evening meal (nahta-mats).
Here sits (sitan) the lord (faths) of the feast, the wairdus (Ger.
Wirth) among his guests, his ga-hlaiba or fellows of the loaf,
while the servants (thewis, A.S. theow = serf) bestir themselves.
The Syro-Phoenician woman helps us to complete the picture :
"Yea, but eke the dogs under the table eat of the crumbs
(dross) of the bairns'' = "jah auk hundos undaro biuda mat-
jand af drauhsnom barne." The morning or working meal is
the undaurni-mats, where undaurni is under, in its Ger. rather
than Eng. sense, as meaning " intervening time." Undaurni-
mats is, therefore, the meal or meat time coining between times
of labour. In Early and Middle English it is very common as
uTidern.
The occupations of the farm would bulk largely in such a
community. In addition to the more easily recognised forms
already noticed are a few less obvious but interesting. The
ba7'n of the Gospels is hansts, from bindan, to bind as a means
of securing. A Lowland Scot would say of a man under stress
of passion, " He could nether hud nor biun." The So. steading
as the stead (Go. staths, a place) or centre of the holding is
found in the Go. verb staldan, to own, possess. The manger
Wulfila calls uz-eto, what is eaten out of, cf. Ger. aus-essen.
The wattled pens in which the animals were stalled may well
be implied in Jlahta, used in the sense of a plaiting of the
hair, and connected with flaihtan, to plait (Lat. plectere).
The movable fence that the Sc. farmer still uses for sheep
feeding off turnips in the field, he calls a flake. Here would
be at times secured the "hairda sweine managaize" (herd of
many swine) that the Gadarene demoniac saw the hairdeis
(herd) haldand (keeping, holding, Sc. huddin). Not far off
would be the unsavoury dunghill, maihstus, mixen. The strong
guttural of maihstus in the Gothic is still heard in the Sc.
mauchie, fulsome, foul-smelling.
1 H in lilaiba is the prefix ha-, see p. 17.
THE DAWN 25
The civic unit was the householder, the garda waldands,
wielder of the yard. The term gards has lived long as Gart,
Gort, Garth in place-names, and in Norse-Celtic districts signi-
fying a farm-stead (Go. staths, stads, Sc. steading). Gud-hus is
the only use of our word house, and means God's-house or temple.
The preference for gards instead of hus suggests that primitive
type of farm-life in which a settler effects a clearing in the prim-
eval forest and encloses his home {af-haims = from home) like
the Sc. farm-toon, for this is the radical sense of both gards and
Sc. toon. Its roof is the hrot, uncovered to admit the paralytic
into the room where Jesus was. In the Heliand, a Low-German
poem of the ninth century upon the Saviour's life, this sufferer
is admitted " thurk thes huses hrost," through the house's roof.
Hrot, roof, roost, all originally indicated the rafters on which
the fowls perched. "Eule the roost" is really an analogous
phrase to Cock of the walk. The paralytic was let down
through the tiles — shaljos, Eng. scale — a word which shows they
must have been slates, for to the Scottish schoolboy his slate-
pencil was long known as skeelyie — the actual Gothic term we
have here. Of course skaljos would equally apply to thin slabs
of stone, still a roofing material in the Eorder districts, and on
old churches. At the end of the house rose the gihla (Sc. and
Du. gevel), that pinnacle of the Temple to which the Tempter
led Christ. In front was the porch, after the fashion of a Boer
stoep, and known as the uhizwa (our eaves). The door (daur)
and the window (auga-dauro = eye-door) completed the external
view. Inside the house, on the middle of the floor, stood the
sacred vesta of the Eomans, the Go. hauri, our hearth, the
ascending smoke (rikwis, Sc. reek) of which escaped as it best
might from its pile of ashes (azgo). Over it mayhap hung the
kettle (Icaiils, from Icasa, a pot), with chair and bench {stols
and sitls = Ger. Stuhl, settle) not far off.
The larger social centre was the haurgs (Eng. burghj Sc.
broch), translating ttoAjs, and meaning, literally, a walled place,
from hairgan, to preserve. Some kind of enclosure secured the
G-o. haurgs, for haurgs waddjan is the town-wall of Damascus,
whence St. Paul escaped by a basket. The term waddjan here,
akin to withe, wattle, widdie, points to a kind of fence still very
•common in Holland, and formed of plaited willow or hazel twigs.
26 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
The haurgs of Wulfila must have been a considerable place. It
had its market-place (ga-runs), crowded corners (iveihsta, akin to
Lat. vicus), street (gatwo, Sc. gate) and stey brae (sfaiga), still a
street name in Hamburg, in the form Steig.
The arts of civil life do not play any great part in the
Gospels. Next to the farmer would be the (w)aurtja, or gardener
(wort, Ger. Wurzel), whose care would be the aurti-gards with
its vineyard. Wine (weina), as a name, appears in the word
for a drunkard and as a compound with triu (tree), basi (berry),
and tains (branch, Sc. tine of a stag, harrow, eglaniiwe). Build-
ing construction is implied in timrjan (timber), to build. Trius,
the general term for tree, means also timber, as in triuw-eins, of
tree, and in Scots. The Ger. Baum is Go. bagms, beam, boom.
The common tool of Central Europe, the axe, is ahwizi. The
metals are known — eis-arn^ (iron), gulth (gold, figgra-gulth, a
finger ring), and silubr (silver, meaning also money, as in Scots).
Ais, brass, coin, is Lat. cces. The apostles were enjoined to take
nothing for the way except ane rung, but no meat-bag (wallet),
loaf, nor money in (their) girdles = "niba hrugga aina, nih
mati-balg nih hlaif nih in gairdos aiz." Aiza-smitha is the
coppersmith of 2 Tim. iv. 14. The humbler arts of the home
are indicated by wulla (wool), lein (linen), and nethla (needle),
siujan (sew), and bi-waibjan (weave).
The higher walks of culture could scarcely be looked for
among Wulfila's heathen converts. In church organisation the
alien term accompanies the novel and strange idea, but it says
much that the subtle language of the Greek is so often accu-
rately rendered by a native word, intelligible to the hearers pre-
sumably, otherwise it would have been meaningless. We have
spirit {ahma, Holy Ghost), soul (saiwala), mind {muns, muiian,
to think), understanding {hugs). The sense of property is well
recognised — Swes,one's own (cf.Lat. suus)property,arW, a heritage
(Ger. Erfe), skattja, a money-changer, skatts, money (cf. scot-free,
and Orcadian scat-hold), wadi, a pledge (Sc. wad-set, a mortgage),
waddja-bokos, a bond or legal document. Bota is the familar
Scots for boot or money in bargaining. Nor is law (witoth, from
1 Arn is an adjectival affix as in silvern, and in iron. The German
Eisen does not show this affix.
THE DAWN 27
witan, to know) absent, witness witoda-laisareis, a teacher of the
law, witoda-fasteis, a lawyer. And of course writing must have
been a regular art — " ainana writ witodis " = ane writ of the
law (a stroke of the pen, Luke xvi. 17).
The refined arts of healing and teaching are illustrated by
lekeis, a physician, the O.Eng. leech, literally the licker, and
lekinon, to heal, and by laisareis (Ger. Lehrer), Wulfila's rendering
of Eabbi. The root of the latter is in a Gothic preterite verb,
lais, I know, and its derivative, laisjan, therefore means to make
to know, that is, teach. Gothic thus distinguished between the
two processes, long expressed in English, as it is still in Scots,
by the one term, learn. The only reference to anything like
education is stabs, a letter, element, still a compositor's term
(cf. Ger. Buch-stabe). Our spell has its older meaning, spillon, to
narrate (cf. gospel = good-spell), spill, a tale, spilla, a teller, and
spilda, a writing-tablet. The art of the healer had to deal with
two serious forms of disease — palsy and leprosy. The paralytic,
us-litha, is named from lithus, a joint or limb (Ger. G-lied)
from leithan, to go (our lead). Scott tells the story of Samuel
Johnson's discussion with the elder Boswell at Auchinleck.
The doctor's depreciation of Cromwell the laird clinched
with, " He gar'd kings ken they had a lith in their neck."
Leprosy is thruts-fill, from thriutan, to threaten and fill, the
skin.
The Goth could not have been without his pleasures — wit-
ness his siggwan, to sing, also to read, doubtless a recitative in
church. In this connection may be noted an odd expression
that throws light on the ceremonial of Wulfila's converts.
When Our Lord entered the synagogue at Nazareth on Sabbath
He stood up to read, dvea^rj dvayvdvai, " us-stoth siggwan bokos,"
literally,' stood up to sing the book. Again, a certain lawyer
asked, " Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " " What
is written in the law? How readest thou?" replied Jesus.
The Greek is simply ttws dvayKuxTKws, but Wulfila writes, "Hwaiwa
us siggwis ? " how singest thou ? alluding to intoning the lessons.
Wherever Scripture reading occurs this verb is met with. Our
word read is also in Gothic (rodjan), but in the sense of speak-
ing. For singing in the secular sense we have liuthon (Ger.
Lied), and liuthareis, a singer. The only instrument mentioned
28 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
is the trumpet, a cow-horn most probably, and known as the
thut-haurn (Du. toet-horen, Eng. toot).
Religion. — The Supreme Being is Outh, G-od, peculiarly
Teutonic, and of uncertain origin. Wulfila refrains from using
the Kunic Tius. A demon is skohsl, Ger. Scheu-sal, Scheuche, a
scarecrow, Sc. shoo, cf. monstrum, a thing to point the finger at.
But a commoner term is im-huUha, Devil, Satan, still in Ger.
un-hold (unkindness, sin), and Held, a hero, hence the favourite
O.Eng. name Hilda, the gracious one. Hell is halju, the
covered or hidden, cf. Hades, the unseen. The root is in hul-
jan, to cover, Sc. hool of a pea, and the hulls for clothes in
" Sartor Eesartus." A priest is a gud-ja, or good man. The
affix ja is very common as a diminutive in Sc, and specially
Aberdeenshire, e.g. wifie, lassie (wifya, lass-ya).
The foregoing terms give, in considerable variety, evidence
of the social and intellectual condition of the Goths. They also
bear out the fact that these people were, in a veritable sense,
our forefathers. A further inquiry will prove that these re-
mains throw a very instructive light, not only backward upon
the primitive condition of Teutonic Europe, but forward on
many words and expressions still in common use. As we have
a fuller and richer history, an older and more varied literature
than any other European country, it cannot but happen with
our words as with our institutions, that old friends assume new
faces. Gothic, therefore, serves to show how great has been
this change in meaning as well as form. The long forgotten
sense in which they occur gives us a strange surprise. Sutizo
comp. of suts = sweet, is in Matt. xi. 24 — " Sweeter \i.e. better]
will it be for Sodom at the judgment-day than for thee."
Again, Mark xi. 12, coming out of Bethany the next day, Jesus
was greedy (gredags) i.e. hungry. Sets, our silly, always retains
its good sense, as in Ger. selig, happy, blessed, and " the silly
sheep " of pastoral poetry. In the parable of the talents, Lc. xix.
22 — " Thou wicked and slothful servant " is " Un-selja skalk jah
lata," lit. unsilly, skulk, yea, late, four words equally good Go.
and good Eng., but in a strangely altered sense. Lats = late,
is always used in the sense of lazy. Its opposite, early, is air,
ere, while both are in Scots as " late an' air." Modags = moody,
is always angry, thus, " Whosoever is moody (modags) with his
THE DAWN 29
brother without a cause." Verbs show similar changes of
sense.
The Go. swers (Ger. schwer, heavy) has been lost in English
in any sense, but is still familiar in Scots as unwilling, slow
to move. In the Gospels the centurion's servant was swers or
dear to him. Fagrs, again, our fair, has only the sense of
suitable or fit. In German and Dutch the root is very
common. On the other hand, many adjectives differ little
from modern forms, thus, gods (good), uUls (evil), fav^ (few),
Toanags (many), reihs (rich), arms (poor, Ger. arm), leitils
(little), mikils (muckle), Sraic^s (Sc. bredd, broad), Tcalds (cold)
and gradags (greedy), fuls (foul), wairs (worse, Sc. waur). Such
adjectives were compared much as now ; for example, for good,
better, best, we have gods, tatiza, hatists. A quite obsolete
adjective, mins, is treated similarly, minniza, minists. It still
appears as a verb, to mince, make small, common in early
English.
In the list of nouns there are interesting Gothic words still
common in Scots though long lost to English. In the miracu-
lous feeding the disciples took up of the remains of the feast,
laihos gabruko, literally the lave of the brock or broken bits.
In Ephesians the phrase, without spot or blemish, has wamme
and maile, the former O.Eng. wem, a spot, the latter such a
blemish as iron-mould (Sc. eirn-mail) or rust op linen. The
Apostles are to shake the dust off their feet, if not favourably
received, where we have in Go. midda,t\i& Du. mul and Sc.mools,a
favourite expression for burial, as in being "laid amone the mools."
Its adjective muldeins, earthy, is applied in Sc, as moolins, to
crumbs. The sponge that the soldier handed to the Christ on
the Cross is a swam (Ger. Schwamm). Svmmfsl is the pool of
Siloam. The word is in Eng. swamp, and, as a Scots mining
term, is the sumph or draining hole at the foot of the shaft.
When Judas led Pilate's men to Gethsemane they carried
lanterns, for which Wulfila uses skeima. It is in our shimmer,
but in Scots in the older form, —
" The glare o' his e'e hath nae bard exprest,
Nor the skimes o' Aiken-drum."
— The Brownie of Blednoch.
30 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Slahan, which has now the special sense of slaying, in Go.
means simply striking. Thus, at the Crucifixion the by-
standers say: "Prophesy who is he slaying (striking) thee,''
"Hwa ist sa slahands thuk." This sense is old Scots, —
" Dintis,
That slew fyr as men slayis on flintis." — Barbour.
In the cricket-field a hard hitter is a slogger, retaining the old
guttural. To whei is now obsolete almost, but Wulfila regularly
uses it in the sense of threaten, rebuke. Thus Our Lord whets
(hwotjan) the evil spirits. Shakspere makes Brutus say, —
" Since Cassius first did whet me against Csesar
I have not slept." — Jul. Cees.
Wopjan = weep (cf. whoop) has now quite a restricted sense,
but in Go. it is used for calling aloud under all circumstances,
of cock-crowing, and of the voice of the Baptist. The usual
word for crying in our sense is gretan = Sc. greet. Thus Peter
went out and grat bitterly (gaigrot baitraba). To whine, again,
is hwainon, in the sense of mourning. Again, in "Wulfila the
thieves twitted (id-weit-jan), i.e. reproached, Jesus on the Cross,
from a verb the same as Sc. wite = blame. Ween, now only in
over-weening, is quite common in its old sense of expect, fancy.
" Art thou he that should come or ween (wenjan) we another ? "
asked John's disciples. Be-wray, now obsolete, is wroh-jan, to
accuse, e.g. " Wrohiths was fram thaim gudjam " = was accused
of the priests.
This process of change goes a step farther, and introduces us
to common Go. words of which scarcely a trace now survives.
Go. ogan, to be in extreme fear, has been frittered down to the
senseless expletive awful, yet at one time it meant death by
throttling (root, agh, to choke, Lat. anguis = the throttler). Its
derivatives are ogre, eager, ugly, awe. On the Borders %ig-sam
is still an expressive epithet. Theihan, to thrive, prosper, gives
the commonest asseveration in O.Eng., " So mot I the " = so
may I prosper. The thigh, Sc. thee, is the plump, well-thriven.
Laikan, to leap for joy, lailcs, sport, is the vulgar larks,
larking. The brother of the Prodigal, coming near the house.
THE DAWS 31
hears singing and larking (laikins). Dugan, to avail, is Ger.
taugen, common in O.Sc. as dow. Bums has, " Some swagger
hame as best they dow " (are able), and, again, as a negative,
downa. The derivative doughty, Ger. tiichtig, has the guttural
sounded in Scots. The root lives in a mutilated form in, How
d' you do ? Anan, to breathe, a very old verb, is lost in Eng.
Uz-anan is said of Our Lord giving up the ghost on the Cross.
Scotch long preserved the word, —
" And thai war ayndles and wery
And thar abaid thair aynd to tan " (tane, take).
— Barbour.
Eend, breath, now obsolete, was common in Scotch of the seven-
teenth century. The derivative, ansts, grace, favour, Ger. Gunst
for ge-unst, is a pretty metaphor in Gothic.
Some of these Gothic verbs are more obscure than others, but
the difhculty vanishes on closer acquaintance. German easily
accounts for such as fraihnan, to question (fragen), mitan, to cut
(Messer, a knife), niman, to take (Ger. nehmen, Eng. be-numb),
thaurban, to be in want (Ger. be-diirfen, to need). Of the first
there is an odd example in the ballad, "As I went on ae
Monday," —
" Till him I said full soon on-ane (anon),
For f urthermair I would him fraine,
Gladly would I wit (know) thy name."
In A.S. dearn, secret, is common. It is Go. ga-tarnjan, to conceal,
lost in English but familiar in Scots. Its usual sense of hiding,
listening, varies somewhat in the Eifeshire, " he dernd a wee,"
that is, paused to think. When, in the synagogue at Nazareth,
the unclean spirit in the poor man called out, the Master said,
" Silence ! come out of him." Here the Go. word for " Silence "
is thaliai, the imperative of thahan, cognate with Lat. taceo, to
be silent.
German is in a much more archaic and homogeneous
condition than modern English, and, therefore, one is quite
prepared for many points of connection between it and Gothic.
But they belong to different branches of the Teutonic family.
Gothic, a Low-German speech, is closely allied to the Scandin-
avian group of Teutonic tongues, and therefore akin to Lowland
32 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Scots, which, as distinctively Northern in character and largely
influenced by Norse, has preserved many antique forms.
Here one finds the most astonishing identities, not alone in
form and sense, but in , pronunciation and minute turns of
expression. The Goth said hwan, than, nu, ut, na, ain, haim,
braid, gagg (gang), for when, then, now, out, no, one, home,
broad, go. For " Suffer little children to come to me," Wulfila
says, but slightly changed, "Let thay^ bairns gang to me." A
hypocrite is a liuta = one that loots. The Apostles, sent out to
preach, are to take ane rung (one staff, aina hrugga). One is
to lay upon the altar a hunsl as a gift, which is just hansel in
Handsel-Monday, and Shakspere's " unhouseled " in " Hamlet."
The leaven of the Pharisees, in translating the Greek ^vit.jj
(cf. zymotic^ diseases), Lat. fermentum, is called heist, from
beitan, to bite, in Scotland known as the first milk of the cow
after calving. Milk itself is a dissyllable (miluks), just as one
hears it now in Dutch. " Blessed are the merciful " appears as
Ueiths = the blate = coy, modest. St. Luke tells Theophilus that
he has followed the Gospel story glegly (glaggwuba), or accurately
(a/c/Dt^us), from the beginning, suggesting the Scots phrase " gleg
i' the uptak," sharp of wit. The gospel mystery, again, was
concealed from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes.
For babes here we have niu-klahs = new-born. Can this be the
klekkin and klekkit, familiar to every Scottish laddie that has
kept rabbits ? The homeliness of the expression is almost shock-
ing, but in language, as in life, there are plenty of poor relations.
The hireling shepherd in the parable is betrayed by his " stibna
framaths," his fremmit or strange voice. The Gadarene demoniac
is wods = mad, Sc. wud, on which Shakspere puns in " Mid-
summer Night's Dream" — "Wood within the wood," scarcely
intelligible to southron readers. Another Shaksperian phrase
■'The wild waves whisht," in the "Tempest," is paralleled in
Go. by the very Sc. expression, " There was a muckle wheesh,"
= and " Jah warth wis mikil " following our Lord's rebuke of the
waves. Other peculiar terms oddly survive in Scots. Thus, James
and John were partners — ga-dailaiis — of Simon, a word used
1 Tliay is not the article but a true demonstrative.
2 In a scientific age such as ours one need hardly note the connection
between germs and fermentation.
THE DAWN 33
with precisely the same force among our herring fishers, who go
as dealsmen and half-dealsmen. A common asseveration is
"bi sunjai," the "verily" of the Authorised Version. Quite a
long story might be told of this word and its cognates ; enough
to say it lives in Sc. " My san ! " a variant of " My certe ! "
Professor Skeat connects " sunja " with our archaic " sooth."
Turning now to verbs we find similar evidence of identity-
The Goth said bide (beidan) for staying in a place. Jesus asks
of the unbelieving generation, How long must I thole {thulan)
you ? Bartimeeus, now no longer blind, throwing off (af-wairp-
ands) his robe and loupin up {us-hlaujpands), cam at (to) Jesus.
The elect are the waled (waljan) or chosen. The crown of thorns
— wipja us thaurnum — is a wuppin o' thorns, from wipjan, to
twist or plait, the Sc. wup, beautifully used in the ballad of
Sir Patrick Spens, —
" Gae fetch a wab o' the silken claith
Anitber o' the twine ;
And wap them in til oor gude ship's side,
And let na the sea come in."
The regular verb in Go. for the act of perception is gaumjan,
the expressive Sc. gumpshin. For a strictly mental act Wulfila
uses hugjan, to think, which, with the particle of reversal, for,
Ger. ver, is Sc. for-hoo, to forsake, as in " Johnny Gibb," " I
wadna say nor the laird wud hae to forhoo's bit bonny nest."
To strike or cuff with the open hand is kaupat-jan, Sc. gowpen.
Finally giutan, to pour out water, is quite a Sc. favourite, and
developed curious meanings such as gyte = silly (cf. Lat. ef-futio
from the same root). In " Johnny Gibb " is " Loshtie, man,
ye 're seerly gyaun gyte," and again from an old poem, —
" Wark, ye ken yersels, brings drouth
Wha can thole a gaisen ^ mouth 1 "
Lowland Scots preserves many such verbs in their Gothic
senses and sometimes even in sound. Thus gairnjan, to yearn
for, is heard better in Sc. gim than its equivalent grin ; hi-
smeitan, used when Christ anoints the blind man's eyes, is
1 Cf . A gizzend tub ; also Allan Ramsay, imitations of Horace's " Siccas
carinas," boats leaking from having been long beached ; also Icel. Geyser.
34 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
nearer Sc. smit than Eng. smut ; hannjan, to make to know, is
not only heard in Sc. ken but in the phrase " a kennin," a
sample ; diwan, to die, is often heard in Sc. dwine, a dwinin,
to fade away from such an illness as consumption, or a decline,
as it was called of old ; mmidon, to observe, is akin in use to Sc.
mind, pay attention to ; hrukjan, to make use of, is the archaic
brook (Ger. brauchen). When the question is put to Christ as to
paying tribute to Caesar (haisara-gild), he asks, " Why temptest
thou me ? " Wulfila puts it thus : " Hwa mik fraisith ? " using
a verb that in Scots means flattering, wheedling. The Go.
jiukan, to contend, and jiuha, strife, explains the Scots expres-
sion " a yokin," " he yokit on me," in precisely the same sense.
We use went as the past of go from Go. wandjan, but Scots
keeps to the older form, Go. iddja, as gaed, the yode of Old
English.
When we turn from the vocables of a language, as evidence
of its character and pedigree, to its grammar we are on firmer
ground. Por in the one case the materials are in a perpetual
flux, each district, generation, social set, individual even, giving
a new meaning to the old stock or borrowing from without,
whereas in the other we have the permanent bed of the stream,
deeply grooved with the flow of ages. In language, as in the
features of Nature, age conceals itself under the guise of
familiarity. Who thinks, as he follows the course of some
wimpling bum, that he is gazing on what is older than the
oldest historical monument in existence, or dreams that the
variations of case and number in his own speech were evolved
in an age long anterior to the Vaidic hymns. For these are the
grammatical formulae of his race, perennial as the very laws of
thought. Historical grammar is in the study of language what
morphology is in the natural sciences treated biologically. In
both directions we see persistency of type, co-existent with
endless modifications in obedience to the demands of functional
growth and decay. Thus, what seem to be arbitrary formulae,
mere atrophied structure, become in the light of historical
grammar natural and significant. Many of the so-called anom-
alies of English grammar can thus be invested with meaning
and interest. The historical grammarian has not evidence
enough to give us the ultimate analysis of those' conventional
THE DAWN 35
formative elements — number, gender, and case ; but he can tell
us why one says methinks, but a child may not say m« likes
nurse ; why an Englishman's like I do is wrong, but his give 'em
(not for them) it right; why drownded, Shakspere's swounded
(swooned) and once-t are no more correct than sounded(La,t.8ona.re)
and whilst (by false analogy from whiles) ; and why a Scotsman
uses hit for it and speaks of a cattle least and a widow wmnan.
The answer to these and many more such questions is found
better in Gothic than anywhere else, for this reason, that it
places us so near to the primitive type of Teutonic speech,
undisturbed by subsequent functional derangement. Hence it
is indispensable to the scientific study of English grammar, just
as it in turn is illuminated by the living vernacular of Scotland.
It would be impossible, within reasonable limits, to give
anything like a full account of Gothic grammar. Merely a few
points can be selected, and these such as prove the essential
identity of the language with our own, and at the same time
elucidate modern idiom and expression. Gothic is, like Ger-
man, highly inflected. Wulfila cannot equal the richness of the
Greek verb, but is able to convey to his countrymen with suffi-
cient accuracy the spirit of so subtle and flexible a language.
The basis of conjugation is the familiar distinction between
strong and weak verbs, or what might rather be called primary
and derivative. Gothic properly makes this turn on what is
the cardinal function of the verb, the expression of preterite or
past time. The primitive and very natural mode of doing so is
by reduplication of the root, and this is well preserved here as
in Greek. The idea of past time might very well be expressed
by stress on present. Tee-total is said to be the result of a
stuttering orator's endeavour to emphasise total abstinence.
Traces of the process exist in Latin, either obvious, as cado, ce-
cidi, or disguised, as fac-io, fec-i for fe-fac-i. Our did, Go.
di-da, is the sole English survival of this process, but we have
in Gothic several specimens of the feci-type, as hold, held (Go.
hald, hai-hald), take, took (tek, tai-tok), Sc. greet, grat (grgt,
gai-grot). This process must have become at an early period
merely conventional, as the rule in Gothic is not to repeat the
root- vowel but the initial consonant and a uniform light vowel,
ai = e, in met. Even at this early stage the further step had
36 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
been taken, and many verbs originally reduplicating are treated
as they are now, e.g. Go. bind, band = bind, bound ; sit, sat.
This is the result of a shifting of the accent due to the addition
of personal endings, similar to what we see in photograph,
phot6graphy, cdput, capitis. Hence have arisen the mono-
syllabic preterites that we find in Go., Ger. and Eng. These
processes exhausted themselves ages ago. Not a single strong
verb has been developed within the historical period. The
younger weak and derivative inflection supplies our increasing
wants, and, like Jacob, appropriates the heritage of its elder
brother. "We say helped, dragged, slipped, for example, for the
Go. halp, dr6g, slaup. A Scotsman even says hegoud for began,
and, still worse, seen for saw, hoten for hit, and putten for put.
It was a Glasgow merchant, they say, who, visiting the Louvre,
remarked in answer to his French conductor's " This is a por-
trait of Burke, your great countryman," "Dod, maan, I seen
him hanged."
But the best proof of the value of Gothic as an aid to
historical grammar is to be found in the analysis it renders
possible of our weak preterites in -d and -ed. There we see
that they are really compounds, like will go, am walking, &c.
The auxiliary do has coalesced with the stem, so that I love is
just I love-did. The Go. tam-jan, to tame, in its past, is
declined on the model of love-did.
s.
P.
tam-i-da
„ d^s (for dedt)
„ da
tam-i-d^d-um
. „ dSd-uth
„ dM-un.
Strange to say, the very common Teut. verb to do is not found
as a separate verb in Gothic. It must have reduplicated and
formed its pret. as S. di-da, di-des, di-da : PI. di-ded-um, and so
on. The first syllable disappears when used as a compound
tense. It thus appears that, even where apparently we see
tense indicated in Eng. by modification of the stem, we really
use an auxiliary. Gothic uses this composite tense as freely as
we do now. At the grave' of Lazarus " Jesus wept " (iSaKpwrtv),
which Wulfila renders, " Jah tagrida Jesus," as if we were to
THE DAWN 37
say, and Jesus teared. In Matt, xxvii. 1, "That they might
kill him," is " Ei af-dauthi-dedeina ina," reminding one of what
the child said of the murdered fly, " Me deaded it."
This preterite tense is the only tiTne inflection in Gothic.
In common with all the Teut. languages it had no future.
Wulfila renders the Greek future variously, most frequently by
using the subjunctive. In Latin, as every boy knows, the Fut.
Ind. and Pres. Subj. of some conjugations are perplexingly like
each other. He also uses the Indie, and part, present, e.g. I
coming heal him = Ik quimando gahailja ina, for I coming will
heal him; "Thai guth gasaihwand," i.e. they seeing God, for
they will see. Circumlocutions he employs, just as we may now
say, I am going to, about to, intend to, have to. Our auxiliaries
shall and will are always independent verbs in Gothic, with the
decided meaning of duty and wish. Such is the tense condition
of the Teutonic verb; the other forms which grammarians
parade in English are simply imitations of Latin. All this goes
to show that in primitive times little advance had been made in
developing this, one of the subtlest and most abstract of concep-
tions. Even yet the commonest errors in translation, as every
teacher knows, are due to confusion of tenses.
Many more striking illustrations of the value of Gothic to
the student of grammar might be adduced. Suffice it to refer
to one more verbal form, the passive. Here Gothic throws a
unique light on the primitive condition of the Teutonic tongues.
These all, like English, never had a conjugational or simple
passive. We are so familiar with it in Greek and Latin that
we can scarcely realise our poverty here. In point of fact,
young learners have the greatest difficulty in grasping the con-
ception of a passive. They fail to see the difference between
/ am struck and / am sick. Eor, in a compound tense such as
am struck, the participle, which we call the main verb, is nothing
more than an adjective in predicative relation to the subject.
English, and still more French and German, avoid the passive
by the use of indefinite and reflexive pronouns. Thus the hook
has been found is in German the hook has found itself. Colloqui-
ally we regularly avoid the passive by using the indefinite they
as a subject. Other modern languages adopt to an excessive
extent reflexive forms. Thus, Italian has for it is said, it says
38 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
itself. Even Gothic preserves merely a trace of a passive
inflection by simple derivation from the stem as bairada,
bairanda (from bairan, to bear) = i^ipirai, ^ipovrai. But the
favourite mode is our modern one of circumlocution, with
participles and auxiliaries, or by a peculiar formation from a
passive participle in — na, our — en in brok-en. Thus, from
mikils, Sc. muckle, mikilnan, to be enlarged, from hauhs = high
hauhnan, to be exalted. Slight traces of this still survive in
learn and own. The former is from an original lais-nan, to be
lered or taught. German shows this distinction of act. and
pass, senses well in lehr-en (active, to teach), where h is not
radical, and lern-en, to be taught, to learn. Own, again, is an
original agnan (A.S. ag-nian), to be possessed, from (Go.) aigan, to
have, owe. These forms are, however, not true passives, being
simply the participle with the adjectival ending — na or en,
treated as a verb, very much as we still do, e.g. " Fallen, thy
throne, Israel ! " or = Fallen's thy throne, Israel. ' In all
these cases the participle is merely an adjective used predica-
tively. I am loved is not a form like amor, but really / am
(one) loved.
The ultimate elements in grammar are two-fold, verbal and
pronominal. In a now-forgotten book, the "Diversions of
Purley," Home Tooke showed a century ago that nouns, which
bulk so largely in grammar, are merely epithets formed from
verbal roots. It is said that our man, the thinker, is the only
case of a Teut. root used directly as a noun. The pronominal
elements are the abbreviations of speech, in themselves non-
significant marks of identity. Their inflexion, as pronouns, is
peculiar. We have lost many of the Gothic forms, but preserve
a few, e.g. the old dative in -m as him, them, whom (found also
in seldom, whilom), and the neuter of demonstratives in -t as it
that, what. The masc. accus. sing, in -na one hears in Sc. tJume,
not a mistake for yon. Thus Peter, in his denial, said, "Ni
kanna thana mannan " = I kenna thone man. The full form of
I, Go. ik, has quite gone. In " King Lear," the disguised Edgar,
using the Somersetshire dialect, says, " Keep out, che vor' ye," =
Go. ik warja thuk = I warn you. When the two disciples are
told to find the colt in the village over against, Wulfila uses the
dual of the pronoun, for Go. had a dual here as well as in the
THE DAWN 39
verb. A more serious loss is that of the reflexive, which
German preserves (of. Go. sik, Ger. sich).
Turning lastly to demonstratives and relatives, we find still
further interest in Gothic grammar. The article is exactly
what we see in Sanskrit and Greek. Its feminine survives in
she, its neuter as that, which Sc. treats as an article, e.g. " Gie
me that poker '' for " Give me the poker." The nom. plur. of
that (which is not those) we use as the old plur. of he, but in
Sc. it is rightly used, as Go. thai bokos = Sc. thay books. The
proper plural of he Chaucer uses regularly. In Shakspere its
dative is frequent, though his editors substitute for it them. It
is not in Gothic, except in a few adverbial phrases, such as
to-day (himma daga, ef. Sc. the day). The relative is very
imperfectly developed. The correlation of adjectival clauses is
effected mainly by the addition of an indeclinable particle -ei
to pronouns and demonstratives, as ik-ei = I who. This is just
what might be expected, for the use of the relative implies a
distinct advance in composition and the inter-dependence of
clauses. Its growth is always slow, and the usage of cognate
tongues far from uniform. The reader of Dickens knows that
when the uneducated attempt to go beyond the rudimentary
stage in composition of ands and huts and wells, and aspire to
relatives, they throw about their whieh's very freely. The
primitive relative is usually a pronominal particle (Go. -ei above
is the Sanskrit ya), or the article, the indeclinable the (our
article) of A.Sax. and the abbreviated unemphatic relative that
or 'at of Scots, due, in the opinion of Dr. Murray (" Dialects of
Lowland Scotland "), not to Norse but Celtic influence. A Gaelic
speaker will say he for the throughout. The Irish peasant
makes it dee. On the other hand the pure Lowland Scot says
Foorsday (Thursday), and squeezes out the dental between
vowels as persistently as, the Cumberland man has laal and
oude for little and old.
This relative one constantly hears in Scots. It can be traced
from the oldest vernacular, the twelfth century " Laws of the
Four Burghs," down to the speech of to-day. In such imitation
Scots as Burns often wrote we have wha instead. Thus, " Scots
wha hae " would be in Barbour " Scottis at hes," as Dr. Murray
well shows. Our forms — who, which, that — have an interesting
40 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
history. That is simply the demonstrative, and has its own
appropriate use ; but who, whose, whom, what, which, are really
interrogatives. They are so in Sanskrit, where who is ka as in
Gaelic (co) still. Sans, and Gr. clearly differentiate relative and
interrogative, not so Lat. Who as a relative in Eng. was not
recognised by Ben Jonson, the author of our earliest English
Grammar, who says " one relative which." Dr. Furnivall says
it was first used once in Wyclif s Bible, and very sparingly till
Shakspere. In Gothic the interrogative is hwa-s, Sc. whaw,
whae; its instrumental h-ivi we have in why, Sc. hoo, foo. A
peculiar idiom is the Scots at hoo for how that. Which is a
descriptive form of adjectival relationship quite distinct from
who. Latin qualis, Fr. lequel, Ger. der welcher, and Shakspere's
the which, all show this peculiarity. Gothic proves it to be a
compound, where it is hioi-leiks. The first member is tvha =
wha ; leiks is the word for body, as in Lich-field, lich-gate. This
is our like, both separately and in composition, as in life-like =
lively. For it has become our general adverbial suffix, -ly,
e.g. like-ly = like-like. Sanskrit affords a curious parallel ; Lat.
corpus, a body, is the Sans, kalpa, which also forms adverbs in
the sense of like, but not quite, e.g. pandita-kalpa = a quasi-
pundit. Scottish people similarly use like in making explana-
tions, e.g. He gie'd it to me like ; I gaed wi' him a mile like.
The following table exhibits the pronominal compounds of
like, to which Sc. adds thi-lk = that-like : —
Gothic.
Scots.
German.
English.
Hwi-leik
hwi-lk
we-lch(er)
whi-ch
Swa-leik
swi-lk = sic
so-lch(er)
su-ch
Aiia-leiks
i-lk and ilk-a
a(h)n-lich
ea-ch, on-ly,
The foregoing imperfect sketch of this fascinating subject is
an attempt to tell the strange story of the Gothic MS. and its
enlightened author, of the people among whom he laboured,
and the sad fate that has buried them in oblivion. On the
fragmentary evidence of the Gospels, excluding altogether the
Epistles, I have endeavoured to illustrate the intellectual con-
dition of the Goths in the fourth century, and to prove that
whatever there is in the language of to-day that we regard as
most homely and familiar, the indispensable materials of every-
THE DAWN 41
day intercourse, and the very formulae under which our thought
must find expression, all lived in the mouths of our remote
Oothic ancestors in their rude turn and hurgs by the banks of
the Danube, while this land of ours was still a Eoman colony.
Do such records not awaken a deeper interest than a blurred
footprint in the Eed Sandstone, or even an inscribed brick from
a Chaldsen mound ? Jacob Grimm, the father of comparative
philology, found in Gothic the clue to many of his researches,
and based upon his study of it those principles which have
illuminated the whole field of linguistics. During the seventy
years that have intervened since he completed his great
Grammar, in 1837, philologists have never lost sight of the
value of Gothic. The Wulfilic remains have appeared in various
forms, but the field has been almost entirely left to German
scholars, and this in spite of the fact that their language is,
for many reasons, the farthest removed from the true type of a
Teutonic speech. The English Universities are strong in classi-
cal philology, but in every other department the German easily
holds the field. The best Celtic dictionary and grammar, the
most complete collection of Anglo-Saxon literature, the only
concordance to Shakspere worthy of the name, the most com-
plete English grammar — these, among many other works, have
been left to the foreigner. Bosworth gave us a text of the Gothic
Gospels, Professor Skeat has done much to popularise the study,
and quite recently Mr. Douse has published a very elaborate
and very scientific treatise of about three hundred pages, which
may be an " Introduction to Gothic," though it must be barely
intelligible to anyone who has not worked long and well
at the subject. But the surprising feature is that, whereas
German scholars, many of them much like our secondary school-
masters, have so successfully prosecuted such studies, and
Englishmen only in a fragmentary fashion and generally under
the mantle of the universities, Scotsmen have contributed
nothing to the subject, yet they possess an unbroken stream of
literature from the twelfth century to the days of Burns and
Scott, and, what is of more importance, they have, not from
books or the mistaken theories of teachers, but as a living
product, native to the soil that bore them, a rich system of
phonetics, a homely, pithy vocabulary, and a genuine Teutonic
42 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
idiom, vastly more archaic than the academic and conventional
printed speech of the English scholar. To the Scot, therefore,
the language and idiom of our old writers and of Wulfila have
a freshness, a directness, and a meaning which are scarcely pos-
sible to any but an exceptionally favoured Southron. In proof
of this contrast take two such works as Barnes's Poems in the
Dorset dialect and the Banffshire tale of "Johnny Gibb."
Whereas the one must be almost a foreign tongue to the
average Englishman, no intelligent Scot, especially if born and
reared in a country district, need miss in the other one point
of its inimitable humour, its pithy, pawky turns of idiom and
expression, and the real genius that created its character and
incident. But, alas ! in spite of such native advantages of
Scottish scholarship. Dr. Johnson might still say of it that
everyone here gets a mouthful but no one may make a meal of
learning. Such works as " Johnny Gibb," the late Dr. Gregor's
"Banffshire Glossary," Edmonston's work on Orcadian, the
Scots contributions to Professor Wright's ''English Dialect
Dictionary," and Dr. Murray on the dialects of the South of
Scotland, are invaluable for the study of our fast-decaying
vernacular. To the philologist a vernacular is vastly more
instructive than any mere book-speech, for in the field of
dialectic growth and decay the real problems of language
must be studied. In such fields there is almost everything
to] be done for our own vernacular. Who will do for the
north-eastern counties, for Fife and the Lothians, for Lanark
and Ayr, what Dr. Murray has so well done for the Scots of
the Border counties ? Is Jamieson, even in his latest form, a
scientific record of our vocables ? Is there not room for some
scholarly account of Gaelic, Norse, and French influence on
Scots ? Who will treat philologically the relics of the oldest
vernacular in burgh and parliamentary records, the diction of
our folk-lore and ballad minstrelsy, and even of Burns and
Scott, or popularise our national epic, Barbour's "Brus"?
Whoever should attempt to cultivate any one of these spheres
of linguistic research will render his labours more valuable by
a previous acquaintance with the Gothic of Wulfila.
THE DAWN 43
2. Specimens from the "Gothic Gospels"
of "wulfila.
In treating of the language of the most interesting of the Low-
German races, the Goths of Moesia on the Lower Danube, during
the fourth century of our era,. I have aimed at presenting merely
an introduction and in no way an exhaustive treatise. I have
had the further object of demonstrating to the student of Low-
land Scots the value and the extent of his inheritance in that
forgotten speech. I know of no other treatment of the subject
from this point of view. Professor Skeat, so long ago as 1868,
rendered the study immensely interesting to the merely English
scholar in his " Moeso-Gothic Glossary," of which I have made
the most ample use in the following pages. He has put this
English standpoint fairly and forcibly: "To study Moeso-
Gothic is, practically, more the business of Englishmen than
of anyone else — excepting perhaps the Dutch. Though it is
not strictly an older form of Anglo-Saxon, it comes sufficiently
near to render a study of it peculiarly interesting and instruc-
tive to us, and a thing by no means to be neglected." This
exception of Dutch, one of the most modernised and cosmo-
politan of the Teutonic stock, is not a very happy one, nor can
Anglo-Saxon in the mouth of the Englishman of to-day be
mentioned in the same breath with the still living hold of the
Lowland Scot on his Gothic original through his Northumbrian
and Frisian ancestry. Professor Skeat has made Gothic still
, more accessible through his " Gospel of St. Mark in Gothic "
(Clarendon Press, 1882). More exhaustive is the "Introduc-
tion to Gothic" of Mr. T. le Marchant Douse, 1886. Por a
complete text, grammar and philological examination we must
look to German writers. Of these by far the most practical
and accessible are F. L. Stamm and Dr. Moritz Heyne, 1872
(text, grammar, glossary), and Wilhelm Braune (Gotische
Grammatik, 1887). Needless to say, neither makes any use
of Lowland Scots.
The version I have placed alongside of Wulfila for com-
parison through the following extracts is taken from " The New
Testament in Scots, being Purvey's Eevision of Wyclifife's
Version turned into Scots by Murdoch Nisbet, c. 1520," ed.
44 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
by the late T. Graves Law, LL.D. "While among the very
oldest specimens of Scots prose, and strictly comparable with
Gothic on the score of subject-matter, it has the disadvantage
of reflecting unduly the influence of contemporary English.
For it must be remembered that the Scots never had a native
Bible or Psalter. Nearly all the popular Keformation literature
was produced under the influence of English. Nisbet's version
was at no time in general use.
The more than literal versions of the passages here presented
are not intended to be read as a translation or rendering of
their sense. The words employed do not always convey such
an acceptation as would satisfy the mere modern reader. That
purpose is sufficiently met by the accompanying rendering into
Lowland Scots, valuable in itself as supplying a philological
commentary, or by the version in common use. Any rendering
that is cognate with the corresponding word in the text,
whether old or. modern English, Lowland Scots or German, is
adopted. Words that have no such cognates are italicised,
while anything necessary to complete the sense is put in
brackets. The mere look of the text, therefore, should show
how much of the language spoken in Moesia in the fourth
century has still representatives, more or less distantly related.
As an aid to the text and translation some knowledge of
the grammar is necessary. No complete scheme need be given
here, but pronominals and connectives, as they so frequently
recur, will give good return for some attention. In the per-
sonals (I and thou) only the plurals call for notice. Of the
cases the nom., poss. and obj. are — for /, weis (we), uns (us),
unsara (of us and our) ; for thou, jus (ye), izwis (you), izwara
(of you, your). Little has survived of the third person
pronoun, so that it has to be shown entire, distinguishing
termination from stem. This stem is the unemphatic demon-
strative i-. The equivalents here given are the Anglo-Saxon
forms : —
Sing.-
Masc.
Fern.
Neut.
•N.
i-s = he
si = heo
i-ta = hit
Ace.
i-na = him
i-ja = her
i-ta = hit
Gen.
i-s = his
i-zai = hire
i-s = his
Dat.
i-mma = him
i-zos= her
i-mma = hit
THE DAWN 45
Masc.
Plur.-
Masc.
Fern.
Neut.
-N.
ei-s = hi
ij6-s
ija
Ace.
i-ns = hi
ij6-s
ija
Gen.
i-zg = hira
i-zo
i-z6
Dat.
i-m = him
i-m .
i-m
The A.S. has but one set of forms for plural. Lowland Scots
has preserved hit. Morris says, " Mine = him is still retained ,
in the Southern dialect, as ' I seed en.' Shee and thay do not
occur in any pure Southern writer before a.d. 1387." Our
plurals here are borrowed from the demonstrative. "Thai
(they), thair, thaim are Northern forms, and are not used by
Southern writers" (Morris). "We use the original forms
colloquially in such phrases as "Give 'em it," for the per-
sonal him not them. The A.S. forms accompany here the
Gothic : —
Masc.
Sing. — N. sa = se
Ace. tha-na = thone
Gen. thi-s = thaes
Dat. tha-mma = tham
Plur.— N. thai = thS,
Ace. tha-ns = tha
Gen. thi-ze = thS,ra
Dat. thai-m = th^m
It will be noticed in the above forms that Go. z becomes the
modern r according to rule. Of these Gothic forms Scots pre-
serves thone for ace. sing, and thai for plurals, as " thai books."
The neut. sing, that it uses as the definite article both singular
and (in Aberdeenshire) plural. The remoter demonstrative,
those is thirr. By the addition of uh or h, an enclitic cognate
with Lat. -que, the strong form of the Go. demonstrative is
formed. Similarly both personals and demonstratives become
relatives by the addition -ei, also used independently as a con-
nective. Lastly, an old pronominal stem, hi = this, survives
only in certain adverbial phrases, himma daga = to-day, fram
himma = henceforth, und hina dag = to this day, und hita nu —
till now, hitherto.
Fern.
Mut.
s6 = sec
tha-ta =
: thaet
th6 = tha
tha-ta
■■ thaet
thi-z6s = thaere
thi-s
■■ thaes
thi-zai = thaere
tha-mma =
-■ tham
th6-s
th6
th6-s
th6
thi-z6
thi-zg
thai-m
thi-m
46
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Mr. Douse has transliterated a passage to show the pro-
nunciation of Gothic. As it adds great confidence, and even
light, in learning a language to read it aloud, this passage will
form the best introduction to the extracts given below.
Mark's Gospel — Gothic Version (c. a.d. 365).
Chapter IV., Verses 1-20.
1. Jah aftra JSsus dugann laisjan
Yah
Yea
marein ;
mareen ;
(the)-mere ;
aftra
after
Yaysoos
Jesus
jah
Yah
and
gal^sun
galaysoon
gathered
doogann
began
sik
sik
selves
lais-yan
to-lere
du
doo
to
at
at
at
imma
imma
'em
filu, manageins
filoo, manageens
fell many
in
in
skip
skip
ship
gasitan
gasitan
he-sat
swaswe
swasway
so as
in
m
ina
ma
him
marein ;
mareen ;
mere;
galeithandan
galeethandan
leading (going)
jah alia
yah all
and all
so managei withra marein ana statha was.
s6 managee (g hard) withra mareen ana statha was.
the (she) many over-against the-mere on stead was.
(Ger. wieder)
2. Jah laisida
Yah laisida
And lered-he
ins gajukom
ins gayookSm
them yokes (parables)
manag, jah
manag, yah
many, and
3. quath
quath
quoth
im
im
in
laiseinai
laiseeuai
lere-ing
seinai :
seenai :
Hauseith !
Howseeth !
Hear-ye
Sai, urrann sa saiands du
Sai, oorran sa saiands doo
See owre-ran (arose) the sowing-(one) to
saian
saian
sow
THE DAWN
47
4. fraiwa seinamma. Jah warth, mith-thanei
fraiwa seenamma. Yah warth, mith-thanei
seed his And it chanced (worth) while
sai86, sum raihtis
seso, soom rehtis
he-sowed, some richt
quemun
quaymun
fuglos
fooglos
the-fowls
gadraus
gadrows
y-drossed
(fell)
jah
yah
and
faiir wig, jah
for wig, yah
fore the-way and
frgtun
fraytoon
fret (ate)
thata
thata.
that.
5. Antharuth-than
Antharuth-than
antarn-ains (then)
godraus
gadrows
y-drossed
ana
ana
on-(to)
tharei
tharee
there
(where it)
suns
soons
ni
ni
hahaida
habaida
had
urrann,
oorran.
m
in
dirtha
ertha
airth
thizei
thizee
stainahamma
stainahamma,
stony (places),
managa ; jah
managa ; yah
mony ; and
ni
ni
owre-ran in this (because it) nae
6. diupaiz6s
dyoopaizSs
deepness
urrinnandin
oorrinnandin
owre-rinnin
7. habaida
habaida
had
gadraus
gadrows
y-drossed
dirth6s :
erthos :
of-earth :
ufbrann,
oofbran,
up-brunt (it),
waiirtins,
wortins,
worts,
at
at
But
sunnin
soonnin
sun
habaida
habaida
had
than
than
then
jah,
yah,
and
gathaiirsnSda.
gath6rsn6da.
it-thirsted.
unte m
oontay ni
unto (because) nae
Jah sum
Yah soom
Yea some
in
in
in
thaiirnuns ;
thornoons ;
thorns ;
jah
yah
and
ufarstigun
oofarstigoon
over-styed
thai
thai
thai
thaiirnjus
thornyoos
thorns
jah afhwapidMun thata,
yah afhwapidaydoon thata,
and afif-whoopit-it (choked) that,
48
STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
jah akran ni gaf. Jah sum gadraus in
yah akran ni gaf. Yah soom gadrows in
yea acorn (fruit of nane it gave. And some y-dross in
the fields)
dirtha
goda,
jah
gaf
akran,
urrinnando
ertha
g6da,
yah
gaf
akran,
oorrinnando
airth
good,
and
gave
acorn,
owre-rinnin
jah wahsjand6, jah bar aiii ■!■ ( = thrins
yah wahs-yando, yah bar ain (30) thrins-
and waxing; yea bare ane three,
j ( = sdihs tiguns), jah
(60) sehs-tigoons, yah
six-tens, and
tiguns),
jah
ain
tignoons,
yah
ain
tens.
and
ane
9. ain •r'= (taihun-taihund).
ain (100) tehoon-tehoond.
ane ten-tens
Saei
•Saee
Who-evei
gahausjai.
gahowsyai.
hear-he.
habai
habai
have
ausona
owsona
ears
— Jah quath :
— ^Yah quath :
Yea quoth-he
hausjandona
hows-yand6na
to4iear
Notes to the Gothic Version.
1. Jah is the same as yea and Ger. ja, though the sense sometimes
requires the rendering, and : galesun, perf. of lisan, A S. lease — to glean,
galeithandan, pres. part, leithan, A.S. lithan, lead, Ger. laden : withra —
against (cf. with-stand).
2. Ga-jukom. from jukan to yoke, and, with collective ga, a parable as
being a parallel, something paired.
3. Fraiw—aeed, Eng. fry : 4. warth, from wairthan, to become, Ger.
werden, common in O.Eng., and used by Scott, " Woe worth the day ! "
5. Antharuth—anthsec—wh, other, Sc. antarin, ither, Ger. ander.
7. Waurtins, a root, wort, orts (Shaksp.), orchard, Ger. Wurzel : ga^
draus, perf. drius-an, to fall with ga-, cf. y-clad.
Af-hwapjan, to choke, from hwapjan, a variant of whopan, to boast,
whoop — cf. a whopper, whooping-cough.
8. Akran, from akrs, a field, not connected with oak or acorn.
THE DAWN 49
Maek's Gospel — Lowland Scots Version (c. 1520).
Chapter IV., Verses 1-20.
1. Ande eftir Jesus began to teche at the see : and mekile
pepile was gaderit to him, sa that he went into a boot, and
sat in the see ; and al the pepile was about the see on the land.
2. And he taucht thame in parabilis mony thingis, and he said
to thame in his teching, 3. Here ye; lo, a man sawand gais
out to saw: 4. And the quhile he sawis, sum sede fell about
the way and briddis of heuen com and ete it. 5. Vther fell on
stany places, quhare it had nocht meikle erde ; and anon it
sprang vp, for it had nocht depnes of erde : 6. And quhen the
sonn raase vp, it wallowit for heete ; and it dried vp, for it had
nocht rute. 7. And vther fel doun into thornis, and the thornis
sprang vp, and strangilit it, and it gafe nocht fruite. 8. And
vther fel doun into gude land, and gafe fruite springand vp
and waxand ; and aan brocht furthe threttifald, aan sextifald,
and aan a hundrethfald. 9. And he said, He that has eeris
of hering, here he. 10. And quhen he was be himself, tha that
war with him askit him to expone the parabile.
Notes to the Scots Version.
2. Taucht, pret. of teach, preserving the strong guttural.
4. Ete, pret. of the strong verb, eat.
5. Erde, Sc. yird ; verb and noun, yirdit— buried, showing p.-part.
prefix ge-.
6. Wallowit, withered : Go. walwjan, to roll, wallow, Sc. derivative
form, wiltit.
Luke's Gospel — ^Wulfila's Version.
Gha'pter II., Verses 4-20.
4. TJrran than jah losef us Galeilaia, us baurg Nazaraith, in
ludaian, in baurg Daweidis sei haitada Bethlahaim, duthe ei
was us garda fadreinais Daweidis,
5. Anameljan mith Mariin sei in fragiftim was imma queins,
wisandein inkilthon.
6. Warth than, miththanei tho wesun jainar, usfullnodedun
dagos du bairan izai.
4
50 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
7. Jah gabar sunu seinana thana frumabaur, jah biwand
ina, jah galagida ina in uzetin, unte ni was im rumis instada
thamma.
8. Jah hairdjos wesun in thamma samin landa, thairhwak-
andans jah witandans wahtwom nahts ufaro hairdai seinai.
9. Ith aggilus fraujins anakwam ins jah wulthus fraujins
biskain ins, jah ohtedun agisa mikUamma.
10. Jah kwath du im sa aggilus : ni ogeith, unte sai, spillo
izwis faheid mikila, sei wairthith allai managein,
11. Thatei gabaurans ist izwis himma daga nasjands, saei
ist Xristus frauja, in baurg Daweidis.
12. Jah thata izwis taikns: bigitid barn biwundan jah galagid
in uzetin.
13. Jah anaks warth mith thamma aggilau managei harjis
himinakundis hazjandane guth jah kwithandane :
14. Wulthus in hauhistjam gutha jah ana airthai gawairthi
in mannam godis wiljins.
15. Jah warth, bithe galithun fairra im in himin thai
aggiljus, jah thai mans thai hairdjos kwethun du sis misso:
thairhgaggaima ju und Bethlahaim, jah saihwaima waurd thata
waurthano, thatei frauja gakannida unsis.
16. Jah kwemun sniumjandans, jah bigetun Marian jah
losef jah thata barn ligando in uzetin.
17. Gasaihwandans than gakannidedun hi thata waurd thatei
rodith was du im hi thata barn.
18. Jah allai thai gahausjandans sildaleikidedun hi tho
rodidona fram thaim hairdjam du im.
19. Ith Maria alia gafastaida tho waurda thagkjandei in
hairtin seinamma.
20. Jah gawandidedum sik thai hairdjos mikiljandans jah
hazjandans guth in allaize thizeei gahausidedun jah gasehwun
swaswe rodith was du im.
Transliteration of the Gothic Version, Lulce II. 4-20.
4. Our-ran (arose) then yea Joseph out-of Galilee, out of the-burg
Nazareth, in Judea, in David's burg that is-hight Bethlehem, to the-tliat
( = because that) he-was out-of the yard of-the-family (father-/iood) of-DaN'id.
5. To-he-inscribed mid Mary who in free-gift was to-him quean, being
in-child.
THE DAWN 51
6. "Wortli then, mid-than-t^iaf (= while) thae were yonder, out-full-did
(=fulfilled) the-days to her bearing.
7. And she-bore her son tlione foreinost-born, and be-wound him, and
laid hvm in an oot-eatin (thing), because nae was to-them room in the stead.
8. And herds were in the same land, throoch-waking and witting watches
by-nicht over their herd.
9. But the-angel of-the frea on-cam to-them, and the-glory of the-frea
be-shone them, yea they-awed with-muckle awe.
10. And quoth to 'em tJie angel : be-awed not, for see, spell-I to-you
muckle joy, that worth (ariseth to) all the-many,
11. That born is to-you tlie-day a-Saviour, he-that is Christ the-frea, in
David's burg.
12. And that (be) to-you token : get-ye the-bairn bi- wound, yea laid in
a,n ooteatin (thing).
13. And suddenly worth mid the angel a many of the her-ship of
Himmel (kind) -begotten, herying God and quothing, —
14. Glory in-the-highest to-God, and on earth peace in men of good
will.
15. And worth, be-the (=while) thai angels led far-from tliem into
Himmel, and thae men thai herds quoth to themselves: let-us-throooh-gang
now unto Bethlehem, yea let-us-see that word that worth (= happened)
that the frea has-kenned to-us.
16. And cam they liastening, and begot ( = found) Mary and Joseph and
that bairn lying in the oot-eatin (thing).
17. Seeing then they-kenned be ( = about) that word that was read
{= spoken) to 'em be that bairn.
18. And all they hearing seld-likened ( = marvelled) be thae (things)
read from (by) the herds to 'em.
19. But Mary fastened all thae words, thinking in her heart.
20. And wended tliemselves thae herds muckeling, yea heezing God in
all these-t/wit they have heard, yea seen, so as (it) was read to 'em.
Notes to the Gothic of LuJce II. 4-20.
4. Garda, in the sense of the ancestral home of the family, some-
what equivalent to the later territorial surname, often spoken of as
that ilk.
5. Ana^meljan — vi'eak verb from mel, time (of. Ger. ein-mal, once),
A.S. maeZ— also writings : wis-andein, part, of wisan, to be, from which
Eng. was, Sc. wurr, wuz, wiz-na, by common interchange of s and r.
6. Jainar, from jains = that (Ger. jener, yon), meaning there— other
forms are jaind ("yond Cassius"— " Jul. Cees."), and jaindre= yonder.
8. Witandans, pres. part, of witan, to watch, observe (cf. eye-wit-ness).
The two verbs witan, to know, and weitan, to see, are substantially
identical, cf . otSa and Lat. videre.
9. Ohtedun agisa, pret. pi. of ogan, from agan, to fear, and agis, awe.
>Such a form as Lat. ang-uis, a snake, shows that the material figure in
52 STUDIES IK LOWLAND SCOTS
agan and agis is that of throttling or the choking sensation of awe or
dread.
11. Nasjands, pr. part, of nisan, to save, A.S. ge-nesan, Ger. ge-nesen.
13. Hazjandane, pr. part, of hazjan, to praise, A.S. herian, O.E.
hery.
14. Wulthus, glory, has many derivatives : A.S. wuldor.
17. Bi, prep, by, Ger. bei, occurs in many senses, some of which have
been better preserved in Sc. than in Eng. Bodith, from rodjan, our read>
but always in sense of speaking, as in Ger. reden and Bedner.
Luke's Gospel in Nisbet's Scots.
Chapter II., Verses 4-20.
4. And Joseph went vp fra Galilee, fra the citee of Nazareth,
into Judee, into a citee of Dauid, that is callit Bethleem, fore
that he was of the hous and of the meynye of Dauid. 5. That
, he suld knawleche with Marie his wif , that was weddit to him
and was gret with child. 6. And it was done, quhile thai
ware thar, the dais ware fulfillit that scho suld beire childe.
7. And scho baire hire first born sonn, and wrappit him in
clathis, and laid him in a cribbe ; for thare was na place to him
in na chalmere. 8. And schepirdis war in the sammin cuntre
wakand and kepand the wacheingis of the nycht on thare flock.
9. And, lo, the angel of the Lorde stude beside thame, and the
cleirnes of God schynit about thame ; and thai dredd with gret
dreed. 10. And the angell said to thame. Will ye nocht dreed;
for, lo, I preche to you a gret ioy, that salbe to al the pepile.
11. Tor a saluatour is born this day to you, that is Crist the
Lord, in the citee of Dauid. 12. And this is a taldn to you :
Ye sal find a young child wlappit in clathis, and laid in a cribbe.
13. And suddanlie thare was made with the angel a multitude
of heuenlie knichthede loving God, and sayand, 14. Glorie be
in the hieast thingis to God, and in erd pece, to men off gude
will. 15. Ande it was done, as the angellis passit away fra
thame into heuen, the schephirdis spak togiddire and said, Go
we ouir to Bethleem, and se we this word that is made, quhilk
the Lord has made and schawin to vs. 16. And thai hyand
com, and fand Marie and Joseph, and the young child laid in a
cribbe. 17. And thai seand, knew of the word that was said ta
THE DAWN 53
thame of the child. 18. And almen wonndrit that herd; and
of thir thingis that war said to thame of the schephirdis. 19;
Bot Marie kepit al thir wordis, beirand to giddire in hir hart.
20. And the schephirdis turnit agane, glorifiand and lovand
God in al thingis that thai had herd and seen, as it was said to
thame.
Notes to the Scots Version, Luke II. 4-20.
4. Meynye, a crowd, Go. managei, Ger. Menge, O.Eng. menye, as " Robin
Hood and his merry menye."
7. Claithis, pi. of claith with th hard ; generally claise : verb cled =
clothe, past cleddit.
8. Wakand, pres. part, of wauk— " The Waukin o' the Fauld " — to be
awake, on the wake or watch.
12. Tahin, a sign. Go. taikns, a miracle, in which sense Luther's Version
uses its High German equivalent, Zeiohen. Young, Go. juggs, Ger. jung,
young. Wlappit, wrapped, folded, from a root, waljan, to roll, cf. welter,
waltz, wallow, wallop (the lapwing in dialect), lapper, a folder in cloth-
finishing.
13. Loving, praising ; louing, praise, Fr. allouer, Lat. laudare.
16. Hyand, hastening, Eng. hie, Sc. hech (cf. Lat. singultire, to fetch a
deep breath).
Luke's Gospel.
Chapter XV., Verses 11-32.
11. Kwathuth-than : manne sums aihta twans sununs.
12. Jah kwth sa juhiza ize du attin: atta, gif mis, sei und-
rinnai mik dail aiginis ; jah disdailida im swes sein.
13. Jah afar ni managans dagans brahta samana allata sa
juhiza sunus, jah aflaith in land fairra wisando jah jainar dista-
hida thata swes seinata libands usstiuriba.
14. Bithe than frawas allamma, warth huhrus abrs and gawi
jainata, jah is dugann alatharba wairthan.
15. Jah gaggands gahaftida sik sumamma baurgjane jainis
gaujis, jah insandida ina haithjos seinaizos haldan sweina.
16. Jah gairnida sad itan haurne, thoei matidedun sweina,
jah manna imma ni gaf.
17. Kwimands than in sis kwath: hvan filu asnje attins
m'einis ufarassau haband hlaibe, ith ik huhrau frakwistna.
18. Usstandands gagga du attin meinamma jah kwitha du
54 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
imma : atta, frawaurhta mis in himin jah in andwairthja thein-
amma;
19. Ju thanaseiths ni im wairths ei haitaidau sunus theins ;
gatawei mik swe ainana asnje theinaize.
20. Jah usstandands kwam at attin seinamma. Nauh-
thanuh than fairra wisandan gasahw ina atta is jah infeinoda
jah thragjands draus ana hals is jah kukida imma.
21. Jah kwath imma sa sunus : atta, frawaurhta in himin
jah in andwairthja theinamma, ju thanaseiths ni im wairths ei
haitaidau sunus theins.
22. Kwath than sa atta du skalkam seinaim: sprauto
bringith wastja tho frumiston jah gawasjith ina jah gibith fig-
gragulth in handu is jah gaskohi ana fotuns is ;
23. jah bringandans stiur thana alidan ufsneithith, jah mat-
jandans wisam waila ;
24. unte sa sunus meins dauths was jah gakwiunoda, jah
fralusans was jah bigitans warth ; jah dugunnun wisan.
25. Wasuth-than sunus is sa althiza ana akra jah kwimands
atiddja nehw razn jah gahausida saggvins jah laikins.
26. Jah athaitands sumana magiwe frahuh hwa wesi
thata.
27. Tharuh is kwath du imma thatei brothar theins kwam,
jah afsnaith atta theins stiur thana ahdan, unte haUana ina
andnam.
28. Thanuh modags warth jah ni wilda in gaggan, ith atta
is usgaggands ut bad ina.
29. Tharuh is andhafjands kwath du attin: sai, swa filu
jere skalkinoda thus jah ni hvanhun anabusn theina ufariddja,
jah mis ni aiw atgaft gaitein, ei mith frijondam meinaim
biwesjau ;
30. ith than sa sunus theins, saei fret thein swes mith
kalkjom, kwam, ufsnaist imma stiur thana ahdan.
31. Tharuh kwath du imma : barnilo, thu sinteino mith mis
wast jah is, jah all thata mein thein ist ;
32. Waila wisan jah faginon skuld was, unte brothar theins
dauths was jah gakwiunoda, jah fralusans jah bigitans warth.
THE DAWN 55
Transliteration of Luke XV. 11-32 in the Gothic Version.
11. Quoth-he than : some (=a certain one) of men auoht twain sons.
12. And quoth lie the younger of them to father : father, give ine the-
deal (share) of ownings that on-rins to-me ; and he-dealt to hem his substance.
13. And after nae many days brocht all together (Ger. zu-sammen) he
the- younger son, and aff-led ( = departed) into a land (that) was faur, and
yon(d)er distugged ( = scattered) that substance of-his, living riotously.
14. Be-the than (= since then) he-frae-was of -all, worth a great hunger
on the-country (Ger. Gau) yon, and he began to worth in<ijant-oi-a\l (Ger.
be-diirf en = ala-tharba).
15. And gangin he hefted himself to some of-the-burghers of-yon-gau,
and sent-he him to-his heath to-hold swine.
16. And yearned he to-eat of-the horns (=husks), that meatit the
swine, and nae man gave 'ini.
17. Coming than into himself quoth-he : hoo fell of-the-hired-servants of
mine /airier have of loaves abundance, but I of-hunger perish.
18. Out-standing gang-I to mine father, and quoth to him : father, fro-
wrooht-have-I (been) to-myself in ( = against) Himmel, and in (= against)
thine presence.
19. Now thone-sith (further) worthy am I not that I be-hight, thine
son ; do to me so ane of thine thralls.
20. And out-standing cam-he at his father. Nevertheless than (=But)
being faur-off saw 'em he-the-father, yea rejoiced, yea thranging ( = thronging,
running, Ger. dringen), fell on his hause (Ger. Hals), yea kissed him.
21. And quoth-io him 7ie-the-son : father, I have-fro-wrooht against
Himmel and in thine sight, now am-I nae longer worthy tlmt I-be-hight
thine son.
22. Quoth then the father to his servants : quickly bring the foremost
vest-mewt and vest him and give a-finger-gold in his hand, and a yair-shoes
on his feet.
23. And bringing thone fatted steer up-sned (it), and meating let-us-be
weel ;
24. For he mine son was dead, and is quickened, yea fer-lost was and
bi-gotten (found) worth ; and began-they to be (merry).
25. Was then his son the elder on acre (=a-field), and coming at-gaed
nigh house, and heard sang, and larkin.
26. And, at-highting (calling) some-ane of-the-lads, f rained (ashed) what
that was.
27. Thereupon quoth he to him that brother thine cam, yea af-sned
thine father thone fatted steer, (because) he an-nim him hale.
28. Thea-indeed moody he-worth, and would-na gang in, but his father
gangin-oot bade (entreated) him.
29. There-ow he answering ( = Ger. an-heben) quoth to the father : see, so
fell of-years have-I-served thee, yea nae-orey-wheen comTnand thine over-
gaed-I, yea to-me never (ni aiw = nae-eve(r)) hast-thou-given a goa,t-ling, that
mid mine friends I-might be merry.
56 STUDIES IN" LOWLAND SCOTS
30. But than he, thine son, he'at fret thine sulstance mid harlots, cam,
iip-snedst-thou for him, thone fatted steer.
31. There-oil quoth-he to him : bairnie, thou daily mid me wast, yea is,
yea all that mine is thine ;
32. Well was it incumbent (= should) to-make merry, and to-feign
( = rejoice) for thine brother dead was, and hat-revived, and worth fer-lost
(Ger. verloren), and be-gotten (got i
Notes to Luke XV. 11-32, Gothic Version.
13. Us-stiur-iba, riotously, with adv. affix -iba. The stem seems to be
in M.Eng. stiren, sturen, to stir, Icel. styrr, a disturbance. O.H.G. storen,
to scatter, Lat.' sternere, Eng. storm, steer : steer, an ox, lit. the strong (one).
14. Fra-was, from wisan, to be. The prefix fra-, far-, is best seen in
Eng. for-gather, forget, Sc. fer-fochen and Ger. ver-loren.
15. Ga-haftida, haftjan, to cleave to, Ger. heften, common in Sc, as
" Throw the heft after the hatchet," or " Let the tow (rope) gang wi' the
bucket." Sheep are said to be heftit (acclimatised) to a pasture.
16. Gairnida, from gairnjan, yearn, grin, Sc. girn.
17. Filu, much, many, Sc. fell, Ger. viel.
19. Ju, now, already, Ger. je, A.S. geo.
20. Hals, identical with German for neck, and common in old Scots.
23. Alids, fatted, from al-jan, akin to alere, to nourish.
25. At-iddja, past of gaggan, to go, and in Sc. gaed, M.Eng. yode.
LaiJcins, from laikan, to leap for joy, O.E. laik, cf. larking.
26. Frahuh, pret. of fraihnan, to ask, Sc. frain, Ger. fragen.
28. Bad, pret. of bidjan, to pray — hence bead, bedesman — obsolete in
Eng. Go. distinguishes between this and baidjan, to order, bid.
29. And-hafjands, pres. part, of hafjan, Eng. heave, Ger. heben.
Skalkinoda, pret. of skalkinon, to serve as a shalks, Du. schalk,
mare-schal = master of the horse.
Frijondam, dat. pi. of /n}'onc?s= friend, Sc. freen, from frijon,
to love ; opp. fljan, to hate, fijands, an enemy, flend, Sc.
feint.
30. Fret, pret. oifra-itan, to eat up, fret, Ger. fressen.
31. Barnilo, dim. and familiar of 6a™, a bairn, from bairan, to bear,
bring forth. In the Heliand, Christ is " God's bairn."
Sinteino, from sinth, a journey, hence a time, sin than, to go, wander,
A.S. sithian : cf. since, Sc. syne in Auld Lang Syne.
Luke's Gospel — Scots Version.
Chapter XV., Verses 11-32.
11. And he saide, A man had ij sonnis : 12. And the
yonngare of thame said to the fader, Fader geue me the portionn
THE DAWN 57
of substance that fallis to me. And he departit to thame the
substance. 13. And nocht mony dais eftire, quhen al thingis
war gaderit togiddire, the yonngar sonn went furth in pilgrim-
age into a ferr cuntree, and thare he wastit his gudis in leving
licherouslie. 14. And eftir that he had endit al thingis, a stark
hungire was made in that cuntree ; and he began to haue need.
15. And he went and drew him to aan of the citezenis of that
cuntree; and he send him into his tovn to fede swyne. 16.
And he couatit to fill his wamhe of the coddis that the hoggis
ete : and na man gave to him. 17. -And he turnit agane into
himself, and said, How mony hyretmen in my fadris hous has
plentee of laaues, and I peryse here throu hungir. 18. I sal
ryse up and ga to my fadere, and I sal say to him, Fader, I
haue synnyt into heuen and before thee, 19. And now I am
nqcht worthie to be callit thi sonn : mak me as aan of thi hyret
men. 20. And he rase up, and com to his fader. And quhen
he was yit on fer (afar), his fadere saw him, and was mouet be
mercy, and he ran, and fell on his neck, and kissit him. 21.
And the sonn said to him. Fader, I haue synnyt into heuen,
and before thee, and now I am nocht worthie to be callit thi
sonn. 22. And the fadere said to his seruandis, Suythe bring
ye furthe the first stole, and cleithe ye him ; and geue ye a
ryng in his hand, and schoon on his feet ; 23. And bring ye a
fat calf, and sla ye ; and ete we, and mak we feest : 24. For
this my sonn was deid, and has leeuet agane ; he pei-yset, and is
fundin. And almen began to ete. 25. Bot his eldar sonn was
in the feeld ; and quhen he com and nerit to the hous, he herde
a symphony and a crovde. 26. And he callit aan of the seru-
andis, and askit quhat thir thingis war. 27. And he said to
him. Thy bruther is cummin ; and thi fadere has slayn a fat
calf, for he resauet him saaf. 28. And he was wrathe, and
wald nocht cum in. Tharfor his fadere yede furthe, and began
to pray him. 29. And he ansuered to his fadere, and said, Lo,
sa mony yeris I serue thee, and I brak neuir thi comandment ;
and thou neuir gaue to me a kidde, that I with my freendis suld
haue eten. 30. Bot eftir that this thi sonn, that has destroyit
his substance with huris com, thou has slayn to him a fat calf.
3l. And he said to him, Sonn, thou art euirmaire with me, and
al my thingis are thin. 32. Bot it behuvit to mak feest and to
58 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
haue ioy : for this thi bruther was deid, and leevit agane ; he
periset, and was fundi n.
Notes to the Scots Version, Luhe XV. 11-32.
16. Gouatit, desired, longed for, coveted.
Wambe, bell)', usual Sc. wime, rhyming with " time,'' Lat. umho,
the boss of a shield.
Goddis, husks. " Grain which has been too ripe before^being cut,
in the course of handling is said to cod out " (Jamieson). A
pillow-cod or cod-ware is a pillow-slip|.
22. Suythe, quickly, A.S. swith = strong, same as Go. swinths.
25. Groude, Purvey, " & symfonye and a croude." The instrument^was
a fiddle.
II.— IN DECADENCE
1. The Decadence of the Scottish Vernaculae
Henry Cockbuen, writing more than sixty years ago, regretfully
contrasts his own sustained interest in Burns and growing love
for the frequent reading of him with the pronounced lack of
interest which his children evinced. For them the language of
Burns had little meaning, and this blocked the way to apprecia-
tion. The huge development of a Burns cult since those days
would seem to imply the removal of this obstacle to intimacy.
Facts, however, do not bear out this inference. While no
" common Burnsite " would pass uncondemned such a mis-
quotation of a well-known couplet as that with which a recent
writer favoured his readers in a magazine, to wit, —
" Oh wad the laird the giftie gie us,
To see oursels as ithers see us ! "
it would not be difficult to puzzle him as to the meaning, inner
or otherwise, of half a dozen lines selected almost at random
from the non-lyrical and strictly vernacular poems.
Nor is the remarkable vogue of the Scots story incon-
sistent with the real decadence of the vernacular. The interest
here would have been much the same apart from the local
colour of the language. To take the " Window in Thrums " as
representative of the high-water mark of the Scots story, its
consummate art is essentially the revelation in fiction of the
spirit of the Lyrical Ballads, a Wordsworthian interest, that is,
in the inherent beauty and pathos of common things and people,
the interplay of human strength and weakness under simply
human conditions. The situation is vernacular, whereas the
language is not. Its imitators strain after its vernacular
colour-effects by a liberal dash of dialect words, but their
success is factitious. The reader can quite afford to skip the
69
60 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
dialect and follow the, plot all the better. The French of the
menu card has little effect on the digestion of the dishes. Take,
by way of emphasising this point, Dr. William Alexander's
"Johnny Gibb o' Gushetneuk," a story which, though very
precious to the few who are in sympathy to appreciate it, is yet
caviare to the general who dote on Thrums and all its kin.
Here the charm of rusticity is perfect. The characters are as
strong, original, and lifelike as any in the whole gallery of the
" Kailyard." _ The " waesome element o' greetin' and deein' " is
indeed absent, but the humorous aspects of Scotch thrift and
pawkiness and all the lights and shades of minor morality in a
country-side are there, and worked out on the lines of Gait and
Terrier and Mrs. Hamilton (the creator of Mrs. Maclarty). But
the author handicapped himself by his devotion to the vernacular
setting of his tale. He could not do otherwise, this attitude being
part and parcel of his thinking. Pope doubtless knew as well as
Shakspere what constituted a poet, but nature had built him for
reasoning in verse, so he was didactic and ratiocinative at the
risk of being refused some day the very name of poet. Similarly
we have the real Burns in the vernacular poems. Wordsworth
was right in his appreciation of these, while Tennyson followed
the multitude in preferring the songs in which Burns devoted
his lyrical gifts to the gathering up of the fragments of a fading
vernacular and dressing them out in the sentimental fashion of
the eighteenth century. This preference is the more surprising
when we remember that Tennyson himself has raised his own
dialect work to the dignity of a classic. Nowhere else has he
struck a deeper or truer dramatic note. The truth is that
literature cannot afford to overlook such vernacular as we have
in Scotland; witness the great number of Northern words now
used as English. But the best evidence of the value of this
interdependence comes from Burns, Scott and Carlyle, who
nursed their art on this humble soil, and thereby secured a
position among the most vivid, human, and truly realistic
masters of English. If the Scottish vernacular should pass
from decadence to decay, the people will not only lose the
education of their bi-lingual inheritance, but English itself will
puffer. For, while the effect of education on the literary speech
is to develop expression by the strict rules of conventional
IN DECADENCE 61
imitation, the vernacular lends itself naturally to local environ-
ment in choice of words, significant content, idioms, tone and
accent — everything, in short, which gives to style its colour
and individuality. Scotland, from the more archaic character
of its development, and from the fact that the whole nation
early found its native speech shouldered out of general literature,
presents a specially rich field for the study of dialectic growth.
While education and intercourse are between them killing
out the vernacular, and writers for striking effects have to
resort to Yankee or coster slang, or even sheer Kiplingesque
audacity in diction, decadence can never apply to the classic
Scottish speech. As long as we have Barbour, Blind Harry,
Henryson, Douglas, Dunbar, Lindsay, their diction can be studied
like that of Chaucer, Langland and Spenser. But, alongside of
this, there has always existed a vernacular with a character
and contents of its own. It lives quite independently of liter-
ary production, but pines away before the breath of education
and its fashions. It was as well that Eamsay, Burns, and
Fergusson were but little versed in classical Scots, for they
could no more have kept it alive than could Elizabethans the
archaisms of Chaucer and Spenser. What they did was to
have the courage to admit so much of the vernacular into
literary diction, and this is now the true strength of their style.
But it is with Barbour, Wynton, and the Burgh Laws with
which the vernacular is most in touch. Erom these one might
cull many expressions that are only now ceasing to be " house-
hold words." Thus Barbour describes the good Earl James of
Douglas as "a hlack-a-vised man that wlispyt sum daill, but
that set him richt weill." In " Peebles to the Play," when the
cadger has tumbled in the mire off his horse, —
" His wife came out and gave a shout,
And by the foot she gat him ;
All be-dirtin drew him out ;
Lord (how), right weil that sat him."
Henry MorleyC Shorter English Poems") glosses this as "vexed
him," in defiance of the context. After the disaster of Methven,
when Bruce and he were " dreand in the Month (Mount, i.e. the
Grampians) thair pyne;" and "gret defaut of mete had thai,"
62 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Douglas " wroeht gynnys " (the girns or nooses of the rabbit-
catcher) " to tak geddis (pike) and salmonys, trowtis, elys, and als
menownys." Here we have the familiar m€n?io«.s(minnows) of the
schoolboy. When Barbour tells how Bunnock, the husband-ma.n,
carried out his clever plan for capturing Lithgow Peel from the
English while ostensibly leading his wain full of hay for the
garrison, the whole scene is a lifelike presentment to a Lowland
farmer who has kept to his vernacular. " Aucht men, in the
body of the wain," should " with hay helyt be about," where helyt
recalls the hool or covering of a bean and the hulls or clothes
of Sartor Eesartus. In Burns's " Hallowe'en," when the vision
of " an out-lier quey " came between the widow Leezie and the
moon, her heart "maist lap the hool" (she nearly "jumped out
of her skin"). Compare the Orcadian — "My heart is oot o'
hule." Then when Bunnock's wain was " set evenly betuix the
chekis of the yett sae that men mycht spar (close and fasten) it
na gat " (way), he " then hewyt in twa the soyme " or traces.
Gregor's " Banffshire Glossary " shows this soyme still in use.
"Fin thir wuz a crom (kink) in the sowm the gaadman geed
(went) and raid (disentangled) it." In Caithness, late in last
century, tenants had to furnish simmons, or ropes of heath for
thatching purposes, to the laird. Skinner very aptly uses the
word in his Epistle to a Ship Captain turned Farmer, —
" Your hawsers and your fleeand sheets,
Ye've turned them into sowms and theats " (trace-lines).
In simmons the definite article has been added to the Norse
sime, ropes of straw or bent. The oat straw used for making
them was called " gloy." They were twisted with a " thraw-
cruck." There are innumerable touches of this kind in Barbour
which stir up associations with vernacular — " ane Englishman
that lay hekand him he a fyr," where the preposition, German
bei, is used in its favourite sense, or " mycht na man se a ivder
man " than Edward Bruce, where the epithet would be poorly
rendered by sadder, or this greeting between Bruce and his men, —
" He welcummyt thaim with gladsum fair,
Spekand gud wordis her and thar,
And thai thair lord sa meekly
Saw welcum thaim sa hamly.
Joyful thai war."
IN DECADENCE 63
"We find also in Barbour the specially Northern use of the
relative that in the form 'at, —
" James of Douglas his menye than
Sesit Weill hastily in hand
'At (those whom) thai about the castell fand."
This idiom is found throughout the literature which best
preserves the vernacular — Privy Council Eegisters and the
Kecords of Burghs, Kirk-Sessions and Guilds, and is still in
general use. Burns and Eamsay avoid it as beneath the dignity
of literature, but there is a good specimen in the " Window in
Thrums," " Him at's marrit on the lad Wilkie's sister." Dr.
Murray, who quotes a typical example, " the dug at its leg wuz
rin owre," ascribes this form of that to Celtic influence, but
in spite of the teaching of the Celtic Eevival the Gael has
made scarcely any impression here or elsewhere on the lan-
guage of the Lowland Scot. The Sassenach has taken kindly
to vulgar Gaelic words like creesh (fat, grease) or bodach, a
silly person, a buddie (body), which he loves to characterise as
windy (boastful), birssy (irascible), fikey (finicky), or nochty
(insignificant). A Gaelic word for relationship, oy from ogha, a
grandchild, was in use last century. In the year 1717 the Burgh
Eecords of Dysart note an heir to property as "oy to John
Eamsay, carpenter," and Burns has ier-oe, a great-grandchild.
"Wee curlie John's ier-oe" (Dedication to Gavin Hamilton),
shows one of the very few Gaelic words in Burns. In the case
in point it supplied him with a handy rhyme. The Orcadian
has jeroy, a great-grandchild. Oy has met with the fate of
eyme, an uncle, common in Barbour and the ballad-writers, and
still general in German as oheim. The notorious President
Kruger was known familiarly as Oom Paul. To him his bSte
noire, Mr. Ehodes, is a schelm. This is the same word as the
very Gaelic-looking skellum, applied by that waefu' woman Kate
to her husband, Tam o' Shanter. It is in Gaelic as one of many
borrowed Teutonic words. Another word of extreme interest,
scallog or sgoXag, a husbandman, has come into Gaelic from the
Norse, and during last century was the name in the Outer
Hebrides for the poor tenants — virtually the serfs of the tacks-
men. It has never been in vernacular Scots, though as schalh
64 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
it is found in the mediseval romances. In the Gothic Gospels
the centurion gives, as an instance of his authority, " To my
servant (du skalka meinamma) I say, 'Do this,' and he doeth
it." Though thus an old Teutonic word, we. find it in strange
places. St. Serf taught his scolocs at Gulross in 517, and Dean
Hole, in his " Memories," notes shack as in the dialect of Newark
applicable to one who "can and will do anything but regular
work." Pratt, in his "Buchan," mentions a charter of 1265 in
which the Archbishop of St. Andrews granted to the Earl of
Buchan certain lands that "the Scoloci hold," evidently the
church nativi, neyfs or serfs. Joseph Eobertson and Skene say
they are the scholastici or pupils on the monastic lands, but
Skeat connects it with skalk (servant) in mare-schal. The Ger-
man element is conspicuous everywhere in Lowland Scots, even
where one might have looked for Gaelic. Till the potato famine
brought over the Irishman, Highland reapers and drovers were
regular summer visitants in the south. Yet such a common
expression as kempin, in which one shearer struggled to outstrip
another, is pure German {kiirtipfen, to wrestle). In that inter-
esting last century poem. The Hairst Eig, where there is a
graphic description of a kempin tussle, the Gael and his speech
are treated as something quite f remit (Ger. fremd) or foreign.
One genuine Gaelic word, however, is only too well known on
every farm in Fife, skellocks, Eng. charlock or wild mustard.
This obtrusive and vigorous weed is the Gaelic sgeallag. Mac-
bain (" Gael. Diet") finds its root as sqel, separate, Eng. sheU,
which last Skeat prefers to connect with scale. Its place on the
Highland crofts as an ubiquitous weed is -taken by the gool or
wild chrysanthemum, so named from its yellow flower, —
" The gool, the Gordons, and the hoodie craw
Were the three warst faes 'at Moray e'er saw."
With the decadence of the vernacular has gone a great
number of words that were bound up with the social life of the
past. The position of the long-forgotten birley-man was of
great antiquity and importance. He was the elective Schulze
or magistrate of the primitive village commune and an authority
on boor-law that was referred to in all disputes. Till near the
end of last century he was the recognised valuator or appraiser
IN DECADENCE 65
in every dispute involved in the payment of rent in kind.
When, again, Burns holds up his waukit loof to witness the
sincerity of his appeal, he is making probably the last allusion
in literature to the ancient industry of the dressing of home-
made woollen cloth. Dialect here asserts itself, and a familiar
survival in one county may be unknown in another. Thus the
terms for the homestead are curiously localised. In such Norse
districts as Caithness and Islay the names of farms often end
in -ster and -bus, while over the West Highlands generally the
favourite term is gortchin, the Anglo-Saxon garth or garden,
and the gart of Mid-Scotland. In Fife and the Lothians the
ferrm-toon marks the homestead, the cot-toon the row of
labourers' cottages near by. A sheep-pen again is a buicht on
the Border, a fank in the west, a pumfle (corruption of pen-fold)
in the north-east. Fife and the Lothians, never much given over
to sheep-farming, know little of these terms. A yard for cattle,
however, is there called a reed, itself an odd survival of the
Pictish rath, a fortified enclosure. It is still heard in many
place-names. To Jamieson it is known only as a sheep-ree,
and marked " West Fife." But as Fife is not a sheep-rearing
county, this does not say very much. On a specification for
alterations on a farm in the Lothians not very long ago, measure-
ments were given for a reed. First the factor and then the
laird wrote inquiring what was, meant by this obscure term.
This incident says much for the decreasing interest in Scottish
dialects. Burns seems to have known a word still surviving in
Galloway, awal, for a sheep tumbled over on its back, or the
moon on the wane, if the second version of " Meg o' the Mill,"
be his, but Dr. William Wallace pronounces it too poor a thing
to have been written by him. It is a Eomance word of much
dignity (French avaler, to descend, gulp down ; Lat. ad vallem).
Spenser uses it of the falling Nile — "When his later spring
'gins to avale."
The farm labourer (Anglo-Saxon liyne) has distinctive
dialect names. On the Border he is known as a hind, in
Aberdeenshire a gudge, itself a word occurring in the " Gothic
Gospels" of the fourth century : — " Jah bedun ina allai gaujans
thize Gaddarene galeithan fairra sis " — and all the peasants of
the Gadarenes begged him to depart from them (Luc. viii. 37).
5
66 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
In Mid-Scotland he is only " a man," but his help is a hafflin, an
extra hand is an orra man, while the hagg is charged with the
feeding of the nowte or rather cattle-beast. Harness and farm
implements have much the same names all over the country,
but some exist only because of conditions special to a district.
Thus in the hay-making regions of Lanark and Ayr a slyp or
sledge is well known. Burns graphically visualises the action
of the verb when he tells how the auld mare Maggie in her
best days " spread abreed her well-filled brisket " at a stiff bit
of ploughing, "Till spritty knowes wad rairt an' risket, an'
slypet owre." The word and the implement came from Holland
originally. In Gaelic slipe appears as sliob, a stroke, a rub, a
lick ; Ir. sliohhaim, to polish ; Norse sHpa, to whet ; Du. slijpen,
to polish, sharpen ; A.S. slipan, to glide. In Ayrshire the word
is used for whetting a scythe or for a whetstone. Gaelic helps
also with the graphic risket of Burns in its reesk, coarse grass,
marshy land, morass with sedge; Ir. riasg, a moor, fen; Eng.
rush. Sprits are rushes growing where the water spurts or
oozes out.
In house affairs there are seen similar dialectic differences.
The "bain" or bucket of the west is unknown in the east,
■where it is a cog or kimmin. The bairn of Fife is the wean of
Lanark, the gett of Aberdeenshire. This latter term in Moray-
shire was always applied to an illegitimate. Even words that
seem ridiculously easy to a Fifer are but little known in the
west, such as dubs and puggies, a poalie finger and a ploatet
pig. Perhaps not quite so much familiarity can be claimed for
another Fife word, a willie-miln, a latch or door fastening
worked by a string. Its origin is obscure. As it has lingered
longest about the Dysart and Kirkcaldy district, it may pre-
serve the name of some skillie smith body about Pathhead,
otherwise unknown to fame. It is not a little humiliating to
think that these and suchlike decadent expressions, so hamely
to many of us, and so rich in the kindliest of associations, will
speedily go the way of worn-out coin.
No better test of the survival of a vernacular is to be found
than the general intelligibility of proverbial sayings. Where
a community cherish these, apply them aptly, and even coin
new ones on the old lines, there is dialectic growth. They
m DECADENCE 67
retain the family features of a racial speech. They embody the
inspiration of generations of nameless stylists, and form a record
of social changes that is unique. The " wise saws " of the Scots
— graphic, direct, homely — are instinct with the proverbial
experience of a people of simple wants and limited outlook, but
endowed with no common gifts of thought and expression. If
daily converse must be coterie in kind and imitative, better the
continual wedding of wise saws to modern instances than the
shallow and tiresome iteration of such coster slang as bloomin',
bally, and beastly, of slope, and oof, and chump. Proverbs
photograph the life experience of an age. "It's nae lauchin
wark to girn in a widdy " recalls the wild times of the Gallows
Hill and Jeddart justice, when the poor wretch hung for days
from a noose of heather or tough twigs (withes). How different
the social attitude of these equivalents : " As weel be hanged
for a sheep as a lamb," and " In for a penny, in for a pound ! "
The universal use of timber on the homestead at a time when
iron had to be imported, and that in very modest quantities,
gave point to the worldly wisdom that appreciated character in
these saws, —
"Thraw (twist) the widdy (sapling) when it's green,
'Tween three and thirteen ; "
" It's a ticht caber (beam) 'at has neither knap (Ger. Knopf,
knot, button) nae gaw (crack, flaw) in't ; " '' Him 'at hews aboon's
head may get a speal (splinter) in's e'e," or " Whatever way the
saw gangs the dust flees," which is another way of saying that
the lawyer's mill is always sure to get grist. In the days when
the winter's kitchen hung from the cross-beams instead of
coming from the co-operative store the pig was a gentleman of
importance whom everyone appreciated. He was familiarly
addressed as "goosie ! goosie!" A touch of Celticism appears in
the name for his sty, a cruve (Gael, eraobh, a tree) or " wattled
cot," a term better known in connection with enclosures for
securing salmon in tidal waters. The futility of half measures
is emphasised in " Wha ploats his pig in loo water ? " where
loo is what the new generation calls tipt (tepid). English fails
to render ploats, the soaking of the stuck pig in hot water to
facilitate the scraping process. The tenderness of maternity is
68 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
roughly hit off in " A yeld sow (not giving milk) is never good
to the grices." " Dogs will redd (separate) swine " is just " Any
stick is good enough to beat a dog with." "Ilka body creeshes
(greases) the fat soo's tail" roughly describes the worship of
wealth, expressed by "To him that hath shall be given," or
" Men worship the rising sun." The sheep was a kindly pet,
and so was quoted on occasion. " Ae scabbet sheep will smit
(taint) the hale hirdsell " tells the lesson of evil communications.
We see what " the gift o' the gab " can do in " He's a chield
can spin a muckle pirn oot o' a wee tait (tit-bit) o' woo'." Old
Hawkie, " 'yont the hallan," was one of the family to the thrifty
goodwife. The virtue of tender handling is commended in
■' It's by the head 'at the coo gies milk," and of patience under
trial in " Dinna fling awa' the cog when the coo flings (kicks)."
The cog has come in again from the Gaelic as the quaich. From
the milk-pail the milk was sied or strained (sieve) into the
bowie or kimmin, thence to be reamed (Ger. rahmen) for the
cream. Around the yard went the homely chuckle when
couthie caution was commended in " Fleyin' (frightening) a
hen's no the way to grip it." The ingle-lowe gathered round
it the household, and baudrons or cheetie-pussy courted the
warmth to her cost, when we were warned against trusting to
appearances with, " Like the singet cat, better nor she's likely
(seemly)." There was a bog in every howe, the burn swept
past the loan-end in roaring spate (flood), and the wayfarer
risked a watery grave among the boulders, when these had a
meaning: "Let the tow (rope) gang wi' the bucket," "There
was water where the stirk (bullock) was drowned," " Let them
roose (praise) the ford as they find it." The inexperience of
youth is in " He hasna ridden the ford yet." When the Yankee
tramp comes to the proverbial long lane he says, " Guess I've
struck the prairie," but Tarn o' Shanter might have faced the
weary Scots miles with the consoling reflection, "It's a bare
moor but one will find a cowe (bush) in it." The " eowe,"
familiar to the curler, was properly the kale-runt or stalk of the
curly green, for it is akin to Lat. caulis, Fr. chou, and cauli-
flower. Gustock is cowe-stock or cabbage-stalk. Close attention
to business was commended in " The maister's fit maks the best
fulzie (compost)." Through the dreary winter the starved beasts-
IN" DECADENCE 69
went roaming about in search of a bite, till, when nature
resumed her green mantle, they were "at the liftin'," like a
corpse before burial, so, instead of the Englishman's " "While the
grass grows the steed starves " we have the Scots, " The auld
aiver (nag) may dee waitin' for new grass." "When the bairns
protested too much at sight of their humble fare the thrifty
housewife answered with a "Na, na; corn's no for staigs"
(colts).
These were the days of small things, when to be near or
grippy was not unpardonable, yet large-heartedness breathes in
" Him 'at has a good crap may weel thole a wheen thistles."
He may well put up with the sornin' (sponging) of poor rela-
tions. Table-love, however, was appraised at its true value :
" Mony aunts, mony eems (Ger. Oheim, uncle), mony kin, few
friens." True neighbourliness comes out in " A borrowed len
(loan) should aye gang lauchin' hame." There was no worship
of the baby then, for " Dawtet bairns dow bear little." The
unwise fondling in dawted (dote) is a poor preparation for real
life. This obsolete dow (can put up with, effect) was much used
by Burns and Fergusson. A favourite word with Burns is
heard in "A tarrowin' (grumbling) bairn was never fat." Its
Orcadian meaning is "to take the dorts (tirran, cross, ill-
natured)," from the expression tarre, an incitement to dogs to
fight (cf. Ger. hetzen, and Shakspere's Hey ! ). Kindly indulg-
ence for youthful wild oats was not awanting : " Eoyet (riotous,
dissipated) lads mak' sober men." The Scot's dramatic faculty
is deemed as weak as his appreciation of humour; but was
pawkiness (a better word than knowingness) ever more neatly
put than in " He's no sae daft as he let's on " (gives out, a
favourite idiom); ""Wark for nocht maks folks dead sweer"
(unwilling, Ger. sckwer) ; " Better fleech (flatter) fools than
fecht them ; " and " There's a time to gley (look awry) and a
time to look straucht." Nor could there be a sounder apprecia-
tion of the personal reference than "Ye mett (measure) my
peas by your ain peck." " Men are no to be mett (measured)
by inches," and " Guid gear is little-booket " (of small bulk) are
two views of the same situation. "Marriage is a lottery"
appears as " She's a wise wife 'at wat (divined) her ain weird "
(fate). And while the endurance of the ills we have is com-
70 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
mended in "Better rue sit than rue flit," or "Better twa
skaiths (Ger. Schade, injury) than ae sorrow," we are to
sturdily face consequences with "The warst may be tholed
(endured) when it's kenned," or " Better finger aff as ay wag-
gin'." The old-time peasant had much of that spirit of inde-
pendence on which Burns harps so often. " My ain hose will
be tied wi' my ain gairtans (garters)" is the fearless resolve
of the man that " will to Cupar, so maun to Cupar,'' while
"We can dicht oor corn in oor ain cannis," points to the
custom of clearing out the chaff in the process of winnowing by
throwing up the grain between the doors of the barn and letting
it fall on the canvas spread out to receive it. "I'm mebbe
poor but I'm no misleared " (badly brought up) is a croose claim
to respect for native worth. Popular philosophy put the truth
that the will dominates the understanding, as " Gar'd (forced)
gress is ill to grow." The virtue of thrift is commended in
" Hained mooter (multure) bauds the mill at ease and 'fends
the miller," the analogue of "A penny hained (saved) is a
penny gained." Scott finely expresses true independence in
his favourite motto, " A hedge about his friends, a heckle (for
dressing flax) to his foes." Contempt for the opposite attitude
of spiritless acquiescence breathes in his " They liket mutton
weel that licket whaur the yowe lay."
Some of these maxims are severely condemnatory. The
retort of shallow insolence is but "a goose's gansell." The
cotter's children in the " Twa Dogs " are " a' run-deils thegither "
— runs, riinds (Ger. Rand) or clippings from the selvage of a
very bad web. But there was generally playful exaggeration
in this as well as in the commoner reproach, a " limb o' Sawtan."
The boy, mischievous as a monkey, is said to be "as ill-sets a
puggie," which last is, by the way, a very good test-word for
the survival of dialect. Few of the rising generation, and many
even of the risen, specially if brought up away from the east
side of Scotland, can make a guess at puggie. I have had it
explained as a kind of engine, and again as a fox. In Orcadian
pieg is anything of diminutive growth, as a pieg o' kale, a very
small cabbage. The Danish is paeg. Pioo, a small quantity,
may be Forfarshire peeay. Pug in English is a monkey, as in
the above proverb. In Scots anything small is a pug or a puggie
IN DECADENCE 71
(Gael, paeg, small), as a pug engine, a pug plane is a joiner's
tool. A small Shetland horse is a gur-pug (garron, a nag, and
pug). In primitive times this word must have been applied to
the fairies, always described as the little folks, of. Puck, pixie,
the wee peehs. Henry Morley (" Shorter Poems," p. 234) has a
very interesting note on Puck, written also, he says, as Pouke
and Pug, the former of which is first found in " Piers Plowman,"
signifying the devil. '' Paeean," to deceive by false appearance,
is early English. From a derivative, pickeln, to play the fool,
Morley gets the usual name for a mischievous boy, a pickle.
Another pithy comparison, " as saut's pell," is well known
in Pife. Jamieson notes it under pell as butter-milk very mucl^
soured, which makes little account of the saltness. I take it
rather to be a survival of the times when tanning was a village
industry and salted hides (pelts, Lat. pellis, skin) were common
on every homestead. There is no obscurity about this: "The
lift '11 fa' an' smore (smother) the laerricks" — one of many
expressions for the impossible, what is most unlikely to happen,
so characteristic of the canny Scot. There is surprisingly little
in these proverbial expressions which might be called obsolete.
They have the quality of a true style, they rarely miss the
mark. Some archaisms, however, there are here. Farmers
do not now call a horse an aiver, though Burns uses it, as in
" A Dream," when he wishes to be sarcastically, nay daringly,
familiar. A century ago it was in the north applied to a goat.
It really means a property (Lat. habere and our average). The
parallel word, cattle, equally abstract (Lat. capitale and chattel),
has retained its special concrete bent, except in Scots, where
one still speaks of a cattle-beast, plural, cattle-beas'. A few
other terms in these proverbs, such as tarrow, roose, mett,
eem, are now intelligible only to one fairly well read in old
literature.
So far we have had illustrations of the dialectic development
of a bi-lingual people, as the Scots historically are. Alongside
of this distinctively northern use of English we have the per-
sistence of native usage in an unbroken chain. At the Union
strenuous and successful efforts were made to preserve the
individuality of Scots law. During the "Auld Alliance"
French models had been preferred to English, and latterly
72 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Dutch, when Episcopacy and Independency together had
driven Presbyterians into the arms of the Calvinists of Holland.
Though legal nomenclature is necessarily technical, yet, as the
Scots always loved a good-going plea, legal terms have become
to a surprising extent household words. A pley (plea) is indeed
the very commonest expression for a dispute in general, while
the lawyer is, far excellence, " a man o' bizness." These words are
in no special sense Scottish, being in every case English worn
with a difference. At the head of a Court, or indeed anybody
acting in a judicial capacity, is the preses ; the pleader is an
advocate. The provincial representative of a judge is a depute.
To bring a complaint into Court is to delate, a sense not unknown
to Shakspere ; witness the phrase in " Hamlet," " More than the
scope of these delated articles allow." The parties are com-
plainers. The Crown prosecutor is the fiscal, a " god of power "
in a Scottish burgh. The accused is the pannel and the indict-
ment is the libel, a term so familiar that some worthy folks
speak of having their luggage libelled,. Evidence is adduced,
and witnesses depone. A civil suit is a process, prepared by a
writer, or depreciatorily a "writer buddy," who summonses
witnesses. The judge condescends upon the facts, and issues
an interlocutor or decision. In questions of real estate the
guardian is a tutor, sureties to contracts are cautioners, and
the deed must be implemented conform to its terms. The
successful litigant is discharged from the conclusions of the
summons. To become a bankrupt is to fail, a catastrophe,
classed of old for its awfulness with insanity and suicide as a
" stroke from God," o'c dctmnwni fatale. The unhappy " dyvour "
sat near the Mercat Cross on a stone bench and clad in a yellow
robe. The word long survived its disuse in the legal sense
as a weapon in a scolding-match. A declared bankrupt was
notour, to be put to the horn if he failed to extinguish the
debt, followed by the terrors of poinding and multiple-poinding.
The proprietors in a parish are heritors. One who holds under
a perpetual ground rent is a feuar, or in Lanarkshire a por-
tioner. Keal estate is mortgaged under a bond or disposition
in security, the agent in the transaction is the doer or haver,
and the decision of the Court upon it is a decreet. To transfer
a property is to convey, and the buyer becomes infeft of his
IN DECADENCE 73
possession by sasine, a term also familiar to Shakspere from
Horatio's statemejit, " All those his lands which he stood seised
of." The general intelligibility of these terms goes far to
prove that in old society law was not " a supperfluity " but a
" necessar."
The Church was another peculiar institution, with terms
in still more popular use. It was governed by an assembly,
synod, presbytery and session. , In a land of many sects one
belonged to a body. In the hey-day of schism a stranger,
present at a social gathering of one of these groups, approached
a little girl and addressed her affably, but she pulled him up
short with, " I dinna belang to the body." No Dissenter could
join in the laird's comprehensive toast, " The Kirk, the auldest,
the cheapest, and the best." In Moderate circles a Dissenter
was classed in a common horror with a Eadieal, a Patriot, and
a Quaker. Such was the attitude of that otherwise meek and
worthy man, Dr. Haldane, of St. Andrews. He was repri-
manding the beadle for ill-using his wife, but was completely
disarmed by the sly rogue's apologia. "Weel, ye see, doctor,
she'll no hud awa fae thae Dissenters," eliciting the reply,
" Then if you must do it, John, let it be in moderation." Sacer-
dotalism, ritualism, and the sanctity of consecration found no
favour with these sturdy democrats. The minister was but
human. One old dame refused to give him his title after he
had been made a D.D. When remonstrated with she retorted,
" Weel 1 wat, there's nae doctors in Heevin." The elders were
always ready to sound his doctrine or prove his conduct, and
even the beadle had a mind of his own about the conduct of
the sanctuary. A clergyman, unduly conscious of greatness,
after a higher flight than usual, asked his man if he did not
share this feeling. "Ou, aye, yer Psaums wuz no that bad."
Little respect was paid to either the kirk or the kirkyard.
To uncover on entering the one, or to do anything but gossip
or feed calves in the other, savoured of innovation or sacer-
dotalism. The centre of the tabernacle was the poopit, rising
■over the lettern, all that was left of the lectern and the old-
time institution of the reader, whose place was taken by the
precentor. This last functionary was much exercised over the
wedding of the metres to tunes. On one occasion when an
74 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
unusual Psalm was given out, he looked up at the preacher with
the remark, " That's a gey kittle ain, ye maun just try that
yersel, Maister Davidson." The only sacrament was Com-
munion, served on what used to be literally tables, on the
model of a banquet in a baronial hall. The long strip of white
linen, the bread and the goblet or loving cup handed round,
followed exactly the custom in the big house on company days.
A solemn exercise was the fencing of the tables, for the good
things of the faith were not for the Gentiles. Strong on minor
morals must that minister have been who thus wound up the
solemn exercise of fencing the tables at Communion — " Brethren,
I debar from the sacred ordinance any man that pits twa fingers
into his neebor's mull but one intill his ain."
Of more consequence socially was a burial. The beadle, often
fresh from shovelling out the mools or soil, went from house to
house telling when the corp would lift. The friends met the
evening before for a mild dairgie (dirge, from the Psalm in the
Vulgate, '' Domine, dirige nos ") lyke-wake fashion, at the kistin'
of the weel-streikit corpse. The company at a kistin' were
horrified when the newly-made widow went up to the coffin,
and bringing down her fist on the lid, exclaimed, " He wuzz an ill
neebor there whaur he lies." There was here the long-sup-
pressed tragedy of her married life. Next day, in the darkened
parlour, the social glass was handed round before leaving for the
grave, and in solemn silence, save when, as once, a bucolic voice
was heard to utter his usual toast, " May never waur be amon's."
The gathering of cummers (comm^re) for a christening was a
more genial function. The goodman had to arrange some
evenings before with the minister. One good wife, probably
used to genteel ways when in service, schooled John well for
the occasion. "Mind, when the minister speers, ye'r no to
cau'd the bairn, but the infant." And in due course came this
colloquy in the manse parlour. " Well, is it a boy this time,
John?" "No." "Ah, then it's a bit lassie." "It's no that
nether." " Dear me, John, what can it be then ? " " I'm no
very sure, but the wife tell't me to cau'd the elephant." The
cries or banns preceded a marriage. In due time came the day
when the procession trudged up the manse loan, the groom
carrying in his button-hole " the rock and wee pickle tow."
IN DECADENCE 75
The return journey to the house was more boisterous, for it
was entered amid the fusillade of rusty guns, only brought
out at the Hansel Monday sports. I saw only once this old-
fashioned rural wedding. The guns were fired at the door of
the village inn where the bridal party dined. The lamp over
the door was smashed under fire. The groom was often un-
equal to the greatness thrust upon him. Like Hendry in the
" Window in Thrums," he failed to see what a man body had
to do wi' mainers. Chalmers used to tell of a wedding in the
fishing village of Buckhaven (Buckhine) at which the groom
quite forgot the responses, when a more experienced friend's
stage whisper was heard, " Ye eediwat, can ye no boo ! " This
Chalmers called " the heavings of incipient civilisation."
Small was the share of the minister in these socialities.
A big voice had early betrayed his destiny. Though so many
of the leaders of thought were college bred, academic terms
have taken little or no hold of the people. One who had been
to the college was looked up to with respect, but only he him-
self knew that he began as a bejant, and finished graduand.
At Aberdeen, according to Beattie, an undergraduate was known
in last century as a libertine (Lat. libertus, a freedman). A'
learned alumnus whom I have consulted on this point says,
" Obviously you have struck a dodo." If he ettled at the Kirk
he went through the Divinity Hall, where the great object was
to acquire extempore gifts, for reading the discourse was the
unpardonable sin. Great was the labour then of committing
sermons to memory — manding (Lat. mandare) as it was long
called in the U.P. Church. And if success followed he issued
from the Presbytery examination a licentiate, and thereafter a
probationer, and finally, an ordained or placed minister, with the
privilege of wearing bands. I have a vision, as a little boy, of
standing in the dimly lit street before a house, fascinated by
the sight of a figure, casting a darkened shadow on the window
as it passed and re-passed. It was a son of the house, quali-
fying for the pulpit by manding his discourse. In later days
I saw, high up on a rock by Loch Lomond side, a similar exer-
cise. Pleased faces of kindly neighbours were looking out the
while from the doors of the paternal homestead not far off.
In this case I could but see the elocutionary gestures, re-
76 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
minding me of a probationer's flight of oratory when he called
statuary " the dumb dialect of cheeseld eloquence."
2. Scots and English.
The old game of Scots and English, once so popular with boys
on this side the Border, anticipated those movements which are
giving such prominence in high polities to the problems of race.
But it has a still deeper significance. The true inwardness of
the Union of 1707, and the work it has done for good or ill,
have still to be adequately told. Suffice it meanwhile to fight
again the old battle on its kindly but not unprofitable side, the
differences of tone and accent, of diction and idiom, which dis-
tinguish natives benorth the Tweed from their southern com-
patriots. If Mr. Chamberlain was right in facetiously describing
Scotland as having annexed England, it is all the other way
where language is concerned. Our northern authors of the
eighteenth century wrote under an ever-present dread that
some Scoticism, as they called it, should bewray them. Burns,
Scotissimus Scotorum, in playing the part of Stevenson's " sedu-
lous ape," gave his days and nights, not to Addison alone, but to
all the best models in contemporary English. The process has
spread apace since his day. The youthful Scot not only mouths
the latest coster slang, but condescends even to such ubiquitous
English solecisms as "like I do," and the book "lays on the
table." All through the seventeenth century Scotsmen wrote
lay and lays for lie and lies, but they pronounced the -ay long i.
In time the pronunciation changed to rhyme with " day," but
the spelling remained the same. This seems to be the real
source of " lays " for " lies!" To go lower still, the Glasgow
street urchin used to hawk his " Vestar, a penny a box ! "
Though the Scottish language lingers now only as a decadent
vernacular, there was a time when it was cultivated as literature.
For more than a century after the age of Chaucer, when there
was scarce even a third-rate poet to be found south of Tweed,
Scotland was the Muses' haunt. Strange to say, however, not
till near the close of the fifteenth century was the language ever
spoken of as anything but the " Inglis tongue." It was Gavin
Douglas that first knew the "Scottis speech" as a generic term,
IN DECADENCE 77
though for long afterwards this was commonly applied only to
Gaelic, the Erse of Burns's poems. Gaelic itself was universally
known in Scotland as Irish. The first Marquis of Argyll had
his son, Lord Lorn, fostered (educated) under Sir Colin Campbell
of Glenorchy, to whom his mother writes : " I heair my son
begines to weary of the Irishe langwadge. I intreatt you to
cause hold hime to the speaking of itt, for since he has bestowed
so long tyme and paines in the getting of itt I sould be sory he
lost itt with leasiness " (Willcock's " Argyll," p. 26). For many
centuries the common features of one and the same Northern
speech prevailed from Humber to Grampians. The Tynesider
or Yorkshireman of to-day has a vernacular far more in touch
with Lowland Scots than the man of Lincoln and the Fens.
Eeformers like Knox and Melville had no difficulty on the score
of language in consorting with the English Puritans. Shakspere
is not very complimentary in his allusions to Scotland, but he
notes nothing so distinctive in Northern speech as he does
in Welsh. It must have been in the role of " schoolmaster of
the nation " that James VI., addressing the Estates at Edinburgh
in 1617, said reproachfully that "the Scots had learnt of the
English to drink healths, wear coaches and gay clothes, take
tobacco, and speak neither Scotch nor English." Nor, again,
did Baillie and his fellow-presbyters find any difficulty — quite
the reverse — in preaching with the utmost acceptance to the
Londoners in Cromwell's time (Baillie's " Letters "). It would
be hard to find much that is distinctive in the diction of
Northern writers after 1603, although the speech of the people
retained its national features. The later Union of 1707 was
accompanied by a growing consciousness of a distinction between
the Northern and Southern vernaculars. The Jacobite risings
introduced a fresh disturbing factor in the shape of the Celtic
element, and forthwith Scotland was blunderingly thought of in
the South as a Celtic country. Then the Englishman travelled
northwards, taking with him his prejudices and insular lack of
curiosity. The extension of the Empire carried Scots all over
the world, and these discreetly said little about their origin ;
but their clannishness, push and success still further emphasised
distinctions in speech. Such were never observed, however, in
the literary speech, only in the vernacular. Thomson, Hume,
78 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
Smith, Eobertson, Smollett, all challenge attention as English
writers. Burns laboured hard to make himself the reverse of
what Mr. Henley has so superficially called him — "a rather
unlettered eighteenth-century Englishman." Currie, his first
biographer, remarking that Scottish dialect was going out, says
that "Burns, never farther south than Carlisle or Newcastle,
had less of it than Hume, or perhaps than Robertson." In those
days Beattie, an Aberdeen professor and elegant writer, thought
it worth while to make out a list of Scoticisms (spelling of Burns
and last century writers generally, to indicate the long o in use
then) for reproof and instruction. Another Aberdonian pro-
fessor was said to have carried modernity so far as to speak to
his students of Thomas of Shanter and Shoemaker John. In
our own time it would be hard to tell the nationality of an
author from his printed page. As for the speech that bewrayeth,
there are differences enough between any two individuals quite
irrespective of their place of origin.
While literary style, like fashion in clothes, discourages the
use of the archaic and characteristic, these qualities are persistent
in spoken discourse. I have heard Carlyle, and his accent would
have been pronounced decidedly provincial by the smart young
person, but no one would question his right to a place among
the masters of literary English. It is matter of common obser-
vation that the man who is consciously in touch with a well-
marked vernacular like Scots, educates himself up to a high
standard of purity in the use of the literary speech. The English
of Inverness has been ascribed to the presence of Cromwell's
soldiers, very doubtful models ; but it rests on a far older and
more philosophic basis. Nor is it confined to Inverness, but
marks the use of any language grammatically taught, and never
heedlessly employed. What English is more distinct and melli-
fluous than the utterance of a Highland girl who has acquired
it as something apart from her mother-tongue ? Only a slovenly
Highland preacher would say 'he for the, char for jar, or indulge
in the comic effect of yiss and divvel. In a genuine letter from
Eob Roy he says : " The man that bought your quhway (quey)
divill a farthing he peyd of you." These are the shibboleths
which grow up with habit and environment ; and so much are
we the creatures of ear in speech that slight changes in tone
IN DECADENCE 79
and accent and pause will produce the effect, when we hear it,
of a foreign tongue. This is well put by Sir Eobert Christison.
When studying in Paris in 1820, a time of political unrest,
police spies were in all public places. At the Theatre Fran^ais,
with his fellow-student and brither Scot, CuUen, they were
cautioned by a French friend to be on their guard. "Let's
kittle our freen's lugs," said Christison, " wi' a wee braid Scots."
It worked well. "I have often noticed," he continues, "how
thoroughly the mingling of a little Lowland Scots and genuine
English renders it unintelligible to the foreigner, however
familiar he may be with it in its purer form."
Apart from these general effects of separate environment,
there are fundamental differences between the phonetic systems
of English and Lowland Scots. The latter is more archaic, but
both have developed with respective gains and losses. The
Southron has grown to be excessively fond of the open, name
sound of the vowels, and especially a (witness the Cockney
" lidy "). The Cockney makes the most of it as a sweet morsel,
and in academic circles it has severed England from all educated
nations in the pronunciation of Greek and Latin. Long ago
Punch hit off this point neatly in the lines, —
" O Mary, Mary, sigh for me,
For me, your Tony true :
I am become as a man dumb,
let Hymen prompt you."
So they sounded, read Anglic^, but every word was good Latin, —
" mare, mare, si formae,
Formae, ure tonitru :
lambicum as amandum,
Olet Hymen promptu."
This preference leads the Englishman also to shun the Italian
pure a, so characteristic both of the Romance and Germanic
tongues as it is of Lowland Scots. Thus in words like had, hat,
this vowel becomes a thin, affected e. This typical Lowland
vowel, as in inan, the Englishman fails to catch, his rendering
of a by the impossible mon being the nearest approach to it. In
the life of the famous brothers Erskine we are told that Thomas,
80 STUDIES IN" LOWLAND SCOTS
pleading before the House of Lords, said cur&fors in the Scots
way, and, being twitted thereupon by Mansfield, who had the
English way, curators, he replied effectively by playing upon
senator and orator. The Parliament House still keeps to the
form curator. It is hard for the Scots vernacular ear to be
consistent with o, witness —
poaket for pocket
jok „ joke
woarship „ worship
rod ,, road
cot „ coat
provost ,, provost (pruvvost).
The last has now quite lost its long 6, absolutely necessary as
representing the Latin prtepositus.
The Scot seems to have an aversion to the long sound of o
and, specially where unaccented in finals, substitutes for its
English value his favourite light ending, shown in diminutives
like lassie, or a sound similar to final e in German. Examples
of the light a substitute are —
barra for barrow
arra (also for area) „ arrow
pianna „ piano
marra ,, marrow
thurra „ thorough
mota ,, motto ;
of the light ie substitute are —
cargie for cargo
echie ,, echo
pitawtie „ potato
follie „ follow
swallie ,, swallow
windie „ window.
As a medial the open sound is modified by a contiguous r ; for
example, firr'm (form, or bench), wurr'm (worm); or, again,
lengthened as in coer'n (corn), stoer'm (storm); while an I,
following, either preserves the long o (coal, mole), or is itself
dropped and a quite different vocalisation appears, as row (roU),
IN DECADENCE 81
knowe (knoll). But even here we have further anomalies illus-
trated by sowel (soul), cool (cowl), fool (fowl).
The thin i again is characteristically English. The Scot as
well as the foreigner breaks down here. Thus he says keeng for
king, or calls a word like pin, peen, or by preference preen, or
flattens the vowel, especially if near a liquid, to u (sully for
silly to avoid the * sound which he knows not), or to a sound
unrepresented in English, such as his rendering of tin. Mr.
Chamberlain is here un-English in his aggrdondisement, thus
shunning the name-sound of i. So also Mr. Stanley used to
denounce what he called " our suicidal " policy in "West Africa.
The north-eastern counties, however, delight in the attenuated
form of this letter. In the case of u the Scot is better off than
the Englishman, for he has the peculiar thin sound characteristic
of Greek and French, as mune and gude (moon and good), in
addition to such forms as we hear in cut and 'cute. All through
the Scottish vowel system what is known in German as modifi-
cation prevails largely. Unlike the Southron the Scot has no
special liking for the name-sound of u. It is only the flattery
of imitation that makes him say Bew-kanan (Buchanan) Street.
A Glasgow business man enlisted the help of his daughter at a
push in sending out his accounts. One of his customers was sur-
prised to find himself addressed as Bluechanan. The explanation
is that the young lady, having had a modern education (sic), was
trying to correct what she knew as the vulgar pronunciation of
blue (bew). Human thinking is often a wonderful process. Simi-
larly the English preference for the name-sound of o, combined
with the presence of the liquid, has changed the Eome (Eoom) of
Shakspere's time — "Now is it Eome and room indeed" (Jul. Cses.)
— though we still say Froom (Frome), while broom (brougham) is
coming into vogue again. On the other hand, it is the Irishman
that preserves the seventeenth-century name-sound of a in tea,
treat, repeat, though the Englishman still keeps to great (grate).
Smollett, with this old sound in view, cleverly produces a comic
effect, when Winifred Jenkins in his "Humphrey Clinker " writes
that her mistress, having turned Methodist and Evangelical, is
"growing in grease and godliness." An Irishman might still
call grease, grace. The troubles of the imitative Scot are many.
He speaks of Kirkcaddy, Kil-mdl-colm, Cupar- Ang-gus, the Cow-
6
82 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
gate, the Cow-caddens. One young lady admires what she chooses
to call jookery-packery, while another bids adieu, more Scottico,
thus : " But I min win away." She emerges badly from the
ordeal of a Scottish song, giving " snow drapping primrose " for
snowdrop and primrose, and explaining the "Auld Quarry
Knows" lilt as something about the present time.
The liquids, link between vowels and consonants, seriously
disturb radical vowels, as seen in the Englishman's Mary,
marm, drorin-roora, strawrat (straw hat), dawnce, sarvent. The
treatment of I and r by Northern and Southron seems to
balance, for each chooses a different one for elimination. We
might put the English faam (farm) against the Scots fa' (fall).
The strange thing is that the omission of I, so characteristic of
Scots, did not appear much before 1500, and for long after we
find such a word as nolt instead of the spoken nowt (cattle), the
English neat. In Cumberland conversely old is still oud. The
vocalising of r in English words has been of recent and very
rapid growth ; and here again the Englishman, unlike the Scot,
is strongly insular. Though essential to good fawm (form), it
puts him out of touch with both the Latin and Germanic races,
in both of which r is a strong trilled consonant. The licence
•of aspiration is now coming to be very properly tabooed as a
vulgar and ignorant departure from the written language. It
would be well if similar attention were given to the retention
of r. But here, too, we are capricious in even obtruding this
consonant where it has no business to be. On the stage and
in the pulpit we hear it, and there " the very idear of such a
thing " is excessively irritating. Here and in sofar, and " Asiar
and Af ricar among continents '" (heard from a recent traveller),
the presence of r seems due to a strong dislike to the flat
sound of a. The intrusive letter exerts its usual effect of
flattening the neighbouring vowel, which is what is wanted
here. Another English loss is the weakening of initial wh to w,
as when one hears even a Cabinet Minister speak of " the great
Wig leader." Here the Scot proceeds, in strongly sounding wh,
on true archaic lines. For a time after the introduction of
printing — that is to say, during the sixteenth century — he
pedantically wrote it quh, but he has always stuck orally to
the hw of his remote Gothic ancestors, making the h a strong
IN DECADENCE 83
guttural aspirate. This double consonant has disappeared from
modern English entirely. A popular novelist's " whisps of fog
that had lost their way " must surely be a misprint. A Scots-
man and an Englishman found themselves at cross-purposes
when talking on the golf links about the dangers of erratic
driving. What the one called whins the other took to be winds,
the sounds appearing alike from the Englishman's dropping of
the h in wh, and the Scot's favourite softening of d after n.
The Scottish schoolboy is actually warned by his teacher now-
adays to look out for a wippin', so rapidly is the Anglicising
process advancing. This is nothing, however, to the Anglican
criticism of a boy's exercise, read in the class-room, as " all rot."
The Scot has his own sins of omission, chief of which is his
slovenly treatment of dentals between vowels, such as Se'erday
for Saturday, waa'er for water. Dr. Murray thinks it due to
the neighbourhood of the Gaelic speaker, but it is a well-known
feature of the Eomance transition from Latin to French. Nor
is there any Celtic influence in the Lanarkshire vulgarism of
hree (pronounced chree) for three, and Foorsday for Thursday.
The same change is found in Cumberland, where Euresday is
.also spoken, —
" Fra far an' neer a' Fuursday neight
Fwoke com as fast as cudbe." —
Lonsdale — " Upshot."
The Scot, however, still manfully takes the trouble to articulate
his strong gutturals, though the poet Malloch changed his name
to Mallet to suit Southron ears. Murdoch, who introduced gas-
lighting, became Murdock, but the young Anglo-Scot goes
further when he asks his lady friend if shfe is " gowin' to the
Merrdok's," when he means Murdoch's. On one point, the
■dropping of the last letter in the combination — ing, he is
approximating to what has always been the Northern and truly
archaic practice. In cases like finger, anger, and hunger again
the Scot, like the German, nasalises the ng instead of doubling
the g as the Englishman does. He is unfortunately imitating
the Englishman, however, in such a blunder as reconise for
recognise. He still keeps to the old ways in strongly sibilating
-words like weiss (wise) and hoosses (houses), whereas his neigh-
84 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
bour now prefers the softer z. The Elizabethan, however, used
the Scots hard s, as in Ealeigh's " Soul's Errand," —
" Tell Wit how much it wrangles
In tickle points of niceness ;
Tell Wisdom she entangles
Herself in over-wiseness."
But he is, under Southron influences, sibilating where he ought
not. Lord Kames said that the sibilating of z in Menzies,
Mackenzie, and the like was enough to turn his stomach. This
letter is not really a sibilant at all, but the softening of an
original g such as we have in the English equivalents of the
German Menge (a crowd, many) or gefallen, Chaucer's i-fall^
(cf. yclept). This whole subject of Scottish and English com-
parative phonetics has never received anything like adequate
treatment.
While the primary rocks of a Scottish phonetic system will
long resist the denuding effects of English reading and converse,
time will work its wonders here too. The young Scot will go
on " beshin his bet" out of recognition, mouthing his hind, and
cake, and Mary to his own satisfaction, and tripping over his
-ng, wh-, ch-, and -r, with bated breath and studied imitation.
His speech will lose in weight and distinctness, but will flow
down the smooth stream of tea-room prattle and the gabble of
the comic stage.
The Scots " mis-chievous " is accented, however, in his fashion,
by the Elizabethan writers, as this example from Spenser's
" Epithalamium," —
" He let mis-chievous wretches with their charms
Fray us with things that be not."
Equally hazardous is the attempt to use " kenspeckle " words
in the grand style as contermashous for contumacious, protticks
for projects, or the Highland cook's query to her mistress,
" Should I delude the soup or sicken (thicken) it ? "
A little knowledge is in language a dangerous thing, as
when Mrs. Parvenu is in search of a " tempery cook " and is
careful to " libel " the luggage when she travels, has to put on
" mournings " when a bereavement occurs, is at a " non-plush "
IN DECADENCE 85
when she has not another trump, or asks if thfe tea-cakes
are "pennies each." But the task of such "sedulous apes" is
laboriously slow. It is otherwise with the stock of old Scots
vocables. There are ample resources of expression in English,
yet evolution in language does not always secure the survival
of the fittest. In many eases the vernacular seems to carry
more than the literary speech. What Scot would exchange the
revived Greek nous for his time-honoured gumshon, or Yankee
'cuteness for smeddum, or the very modern go for through-pit, or
a quick intelligence for gleg i' the up-talc. The modern man is
rather proud of his smart hanky-panky, but it cannot compare
with the severe but kindly jookery-pawkery. Even that pho-
netic nut umhm ! is preferable to its English form ahem ! which
he never pronounces. Could tenderness surpass dawtie, hinny,
doo, or contempt be more withering than gawpus, gomeril
(Cumb. " Thoo is a gert gommeral, to be sure "), tawpie, sumph,
or opprobrium arm itself with severer epithets than besom,
limmer, randy ? Is there more perfect visualising than Burns's
scorn for the sordid sons of Mammon ? —
" Their worthless nievefou (handful) o' a soul
May in some future carcase howl ! "
Or Chalmers's ohiter dictum, " Jacob was too much of a sneck-
drawer and Esau was the snool about the pottage," or his
delight when " an auld wife hirsled aff a dyke to curtsey to
him." Chalmers took a real delight in the Doric to which his
oratorical instincts prompted him — witness these, " There was
great chivalry in David pouring out the water before the Lord.
I would e'en have ta'en a willie-waucht. As a student at
St. Andrews I remember with what veneration I regarded the
Professors. When I was one myself I used to wonder if these
gilpies could have the same feeling towards me." Good, too,
are Aytoun's splendid Fozie Tam in " How I became a Yeoman,"
or Donald's description of his mare, Mysie, in " Kobert Urquhart,"
a truthful tale of Eifeshire life, " She's a real frake when she's
wantin' onything," where frake is so different from its German
cognate frech. The Orcadian frack describes a weak, delicate
person. Fraykin was a favourite with my mother, used exactly
as in " Eobert Urquhart." Nor is Scots wanting in a ' rich
86 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
variety of concrete expression. We have every grade of quan-
tity among a humble folk, considerate of small things, in the
series — a tait, a cum, a stime, a bittock, a hantle, a wheen, a
feck, while nothing can be more comprehensive than " the hale-
ajjothick." This last is either a surprising use of the Greek
apotheke, a granary, storehouse, or is based on the farmer's
familiarity with the law of hypothec. Nor were such harmless
affsets to conversation awanting as Losh peetie me ! My certie !
My san ! Sal ! Goavie-dick ! A low comedian, Pillans, prime
favourite with Edinburgh audiences in the sixties, used the last
cryptic expression with great effect. Apropos of a favourite
expletive, there is a good story in the life of the Erskines.
Before the Mound in Edinburgh assumed its present elegant
appearance it was a rough embankment called the Mud
Brig, and a favourite place for caravans and wild-beast shows.
Lord Hermand, taking this as the usual route between the
Parliament House and the New Town, was so excited over
the news he had just heard of the defeat of the Ministry
of All the Talents that he kept on muttering to himself,
" They're a' oot, by the Lord Hairry ! They're a' oot ! " A good
woman, hearing him and thinking only of the wild beasts, flung
herself into his arms, saying, " Oh ! save me and then my
bairns."
This comparative list shows how difficult it is to do justice
in English to a group of graphic descriptive epithets : —
Scots.
English.
blate, feebly
rendered as
coy, shy
gleg,
,1
'cute
dweeble,
),
pliable, lithe
dowie,
,,
sad, in Elizabethan and Miltonic
sense
fikie,
,,
fastidious
furthie,
),
abundantly hospitable
couthie,
,,
kindly
fashiss.
),
ill to please
wersh,
1,
insipid
bauch,
»j
dull (in surface)
croose,
,1
cocky.
IN DECADENCE 87
The English presentation of negative qualities wants the
vigour of these: —
Scots. English.
feckless feeble
fushonless without virtue or grit
menshless immoderate, insatiable
thowless bandless
wairdless thriftless
taebetless benumbed.
The more one studies English historically the more is one
convinced that what Gavin Douglas called the Scottis tongue
was substantially one with what his predecessors named the
Inglis tongue. Certainly crowds of old words and expressions
ceased to be intelligible to Englishmen long before they
died out in the north, but this is only to say that literary
culture and social development lagged there a full century
behind the pace of the south. This element, so long archaic
to Englishmen, has now almost disappeared from the Scottish
vernacular. Alongside of this, however, there are uses of the
common living English stock of words which are essentially idio-
matic in Scotland. These idioms are generally of great antiquity.
Take the common word greet. There is no doubt that its
meaning in Scots, to weep, is much older than the modern, to
welcome. In the Gothic Gospels (fourth century), " When the
cock crew, Peter, going out, wept bitterly" — "Usgaggands ut
gaigrot baitraba." If we remember that the reduplicating pre-
terite here, gaigrot, became a monosyllabic strong preterite,
this Gothic is good Scots, " Gangin oot he grat bitterly." Simi-
larly cry, to call^to " Cry on the maan " — better preserves the
sense of its cognates, 6crier, scream, screech, than the English.
Hamlet's town-crier was not expected to weep. The forensic
expression, to challenge a juror, preserves a meaning of the
word which is vernacular in Scots from the " Him 'at chalengis
the gudis " of the " Ancient Burgh Laws " to the current, " I
was never challenged for that afore," It has always meant, to
call in question, accuse, reprimand, and never been like Lat.
provocare, to call to combat. The verb learn ought never to
do duty now for teach, but the Scoticism, "learn the boy his
88 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
lessons," would have passed muster with even elegant English
writers of the eighteenth century. It has left its mark in the
proverb, " Learn the cat to the kirn (churn) and she'll aye he
lickin'." On the other hand, " to hearken one his lessons," in
the sense of hear him say, has been developed on independent
lines. Similarly idiomatic are such uses of tell, as, " It'll no be
tellin you " — not to your advantage or credit, and " Tell him to
come " — bid him come. Scots retains much of the Elizabethan
freedom in making verbs. Thus, to even has the peculiar
senses of " think equal to," and " mention " in connection with
an eligible. Along with this there is a characteristic quaintness,
as in Eobertson of Ochtertyre's remark about an old Scottish
lady : " She was an excellent woman as long as she was her-
self." The reviewer's statement, on the other hand, to the
effect that " though Mr. Barr's wit is American, he is not him-
self," is mere journalistic slipshod. A Scot, however, will in all
good faith say " I had lost myself, and asked the way." Pecu-
liarly odd is the idiom in " The children took their bare feet,
and went to the sands," " He knew what I wanted, but never
let on" (said a word of explanation). "I don't like to crave
(dun) a man for debt," "The book is sitting on the table."
Characteristic of Glasgow and neighbourhood is the frequent
use of get as an auxiliary — e.g. "Can I get going to the
post ? "
Scots has always had a strong preference for the adjectival
use of the past participle in -ed, hardened where possible into
it or et. This comes out in many forms such as pointet for tidy,
the twa-neukit (cornered) moon, champet (mashed) tatties, roopit
(hoarse from cold), boolie-backet (round-shouldered). In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these were pronounced
literary forms. A stout old Jacobite lady thought Prince Charlie
" an ill-usit lad." Preterites of verbs ending in a dental gener-
ally drop the suffix -ed, a feature of Shakspere's English also.
To this we owe such pasts as 2>ut, cut, hit. The Scot said cuttit
for cut, and puttit as well as pat for the past of put, and even
preferred hotten to hit. The Orcadian says hitten in the past
participle, past hat (Sc. bote or hutt). This rule is observed
even in modern words. A cyclist was warned not to ride on
the footpath with the remark "That's proheebit, sir." This
IN DECADENCE 89
applies specially to " lang-nebbit " words of Latin origin, as in,
"It's braw to be weel eddicate," just as Shakspere writes
(1 Hen. IV.), "These things indeed you have articulate"
(expressed). Another Elizabethan feature is the use of a
strong preterite for a participial form. Thus, in " King Lear,"
we read, " I dare pawn down my life for him that he hath wrote
this to feel my affection." Lord Stair said, " All letters from
Lord- Advocate Craigie, before and after Prestonpans, were wrote
like a man of sense and courage." This Shaksperian character-
istic is found in many of last century letters, even those of
English ministers. Chancellor Hardwicke to Lord President
Dundas has " was writ." Newcastle again says, " Sir Alexander
Gilmour is very much threatened that he shall not be chose
again for the city of Edinburgh." Another correspondent,
speaking of Sir John Cope, says, " He has rose fast to consider-
able rank and preferment." Only the uneducated would now
say, "The man has corned, is went away, begoud (began) his
work early, I seen him do it."
Some well-marked differences between Scots and English
fall under the head of relational expressions. Such idioms as
these are common : " This is the man as told me," " Still in life,"
" Had it in his offer," " He speaks through his sleep.'' A favourite
preposition in the Scots vernacular is at — "Angry at him,
asked at him, a hatred at him." In "Eobert Urquhart" we
read, " Eobert Muir took scant notice of his neighbour's belated
sympathy. He had seen how his mother had suffered at their
tongues when she was alive." Other prepositions are equally
characteristic. Witness the phrases, "A pound in a present,"
"No fault to him," "Better o' a dram," "Married on," "Oot
amon' thae neeps," " Oot the hoose at wance," " Aboon the lave,"
" A slater to his trade." There is change in progress even in
modern English. Thus Gray wrote, " What cat's averse to fish ? "
Formerly /rom had been more frequent in such a case, and this
is coming in again. Quite recently to has superseded from
after " different." Shakspere uses uvert without a' preposition,
" To avert your liking a more worthier way " (Lear).
What would now be deemed a vulgarism, alongst for along,
was very frequent till near the close of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Mrs. Calderwood, as well as many English writers, uses
90 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
it constantly, as here, " You must carry this alongst with you."
It is also in ballads like the " Battle of Harlaw," — >
" Alangat the lands of Garioch
Great pitie was to hear and see."
The modern vernacular admits also wanst and twicet. The
equally faulty whilst has quite superseded whiles in good
English. While is really a noun (Ger. Weile), whiles is its
genitive ease used adverbially, to which t has been added by a
false analogy with superlatives. Whilie is the Scottish noun ;
the monosyllable while, pronounced whill, means until. After
comparatives than has become fixed in English. Scots prefers hy,
meaning in comparison with, nor, and as, reserving than for the
sense of then : " He's an aulder maan by me," " She's better nor
she's bonny," "I would rather go as stay." It has nothing
corresponding to the faulty conjunctive use of like instead of as,
so marked in English, e.g. " He feels like I do," but it uses the
prepositions without and eaxeft for unless as a conjunction. The
adverbial like in Scots, as " He did it that way like," is still
a common German idiom. Another Teutonism is the admissible
use of any adjective as an adverb. This is very common in
Shakspere, but would be condemned now. Equally character-
istic is the use of that for so : " I'm that thrang the noo." The
expression for negation shows the surprising persistence of the
original Indo-European particle na exactly as in Sanskrit na,
Greek and Latin ne with imperatives. This strong form is like
the German nein. As a strong negative, equivalent to an
affirmative here, it is preferred to not — e.g. " That's no bad,"
"It's no a good day," "She's no bonny," "'Deed no." The
enclitic form is well marked : " Ye manna bide lang." In com-
pounds the Saxon un- is preferred to the Latin in- just as we
find it in Shakspere. Scots delights in words like " oncanny,"
" onbonny," " onneat." Distinctively Northern are thir and thae
for these and those. It is in his sparing use of such forms that
Burns shows either unfamiliarity with the vernacular, or more
probably the chastening influence of his English education. He
more frequently resorts to the most characteristic of Northern
idioms, the declension of the verb present with s throughout,
except immediately preceded by the personal pronoun in the
IN DECADENCE 91
nominative, as "I come." Even here dialectic decay asserts
itself in the colloquial " says I." Pure Northern are such forms
as " we wuz " for we were, " some speaks o' lords," &c. The
apparent solecism, often heard even from young people educated
entirely on English, " Thae wurr a man," for there was a man,
is very interesting. " Thae," not the article here, is far older
than there. In German the two forms exist together as da and
dort. " Wurr," again, is just was, pronounced wuzz, with the
usual change of s to r between vowels. This favourite Northern
usage has given us are and were for the older is and was in
plural as well as singular. The infinitive of purpose keeps its
old preposition "for" in Soots as persistently as "pour" in
French or "um zu" in German. The subjunctive has quite
gone now, but it is regular in Shakspere and in Burns, though
these are so far apart in time. In the " First Commonplace
Book " Burns writes, " Nobody can be a proper critic of love
compositions except he himself in one or more instances have
been a warm votary of the passion." Here we have the subtle
Scotticism in the use of except as a conjunction instead of
unless. His editors sometimes presume to tamper with this
subjunctive.
In recent years we have witnessed a change of venue in
philological pursuits. Investigation used to be concentrated on
the structure of words, so as to get at historical development.
But increased attention to dictionary-making, to style, and to
international intercourse has brought to the front neglected
phases of word growth, such as the import of words, the mental
attitude of those who have either coined new metaphors or
diverted old ones to suit modern wants. This line, if pursued,
would provide educational discipline as fertile as it is novel. A
French writer, M. Br6al, devotes a recent work to this new
and most interesting development of philology, his "Essai de
S^mantique."
In this connection comparative idiom throws light on the
Scottish way of looking at things. Significant are such buried
metaphors 9.S to "straucht one's legs" for to take a walk,
" change the feet " for putting on fresh stockings, " break one's
word," " he's no himsel the day," or " he's cairrit," to express
a delirious condition, " to feel a smell," " to have a want or to
92 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
hae a misfortune," " to think shame," " to mind it weel," " to pou'
a flower," " to stay at a place." In the use of particles with
verbs Scots is strongly Germanic, as cast up, a kick-up, tak on
(run up an account), tackin in, up-tack, intaek, oncast, oncost.
A logical habit comes out in the use of "argue" for goes to
prove, as "A hang-dug glower argues a man either a thief or an
ill-set scoondrel." The wrangling of the causeyhead lives in
" argie bargie." Odd uses from the English point of view are
to cry on a man to arrest his attention, " gie him a cry in the
passin' " ; to challenge or call in question, with its synonym to
quarrel ; to tell for to bid or order, to turn sick, to weary alone,
to think shame. My watch is behind, to play cards, What o'clock
will it be? Mrs. Calderwood (1758) uses one of the above
words, quarrel, in characteristic fashion thus: "Lady Nell bought
a gown and quareled wi' the talior (Fr. tailleur) that made
it. Capt. Dalrymple bought some cravats and quareled wi'
the woman that made them, and she scolded him like a
tinkler."
The Scot is credited with Doric reticence, but on occasion he
protests too much, as in "There's no matter" for no matter,
" He was in use " for he used to, " I'm hopeful that " for I hope,
a four-square table for a square table. Even in the formation
of words he errs by excess, as mishanter for mischance, residenter
for resident. At times there is method in his excess. Tinkler
and kittlen seem to carry more than tinker and kitten. On the
other hand, he takes a short cut in inconvene, slippy under
influence of the German suffix ig, necessar, ordinar, expiry for
the clumsy expiration.
Metaphorical epithets offer another characteristic feature as
a coarse day, dull o' hearin', fresh weather, a windy (boastful)
body, chancy for risky. But even matters of fact are not put
in the English way, witness cripple for lame, failed for debili-
tated, frail for feeble in health and its opposite, stout, an inward
(internal) trouble, hard fish, sweet butter, roasted cheese, butter
and bread, fork and knife. Some of the commonest words become
in the North traps for the unwary Englishman. Thus his fog
is moss, and a pig in a bed is very different from a pig in a
poke. Sidelights again on social history are thrown by special
uses, for
IN DECADENCE
93
Scots.
minister
elder
Communion
chamberlain
grieve
tradesman
Wright
carpenter
lime shells
chimley
merchant
gear
deals
plenishing
providin'
friends
juice
pouch
keep
English.
clergyman
in deacon's orders : found
only in alderman
Eucharist
land steward
head man on a farm
workman
joiner
shipwright
lime for mortar
fireside
shopkeeper
worldly goods
boards
household requisites
bridal trousseau
relatives
gravy or sauce
pocket
fodder.
One often hears Lowland Scots declared to be little more
than English mis-pronounced or mis-spelt or both at once. Of
course there is individuality in pronunciation — nowhere more
so — as in every form of personal presentation. But as Scots is
much more archaic, and as the tradition of book knowledge has
been with it more persistent and more thorough, it will be found
that supposed mistakes often 'represent an older and historically
correct usage. Thus preen would be voted but a vulgar double
of pin. But the Gaelic prine, and Mid.Eng. preon, and Norse
prjoun (needle) should give us pause. In the German Pfriem,
Kluge compares the change of n to m with pilgrim for Fr.
pelerin, Lat. peregrinus. To take one other example, protticks
might be considered but a blundered projects, but Gaelic has
prattick, a trick, A.S. praett, craft, Norse pretti, a trick, A.S.
praettig, tricky, and Eng. pretty.
Certain idiomatic expressions show a curiously contrasted
point of view in passing from the general to the particular.
The following have a general sense — meat, storm, wife, yard,.
94 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
On the other hand, the particular is preferred in heasts for farm-
stock, harvest or hairst for autumn, policy for pleasure grounds,
planting for plantation, corn for oats, victual for rations, labour
for to till, manage for to get through with. Another mode of
particularising is to use my or the as " Is my dennir ready ? "
" I'll come i' the noo " for just now, or " the morn's mornin' " for
to-morrow morning, I've got the cold, going to the kirk. Where
quantity is concerned Scots follows the German partitive usage
as a lit bread, a wheen grozers, even a few soup. Equally German
is some better for somewhat (etwas), cow milk, a cloth brush. It
also prefers the plural for the expression of a distributive sense
in dealing with materials as thae (these, but a quite different
and older form) soup or porridge, my linens for underclothing,
corns for crop, pennies each, mournings, jobbings. Contrariwise
it follows a Saxon practice in saying six horse as we still say
ten feet, twenty year. Scotland, it has been sarcastically said,
has quietly annexed England, and it may be part of the process
to find expressions now in general use which a purist like
Beattie, an Aberdeen professor of last century and very notable
in his day as philosopher and poet, warned his Northern con-
temporaries carefully to avoid if they wished to conceal their
origin. He instances homologate, maltreat, militate, restrict
(limit), liberate, succumb, notice, wrote him. He warns his
compatriots not to say, " Give me a drink," but a draught, and
to speak of a milch cow, not a milk cow. The Latin re, now
in general use, is a poor equivalent for the "anent" of his
taboo-list. From good Scots writers of almost his own day one
can cull curiosities of usage, such as Coekburn's frequent use
of " transpire " and Jeffrey's " refrain " as an active verb in the
sense of the Lat. refrenare. English writers of an earlier period
use what would now be scarcely admissible expressions, such as
Swift's "Styles and I do not cotten," or Penn's advice to his
sons in his will, " to act on the square ; " or a use of idioms now
purely Scottish, as Defoe to Harley, " I doubt I throng you with
letters."
Idioms die hard. In spite of free schools, penny magazines,
and penny poets, these expressions will long remain to betray
the Anglified Scot. Dialect words, on the other hand, disappear
with the pursuits, customs, and all the concrete equipment of
IN DECADENCE 95
speech, out of which their roots are nourished. For they are
nothing in themselves. Hobbes has well said, " "Words are the
counters of wise men, but the money of fools.'' Their virtue
lies in previous accretions of thought which they vivify by
assimilation. It is in respect of the associations they recall
that the loss of them affects the capacity for finding pleasure in
language. The great weakness of our educational system is its
academic and analytic character. For centuries the schoolboy
has studied the mechanism of language, not the expression of
human life and interests, with nose over printed text and finger
in lexicon. The ear and the imagination have not worked in
unison so as to visualise the situation and give it its place in
the world of fact. The effect is to fill our dictionaries with
words which reveal their content to the logician and scholar.
The corrective to this lies in the recognition of the historic
mother-tongue. Created by needs which were lying to hand,
its diction is suggestive of the concrete representation that is
of the essence of poetry. It is a healthy sign of a national
literature when it keeps in touch with its vernacular as based
on natural observation, humour, and pathos. Better this than
to strain after the striking or familiar by the use of coterie
slang. The dramatic instincts of Mi'. Kipling seem to have
imposed a diction which shocks the more punctilious, but even
so good a stylist as Mr. Augustine Birrell quite needlessly
offends good taste when he speaks of certain people's scholar-
ship being " no great shakes," or tells us that " a vast number
of people do not care a rap about reading."
The foregoing is an attempt to exploit a subject which may
fairly be said to have escaped learned discussion, though much
of the matter of it is part of our everyday experience. Extended
observation might not only widen the view here outlined, but
fill up many gaps.
3. Dialect in Lowland Scotland.
The word dialect has been coined for us by those early
Greek grammarians who endeavoured to present their match-
less literature, and language to the duller understandings of
their Eoman conquerors. They thus differentiated the Ionic,
96 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
Doric, Aeolic dialects from the classical Attic, all dignified
equally with it by the possession of literary monuments. But
the modern dialect is something quite beneath the notice of
the grammarians, and too vulgar and coarse for literary treat-
ment. To it may well be applied the words of Comus to the
Lady,—
" It is for homely features to keep home,
They had their name thence."
The peasant lends picturesqueness to the canvas, but the liter-
ary artist must trick him out as the conventional Corydon and
Thestylis. Spenser tried in his " Shepherd's Calendar " to make
his peasants speak " in habit as they lived." But the experi-
ment broke down when they proceeded to discuss ecclesiastical
politics and the creed of Puritanism. Then their language
ceased to be the dress of their thought. The diction of Spenser,
indeed, is as ideal as his matter, hence his Ikck of a general
vogue. His case shows the dependence, for vitality, of litera-
ture on the homely vernacular. In Scotland the persistence of
a distinct vernacular with its human appeal has given univers-
ality to Burns and Scott, whereas in England the vernacular in
post-Elizabethan literature has had but a local interest. It is
dialect pure and simple.
Dialect as the humble patois or tongue shaped by the
environment of locality, occupation, or manners, is in a sense
equivalent to vernacular, both presenting speech in undress.
The vernacular, however, is more correctly the mother-tongue,
the speech to which we are born, and as much our inheritance
as gait and features. "When we take heed, under the influence
of education or example, our speech may approximate more or
less to literary form, but it never quite reaches it. If this be
so, one may well question the appropriateness of Mr. T. F.
Henderson's title, " The History of Scottish Vernacular Litera-
ture," for the gist of the whole matter is that the vernacular is
not literature, else should we all be talking prose and verse
without knowing it. Now, the works of which he has to treat
— those of Barbour, Douglas, Dunbar, Lindesay, and the rest —
are as much literary monuments as those of their English con-
temporaries. Yet, would a "History of English Vernacular
IN DECADENCE 97
Literature " follow Mr. Henderson's plan ? His title would
imply also that the Scot has no right to regard English as his
mother-tongue. The authors on his list would certainly have
resented any such limitation. Nor will anyone who has had
the misfortune to be born north of Tweed be likely thus to
disclaim his inheritance in English. Even the Englishman
cannot disown kinship with the Northern speech or neglect to
cultivate an intimate acquaintance with it. The native speech
that characterises the provincial districts of England differs
from the standard English quite as much as the Northern
speech, but here an important distinction asserts itself. The
various tongues in rural England have remained mere dialects,
whereas Scotland developed and cultivated for centuries such
a literature as entitles us to speak of a Scottish language, the
sister tongue of English.
If dialect be regarded, then, as only localised vernacular,
have we evidence that anything of the kind is found to prevail
in Scotland? There is something to be said for a negative
answer. We have not a case here on all-fours with the provin-
cial dialects of England, which, for obvious reasons, have been
much more thoroughly segregated. Almost nothing has been
done for the general diffusion of these dialects, whereas Scotland
has been remarkable for the unusual quantity and widespread
popularity, not alone of national, but also of dialect, literature.
Hence it happens that the great bulk of Scottish vocables are
diffused more or less over all Scotland. Nay, the Northern
genius in tale and song has successfully planted a mass of its
vocables in English itself. Thus it would be almost an insult
to an educated Englishman to gloss such words as ane, auld,
bonnie, wee, canny, cosy, dour, blate, sweer, couthy, fashous,
weel, ettle, thole, pree, coup, hirple, speer, to select a few
at random out of hundreds. Another crowd of words repre-
sents but English disguised in form or meaning or both, such
as weel, waur, sair, stoor, ca', dunt, brizz, cauld, cripple, wyce,
scart, brunt, warsle. It is such adventitious dialect that the
modern writers of song and novel draw upon to give local
colour to their style. The results are not without a suspicion
of trading on false pretences, as when a Thrums weaver is made
to say, " Gang straight forrard," or a character in " Cleg Kelly "
7
98 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
speaks of " The likes of you." The archaic is twisted, too, into
doing duty as current. A favourite with Mr. Crockett in a
forced sense is awsome, as " It's an awsome nice scene." This
is but an abuse of the old and very interesting " ugsome," still
heard in the Border counties. A favourite with him, too, is the
wicks, applied to the corners of the mouth. The curler is
familiar with " wickin a bore," but I have never met with any-
thing like the novelist's use of " wicks." A much more successful
artist is the clever and amusing lady who writes " Penelope in
Scotland." Her plan was much after the orthodox Kailyard
fashion. " Then we made a list of Scottish idols — pet words,
national institutions, stock phrases, beloved objects — convinced
that if we could weave them in we should attain atmosphere.
Here is the first list : — Thistle, tartan, haar, haggis, kirk, clay-
more, parritch, broom, whin, sporran, whaup, plaid, scone, coUops,
whisky, mutch, cairngorm, oatmeal, brae, kilt, brose, heather,
fowk o' Fife, Paisley bodies, gentlemen of the North, men of the
South." Her greatest triumph is a rhymed " Farewell to Edin-
burgh," into one line of which she contrives to put the delight-
ful hotch-potch, " hoots, losh, havers, blethers."
On such lines must the Scottish vernacular be written in
these days. Hear, however, what Stevenson, the last of the
makkars, has to say on the existence of dialect in Scotland : —
" I note again, that among our new dialecticians, the local
habitat of every dialect is given to the square mile. I could
not imitate this nicety if I desired ; for I simply wrote my
Scots as I was able, not caring if it hailed from Lauderdale or
Angus, Mearns or Galloway ; if I had ever heard a good word
I used it without shame ; and when Scots was lacking, or the
rhyme jibbed I was glad (like my betters) to fall back on
English. For all that I own to a friendly feeling for the
tongue of Fergusson and of Sir Walter, both Edinburgh men ;
and I confess that Burns's has always sounded in my ear like
something partly foreign. And indeed I am from the Lothians
myself; it is there I heard the language spoken about my
childhood ; and it is in the drawling Lothian voice that I repeat
it to myself. Let the precisians call my speech that of the
Lothians, and if it be not pure, alas ! what matters it ? The
day draws near when this illustrious and malleable tongue shall
IN DECADENCE 99
be quite forgotten ; and Burns's Ayrshire and Dr. Macdonald's
Aberdeen-awa' and Scott's brave metropolitan utterance will
be all equally the ghosts of speech. Till then I would love to
have my hour as a native maJckar, and be read by my own country-
folk in our own dying language ; an ambition surely rather of
the heart than of the head, so restricted as it is in prospect of
endurance, so parochial in bounds of space."
No one has a better right to speak on this subject than
Stevenson. Dowered above most moderns with the gift of style
and a temperament keenly susceptible to human influences, he
best could stamp the hall-mark of genius on what survives of
the humble northern Doric. Since the peasant's pipe fell from
the hands of Burns no note has been struck that is so genuinely
true to the national character and sentiment as his " Under-
woods." To the testimony of a consummate literary artist like
Stevenson regarding the existence of local dialects in the north
may be added that of a professed philologist, Dr. J. A. H.
Murray. His " Dialects of the South of Scotland " is the only
systematic treatment of the subject that we may be said to
have. Dr. Murray says : " It is customary to speak of Scots
as one dialect (or language), whereas there are in Scotland
several distinct types and numerous varieties of the Northern
tongue, differing from each other markedly in pronunciation
and to some extent also in the vocabulary and grammar. The
dialects of adjacent districts pass into each other with more or
less of gradation, but those of remote districts (say, for example,
Buchan, Teviotdale, and Ayr), are at first almost unintelligible,'
to each other, and, even after practice has made them mutually
familiar, the misconception of individual words and phrases
leads to ludicrous misunderstandings." He arranges these
dialects in three groups — a North-eastern, a Central, and a
Southern — which may be further subdivided into eight minor
divisions, or sub-dialects. The first group, or dialects north of
Tay, seems to fall into three sub-dialects — Caithness, Moray
and Aberdeen, and Angus. In the central group are the sub-
dialects of Lothian and Fife, of Clydesdale, of Galloway and
Carrick, and of the Highland border from Loch Lomond to the
Braes of Angus. The southern group is represented only by
the dialect of the Border counties from Tweed to Solway, and
100 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
from the Cheviots to Locher Moss. He proceeds to give an
exhaustive analysis of his native Border group, bringing in
much that is of great value and originality in connection not
only with the other groups, but with the historic relationships
of these dialects to literary Scots. His concern is, however,
mainly with the grammar and pronunciation.
With the exception of Dr. Murray's monograph, there exists
no systematic treatment of the subject and nothing of the
dialects as a whole. This compares badly with continental
efforts in such a field. As far back as 1819 there was published
an exhaustive Dialektologie for Switzerland, with a comparative
presentation of the parable of the Prodigal Son in all the Swiss
dialects. About the same time Jamieson produced the first part
of his dictionary, in which something of this sort was attempted
for Scotland, but in no scientific or systematic fashion. So
indifferent was either he or his public that nearly twenty years
elapsed before he finished his task, and even then Henry Coekburn
complains that he had made no use of the recent researches of
Thomson and other antiquaries. It would be easy to find illus-
trations of how the study of dialects emphasises the defects
of Jamieson. Take one from the most distinctive of all the
dialects, the Shetland. As recently as 1897 Dr. Jakobsen of
Copenhagen published two most interesting and suggestive
lectures on this subject, in which he frequently supplements
both Jamieson and Edmonston. Thus Jamieson at one point
notes tuva-keutliie as unexplained, giving as authority an
"Ancient MS. Explication of Norish Words in Orcadian."
Jakobsen comes to the rescue : " Kuclda " is usually applied to
a small rounding point, originally to a " bag," and akin to Iwd,
a pillow (well known in Scots and obsolete English). Some of
the Kuddas go by the name of Tevakudda, the first part being
O.N. theofa, to waulk or shrink cloth. They are places at the
seashore, where people used formerly to fasten " wadmel," the
old' Shetland cloth, in order that it should shrink and conse-
quently grow thicker and closer by the action of the ebb and
flow of the tide. The word is now lost in its original sense in
Shetland, but is preserved in the expressions, "to tove (toss)
a body (person) aboot " and " dere's a tove (commotion) in the
sea." The verb to taam or ty-ave still lives in Aberdeenshire in
IN DECADENCE 101
the sense of " pottering about, Handy-Andy fashion." Gregor
noted it in Buchan as " labouring hard " : " He tyeuve on a'
weenter wi' consumption, an' dee't i' the spring," " He tew throo
a' the loss o's nowt (cattle), an' noo he hiz stockit-siller " (cash
laid past). In Cumberland we find " teav," to fidget with hand
or foot, and " tew," physical exhaustion, as —
" Git oot wid the', Jwohnny, thou's tew't me reet sair ;
Thou's brocken my comb, an' thou's toozelt my hair." —
Gibson — " Jwohnny."
Even in English we have it in taw or teiu, to prepare skins so as
to dress them into leather. Skeat quotes here from Aelfric's
" Homilies," " Seo deoful eow tawode," the devil scourged you,
which explains the familiar taws, the Scottish ferula. The
metaphor now is familiarly expressed by a hiding. The Shet-
land mode of preparing cloth suggests the old Hebridean mode
of curing leather, which was to sink the hides in a stream or
in a tidal flow. In the old Statistical Account there are various
references to this primitive mode of fulling cloth.
Much might be said in favour of a new Jamieson. It should
present the results of a scientific inquiry into the whole history
and development of the Scottish language. But quite indepen-
dent of such an arduous enterprise, there is room for the study
of dialect, whether living or obsolescent, in respect of the
localising of idioms and vocables, and especially in preserving
the more obvious characteristics of tone and accent. A learned
treatise on systematic botany leaves an ample field for the
humble local inquirer in observing and noting the habitat,
distribution, and parochial appreciation, as it were, of the
familiar weeds and flowers that are " born to blush unseen " by
the scientist. The English Dialect Dictionary annexes the whole
Scottish vernacular as an English dialect, to be entered in much
the same fashion as Wilts, Yorkshire, Shropshire words. Apart
from consequent imperfect localising of words there is evidence
in the entries of a loose employment of Sc, when we find darn
figuring as Sc, Eng., Amer., and the kindred dash as Sc. Ir., Eng.,
Amer. Again the dight, familiar to every reader of L' Allegro,
" The clouds in thousand liveries dight," appears as Sc, Ir., Line,
Sussex. The only Scottish authority given is Fergusson's Poems,
102 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
more than a century old now and themselves imitative. The
true Scottish form is dicht (strong guttural), in general use and
in various meanings. It is now simply a vulgar term, to wipe
up, clean, though farmers still "dicht" or clean the corn in
winnowing. Greater dignity attaches to the word in German,
where Dichter is a poet, cf. Scots makkar and Greek Poietes-
The very common chows for small or smiddy coals is noted as
obsolete Scots, no fresher illustration of it being given than a
reference to the Statistical Account of a century ago, as quoted
by Jamieson. The same mistake is made with the well-known
cirsackie, a workman's coarse overall, '' ohs. Scots, Tennant's Poems,"
while the rarer form earsackie appears as Fife (Jamieson) and
Ayr. Cirrseckie, not the impossible earsackie, is the Fife form.
Then we have such surprising bits of information as this :
" Brether, a plural for brothers, is in everyday use in Fife. In
towns it has in some degree given place to brithers, but in the
country it still holds its own." No doubt plurals such as childer
and brether were at one time distinctively Northern, " but chil-
dren and brethren only are found in writings from the sixteenth
century." An entry in Chambers's " Domestic Annals " under
the year 1600 gives a very late example of brether. " In Edin-
burgh this day at nine hours at even a combat or tulzie was
fought between twa brether of the Dempsters and ane of them
slain."
The omissions, also, are not a few. Bunker, not in Jamieson,
is absent here, as well as such familiar words as carblin = wrang-
ling, carcidge = carcase, chops me !, clack = gundy, cripple as an
adjective. The word doach for a salmon trap or cruve is given,
but not localised, as it ought to have been, on the Galloway
Dee. The unknown daver = s,Uxn, stupefy, is given as Sc, Ir.,
N.-country, though the true form is doaver, to be in a dose.
Professed omissions — kept back from want of information — are
caddie, four in the game of cherry-pip or papes; dp, to play
truant ; cruden, a partan or crab. The first used to be known to
most Edinburgh lassies, cip is the " playing kip " of the Glasgow
boy, and crudest is a corrupt form of the Ayrshire and Campbel-
town cruban, i.e. crab, with the usual suffixed article. The
boost of Burns, " boost to pasture," appears under the sense of to
guide, with a query. The usage, quoted from Wigtownshire,
m DECADENCE 103
•■'he buist to do it" (Jam.), might have suggested that we have
here the well-known "bu'd to be," behoved to be, under the
influence of an analogy with must, which latter is properly in
Scots "mun or maan," as in the proverb, "Him 'at wull to
Cupar maan to Cupar." The expression is also Orcadian.
We ought all to be proud of such a work as the English
Dialect Dictionary. On every page it throws light from England
on Scottish vocables, thus emphasising the fact of an essential
kinship in vernacular speech from the Humber to the Gaelic
Border, and westwards to the Presbyterian colony in Ulster.
Thus there seems to be some original racial heredity to account
for dike meaning, south of Humber, a ditch (cf. Ger. Teich, a pool),
and north, a wall. If, as I am told, dike in Ayrshire means
ditch, this may be due to the fact that when enclosing began
there last century the common fence, in the absence of stone,
was a ditch with a thorn hedge planted on the top of the bank
that had been made higher by the soil thrown out to form the
trench. In Holland a dyk is a wall,, while graben is a ditch.
Northumberland, too, has surprising links with Scotland. My
friend, Mr. Atkinson, mining inspector for the North-Eastern
District, tells me that the word is familiar to the Northumberland
collier. The spiteful mischief done in the pit is set down to
the cutty-soam, a goblin that haunts mines and cuts the tackle
for the hutches. So far. good. Professor Wright has done a
notable work in the English Dialect Dictionary, but he must
perforce give a poor account of Scotland from the Scotsman's
point of view. The partner is here as elsewhere too pre-
dominant. For one thing, the work shows an unwise depen-
dence on Jamieson. This must explain the inclusion of Scottish
law terms in an English dialect dictionary, though these are all
good English words used in a special archaic sense. Even in
such disguised forms as cayshin and caysliner it is easy to
recognise caution and cautioner, for which the Englishman now
uses security, and the surety who pledges it. This dependence
on Jamieson is doubly unfortunate, since he is specially weak
in dialect. Nor will the defect be' altogether made good by
gleanings from what might be called the parochial muse of the
minor singers, however rich as this undoubtedly is in local
words. Moreover, dialect is ever shifting, ever growing. It is
104 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
the slang and coterie talk of the masses. Thirty years ago to
every boy in East Fife correction by the time-honoured taws
was known under the name of pawmies, French paume as injeu
de paume or rackets. As far back as 1604 we find the Aberdeen
Presbytery enforcing a magistrates' edict ordering that, "for
repression of oaths and the like, every householder sbould keep
a palmer and therewith punish all offenders." Nowadays in East
Fife pawmie has given place to caker, an incomer from Dundee.
In those early days neither the Dundee accent nor vocables had
travelled far across Tay. But increased intercourse by rail has
altered all this. Similarly, a learned friend assures me that
cum, a small quantity, is not indigenous in the Kingdom of
Fife but imported from Forfarshire. From the North, too, has
recently crept all along the coast the " Smoky," as the modern
development of the Finnan Haddie is called.
Can the study of those homely, but fast disappearing, dialects
be justified on the score either of utility or necessity ? Certainly
no one would wish the flavour of rusticity or provincialism to
linger about what any educated Scotsman either speaks or writes.
In this he must be inspired with such an ambition as that which
made Burns so ardent a student, to know and to use English as
well as any educated Englishman. But this, no more than in
his case, need cut us off from those charms of memory and
imagination by which homely speech keeps us in touch with
rural life, simple manners, time-honoured customs, youthful
associations. For my own part the study of those poor rela-
tions in the family of speech has vivified forgotten associations,
explained much that was obscure, and thrown many side-lights
on what was deemed familiar. For it would be a great mistake
to assume that the average man, though born and brought up in
Scotland, knows these expressions, so apt to be looked down
upon, when those who are very much above the average in
intellectual curiosity and capacity are found wanting in this
knowledge. A Galloway laird, a well-known and versatile
contributor to current literature and an authority on matters
Scottish, was talking with some farmers on his own estate.
When he spoke of the Guisers his auditors failed to follow him,
as they knew them only as the Mummers — children who go
from door to door at Hogmanay time. Later on they had the
IN DECADENCE 105
better of him, when someone was described as " having a viiant "
(a stutter), an expression quite new to him. Few have done so
much for a knowledge of Old Scotland as Dr. Eobert Chambers.
His " Domestic Annals," " Traditions of Edinburgh," " Popular
Ehymes of Scotland " will for ever keep his memory fresh. Yet
when noting, in the first of these works, the account given by
Law the diarist of the earliest exhibition of an elephant in
Edinburgh (1680), he adds a query to the graphic phrase in his
author, "lowged like twa skats "(?). Singular that a Scotsman
should have any difficulty in reading this as ears like two skates.
He also confounds staigs (colts) with stags. So experienced an
editor and so loyal a Scot as the late Dr. Grosart occasionally
went far astray in his glosses. Here are some examples from
his edition of Alexander Wilson, one of the many poetical lights
of Paisley. In one of those severe satires on the Paisley corhs
(small employers) of his day which soon made the town too hot
for him, he has occasion to say, —
" Our Hollander
Kens better ways o' workin,
For Jock and him has aft a spraul,
Wha'll bring the biggest dark in."
This peculiar spelling of the quite familiar darg tempts to the
gloss, " day's work (before dark)." Surely a comical attempt to
throw light on the origin of the word ! In a humorous elegy on
a tailor, Wilson says, —
" Wi' yowlin clinch aul' Jennock ran,
Wi' sa'r like ony brock."
No one who knew what a brock is could read this as serve
instead of savour, to say nothing of its defiance of grammar.
The very word is in the Buchan dialect : " He got a sawr
(disgust) wi' that, and geed awa' " (Gregor). Further on we
have, —
" As soon's she reekt (reached, Gar. reichen) the sooty beild,
Whare labrod he sat cockin,
' Come doon,' she cried, ' ye lump o' eild.' "
Incredible to relate, labrod, the "harmless but necessary"
implement by which the tailor is here facetiously described
106 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
is glossed, " mill-stream at work." The " Abbotsford Series of
the Scottish Poets" hag the merit of being a commendable
attempt to popularise the neglected study of our old literature,
not without serious faults of execution, however. From the
last, and what ought to have been the easiest, of the volumes,
"Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century," I select a few
points out of much that "comes in questionable shape." In
Alexander Watson's droll story of the " wee wifikie comin' frae
the fair " the line " Somebody has been felling me " is given thus
without note of explanation, and the reader is left to imagine
the pedlar knocking her about like a football, so that she must
have been almost comatose. Clearly the poor body is simply
saying in her best Aberdeen accent, " Somebody has been feelin
me " — that is, making a fool of me, as the narrative graphically
bears out. Here is a verse from Skinner's epistle to Burns that
aptly illustrates this distinctively Aberdeenshire vocalisation, —
"Now after a' hae me exqueesed
For wissing uae to be refeesed,
I dinna covet to be reezed (lauded)
For this feel lilt :
But feel or wyce, gin ye be pleased
Ye 're welcome till't."
As a specimen of Fergusson, again, we have the " Leith Paces,"
where the poet winds up his humorous narration with, —
" The races owre, they Imle the dules
Wi' drink o' a' kinkind."
Here we encounter the extraordinary gloss, heal the 'jjains.
The editor, misreading hale, recalls quite ineptly the common
ballad word, dule (Fr. chuil), and misses entirely the point of
Fergusson's witty metaphor. This is an example of the dangers
of mere book knowledge, yet Allan Eamsay uses the very
phrase in question. Any Scottish schoolboy ought to know
what it is to hale the dules, or dulls as he terms it. Few
Scotsmen will admit that Burns is ever obscure to them. They
" smile and smile " with a knowing look as most of us do when
we listen to a longish Latin quotation or a drawing-room song.
In the Abbotsford Series the editor very properly includes
"Hallowe'en" and "Tam o' Shanter," and here we have
IN DECADENCE 107
examples of the climax of absurd glossing sufficient to make
" the judicious grieve, the unskilful laugh." Near the close of
the former poem we read, —
" And ay a rautin kirn we gat,
And just on Hallowe'en
It fell that nicht."
We are here told that a rantin kirn is a " churning in which
the butter does not gather rightly." If any unhappy Southron
should have difficulty in visualising a churn ranting, he must
feel grateful to the editor. I had a teacher once of the old, and
much over-lauded, school whose favourite compliment to the
troublesome dullard, among a variety, was kirn-stick. It was
no " ranting-kirn " for him. In reality the poet was referring
to the revelry of the harvest-home under its usual designation
of the kirn. Again, in "Tam o' Shanter," occur the hard lines, —
" Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal,
Louping and flinging on a crummock.''
The two obscure words here are thus glossed — rigwoodie,
straddling ; and crummock, cow with crooked horns. Alas !
" stands Scotland where it did ? " Why hags, above all people,
should have occasion to straddle, and why in that condition
they should be chosen to spean foals, are known only to the
editor. To discover what a rigwoodie is he should try the
alternative which old Polonius was ready to face — "keep a
farm and carters." But these wonderful hags not only straddle
when speaning foals, but loup and fling on a cow with crooked
horns. Poor Crummie has cruelly tossed the editor here.
Even Burns shows us that crummock need not always be appro-
priated to a cow. It was an obscure Ayrshire poet who sang
in his " Carriek for a Man," —
"When auld Eobin Bruce
Lived at Turnberry House,
He was the prince o' the people,
The frien' o' the Ian'.
At the stream o' auld bannocks (Bannockburn)
There was crackin' o' crummocks.
It was a hard tulzie,
Lang fooht han' to han'."
108 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
It must surely be the familiarity that breeds contempt
which tolerates an inexact and feeble standard of scholarship
where the folk-speech is concerned. There is a better spirit
abroad, not only in America, but in Germany, France, and
Denmark. I need only mention here such names as Jusserand,
Angellier, Ten Brink, Schippert. A favourite thesis for a
German doctorate is some obscure corner of Scottish literature.
Before me is a learned and exhaustive academical dissertation
on the Scoto-English dialect, publicly defended before the
Philosophical Faculty of Lund on 5th March 1862. Another
and more recent is a curious philological analysis of verbal and
nominal inflexions in Burns. Yet in our educational systems
there is no place for such distinctively national studies.
III.— FIELD PHILOLOGY
1. Village Life in Fifeshiee
The vernacular is, properly speaking, the language of the verna,
or " household slave." In all old societies the ruling and pro-
pertied class entrusted the infant to a foster-parent, and the
work of the household to a crowd oi famuli, and in both cases
these were drawn from the lower and dialect-using classes. All,
even moderately civilised, peoples were, and in a sense are still,
bi-lingual. The " clerk and the lewed man " are equally required
fpr the business of life. From the dawn of literature it must
have been so. Whenever expression is consciously artistic it
becomes selective and creative. The first to use verbal em-
broidery must have been the first stylist. One of the many
indirect effects of printing has been to emphasise and fix this
duality. The schoolboy, a keen observer of character, like the
natural man, has a just horror of " the fellow that speaks like
a book." His own diction is never recklessly original, being
largely a medley of coterie words, as " horrid," " awful," " cheeky,"
" beastly," " caddish," " dashed mean," with an occasional "jolly "
or " bally." More striking is the effect of hearing the average
man, schoolboy, or even preacher read aloud. At once all
naturalness is lost in a monotonous, high-pitched sing-song.
To these the art of using book language is an acquired taste,
aiad retains scarce a feature of that tongue which gives to social
intercourse its perennial charm.
Macaulay argued that as civilisation increases poetry declines.
It would be easier to maintain that as reading and education
spread, a true vernacular must gradually disappear. It loses
historic continuity, and becomes a mixture of malapropisms and
slang. Fashion, worst of all, taboos it as vulgar. Like divina-
tion, and poor relations, and last season's millinery, it keeps in
the background. Mrs. Calderwood, a grand lady of the old
109
110 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
school, travelling in Holland in 1758, describes to a friend
a visit to a synagogue, where the priest officiated with a ham
clout on his head. No lady would nowadays adopt such a style,
even if she could understand it. And what university reformer
would express himself as Lord Cockburn did, who observed that
" when a professor grew doited he became immortal " ? Vulgar
is, after all, but a relative term, and the essence of vulgarity lies
in its associations. Now all modern associations are against the
vernacular. In the absence, then, of a historic vernacular how
is the plain person to express himself ? The style is the man,
and the modern man is nothing if not stylish. He assumes the
virtues of his better-class neighbour, but wears them with a
difference. The suburban young lady, who is reported to have
commented on the heshed condition of Jeck's het, disguised her
true self in what she took to be the accent of fashion, but her
choice of words betrayed her. Not so the street boy when he
asked the shopman for "a happ'ny worth o' baasht plooms."
His style was in perfect keeping with his pretensions. Some-
times the plain person will make quite a praiseworthy attempt
to swim out of his depth in expression as when a workman,
reporting on some choked drain pipes he had been asked to
lift, explained to his young master that " Thae pipes wuz clean
sedimateesed."
To the imperialistic gaze of the average Englishman all Scots
speak much alike, and all are equally unintelligible to him. He
cannot see how anyone should fail to understand him. If obser-
vant, however, he would find that even at home environment
differentiates speech as much as plant or animal growth. In
Old Scotland intercourse was limited, and racial or imitative
peculiarities became persistent. To say nothing of the Gaelic
and the Norse districts, one could not travel over many counties
without discovering differences by ear alone. A traveller of
the seventeeenth century notes the scolding pipe of the Aber-
donian and the monotonous click-clack of the Lowlander. He
has the sense to see that the good English tone of the Highland
districts is not confined to Inverness, but is really that of a
language grammatically taught and never heedlessly employed.
Their very choice of words has a literary fiavour, like Baboo
English.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 111
Burt notes the peculiarities of that Edinburgh dialect, which,
despite Parliament House and an earnest determination to be
as English as possible, still persists. The waiter offered him for
supper " a duke," " a fool," or " a meer-fool." In Fife this "duke"
would be "juck" — a modification heard also in the verb, as in
the proverbial caution, " Jook and let the jaw gae by." The
broad a of the Lothians, especially if near a liquid, is as decided
a shibboleth as the slurring of t wherever possible betrays an
early familiarity with the " Sautmarket '' of Glasgow. The long-
drawn drawl, " Cauff for beds ! " used to be familiar in the
Oanongate of Edinburgh ; and in the Cowgate, which the
Modern Athenian forgets to call the " Coogate,'' for an older
" Soo'gate " (Southgate), they still " baur the dore," " hing up
the umber-ellie," or take " a dook at Joapie." Glasgow equally
ignores historic continuity with its '' Bew-kannan " Street. In
its early days it was " B'whannan " and, later, " B'kannan "
Street. The native loves to leave the convenience of the
Broomielaw " wanst a week a' least, on Se'erday afternoon."
The Borderer, again, has his shibboleth, the burr which comes
out when Eidley speaks of his friend Kutherford at Chollerford
or Chirnside. He of Kelso, if a clergyman, preaches about
" radamption." The same vowel is heard in the local name of
the town, " Kal-so," or the neighbouring Salkirk. Here local
pronunciation of the place-name is, as usual, correct. The
ancient seal of Kelso bears the inscription, " Sigillum Monas-
terii de Calco" — referring to a height near which, in olden
times, was a " chalk-heugh," or quarry. The Galloway man
has long known the Irish " trogger," so if you ask your way of
him he directs you to a short cut " farder on " by a " foot-
pad," as " neerder " than the highroad. All round the Fife coast
you hear the long, high-pitched drawl of someone battling with
the east wind. The St. Andrews man goes into the " ceetie,"
or down to the " herr-burr." In rural districts the Fifer says,
"Whaur arr ye gaun, maan?" in ore rotundo tones that fitly
accompany heavily-laden heels crushing clods at leisure.
Between the Tay and Moray Firths we hear nothing but thin
vowels and piping tones. The distinctive feature is the /sound
of initial wh. Here we are among an alert, canny folk, of keen
intelligence, whether we spend a day in prosaic Dundee among
112 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
" mill-fuds " and " corks," or an " 'ouk " in rural Garioch with
" gudges " and " getts."
These dialects, fast giving place, the school inspectors tell ns,
to a mongrel, characterless medley, have suffered the neglect
that overtakes the familiar. Local story-tellers and versifiers
have used them as literature of a kind, but they have received
no study worthy of the name. Jamieson — storehouse of much
that is valuable — is here very defective. From Burns we do
not receive much aid. He has given a local character to a gbdd
deal that passes for Ayrshire simply because he has used it, but,
in his vernacular at least, he was not " the singer of a parish."
We know too little of the sources of his vocabulary. Where
his vernacular is not common to comparatively modern Scotland
— that is to say, is but English with a provincial look about it —
its source is the poet's reading in Eamsay, Fergusson, Hamilton,
and the treasures of ballads and popular verse. He is so little
vernacular as never to use the characteristic relative " 'at '' —
witness " Scots wha hae " for " Scots 'at hes," or such a common
celloquialism as " div " and " divna."
If we turn from the diction of dialect to grammar and accent
we have nothing to guide us but Dr. J. A. H. Murray's mono-
graph on the dialects of the South of Scotland. There is, indeed,
no work on the phonetics of dialects in the United Kingdom.
And all is passing away of the old and only the new and the
vulgar remains. Yet what a wealth of national character, social
customs, folk-lore, lies in dialect 1 It represents the operation
of individual enterprise in language, rapidly being crushed out
by the Juggernaut of collective trading through literature and
education. To gather up what remains is not the work of one,
but of hundreds. Germany devotes imperial funds and the
marvellous philological instincts of an academic people to such
work, and even little Denmark has kept a student for months
in the Fair Isle observing and collecting.
The sturdy survival of a vigorous vernacular, alongside of
a language of books and of education, must go far to account
for the fact that Scotland's contribution to English literature
has been, both in quality and quantity, out of all proportion to
her size and position. Her authors have never needed to strain
after such artificialities as characterise the Eenascence period.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 113
or the efforts of educated Hindoos in our own day. Thus it is
that men so markedly in touch with the vernacular as Burns
and Carlyle, stand out prominently among all English writers
for the actuality of their vision, the mingled virility and veracity
of their style. For a healthy vernacular is constantly evolving
itself under the natural influences of dialect growth. The effect
of education on the literary speech is to develop expression by
the hard and fast rules of imitation, by " the days and nights
devoted to Addison" and his kind. But a vernacular lends
itself naturally to local environment in the selection of words,
the meaning put into them, the idioms, the tones of voice, the
vowel system, and all that gives to style its colour and indi-
viduality. Scotland, from the archaic character of its develop-
ment, from the fact that a vigorous race found its native tongue
early shouldered out of general literature, presents a specially
rich field for the study of dialectic growth.
The intelligent observer cannot fail to be struck with the
substantial resemblance that runs through the main stock of
vocables in vernacular use over the Lowlands, combined with
well-marked differences of tone and accent. This is a field of
study that one might say has never been worked. To show
something alike of its variety and extent, let me present glean-
ings from two such far-sundered districts as Campbeltown and
East Fife. As is well known, the Argyle family not only gave
its name to the thriving burgh of Kintyre, but transferred
in making it a fresh population from Ayrshire, in thorough
sympathy with its pronounced Covenanting proclivities. The
result has been to produce such a curious blend of Celtic and
Saxon as we find in the following specimen, the phrases of
which, though now almost extinct, were in common use in
Campbeltown in the earlier part of last century: —
Floey Loynachan (Flora Lonie, as a diminutive).
A most pathetic baUad, the composition of Dougie Macilreavie,
of Corbett's Close, in the Bolgam Street, Campbeltown.
Inscribed, with aff'ectionate regards, to the members of
the Kintyre Literary Association, as an illustration of
114 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
the common conversational idiom of the dear old town
half a century ago.
0, it buitie be an ogly thing
That mougres thus o'er me,
For I scrabed at mysel' thestreen,
And could not bab an e'e.
My heart is a' to muilius minehed,
Brye, smuirach, daps, and gum,
I'm a poor cruichach, spalyin' scrae,
My horts have struck me dumb.
Dear Flory Loynachan, if thou
Thro' Saana's soun' wert toss'd.
And rouchled like a shougie-shoo.
In a veshal with one most ;
Though the nicht were makan' for a roil,
Tho' ralliach were the sea.
Though scorlins warpled my thowl pins.
My shallop would reach thee.
Gloss by a Native of Campbeltown.
Buitie, must be. Sc. bude, behoved.
Mougres, creeps over.
Scrabed, scratched. Celt, sgrob, a scratch, furrow. Cognate Lat. scribo,
I write. Eng. scrape.
Bab, close, Ayrsh.
Muilins, bread crumbs ; minehed, Go. mms = small.
Brye, pounded sandstone. Cf . briz, bruise, bray, snaw-bree.
Smuirach, very small coal. Sc. and Celt. cf. smoor, smore, smother.
Daps, for dabs, small flounders.
Gum, coal dust. Fifesh. coom.
Cruichach, crooked and bent. Cf. cruck, crook.
Spalyin' flat-footed, splay.
Scrae, skinny fellow, a shrivelled old shoe. In the Boer "Tarn o'
Shanter " the witches are skraal, lean.
Horts, hurts.
SoMre=sound, or Strait of Sanna.
Bouchled, tossed about. Cf. roch, rough.
Shougie-shoo, cf. Ger. Sheuchel-stuhl, a rocking-chair.
Ralliach, slightly stormy.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 115
Thou'rt not a hochlan scleurach, dear,
As many trooshlach be ;
Nor I a claty skybal, thus
To sclaifer after thee ;
Yet haing the meishachan, where first
I felt love's mainglin' smart,
And haing the boosach dyvour too.
Who spoong'd from me thine heart !
! rhane a Yolus Cronie — quick —
Across this rumpled brain !
Bring hickery-pickery — bring wallink,
Droshachs, to sooth my pain !
Fire water — fire a spoucher full —
These frythan stouns to stay !
For like a sparrow's scaldacban
I'm gosping night and day !
Scorlins, slimy, cord-like seaweed.
Tliowl pins = rowlocks.
Hochlan, slack iu dress, walking clumsily. Cf. hobble.
Scleurach, untidy in dress and gait. Celt, sgliurach, slut, gossip, young
sea-gull.
Trooshlach, worthless thing. Cf. trash.
Olaty, dirty. Sc. clarty.
Skybal, worthless fellow. Celt, gioball, chap, odd fellow. Banffsh.
Glossary — Skypal, not having a sufficiency, e.g. "A'll be some skypal
o' seed corn."
Sclaffer, go slipshod, to sclatf.
Haing, a small swear. Hang.
Meishachan, subscription dance. Cf . minsh, a change-house.
Mainglin', crushing, mangling. .
Boosach, drinking, boozing.
Dyvour, poor looking individual. Lat. debtor. Fr. devoir.
Sponged, stole deceitfully.
Rhane, rhyme. Orcadian reen, to roar vehemently ; exclusively of a
pig in distress : reening, squeaking as a pig.
Yolus Cronie, a charm (in words). Celt, eolas, knowledge, eoisle, a
charm.
Rumpled, confused.
Hickery-pickery, tonic bitters, lepos, sacred. ■jriKpis, a bitter herb.
See Chamb. Encyc, Art. "Hiera Picra."
Wallink, brooklime speedwell.
Droshachs, doctors' drugs.
116 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
Were I the laird of Achnaglach,
Or Kilmanshenachan fair,
Crockstaplemore, Kilwheepnach,
Foechag, or Ballochgair ;
Did I inherit Tuyinroech,
Drumgary, or Ballochantee,
Creishlach, or Coeran — daing the bit
I'd fauchat them for thee !
0, the Clabbydhn, it loves the Trineh,
The Crouban, the quay-neb,
While the Anachan and Brollochan,
They love the Mussel-ebb.
The Muirachbanii the Dorling loves,
And the Gleshan, and Guildee,
They love to plouder through the loch ;
But, Flory, I love thee !
Spoucher, wooden ladle for baling a boat. Sc. spud, spade. Cf. Celt.
spuidgear, a baling ladle.
Frythan, cook in & frying-'pa.n.,
Stouns, sharp pains. Cf. a stoond o' love.
Scaldachan, unfeatliered nestlings. Norse and Sc. scalled, bald.
Gasping, gasping,
Daing, a small swear.
Fauchat, to throw up a thing. Cf . feech ! expressing disgust.
Glabbydhu, black bivalve, a large mussel still quite familiar on the
lower Clyde estuary. Dbu is tlie Gael, black.
Crouban, a crab, with suffixed article (an) : neb, end, nose.
Anachan, bivalve used for bait.
Brollochan, similar, with a little difference in shape.
Muirachbann, \\hite shellfish got near the ebb. Celt, maorach, a shell-
fish, and baan, fair.
Dorling, line of shore joining isle to mainland. Celt, doirling, isthmus,
beach.
Gleshan, coal fish.
Guildee, young of the saithe.
Plouder, plouter, plunge.
For the Celtic of this gloss I have to thank Mr. Alexander Macbain,
M. A., author of "An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language"
(Inverness, 1896); and the verses, a cutting from a local newspaper, I owe
to my friend, the late Mr. Matthew Dunlop, of Dunlop Brothers, Bothwell
Street, Glasgow.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 117
The Great Exhibition and the horrors and heroisms of
Sebastopol must mark, to those of us who are now middle-aged,
the first note from the external world that came to disturb the
placidity of what seems now an idyllic youth, spent in the far
back fifties in many a Sleepy Hollow with which the bicycle is
now enabling us to renew a pleasant acquaintance. It must
have been then when such pen-artists as Mr. Barrie and " Ian
Maelaren " were " making themselves." The demands of fiction
as " the warp and weft '' of human passion lie outwith my
present quest, which is indeed a much less ambitious task, no
other than the attempt to recall the local colour of the village
story, the manners and customs of the rustic mind as revealed
in its vernacular, and especially the amusements of youth
" when all such sports could please." Like the cognate attempt
at reminiscence in the "Deserted Village," the task has its
limitations as a genuine bit of realism. Most dealings of this
kind with rustic life and its vernacular have a tendency to give
a false impression to the superficial reader. Firstly, the very
shallow suggestion of vulgarity as inherent in the vernacular
has to be discounted. Further, such vernacular is really often
more old-fashioned than it seems. Much of Burns, not in
diction alone but in matter, was half -consciously archaic in his
day, and fully intelligible only to the old people whose sym-
pathies with a familiar past he aroused. If we are to believe
his biographer, Currie, Burns himself used but little of what
now passes for the dialect of the " Kailyard." Of course the
accent remained in his case as in that of Scott and Carlyle,
though such an unfriendly critic as Samuel Johnson admits
that even that may be got rid of " wi' a fecht." " There can be
no doubt that Scotsmen may attain to a perfect English pro-
nunciation if they will. We find how near they come to it "
[nearer in his day than now, however, for English is more
changed relatively than Scots]; "and certainly a man who
conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent may conquer
the twentieth." Pity companies that tour in Scots plays
could not act up to Johnson's conviction, and come near
enough the ultra-Tweed accent to spare us Eab Dow ("The
Little Minister ") in a tone that rhymes to " now," instead of
118 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
the genuine Bob Dow (pronounced Doo) as the reader of Burns
knows, —
" But, as I'm sayiii, please step to Dow's,
An' taste sic gear as Johnny brews,
Till some bit callan brings me news
That you are there,
An' if we dinna hae a bouse
I'se ne'er drink mair." —
Epistle to John Kennedy.
They would surely never speak of Eoderick Dhu in such a tone,
though it is substantially the same name. The Scots long
vowel, as in Eob, always presents difficulties to the Southron.
Thus the Englishman thinks his absurd " Eabbie " Burns quite
to the manner born. A somewhat similar misrendering of
Scottish vernacular is the impossible " Babbie '' of the " Little
Minister." Barbara is familiarised as Baubie. The elided r
always lengthens a contiguous vowel.
Let me endeavour in the following sketch to visualise a
Pifeshire village at a time when its folk were still bi-lingual,
when they had not long had to part with their handlooms, to
welcome the iron horse, and to forget the turmoil of the Dis-
ruption. The scene is a kirk toon, red-tiled like the East Coast
villages, and straggling in one street up the rough ascent called
the Paith, and over the school hill, to disappear into the open
country round one side of the churchyard. Where the bairns
romped between lessons, pre-historic villagers had laid their
dead, only to be gradually exhumed in toothless chafts and
crumbling harn-pans (skulls), that, from time to time, revealed
themselves in the cosy nooks among the stone coffins, where
the lassies played at selling sugar and tea with the crisp, bony
soil. On the crest of the broad knowe stood a newer God's-
acre, but even it so old that the accumulated soil concealed the
sculptured base of the thirteenth century tower, beloved of
artists and architects. Those Goths, the parish heritors, left
the unique apse to the betheral (sexton) for his shools and
coffin-trams, and obliterated its exquisite Norman arch with a
lath and plaster partition so as to complete the eastern end of
FIELD PHILOLOGY 119
their own barn-like structure, a hideous post-Eeformation
Church. The back walls of the houses, thriftily built hard
against the abodes of the dead, had their window-boles looking
out on these silent neighbours through a screen of nettles,
dockens, apple-reengie, and heather-reenge, as the fragrant
southern-wood and showy hydrangea were called. To eastward
the kirk hill dropped abruptly, to be imperceptibly lost in a long
reach towards the open sea, across a wilderness of bent and sward,
of heather and whin and broom, till it ended amid miles of golden
sand, where the swish of the white crests as they broke mingled
with the moan of the bar when the turn of the ebb brought in
the rush of billowy foam to hide the mussel scaups and lagoons,
dear to the flounder and the heron, the mussel-picker and the
whaup (Oyster-catcher and Greater Curlew).
To westward the school hill sank to the trough of a wide
valley which drained to nowhere in particular, but of old its
countless lochans and forest of seggs and reeds must have
been a paradise to the falconer and fowler. Tradition, indeed,
made of it a royal forest in the palmy days of Falkland
Palace. It was the favourite hawking ground and sporting
estate of James V. (see " Exchequer Accounts," vol. vii.). How
Petlethy, as it is called in the "Accounts," fell into tlie Crown
is explained by an obscure episode of 1537, in which year Lady
Glamis or Strathmore, of the hated Douglas line, was accused
of plotting the King's death by poison and burned at the stake
on the Castle hill of Edinburgh. Her son, a lad of sixteen, was
left in prison and the estates forfeited, of which Petlethy formed,
a part. Here there was a fine old castle, built by the Mow-
brays. The " Accounts " (1539-40) show frequent charges for
household stuff carried between St. Andrews and Petlethy or
Glamis by the "ferry of Dundee." After the death of the
King, Glamis was restored to liberty and his estates. More
precise historic links were few. Archbishop Sharp regularly
journeyed by the kirk toon on his way to and from his rural
retreat at Seotscraig, overlooking the estuary of the Tay, and
that dear lover of a bishop, the great Samuel, trundled gravely
past the old church in his progress northwards with the
admiring Boswell. Out of the wilderness of marsh over against
the kirk hill rose an artificial mound, on which stood for cen-
120 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
turies a stronghold of the Earls of Strathmore. The last laird,
like the other impecunious but very faintly Jacobite Fife ones,
went out in " The Fifteen," and the forfeited estate fell as a
realisable asset to the Yorks Building Company, which tore
down the venerable pile, noted for the painted ceiling of its
hall, to make cow byres. The quaint sun-dial of the castle is
now at Glamis. Nothing remains but two rows of yews, terror,
as a poison, to the farmer and his stirks, and a portion of the
ditch that once drained the moat. Its name, the Water-gate-
aillie (alley), suggested the fact that here had been a raised
causeway that communicated with the kirk toon across the
swampy hollow. This sluggish ditch was a favourite haunt of
tadpoles, the " gellies " of the boys. This was also the name
for the sliddery leech. A Falkland man was using a leech for
swollen tonsils, when suddenly a neighbour woman looking on
exclaimed, "Goavy-dick! he's swallowed the gelly." In time
the estate was bought by a " nabob,'' a Scot who had made a
fortune in the East at a time when, as Lord Eosebery neatly
puts it, the all-powerful Henry Dundas was busy " Scotticising
India and Orientalising Scotland." The improving laird ran a
deep-cut canal from end to end of the marshy bottom, turning
it into fields of the richest loam.
From the foot of the Paith or steep ascent to the kirk hill
the village street was continued across the drained valley by a
newer line, where the feuars reared their trim cots on the edge
of the highroad in the hideous fashion of the orthodox Scottish
village. There they plied the shuttle and reeled the pirns in
sweet content in the pre-Malthusian days, when a lying-in
brought a welcome bread-winner, —
" The weaver said unto his son,
The day 'at he was bom,
' Blessins on yer curly pow !
Ye'll rin for pirns the morn.'"
The brisk times of the great French war, when Osnaburgs
kept all hands busy, were followed at a long interval by two
disturbing elements. A great railway tore its ruthless track
across the smiling hollow, and buried its placid, canal-like
stream deep down in a gloomy condie (conduit), the home of
FIELD PHILOLOGY 121
eels and puddocks and drowned kittlens. The old-fashioned
gardens, with their brier, elder, and rizzar (currant) bushes,
their artless clumps of bachelor's buttons, gardener's gairtens,
dusty miller (auricula), balm, spinks, apple-reengie, speengie
(peony) roses, spearmint, and lily-oak (lilac), gave place to coal
bings (Fife knew not coal-rees) and lyes for trucking tawties
and nowt. A still greater upheaval in the moral world was
the new broom of Dissent, with its out-crop of unrest and bad
blood. Down at the lower end of the village rose a rival sub-
scription school, where a learned unfortunate, some licentiate
under a cloud, starved on £10 a year, school pence and non-
Intrusion principles. His successor, a man of many secular
activities in spite of a lame leg, came to the village with this
ambiguous recommendation : " The character of Mr. A
B is well known in this parish." Near this nursery of
Dissent a barn-like Free Church opened the door of its gavel-
end on the high road to welcome the swarm from the Erastian
hive. The tailor's wife eagerly took the new road, coveting the
eldership for her man. Discussing church politics amid a circle
of her "cummers," she stoutly maintained that the days of
auld Babylon on the school hiU were numbered, assuring them
that " ye min gang doon the toon if ye waant to hae yer sowl
saved." A local variant of a saying, conceived in a similar spirit,
credited a Dissenter with the remark, apropos of the future
happiness of a parishioner lately deceased, "I hae my doots;
ye see she didna gang to oor meetin' at Lucklaw Hill."
Those were the days, coTisule Planco, of sunshine and glad-
ness, when the worry of the great world was far remote.
There were no big dailies then, only a threepenny bi-weekly,
and the one copy that came, franked by its stamp, went round
its circle of readers in turn. The circulation was managed by the
Sergeant, a veteran of the Kaffir wars, and a striking contrast
to Sandy Awrnot, a battered, one-armed wreck from Chilian-
wallah and Sobraon, who had nothing more interesting about
him than a rusty blue swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, a
passion for snuff and the speediest liquidation of his pension.
The Sergeant was intelligent and interesting, as when he told
a thrilling tale of the wily Kaffir crawling up to assegai the
sentry at his lonely post by the laager, amid the stillness of the
122 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
" veldt " and 'neath the passionless gaze of the Southern Cross.
His thick guttural tones, as if he spoke with a stone in his
throat, heightened the effect. He was indeed a gentleman, tall,
straight, and broad shouldered, with bronzed, clean-shaven
face, broad leather stock for collar, striped blue-and-white
shirt with pearl buttons, blue fatigue jacket with brass buttons,
and corduroys of the pattern known then as Oalifornia, a
name due to the late outbreak of "yellow fever" on the
Pacific coast. He was a bachelor and lodged with the tailor,
whose long, ill-girt figure had got for him, from some wit
in the village, the nickname "Deuteronomy." The Sergeant
mainly employed himself in digging up barrowloads of fir-tree
roots, highly resinous, and excellent for kindling or eeldin, as
the old folk called it. Nor should I forget the station-master,
cheery, good-natured, obliging. As a man of many freits and
fancies he was dear to the natural boy. Hens, bees, pigs, dogs,
goats, and a donkey in turn ruled his energies. A stranger,
making inquiries at a native, was referred to my friend as " the
omnifeeshint man in the place."
Oh ! those glorious days in that wood where the Ser-
geant's long-drawn pech accentuated the mattock's every blow.
Heavenly were the sloping glades where one beaked (basked) in
the sunshine among bracken and blaeberries and bell-heather,
while whin and broom pods plunkt their peas on ruddy cheeks,
and the fir-cones, known only as " taps," that were scattered
around, turned out their recesses to the birsling sun, and the
foggie-toddlers (yellow humble bee) hirpled about over the
warm turf, among golacks (beetles) and clip-sheers (ear-wigs).
The hum of bees and the chorus of birds mingled overhead
in the sough of a languid breeze, and everything made for
righteousness but the buzzing flies, the nagging midges, and the
quiet but thorough prod of the glegs (gadfly). The lotus was
too much in the air to tempt one to risk a joabing (jagging) by
prying into the whin-buss for the mouse hole entrance to the
rannies' (wren's) nest, to sclim the branchless stem of the fir
for the keelie's (sparrow-hawk's) eyrie, or even to disturb the
sugar industry by cutting into the bark of the birches to suck
the sweet sap that seapt out on the sunny side. How poor
and imperfect is " trickle out " beside its equivalent seap ! An
FIELD PHILOLOGY 123
Aberdeen professor of the old school used to tell a slow student
to keep a " gleg " ear, and just let his prelections " seap " in.
The Orcadian sab means to saturate. Pieces were eaten to the
last crust, and pouches " reipet " for mtilins (crumbs), while the
shady banks of the ditches were searched for soorocks (sorrel),
and the dank spots in the woods for Caliban's earth-nuts, or
lucy-awrnits, as they were called. For botanising was pursued
with the practical purpose of the primitive man, and spoils
secured for use or pleasure. Pet rabbits, our mappies, claimed
the sookies (clover blooms) and the grundie-swallie, for ground-
sel was known by its Anglo-Saxon name of " grunde-swyligie,"
or " grunde-swilie " (what swells over the ground). " Little
goodje" (sun spurge) was plucked for its astringent, milky juice,
infallible against warts, while the benty dunes were searched
for the roots which passed for the savoury liquorice (Common
Eest- Harrow). The elder furnished a boon-tree gun or tow-gun,
the elm a whistle, the hemlock a spoot-gun, while the brown,
withered leaves of the tussilago or colt's-foot — " dishie-logie "
it was called — were eagerly utilised as a substitute for tobacco,
and smoked, " with diffeeculty," in a " partan's tae." When the
girls played at shops the seed-capsules of the doeken passed
for sugar and tea, while the sweeties were the " nirled " catkins
of the alder, since they resembled the genuine " curly-andrew,"
or sugared coriander seed. More serious was the midday divi-
nation with that humble weed, the rib-wort. When the leaf
was broken off the exposed ribs were held to forecast the number
of pawmies to be faced in the afternoon. The long seed-tipped
stalk of this plantain, the " curly-doddy," furnished a weapon
for mimic cuts and slashes — in the effort to break off each his
opponent's stalk. More formidable sword-play was done with
a kail-runt or a clump of the malodorous weebie, as the yellow
and ever-assertive rag- wort was called. The name "weebie,"
seemed to have been strictly local. In the north-east the plant is
the " stinkin Elshender." Of old it was called bun-weed. Thus
in Holland's "Buke of the Howlat" (circa 1450) the Jay as the
Juggler could carry the cup from the king's table, " syn leve in
the sted hot a blak bun-wed." The name is still used all over
Ulster. Can it be that " weebie " is just " bunwede " inverted ?
Such a careful philologist as M. Amours, in editing Holland
124 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
(Alliterative Poems, Sc. Text Soc), explains "bun" in his
author's " bunwed " as M.E. for the long hollow stem of some
plants. It is therefore akin to " bone " (Ger. Bein), and wood-
bine. This syllable certainly accounts for the Fife name, for
the elder, the boon-tree, a Northumbrian term also, which the
" English Dialect Dictionary," not very wisely, explains as the
" sacred or lucky tree." A dialect variant is boor-tree, pro-
bably bore-tree, as if from its hollow stem. Generally it served
as a fence round the old kail-yards, which gives a sort of colour
to this suggestion. It was not alone a proof against evil spirits,
but the cows refused to touch it. The distribution of this term
" bun " or " boon " — Fife, Northumberland, Ulster — well illus-
trates the vagaries of dialect. It is represented in German as
well as English dialects— in the latter always in the sense of
a hollow stem, as of flax or hemp or any .umbelliferous plant.
It is also in Celtic, as " bun," a stock, trunk ; " bun-ach," coarse
tow. Macbain finds in the Gaelic " bun-tata " (potato) a piece
of folk-etymology suggested by applying this descriptive term
to the dried stems of the plant. In Irish the ragwort is rogaim,
sneeze-wort, from rag, stiff, unwilling, borrowed from Norse
lirak, wretched.
The animal world was closely observed. Keen was the zest
in the chase of a whittret (weasel) or the smeekin of a wasp's
bike. These were the only noxious beasts known. Among
birds, the yellow yite (Emberiza citronella) met with scant
favour, relic of a medieval tradition that its yellow robe sug-
gested the hated Jew, probably Judas Iscariot himself. In the
cabbage rows a pit-fall (a " faw," German " Falle ") vi^as set for
him. This word faw as a mouse-trap is of very limited range
in dialect. In Orcadian we have moosfa', a mouse-trap, Norse
mus-foU. When snow covered the ground the barn " wecht ''
or close sieve was the favourite snare.
There was no thought of egg-collecting. The berried spoils
were merely set up on a dyke or stonewall as a mark in the
sport called " prappin." A cushie's (wood-pigeon's) nest, or still
better a paitrick's (partridge), was prized. Sunny hours were
spent out on the moors in search of " dunter's " (eider duck) or
" strokannet's " (burrow duck) eggs, hid away in rabbit holes.
I can find no trace of either of these terms elsewhere except
FIELD PHILOLOGY 125
about the head of the Solway, where the boys know the
strokannet. This kannet is a form of gannet, while stroh
probably refers to its variegated plumage. Eerie it was to
follow the "teuchat" (lapwing) as it wailed out, in tumbling
circles round the intruder, " Pease- weet, pease- weet, herry my
nest and gar me greet ! " the boy's call to the wailing spirit
on the wing. Karely did success follow the rearing of small
captives. The young "gorbets" (callow brood) were fed on
crowdie till their "gaebies" (crops) if not their nebs, cried
" Hold ! enough ! " Sparrows or " spyugs " were the favourite
innocents for such experiments, but we never were Herods,
such as the Border herd-boys with their " spung-hewet " or
spung-taed (toad) pranks, which consisted in placing a frog or
toad or young bird on one end of a stick balanced on a stone,
then striking the other end smartly, so as to send the victim
high up into the air, to fall neatly cleft in two. Spung, as
spang (Norse spong, to stride), was our familiar form of span
in playing at bools (marbles). Some of the old herd-boys'
sports were kept alive, however, such as the flauchter-spade
and the divot-fecht. We still find boys in spring-time cutting
out bits of turf to throw at one another, quite unconscious of
the origin of the sport in a long-obsolete industry. The herds
in rival parishes or " lands " used to have regular pitched battles.
The word " fiauchter-spade " as a game would seem to be pecu-
liarly local. It consisted in one boy lying on his back, while
another stood on the out-stretched palms and leant on the feet
of the first boy, held up to him for the purpose. The game was
to see which pair of boys would make the biggest leap by the
aid of their combined forces. In Lanark and in Moray the
boys know the game as the sawmon-loup. The true flauchter-
spade, of course, was used in the old days of bad farming to
pare turf from the moor, or outfield, to make the compost
known as " f ulzie," and is still employed to cut larg'e turfs to
cover the potato-bings in the absence of straw. The Orcadian
tlaa, Icel. flaga, is a thin turf,_cf. Boer, vlei.
Here let me "divagate" so far as to' versify the kindly
reminiscence of those days when, as a boy^IwajS left to learn
"Nature knjowledge" at the feet of . the; mighty; Mo th^jr her-
self. . ; . ■■ \] \ ' .ill--) :• -■■■
126 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
THE SKYLARK.
Lae-rockie — lae-rockie-lee,
Up i' the lift sae hie !
You soar frae the grun', up there to the sun,
An' hing like a mote i' my e'e,
While frae your free throat, on wastlin winds float.
The charms o' your ain melodie.
You fondly look doon whaur your wifockie broon
Sits broodin' sae mitherlie,
'Mang the bluebells an' heather, the yow an' the wether.
An' the bee bummin eidentlie.
It maks my heart wae when I think on the day.
On the bent-brown links by the sea,
How, a loon like the rest, I berried your nest,
An' brocht the bit tear to your e'e.
Owre aften sin syne I've owrestapit the line
Whaur frail mortals dauner agee,
But never I ween done ocht half sae mean
As stealin' your broon bairnies three.
But harder the heart o' the moneyed upstart,
Clay-cauld to a' true poesie.
To roast on a spit, as a denty tit-bit.
The bard o' the muirland an' lea.
Noo shake aff' the stoor, the dew an' the shoor.
An' lilt your bit innocent glee.
Ye can cock up your tap or sit lown on Earth's lap,
Ye'll ne'er get a mischeef frae me.
This warl o' care still has joys to share,
'Boon a' maun your sang bear the gree,
An' it heartens to feel, i' the land o' the leal,
Your liltins aye sowniu shall be.
The pleasures of the garden, the playground, and the farm-
yard bulked largely in the village boy's year. Delicious it was
to "speel" (climb) the flat-topped garden wall, and strip the
FIELD PHILOLOGY 127
pleasantly-tartish " rizzars " from their pendulous stalks. The
name is now little known, though Cunningham of Craigends
(Scot. Hist. Soc.) tells us he bought rizzars from the garden
of a Paisley change-house for 4d. Scots. This was during the
Killing Time of the seventeenth century It denotes anything
growing on a branch, from Ger. " Reis," a twig. An Elizabethan
street-cry was, " Cherries on the rise ! " The rizzar berry is an
old name for the currant. A " stake and rise " hut or " wattled
cot " was a primitive but inexpensive abode. Still more attrac-
tive were the " geans " and " grozers," the latter better known
in the West as " grozets," and sometimes grossarts as in
James VI.'s application of a homely proverb — " When he heard
of the tocher, then, by my kingly crown, he lap like a cock at a
grossart." There was the usual round of games — hi-spy, smuggle
the gag (never geg), tig, craw-flee. In their due season came
bools, peeries, earriek, draigeiis (kites), girds (hoops). The
Border expression " ca' a girr " was never heard. A hoop for
any purpose was always a gird. The shinty term, earriek, I find
to be quite local. It is only a modification of the word crook,
and, like the similar Gaelic term " camanachd " (cam, crooked),
properly applies to the stick used. Football and cricket were
unfamiliar, so also was rounders. Nothing, therefore, was known
of that interesting survival amid the wreck of old words, the
" dulls " or " dools " of Allan Eamsay and Fergusson, and still
in common use. Girls chose the quieter sports of merry-my-
tanzie, jing-ga-ring, or the ever-entertaining palall, the " beds "
of Edinburgh, and the peevor (from Fr. paveur, a pavior) of
Lanarkshire. Playmates and playthings were known as play-
fares. The term has nothing to do with fairplay, but is from
an Anglo-Saxon " gefera," a companion, the gaffer of a working
squad. We have it in Beaumont and Fletcher's " Two Noble
Kinsmen " — " Learn what maids have been her companions and
play-feers." If " by-ordnar thrang," they were reported to be
" cheef " or intimate — not so graphic as the Tweed-side " thick
as dugs' heads " — but when they fell out they parted with
a Parthian shot, " I'm no' freends wi' you the day." Poetical
justice was gleefully noted with a " cheatery's choket you ! " or
" ye're weel cheap o'd," when Nemesis brought ill luck. " Fair
hornie " was the euphemistic appeal for fair play. " Chaps me
128 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
that ! " was enough to secure first choice of a good thing. All
enjoyed giving each other " fichils " (Gael, dialect, fachail, strife,
and quite local), or challenges to difficult feats — the " brags "
of Edinburgh and the "coosie" of Arbroath. Hiding in the
crap-wa' or coom-ceiled recess of the hay-loft, where floor and
joists meet, was much enjoyed. To be called " bairnlie," " fugie,"
" coordie " (the " coordie, coordie custard ! " of Edinburgh), or
to be sent home with a torn " daidlie " (pinafore) was justly
shunned. " A carrier of clypes," dreaded in the West, was
never heard, though " clippy " for pert was quite common. To
settle sides in a game the lot was cast by the inevitable
decision, —
" Nievvi-nievvi-nik-nak,
Which hand will ye tak?
Be ye richt or be ye wrang,
I'll begowk you if I can.''
Glorious were the June evenings, when the bairns were as
happy on the green as the gowans that nestled in a sleep which
their tread did not disturb ! As the gloamin' from the East
chased the azure day to far Western seas, the golden moths
flitted over the breer-busses, the corncraik seraiched among the
skellocks (wild mustard) in the haugh-land, while the bat circled
overhead, easily evading the bonnets tossed up to catch it with
the seductive cry, " Bat, bat, come intill my hairy hat ! " But
all this paled before the delights of " hairst." Eager was the
look-out for the first stock as authority for demanding the
vacations (Fr. vacance). Eapidly gleamed the hyucks (sickles)
in sturdy hands when some forward shearer began " kempin "
(Ger. " kampfen," to contend), —
" This wicked flyte being laid at last,
Some rig now strives for to get past
The ithers, and wi' flaring haste
To show its strength ;
This sets the lave a-workin' fast —
They ' kemp ' at length." —
The Hairst Rig, 1786.
The grieve (A.S. " gerefa," reeve, officer) looked on with mingled
feelings, divided between a desire for sued stubble and a
FIELD PHILOLOGY 129
speedy arrival at the rig-end. Sweet was the midday meal
of baps and beer by a stook-side, varied by a chase for the
youngsters after a scared rabbit or a hirplin' maukin (hare) !
One ill-set prank I remember. The scene was a hairst rig on
a Perthshire farm. The idle boy, stravaiging round, saw among
the stubble some nice, plump toads (taeds he called them).
Tucking one into a shearer's shawl that she had left on the
sunny side of a stook, he waited till the owner came to sit down
with her neighbours for her " twal oors," and enjoyed her squeal
and fright as she caught sight of the " laithly beast," an expres-
sion illustrated in Grigor's laidlick, a loath (tad-pole and leech).
The leadin' of the well- won thraves (stooks of twenty -four
sheaves) appealed to the boy's love of horses. He 'took little
interest in the gleaners that followed, making up their " singles "
out of the scattered ears, —
" 0' gatherers next, unruly bands
Do spread themselves athort the lands,
And sair they grien (yearn) to try their hands
Amang the sheaves ;
For which they're ordered far behind,
To mak' sic singles as they find." —
The Hairst Rig, 1786.
"Winter brought its own sports. Frozen pools in the woods
resounded to the clang of the "skaetchers" (skaters). Open
snow-clad stretches were seamed with the sheen of slides,
whereon in gleeful rows the boys careered, erect or hunker-
tottie (crouching), the " coorie-hunker " of other, dialects.
" Faht," Grigor quotes, " wiz the auld bodie deein fin ye geed
in ? She wiz crulgin on her currie-hunkers at the cheek o' the
cutchick." All went well till a thaw made the ice " bauch "
(dull). The long evenings favoured such pranks as Tammy-
reekie, Ticky-molie, and Guisin'. For the first a kail-stock was
chosen, the pith within the custock extracted, and the space filled
with wet tow. Then the process of smeekin some unsuspecting
household through the front door key-hole went merrily on.
Hallowe'en brought its supper of " stovies," " a pound of butter
champit in," said champing being effected by a vigorous use of
the porridge-stick, or " theel," the " theevil " of the North-east.
130 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
There was high revelry when the pig was killed. The blood, in
view of black puddings to follow, had to be switched with a
bundle of twigs to remove the fibrin, and so prevent clotting.
Then the carcase was plumped into scalding water, to ploat
(soak), so as to admit of the scraping process. In due course
followed the feast of puddings, made from the "pluck," and
cracklins, the chitterlings of the English villager. The lard that
was extracted was " weel-hained " under the name of swine's
" saim," a bit of dialect which appears in " Troilus and Cressida "
— " The proud lord that bastes his arrogance with his own seam."
The metaphor anticipates the historic one, " Stew in their own
gravy." Lastly there were such special aids to friendship as
" clack " (cf. Ger. Klecks, a blot), or clagum, the " gundy " of
Edinburgh youth, " pawrlies," and " ha'penny deevils " (ginger-
bread figures, arms a-kimbo, currants for eyes), each offering a
more popular fate for spare bawbees than the " pirlie-pig " or
nursery savings bank. Gundy is still a favourite of youth. A
village rhyme runs thus, —
" Adam and Eve gaed up my sleeve
To fess me doon some gundy ;
Adam and Eve cam doon my sleeve,
And said there was nane till Munday."
The farm, its ways and animals, were ever interesting to the
boy, himself a stock-raiser on his own account. Knowing in the
breeds of doos and rabbits, the "niffering" of the- progeny or
the " swauping " of the cleckin (litter), with knives and bools as
buit (luckpenny), prepared him for a commercial career. The two
terrors of the farmyard were the turkey and the billy-goat. The
latter was treated, across the wall, to sham offers of tobacco,
while the former was greeted with the execration, " Bubbly-jock,
your wife's a witch, and a' your bairns are warlocks." But
the boy was proudest of all of the friendship of a horse. He
knew his " monk " or head-stall (confined to Eife and Aberdeen),
his haims, brecham, britchen, and rigwoodie, the necessary items
in the harnessing. To walk alongside when he was in the theats
(traces) or to hold the reins beside the swingle-tree when he
was in the plough was a coveted distinction. A ploughman,
appealed to one day by a boy to let him hold the stilts, with
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132 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
in the guise of the favourite diminutive. The open trench or
" gruip " (Ger. Graben, a ditch) made the byre unsavoury. The
term is common for a ditch in the fields in Ulster, in Kent, and
even in the Transvaal. Arthur Young says that the roads a
little way to the north of London were in his time (1780) made
troublesome and even dangerous by the " grips," trenches cut
across the road to keep it dry before the advent of Macadam.
It has lived in popular verse, as here, —
" The muckin' o' Geordie's byre,
An' shooling the gruip sae clean,
Has aft gart me spend the night sleepless,
An' brocht the saut tears to my een." — ■
Herd, vol. ii. app. 53.
The calving was momentous, for on that hung the milk
supply. If the cow was " yeld " (in calf but not in milk), or
" foarrie " (not in calf), there was no milk, but only a poor
substitute, " treacle-peerie," made of sweetened water mixed
with barm (yeast) to produce a perfectly harmless ale, feebler
even than penny-whaup. " Peerie " (small) is a strange survival
from Norse times in the East coast. It is very common in
Orkney. There the infant school is the " peerie squeel." Scott
in his Life says that "Stevenson, the engineer, landing at
N. Eonaldshay, was forced to rout out of bed a mannikin of
a missionary whom, because he was so peerie, the Selkies-
suspected of being a Pecht or elf" (quoted by Tudor). The
" heist," or first milk after calving, was too strong to be
palatable. When the milk was drawn in the cog it was " sie'd "
(sieved), laid away in " kimmins " (shallow tubs), and reamed
(Ger. Kahm, cream ; Cape Dutch, room) for the churn. Earely
was the sweet or unreamed milk used for drinking, a substitute
being found in the skimmed or in the butter milk, known as
soor-dook (cf. dough and the Sauer-teig of " Sartor Eesartus").
The bappy-faced nonentity was graphically but unkindly
described as "daichie" (doughy). The Edinburgh schoolboy,
recognising in the Militia the ploughmen that brought the milk
to town, derisively christened them " soor-dook sogers." For
cheese-making the stomach of a calf was held in reserve, filled
FIELD PHILOLOGY 133
with salt, and hung up over the fireplace to make "ernin"
(rennet). Coagulation took place sometimes when not wanted.
" Lapper," to co-agulate, explains Grigor's Banffshire phrases :
"The thunner hiz lappert the milk," "The loans (lea fields)
wir pleut weet, an' they a' lappert in spring fin (when) dry
wither set in."
The pig was of less interest to the boy, unless perhaps it
was the wee wrig (a variant of wry) or last-born (puny, puis-n6)
member of the litter, and therefore less perfectly developed.
His name is local. In the Gothic Gospels (Luke iii. 5), where
part of the work of John the Baptist is to make the crooked
paths straight, we have — "wairthith thata wraiqo du raiht-
amma," lit. set the crooked or wrig to-rights. This Fifeshire
form is akin to the Orcadian raaga — the same word indeed
— otherwise known as the water-droger. In England he is
St. Anthony's pig, in Perth and Angus the shargar (weakly,
scraggy ; Oread, sharg, petulant, teasing), and in Aberdeen and
Moray the carneed or curneedy. " I jist got the carneed at
a wee pricie." Grigor glosses crine, to cause to grow stunted,
as, " Y've crinet yir caar (cattle) by spehnin them our seen "
(soon). Connected with carneed is earn, to soil, e.g. " I earned
ee aa' wi' the jice" (gravy). Beginning life as a "grice," the
pig, when weaned (speaned), became a " shot," and, whUe there-
after in process of assuming a douce obesity, was familiarly
addressed as Gus-gus ! or spoken^ of as Sandy Cam'l, a name
widely spread over the Lowlands. The Orcadian "grici-fer"
(swine fever) is the distemper that deprives swine of the use of
their hind legs. I have seen many of these thrown out from
a distillery into the brimming tide. The popular philosophy
of proverbs -took a purely material view of this worthy. The
old folk capped the incongruity between pearls and swine with :
" What can ye expec' o' a soo but to grumph ? " The last scene
of his uneventful history was the bustling one of stickin' with
the gully, ploatin' in the big tub to get the hair off, scrapin' and
disembowelling.
Spare hours in the busy day were given to watching the
joiner, ever popular if good-natured enough to turn "peeries"
(spinning tops), or the mason swinging his heavy mell (Shet. a
large broad fist). Not so popular he, to judge by his derisive
134 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
name, " dorbie." The long winter evenings were often devoted
to technical education of no mean kind amid the bustle of the
craftsman's shop. The handloom weaver, a comtemplative
artist whose craft had by this time almost disappeared, was
coaxed into sparing the ends of his warp to make strings for
" draigens " (kites), or the tow from his yarn to supply shot for
spoot-guns. The former was known as " thrums," the thrummy
cap of the ballads, and, of course, the cognomen of Mr. Barrie's
native Kirriemuir. The tailor was voted a windy buddy, much
given to blawin' or boasting. Odd uses were found for his
runds (selvage of cloth), and there were sly pilferings of his
keelivine or pencil. The Orcadian rands is the edge of a shoe-
heel : rynd is a long strip of cloth. Interesting was it to watch
the hot " goose " hissing along the damp seam over the " law-
brod." A Glasgow bailie who had been familiar professionally
with the flat-iron of the tailor and how he used it, diverted tlie
Town Council by remarking that an opponent's criticism was
no more to him than " a skite aff a tailor's goose." Every way
more entertaining was the sutor as he beat the bend-leather on
his lap-stane, drew his thread across the roset (Gael, rosead,
resin), deftly birsed a fresh lingle end, or passed the gleaming
elshon (awl) through his hair. In those days there was no lack
of variety or interest in village industries, as yet little affected
by machinery or the rush town-wards. All this is commemo-
rated in the Fife toast, —
" Here's life to men and death to fish,
The pirn and the ploo',
Horn, corn, linen-yairn,
Tups and tarry 'oo'."
Around the ingle-neuk character was both formed and best
studied. Lessons played a small part in the evening economy,
for school passed for little, and the " maister " was held in no
great esteem among the monotonous drudgery of "eoonts"
(sums) and Catechism, and the mechanical sing-song drawl
called reading aloud. For the well-doing the highest praise
was : " Ye'll be a man before your mother yet," while for the
be-fogged bungler were reserved the choice epithets, "kirn-
stick," or dunder-head, and the ever-ready " pawmy." Neither
PIELD PHILOLOGY 135
the Edinburgh boy's pandy (mediaeval dominie's "pande pal-
mam," stretch out your palm), nor the Saxon " loofie " of the
Glasgow one, was known in Fife. Village education was at
a low ebb then. Too often it was a poor choice between the
antiquated stickit minister who couldn't teach and the bump-
tious " laddie in a jekkit " from the Normal, who knew little
that was worth teaching. ISTot much effort was made to put
any soul or meaning into what was read. A boy of those days,
encountering in his text-book the lines, —
" Around the fire one wintry night
The farmer's rosy children sat,
The fagot lents its blazing light " —
and so on — had a vision of an untidy drudge " troking " about
the kitchen, for such was the import of the mysterious " fagot "
in the local vernacular. The kitchen was the common room of
humble households. The door, secured by a sneck, opened upon
a short passage, the trance, connecting the butt and the ben.
Against its wall stood the trap (Ger. Treppe) or ladder leading
to the garret. The wily, pawky flatterer was familiarly known
as an " auld sneck-drawer." The centre of the kitchen was the
well-caumed fireside, the saut-girnal in the jambs, the good-
man's settle (bink) between the lowe and the crusie, and pussy
bawdrons, or cheetie-pussie, not far from the warmth of the ace
(ashes). Thrift prescribed a big gatherin' coal backed by chows
(small coal) or, at the worst, coom (dr6ss). On the mother's
knee began the knowledge of the vernacular. How the peekin',
dwinin' bairn was brightened up by " Creepie, crappie, &c.," or
" Bree, bree, brentie, &c.," or, —
" John Smith, a falla fine,
Can ye shoe this horse o' minel" —
"Yes, indeed, an' that I can,
Juist as weel as ony man.
Pit a bit upon the tae
To gar the pownie speel the brae,
Pit a bit upon the heel
To gar the pownie pace weel.
Pace weel (presto), Pace weel " (prestissimo),
136 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
while screams of delight greeted the "denouement" of the
tale, —
" This ane biggit the baurn,
This ane stealt the corn,
This ane stood and saw,
This ane ran awa' —
An' wee peerie-winkie paid for a'."
The goodwife was an authority in minor morals, keeping
careful watch over her flock as maturing years expanded char-
acter. An awkward girl was " a muckle tawpie " (Fr. taupe), a
foolish boy was a "haveril," a "gawpus," or a "gomeril." The
simpleton was a " cuif " or a " nose o' wax," while mental smart-
ness was esteemed under the names of " gumshon," or " smed-
dum," or the " rummle-gumshon," of everyday common-sense.
The elder sister, " fikey " and " perjinlc," was severe on a younger
brother's hashiness, but the douce mother was wisely tolerant.
" Auld maid's bairns are never misleared " (lair, lore), she would
remark. She tholed much from the wheengin, raenin (Gael,
ran, roar, cry, Norse, reen) bairn, but soon got out of patience
with the thrawn, contermashus (contumacious) youngster.
The " gansel " or insolent retort of the pert " smatchet " was
sternly rebuked equally with the airs of the upsettin' brat. In
Henryson's (1462) "Town and Country Mouse" the latter
retorts thus : " Thy guse is gude, thy gansell sour as gall." In
illustration Morley quotes the proverb, "A gude guse indeed,
but she has an ill gansell," and explains the word as a severe
rebuke (from agan, again, and sellan, to give), but in living use
it is rather the equivalent of a " cheeky " retort, a speaking
back impudently. A Morayshire phrase is, "Jist a gansellin
creatur." Wright (" Dialect Diet.") says, " Originally a garlic
sauce for goose, but now only figuratively, a saucy speech."
Thrift was strictly inculcated, especially in the sparing use
of best clothes. " Ilka day braw maks Sabbath a dilly-daw," or
seedy-looking idler. Many a bien (well-to-do) good-wife went
about in a short-gown and wrapper while her drawees were
well-stocked with apparel.
Table manners were attended to, if at all, in somewhat
blunt fashion. The hasty eater was warned not to ramsch his
food. To snotter or slaver was no less objectionable in the
FIELD PHILOLOGY 137
callant, the loon, or the haflin. Too much assurance was
rebuked with " Ye're no blate." The impatient call for dinner
elicited the diplomatic rejoinder, " It's braw to be hungry and
ken o' meat," or, " It's on the hettest pairt o' the hoose." Such
dainties as tea and white bread were reserved for elders, and
remonstrance was met with the proverb, " Corn's no for staigs "
(colts). Grown-up folk held the young with a ticht hand,
dealing out " skelps " and " paiks " with liberal allowance as a
necessary aid to growth, morally and physically. The " owre-
blate " youth was voted a " sumph," a word still used by colliers
to denote the, as it were, swampy hollow at the bottom of the
shaft. The tomboyish girl was condemned as " roid," a corrup-
tion of rude, and the light-headed as " giglot " in the fashion of
Cowper's office pastime, "giggling and making giggle." The
mischievous (with its Elizabethan accent on the penult) boy
was a " monkey," or a loon-lookin' dog, or a limb of Sawtan, an
expression like Burns's rundeils or clippings off Auld Nick.
His glossarists, by-the-by, have not looked very narrowly into
this graphic word, a run' or rund, the selvage of cloth or what-
ever goes round. It is the too-familiar Rand of the Transvaal,
or reef of hills round Johannesburg where the gold-mines are.
The throo-gaw'n mother could not endure sloongin over work,
the couthie one had no patience with gloomin', stoomin' (Ger.
"stumm," dumb), or dortin', while the furthie housewife had
nothing "near" about her hospitality. Throo-ither-ness in
house affairs was odious to the purpose-like goodwife. The
ill-set rascal, the ill-doin' waffie, and the wairdless vagral body
found no favour, and when someone had to go anes errand on a
particular service, no mercy was shown to him that said he was
" deid sweer " or would be " seek sorry." Gossip was condemned
as clashing, an essentially feminine weakness. The severest
criticsm of conduct, indeed, was directed to the frailer sex,
backsliders being progressively characterised by the uncompli-
mentary epithets — gilpy, besom, hizzie, herry (Ger. Herr, master,
cf. virago), randy, limmer. To get into debt was to tak on, and
to become bankrupt was to fail, a social catastrophe linked with
insanity and suicide as among the sorest of fortune's buffets.
To run the cutter (whisky bottle) betokened a confirmed habit
of tippling. A sand-bed o' drink graphically described the
138 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
constant boozer, chronically "on the ball." A crack over the
stoups filling at well or pump was accentuated with such
expressions of surprise as my eertie ! my san ! losh peetie me !
goavy-dick !
The inborn habit of thrift led to fine distinctions in expres-
sions for small quantities : —
Tate = Eng. tit, tot, teat.
Cum = Oread, "a eurney o' piltaeks " (large number of coal-
fish).
Stime = a speck, "canna see a stime."
Bittock = little bit.
Puckle = a little "picked up."
Wheen = piece broken off, akin to Lat. cuneus, a wedge.
Feck = a good deal.
Hantle = handful.
Gowpen = what one can scoop up.
Nievefu' = a fistful.
Wee hue (Renfr.) = a small portion as a tasting, "a wee hue
mair," anither drappie.
An obsolete word, haet (cf. Boer lets, ocht or anything, niets,
nocht) is in Burns's " Twa Dogs," —
" But Gentlemen and Ladies warst,
Wi' ev'n down want o' wark they're curst,
They loiter, longing, lank, an' lazy :
Tho' deil haet ails them, they're uneasy."
The " hale apothick " expressed what is vulgarly known as " the
whole bilin." I do not think the word, as thus used, had any-
thing to do with the legal " hypothec." Besides, it would be
very awkward to have two initial aspirates so close together.
The term is the Greek apotheke (a granary), very early
adopted in Germany and Holland for a shop or general store.
Both in sense and sound this form is preferable to "hale
hypothik."
The best qualities of the goodwife came out in distress, as
when a glisk o' cold or a groosin (cf. Ger. " grausen," to shudder)
brought on a hoast, or foreboded the nirls (measles), or maybe
the more serious broonkaidis ; or taebetless fingers had to be
FIELD PHILOLOGY 139
thawed in loo water; or skelbs and hacks and gaws (galls)
needed tender handling or a healing saw (salve). But the case
was altered if a thoughtless pliskie brought a broken " lozen "
(lozenge-shaped pane). If the glossarists of Burns had been
familiar with the graphic "taebetless" (lingers all thumbs,
without to-put or application) they would have better under-
stood his description of his muse as a " taepetless, ramfeezled
hizzy." Should playmates fall out there was little sympathy
at home with the cloor on the head, the dad i' the lug, or the
bluidy nose. The sensible mother of those days, like the Cassius
of " Julius Caesar," did not think " that every nice offence should
bear his comment." " Best tholed, soonest mended " was all
the consolation. Grown-up people spoke more gravely of an
income, a weed, the rose (erysipelas), or the pains (ague). A cut
was delayed in healing when the proud flesh appeared or when
it began to beal (suppurate) -a-nd form a gatherin'. The water
brash was a frequent symptom of indigestion. And, after all,
there were the dispensations that could only be tholed. The
undergrown was a droch (dwarf), the curved-spine was boolie-
backet, the cleft palate was the whummle-bore. But worst
trial of all was that heavy handfu', the helpless natural or
harmless loonie (lunatic).
A list of about 350 words, embracing much of the vernacular
that has been used in the foregoing pages, was distributed by
me, to be reported on by obliging correspondents in East Fife,
Angus, Hawick, South Lanark and Galloway, The reports bore
evidence to the very general diffusion of these Fifeshire expres-
sions. It must be said, however, that the reporters were all in
sympathy with the archaic in the vernacular. In one district.
East Fife, a very large proportion of the words were found to
be now unknown, significant of how little of the vernacular
now lives. As this was the very district where the material
forming the list was originally gleaned, we have here a striking
proof of decadence.
Though the words were upon the whole familiar to some of
the districts, there were, in many cases, curious preferences —
both when there was close proximity, as Fife and Forfar, and
again at wide intervals, such as Fife and Galloway.
I select the following as reported blank (absolutely or in the
140
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
sense or form given here) from all the districts, except, of course
parts of Fife : —
GelUe, leech.
Tiki-molie, boys' trick.
Gutter-gaw, sores between toes of
bare-footed walkers in puddles.
Fichils, feats.
Pennart, tin case for penholders.
Seek sorry, unwilling.
Chows, small coal.
Speengie-rose, peony.
Cummins, in malt. Jamieson has
" Cumin, wort."
Hagg, man who tends fat cattle.
Treviss, frame to shoe horses ;
common in other sense.
Flauchter-spade, boys' game.
Hunker-tottie, cowering slide.
Monk, horse's head-stall.
Nose o' wax, ninny.
Sand-bed o' drink, drunkard.
Giglot, laughing girl.
Whummle-iore, cleft palate.
Onbonny, ugly.
Shelly-coat, tortoise-shell moth.
Meedge, mark to steer by.
Thro-pit, go.
Baenin, whimpering.
Fuggy-toddler, humble bee.
Peeler, soft crab.
Ringle-e'ed, wall-eyed.
Stoom, to look sulky.
It might also be said that these are not in Jamieson either,
if one might speak positively on such a point. Upon another
set of these words corroboration was got only from Jamieson : —
Coo-haikie, pole securing cow in
stall.
Dunter, eider-duck.
Strokannet, burrow-duck.
Poddlies, young saitbe.
Gurihie, nauseous, what "staws."
Flaws, ends of horse-shoe nails.
Fraekin, wheedling.
Wrig, puis-n^ grice, or young pig.
Golack, beetle.
Kimmen, a milk-pail.
Carrick, shinty stick.
Furthie, liberal.
Bauk, grass walk in a garden.
Gansell, insolent retort.
Spar, close a gate.
Keelie, a sparrow-hawk.
These lists are given merely as specimens of what are purely
local and, in some cases, lost words.
The bulk of the foregoing specimens of the vernacular,
regarded as an object-lesson in popular philology, is the common
property of that bygone phase of village life in Lowland Scot-
land which has been dubbed, by unsympathetic critics, the
" Kailyard." As the result of the observation of actual usage
within a special area, it has features of its own that might be
valuable for comparison and suggestion. Such studies do not
FIELD PHILOLOGY 141
call either for book knowledge or profound scholarship. Be it
always remembered that philological research has these distinct
fields — (a) The genesis or kinship of a word; (5) its various
applications ; (c) its distribution, if vernacular. These are pre-
cisely analogous to the great departments of research in the
natural sciences of observation. The scholar must be left to
discuss the first in his dictionaries. For the other two, "the
plain man" may well be a valuable and competent witness,
but to gather his evidence demands wide observation and
generous co-operation. The foregoing pages have attempted
to show that the "plain" man's field of observation possesses
a broad, human interest, in which mere dictionary-making
must be deficient.
2. Farm Life in Moray.
It is a hopeful sign of progress that education is at last
recognising the value of Bacon's two-fold instrument for the
acquisition of knowledge — observation and experiment. In the
natural sciences we readily concede a place to this method, but
in the study of language we are still devoted to 'books. The
naturalist explores sea and land in search of truth, but human
nature offers a still wider field in recovering the fading traces
of old customs, manners, and beliefs, embedded in obscure terms
and proverbial sayings. And the joy of following up one of
those survivals and garnering the crowd of associated recollec-
tions which it suggests is of far more vital, because more human,
interest than the accumulation of " specimens," stuffed or dried.
The following study is designed as a specimen of what might
be called field-philology. The invention of printing has helped
to make us all forget that the spoken, not the written, word is
the true phase of a living language. This is specially true of
the vernacular. If we wish to get into intimate touch with its
diction we must catch it from the lips of those who think and
feel in it. And if the listener is in a similar position, there
will arise a real bond of sympathy and a fruitful stimulus to
the imagination. With a view to such study I prepared a list
of terras familiar to me as the general vernacular of my youth
142 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
in East Eifeshire and utilised it in interviewing my living
" subjects."
While holidaying at Stonehaven one summer I had the
good fortune to fall in with a most interesting specimen of
the countryman of the olden time, unspoilt by town, by school
I might almost say, and certainly by college and books. He
was a Mr. Eoss, and was spending the autumn of his days with
his son, who had the leading photographic studio in Stone-
haven. For fifty years and over he had lived amid rural
surroundings, and not only had much to communicate but
took a real pleasure in communicating it. The delights of
reminiscence, to one even moderately endowed with imagina-
tion, are a real compensation for declining age and powers.
What I gathered from this observant and intelligent informant
I have amplified from my own stores. His native district
of Morayshire lay in the western corner of that north-eastern
shoulder of Scotland which is, philologically, perhaps the most
interesting in the country, surrounded as it is by the Celtic
west and the North-Anglian south, and ever open to the influx
of the hardy Norsemen who came on the wings of the snell
Nor'-easter. The Celtic elements are extremely, but quite
accountably, few, but the Norse abound, and therefore I have
made ample use of such material as lies to hand in Edmonston's
" Dictionary for Orkney and Shetland," and, still more largely, in
the late Dr. Grigor's " Glossary of the Buchan Dialect." To these
I add the two volumes on the "Dialect of Cumberland," a
labour of love on the part of three dalesmen and excellent
philologists, Messrs. W. Dickinson, S. Dickson Brown, and Dr.
E. W. Prevost. Theirs is quite a model of what Dialect Glos-
saries ought to be. The interest of these volumes in this
connection lies in the fact that the dales, through the Solway
and Irish Sea, offered a welcome home to the Norsemen. For
the Scottish side of this Norse influence I have also used the
glossary in Shaw's "Country Schoolmaster," a Nithsdale observer.
Including my own native Eife, therefore, on its coast side, my
survey embraces all the Norse influences ever brought in Scot-
land to blend with the older North-Anglian, excluding those on
the Western Isles, the effect of which last on the native Celtic
was neither extensive nor persistent.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 143
My friend's memories went back almost to the first quarter
of last century. A Morayshire man, he had spent his youth
and most of his manhood in the beautiful vale of Pluscarden.
It is cut off from the plain of Moray by the long wooded ridge
of the Heldon Hill, forming a welcome screen from the north,
while southwards across the vale the ground rises away up to
the moorlands of Badenoch. Through the vale flows the Black
Water on its way to join the L6ssie near to Elgin, six miles off.
The cyclist, climbing the easy ascent of the valley, makes his
exit from the vale to westwards by the base of Cluny Hill into
Forres. The return journey to Elgin on the North side of the
Heldon would take him by the mystic sculptured stone of King
Sweno and the ruined abbey of Kinloss.
Early in the thirteenth century the Cistercians planted their
picturesque priory here in a secluded vale (vodlis clausa) that
might well remind them of their own Italian Vaucluse. Alex-
ander II. (1230) was partial to the Cistercians. He planted
them in other two secluded retreats — Ardchattan and Beauly.
Scotland owes them an unrecorded debt, for they were the
farming monks who brought to the wild Celt land the arts of
the sheep walk, the garden, and the meadows rich with corn.
They chose out, as here and at Newbattle beside the South Esk,
a spot embosomed among the hills, on the generous soil of the
haugh land, where the clack of the mill might blend with the
matins. The scene now breathes a singular calm — the solemn
approach between the files of thickly-grown hollies, the stately
eastern gateway through the lofty precinct wall, the silent mill,
the deserted cloisters and the grey walls of the roofless pile
looking out at intervals from their mantle of ivy. The lands
came to the Duff family about 1710, but were sold by the Duke
of Fife to the late Marquis of Bute. When I saw the priory
the ivy was being removed, and the usual diggings and drawings
of the Marquis's restorations were in progress. Early in last
century (1821) the Earl of Fife contemplated the fitting up of
the choir as a church for the district, but, instead, the monk's
Calefactory was roofed in and set up as a Chapel of Ease, which
ultimately was handed over to the Frees at the Disruption.
Above this low-ceilinged place of worship is the Dormitory,
usually chosen from the warmth afforded by the kitchen
144 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
beneath. It is now roofed as a ballroom and a shelter for the
trippers.
The precincts are enclosed within a high wall pierced by
the principal gateway, which one approaches along an impres-
sive avenue of solemn-looking holly. The ancient mill-lade
skirts the wall here. The nave never was built. The choir
and two transepts of the chapel still stand. When old St. Giles'
in Elgin was pulled down (1826) its pulpit was secured for the
chapel here.
The centuries have rung their changes on this haven of
spiritual peace. Through the rough mediaeval ages the lay
brothers ploughed and planted in the vale, while the monks
plied their pious round of book and bell, of plain song and mass.
The storm of the Eeformation passed harmlessly by. The last
of the monks lived here in peace till 1586. The Presbyterian
Church was for generations too poor to do much for rural dis-
tricts like this, so that not till the beginning of the eighteenth
century was the Evangel again heard in the valley. Once more
(1843) was there a moving of the waters, when almost the entire
flock came out, and the tiny Chapel of Ease was handed over to
the Church of Chalmers. Lastly came the Marquis of Bute, with
his devotion to the beautiful past of the Old Faith, and swept
from the sacred walls the kindly mantle of green within which
the centuries had enfolded them. If anywhere in Scotland the
imagination could plant the ideal retreat of Milton's II Penseroso,
surely it would be here, —
" But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloister's pale,
And love the high embowed roof,
With antique pillars massy-proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full-voiced quire below,
In service high and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies."
But the contrast of to-day had little that was ecstatic in it for
me as I wheeled away from the hallowed precincts on a summer
FIELD PHILOLOGY 145
Saturday evening to the strains of the tripper's melodeon and
" the wry-necked fife."
Some fine trees in the haugh are probably patriarchs of the
pre-Eeformation period, but the dense coverts on the surround-
ing hills, closing in far to west with the vast woods of Altyre
beside the Findhorn river, are the growth of last century. Till
then all these north-eastern parts were the bleakest and barest
in Scotland. In the youth of my friend the picturesque counted
for little. Above stretched the monotonous brown of the moor-
land, in the bottom of the vale were the frequent miry hollows
where the sheep got drowned or the cow " lairdet." Eutty,
stone-strewn tracks led to the frequent clachan or humble
homestead. Over the Heldon, on the great north road, the
" Defiance " rolled on its way to Inverness, a daily excitement
to Elgin, where it brought the London letters late in the after-
noon of the third day after posting. Life in the vale was purely
agricultural. Ploughmen had up to £10 a year, with board;
such artisans as got jobs made but half a crown a day. A
weaver, working his longest and hardest, might have ten
shillings a week.
It is significant that the minister and the schoolmaster
found no place in my friend's narrative. Naturally his ideas
grouped themselves round the farm. A large proportion of his
words belong to the common stock of Lowland dialect, so I
select only the more novel ones, passing over, at the same time,
any comment on his own interesting personality. I knew the
term wrack for the refuse of weeds from the fields, but he called
it brintlin (burnings). This refuse of the fields was mainly
formed of " quickens " or couch-grass and knap or knot-grass, as
in " Comus " — " with knot-grass dew-sprent." This latter was
red with knobs or knaps at intervals on the stalk. One of my
own boyish diversions into wild life was to bury potatoes in the
heap of burning wrack, and to pull them out when roasted and
eat them piping hot. New to me was his term, a wining, for
"a bittie o' a field." "Fou arr ee gettin' on?" "0, I've jist
a wining to dee." So, too, his " fleed," a head — or end-rig in
a field. The obsolete thig, to beg, once in general use, was
applied to the thriftless ones who would go from house to house
for " pucklies o' corn " at sowing time, or for a sheaf when reap-
10
146 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
ing was in progress. Originally it was the begging of seed oats
to sow the first crop on entering a farm. The hay was done up
first in colies, then tramp-colies, and last in hey-soos or trances.
In Shetland the head-koil or koil-tett is the top sheaf on the
haystack. The sickle was the hyuck, either the ancient toothed
ind, requiring no sharpening, or the syth-hyuck, a very capable
implement in the hands of an active lass, specially if kemping
or striving with rivals for speed. There were a few odd terms
for implements. A rake to clear out manure from a cart was
a hack or a drag, the latter, curiously, a North of England word.
In Cumberland a drag is a three-pronged fork, known in Fife
as a graep, for dragging or drawing litter out. Hack is another
form of bowk, dig out. " Sunshine mead him throw his cwoat
off when in ' hackin ' he grew warm " (Cumb.). A drill harrow
was a shim, known not only in Banff and Moray but in York-
shire. In Kent it goes bodily between the rows of hops.
Winnowing of old was done on the sheelin (shelling) hill. An
enormous saving was effected when a machine for it was intro-
duced near the close of the eighteenth century. Many worthy
folks thought it an impious thing thus to raise wind by art and
man's contrivance. The fanners, as the machine was called, was
in Moray named a winister.
These verses express the scruples of the straiter sect that
objected to 'novations, —
" But the priest o' the pairish,
Sae godly and richt,
Got word o' the wark
'At was done that nicht ;
And cam to oor mailins
An' made muckle din,
'Bout the corn at was windet
Wi' ungodly win'."
A minister's wife, having made an effort to have her daughter
" finished " in Edinburgh, was naturally a diligent matchmaker.
Entertaining an eligible young farmer at the manse one evening,
she made much of the young lady's piano playing. The farmer,
appealed to for a compliment, confessed that to him the best
music was the sound of the fanners.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 147
The management of the domestic animals produces many-
special terms. My Morayshire friend distinguished three stages
in the life of an ox — calf, stirk, stot. A colt was a clip and
not the usual " staig " (Gael, cliob, explained by MacBain
as anything dangling; cliobach, hairy, shaggy; cliobog, a colt;
clibeag, a filly). In German, Klepper is a pony. It is certainly
surprising to find any word like the German Klepper in Moray-
shire. Kluge suggests that Klepper — akin to our clip, what
catches by an embrace — may be from the little bells on the
harness, or from the short, clipped action in running. The Celtic
sense, as MacBain gives it, seems preferable to this. The tether
which secured the cow in the stall or at grass was the baikie.
In Fife an upright pole, secured to the floor of the byre at one
end, to the roof at the other, had a sliding ring on it, to which
the collar of the cow was attached, so that its head could move
freely up and down. This was the coo-baikie. The word was
never used in any other connection. In Northumberland the
collar was a bent wooden band shaped like a horse-shoe, and
called a f rammelt or thrammelt. This was attached to the upright
baikie. Here we probably have the name for the apparatus
that occurs in " Johnie Gibb," an Aberdeenshire story, viz., sells
and thrammles. Sele or sale is a word widely diffused over the
Indo-European tongues, and always in the general sense of a
rope. In Moray the rope which passed over the cow's head
and connected the two wooden cheeks of the branks or head-
stall was the iver or over-sell. Compare the Go. in-sailjan,
used where the bearers of the paralytic lowered his bed by
ropes through the roof, " in-sailidedun thata badi."
The expression, hovin, for a cow swoln up after eating wet
clover, has such variants as heftet (Fife), and boutent (Moray).
For Nithsdale Shaw gives us an unusual application of " heftet "
— domiciled as of sheep used to a pasture, evidently a metaphor
from haft or heft for a handle. But the Gothic Gospels (Luke
XV. 15) say that the Prodigal Son gahaftida sik, hired himself.
Boutent is from the Buchan bowden to swell, used always in
this connection. Dialect is rich in tool and implement terms.
The Fife deeple, a variant of dibble, is in Moray dimple, used
in planting " neeps and kale." ■ " It took," said my friend, " three
men to dimple an acre a day." A variant, again, on snod, neat,
148 STUDIES IN" LOWLAND SCOTS
is the peasant's sned, to head and tail turnips. Such terms
often preserve obsolete farming processes, such as cannas
(canvas), used to catch the winnowed corn. Hence the Buchan
proverb for independence, " I can win (winnow) i' my ain cannas."
A cannas-breid was a familiar expression for size, as, " A cot wi'
a cannas-breid o' a gairden." Mink is a Morayshire variant on
monk (Fife), the head-stall of a horse. Grigor's " Glossary " gives
the act of coiling up a rope as minkan-up, and a rimin-mink as
a slip-knot. " Mink up the coo's tether," is one of his phrases.
Call-names for domestic animals are wonderfully persistent,
such as Trooie (Moray) to a cow, for the Fife Prooie, or the
Buchan Treesh. The duck call, Wheetie, and the pigeon, Peasie,
are both widely spread. My friend was not so famUiar with
geld (to castrate, hence gelding), as with its variant lib, of which
he had an odd application. If one was getting in new potatoes,
before starting to lift he would say, " I'll gae an' lib twa or
three to see what kind they are."
Similarly plants and animals had their special names. My
friend did not know the Fife name for the ragwort, the weebie,
or the Ayrshire bun weed, but called it stinking Willie, just as in
Ulster, where it is the stink-weed. From a strong and persistent
root it sends up a cluster of tall stems crowned by a mass of
small yellow flowers. One variety of the plant, the tansy, has
a peculiarly pleasant odour when pressed. My friend had the
usual old " freit " about the weed : " It liket a bit good ground
and did na grow weel in Buchan," for instance. It is certainly
evidence of disgracefully bad farming. I have seen a small
paddock beside a County Down homestead so covered with the
growth as almost to hide the grazing cow. The farmer let
himself be cheated out of two-thirds of his grass, when he
could have scythed down the weed within an hour. Eagwort
grows freely in ill-drained, poor pasture. The cornfields were
equally impoverished by what in Moray was called the gool.
The pretty yellow of the wild chrysanthemum is tolerable
enough on a small scale ; of old it must have been odious to
anyone but the sluggard. The yaar or corn-spurry is not
quite so obtrusive. It grows low but spreads far and thickly.
Both were pronounced to be " very bad, very destructive." He
had the popular aversion to the harmless newt — " abominable
FIELD PHILOLOGY 149
critturs. I've seen them in damp hoossis." It has been
suggested that this prejudice was due to a confusion with the
poisonous asp of Scriptures. The newt is widely known as
the ask, esk in Fife. It is really the same as the river
name, Esk, Celtic for water. In Cumberland the newt is
the wet or water ask, the lizard the dry. Another creeping
thing that he shunned was the earwig, which he knew, not
as the clipsheers of my youth, but as the flachter golak.
Properly the golak is the clock or beetle. The "flachter" is
explained by the old man's distinction between a divot and
a feal. The former was a long thin turf "cas'n wi' a flachter
spade " for roofing or covering potato heaps ; the latter a thick
turf, " cas'n wi' a common spade " for building the dykes that
formed the universal fences or for the walls of houses, layer
of stone and feal alternately. The only one that practises
flachterin now is the golfer. The garrie-bee was more attrac-
tive than any golak. It was described as striped and about
the size of the f oggie, but having a lot more honey. The " human
boy " of old, like Caliban, the primitive man, loved " the bag o'
the bee." The foggie, also known as the foggie-toddler, is the
small yellow bee that seems to crawl, baby fashion, over the
soft, yellow fog or moss. Gar, or gor, as a prefix in plant and
animal names, denotes what is large and coarse, as in gyr-
falcon, gor-cock. Fozie is foggie through age from lying on the
ground. In Shetland fog is fjugg, airy stuff.
In the domestic series I gathered a few fresh specimens.
The gizzened tub, rendered leaky through drought, is quite
familiar. Not so the Morayshire expression for correcting this
fault by soaking in water again. This was known as beenin.
" Deed, ee'U hae to pit that tub to been afore ee get muckle
eess o't." The feeling for a telling metaphor is keen in Scottish
dialect. A genial host, pressing a cronie whose drouth was of
more cautious type, said, " Dod, man, yer no beend yit." The
word is specially North-eastern in habitat, and so may be akin
to the Danish bolner, to swell. The loss of the 1 is quite
regular. The word lends itself to the expression of a loud, full
noise, and in this aspect may be recognised in the BuUers of
Buchan, where the waves make a terrific buUerin among the
rocky caverns. Shaw's " Dumfriesshire Dialect " also notes the
150 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
BuUers in this connection, as well as the figurative application
to a great growth under an accession of heat and rain — " Every-
thing's bullerin out." Norse influence is very notable in the
river valleys running up from the Solway. On the other hand,
Gaelic had surprisingly little influence, even in Moray. I
gathered but one notable specimen, greesh, an old-fashioned
fireplace of clay, built against the " gavel " of the cottage. Just
such an one Burns's father set up in the " auld clay biggin." It
is the early Irish gris, fire. Shaw notes the diminutive grushach,
hot, glowing embers, and Chambers, in the delightful " Popular
Ehymes," gives it in a Dumfriesshire variant of the " Wee
Bunnock " : " There was an old man and an old wife, and they
lived in a killogie. Quoth the auld man to the auld wife,
' Else and bake me a bannock.' So she rase and bakit a
bannock, and set it afore the greeshoch to harden." Tim
Orcadian kiln-huggie is the fireplace of the kiln. To thet^i^
may be added a very common Morayshire word, doubtless of
native origin, howp, a mouthful, as in the expression, "Let's
see a mouthfu' o' watter."
Small communities tended to foster the personal, and gener-
ally uncomplimentary, form of familiar criticism. My friend
had several peculiar specimens of this class, which I give at
random: — Be-gyte, a variant of the more usual be-gowk, to cheat,
e.g. "I was terrible be-gytet," said a man who had unwisely
, married a second time ; dirdum, a scolding, overbearing dame,
but usually a disturbance, blame ; galsh, rubbishy talk, e.g. " A
galshin crittur, only a lot o' galsh an' nae eediefaction in't ; "
gutty, as a big-bellied bottle — Wright quotes from the Ayrshire
story, "Dr. Duguid," "A gutty we chiel that gaed aboot the
toon wi' knee breeks on"; pee-akin, sickly, puling, e.g. "Yer
like a deein chicken, a pee-a,kin thing," a variant of the West of
Scotland peel-wersh, sickly ; peerie-weerie, " terrible weak stuff,"
a variant of the Glasgow peelie-wally. In Lanarkshire the little
finger is peerie or peerlie-winkie. In Banff " peeack " is the
chirp of a young bird, or any one with a small, insignificant
voice, " Faht kyn's (sort) yir noo minister ? " " He's jist a mere
peeack. We hardly saw 'm i' the poopit, an' he cheepit an'
squeakit like a moos aneeth a firlot" (corn measure). "Yir
chuckles ar peeackin gey muokle, an' hingin thir wings, I doot
PIELD PHILOLOGY 151
they winna stand the kin (kain) lang." Sclitter, uncouth, a lazy
person ; scuddy, jimp, serimpit, e.g. " Yere terrible scuddy wi'
eer mizzur ; ee dinna turn ee bank," or beam carrying the
scales ; dottrifeed, a variant of tabitless or thowless, handless,
fingers all thumbs, e.g. " That dottrified he can dae naething, the
fushin's a' oot o' im " — these are also very expressive. Shaw, it
may be noted, has the peculiar " scuddy " above as Dumfriesshire,
where it means naked, bare, as a child or nestling. While my
friend used all these out-of-the-way words he seemed unfamiliar
with such as hip, to miss, pass over ; lippen, to trust to ; lapper,
to clot, as blood or milk.
The foregoing shows that the language of mutual criticism
was not unknown among this rural community. To speak fast
was to yammer, a variant of yatter. Mimp (a variant of mumble),
in Cumberland to talk primly and mincingly, and properly mean-
ing a small part, is applied in Banffshire to an affected walk :
" She mimpit an' primpit throo the room." Sclitter was an ill-
shaped, lazy, indolent, slooterin person, while slabbery was used
like the Fife hashy. The coward was the foogie, a wide-spread
relic of the Candlemas cock-fight in school. " Gie 'm the foogie
lick ; that'll riz his birse," with which last- word compare Gaelic
bairseag, a scold. In Buchan it usually is applied to playing
truant: "The twa loons fugiet the squeel, an' geed awa to
the widds, an' harriet craws' nests a' day." It is a relic of
schoolboy Latin, from fugio, to run away.
Yankee 'cuteness finds its analogue in the North-eastern
phrase, to take a nip of one. Apropos is Grigor's story : " Fin I
wiz a bit loonie, him and me trockit (bartered, niffered) watches;
an' he took a nip o' ma ; for, fin I geed, she (the watch) geed, an'
fin I steed, she steed. A jist lost (so many) shillins, an' a
thocht this was my last chance," said by an old sexton in excuse
for an overcharge in digging a grave, the grave of a man who
had " taen a nip o'm."
Continuing the peculiar, but not necessarily uncomplimen-
tary, terms, I note cothie, usually coothie, in the sense of very
comfortable ; Cumb. " a varra cowthie body," i.6. kindly. From
it came the odd expression cothie juke, cothie-guckie, a snug
shelter, a cosy beild. Hare-shed, hare-lip, was the cleft in a defec-
tive upper lip. The effect on speech is to produce the " whummle-
152 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
bore.'' Jots is used for jobs, usually trokes, e.g. "The servan
lass riz i' the mornin, did up her jots, and geed awa tee market."
Jamieson has jotterie, odd or dirty work. The most general
term for this sort of thing is trokes, trokin, but these were
unknown to my friend.
Many of these expressions are due to the special phonetic
system of the North-eastern counties. Of this I secured some
interesting illustrations from my friend. He sounded initial k
where it is now silent, as in the olden time over Scotland and
as in G-erman still. He called the ankle-bone the kynoekel o'
the queet (Ger. Knochel, a joint, our knuckle); queet here is
very characteristic. It appears also as ciite, cuitt, always
referring to the epiphyses or knobs at the lower end of the
tibia. A Fife man, narrowly examining the impressive mount
of the trooper sentry at the gate of the Horse Guards on his
first visit to London, was astonished to hear the warning, " Tak
care, freend, or mebbes yell git your cuitts cloored " (be kicked
on the ankles by the horse). The Guardsman hailed from Anster,
and retained the accents of the fisher-toon. Mr. Eoss knew the
foot of the cow as the hive (hoof) : " Yir beast has lang hives."
The older term is cliite, akin to the German kleuz, split, cloven.
The Orcadian clett is a rock in the sea, broken off from the
adjoining rocks on shore ; cf. skerry and scaur. A singular illus-
tration of how the track of the stranger can be followed by words
is the appearance of clett on an odd and isolated corner of the
Fife coast. Such a cliff or stack as one finds on the Caithness
coast overhangs the bathing place well known at St. Andrews as
the Step Eock. It used to be a tour deforce for a daring bather
to take a header from the Cleet into the pool below, brimful of
the tide. Clooty is a familiar soubriquet of the Evil One, as
shown on the mediaeval stage : " If black claes maks a parfyt
man, Auld Clooty beets the priest" (Northumb.). Somewhat
similar was kyob for the usual gebbie, a bird's crop (cf. gob, gab) :
" That kyobie o' ee beestie is crammed fou o' meat." This initial
I> found also in his kneef, meaning " in thorough sympathy,"
" rale cheef," reminding one of Shakspere's gossips who "knapped
ginger " together. The root idea is that of breaking into small
bits, hence the usages, pinching (nip), cutting (knife), breaking
stones for roads (knappin). In the Morayshire sense we compare
FIELD PHILOLOGY 153
the " kneipen " of the German students. Without the k we have
nip, to outwit, as in the Morayshire expression, " He fairly took
the nip o' me." In the South this would be " He took his nap
aff me." The form ouks for weeks, general over Scotland in the
seventeenth century, lingered long in the North, but is now old-
fashioned : " Sax ouks o' a knee-deep storm i' the mid o' Mairch ;
it nivver devald " (ceased). On the same lines is the Aberdeen-
shire description of a spell of wet weather in the uplands of the
county : " Up i ee Cabrach for sax ouks ther wizz an onding o'
weet oena upalt (uphold) or deval." This is a good test of an
ear for Scottish dialect, if spoken moderately fast. Grigor has
a variant of this saying, " It dang on sax ooks delaverly on iver
uppalt or dewalt." He glosses delaverly here as continuously,
which looks very like Chaucer's " deliver," nimble, active, as
"Wonderly deliver and gret of strenthe," though it seems
strange to see it used in Banffshire. The word oena here is
exactly the German without, ohne, and once in common use.
It is the favourite negative prefix as in 5n-bonnie, on-neat.
Grigor gives this interesting example, " The nowt are gaein'
throo an undeembus thing o' neeps: ye see, th'ive nae up-stanan."
He compares the Shetland undumous, immense, uncountable
from un, without, and deman, to reckon. The once familiar
deval, to leave off, is, in Cumberland, dwalla in the sense of
wither, grow yellow from damp, —
" If it sud rain on St. Swithin's day,
We're feckly sarrat wi' dwalled hay."
To continue on this human side of rustic speech, expressions
for feelings are stanner-gaster, dumbfoundered ; " a grue, cauld
nicht " as inspiring a shivering sensation ; yuckie, an itching feel-
ing. With reference to their source of the feeling we have fousom
(fulsome), dirty, causing disgust ; wersh, generally insipid, and
probably a contraction of the Buchan walshoch, weak and watery.
Dreich is tedious. Hamil, Fife haemit, is home-made. A few
examples applicable to manners as the outcome of feelings will
suffice. Fraising, used much like the Fife fraiking, is the wheed-
ling manner of a " twa-facet creatur." As marking the lowest
grade of manners we have the " tinkler's tung," better known
all over the edge of the Highlands by his name of caird. Thus
154 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
in Buchan, " Finevir the twa met, they wir in o' ane anither's
witters (withers), jist like twa kyard wives."
The interest of dialect is not confined to the discovery of
roots and affinities. It has preserved traces of many old
customs. Thus the very primitive habit of beating down prices
in bargaining, known as prigging, found no favour with my
friend, who called it " a nashince (nuisance), just an ug," using
in ug a very old word, still heard in the Border district. But
it survives in ugly and ogre. " He took an ug (dislike) at's meht "
is a phrase from Buchan. In Orkney and Shetland the bat is
the oagar hiuuse, from a root, ogra, to frighten. Similarly the
hauky bird of Burns is what bogles or frightens, such as a bat
or a ghost.
Modern sports have done much to wean boys from the
primitive delights of the monkey. A harmless amusement of
the young was to pluck the long stalks of the ribwort, and,
hitting each other's in turn, try which flower head would be
first broken off. This my friend knew as playing at sogers with
the carl-doddy. " We used," he said, " to fecht wi'd till wurr
reegment was throo." In Beattie's "Arnha'," the work of a
Mearns man (1820), we read, —
" I garr'd the pows flee frae their bodies,
Like nippin heads frae carl-doddies."
A red-letter day in the rural year was that of the clyack feast,
when the hindmost pickle of corn was reaped, plaited together,
and carried in triumph as The Maiden. The name is Celtic,
cailleach, a woman wearing the caillie or cowl (Lat. cucuUus).
I was told that the farm hands always " hed a feastie at Clyack,
getting leave, too, to spread butter on the pieces ad lib ; " at other
times the most they got was "a knottie o' butter." And at Hallow-
e'en, when the ingathering of corn and tatties was completed,
" there was a big denner and a big tea." Another feast of a
different kind marked the last sad scene of all — the lyk-wake.
Lyk, a corpse, a word entirely gone unless as the affix -ly, was
once in general use. In Shetland the leek-strae was the straw
placed under the corpse in bed. " Calm as a leek," still as the dead,
was applied to the unruffled sea. In Moray it was a disgrace
to have a corpse in the house with nothing beside it night and
FIELD PHILOLOGY 155
day. A Bible was placed at the head of the table, and in the
centre the bottle with pipes and tobacco. This was a strange
survival of Catholic times, and handed down through the service
of the mass for the dead.
Fascinating bits of folk-lore linger in names occurring in the
play-time of life. Of school, which had never meant much to
him, there was but the phrase, " Foo munny pandies did ee get
the day ? " For the ferule or leather taws he knew taurds. The
Aberdeenshire word is tag. The boys' slate-pencil was skylie,
the skeelyie of Fife. Only two play-terms he noted — herryin
the peer man, and duckie. The former is smuggle the gag,
equivalent in signification, for to herry is to run off with, to
plunder, the gag or pledge (Lat. vas, a surety; Sc. wad-set, a
mortgage). The peer man is the little man, the counter in this
game of prehistoric man-hunting. The English barley-break
is but another name for it. In Thomas Morley's "Book of
Ballets" (1595) is the couplet, —
" Say, dainty nymphs and speak.
Shall we play at barley-break ? "
Duckie seems to have been a sort of variation of rounders. A
pointed stone was placed on the ground, and a smaller one on
top of it. Beside it stood duckie or man in charge, while the
others (outs) stood at intervals around. Each tried to knock off
the top stone (also known as duckie). None must run till duckie
was knocked off. If hit off, the outs tried to pick up duckie, and
run to pass out of play. Duckie in charge had to put on the
stone again and try to catch a relief. The outs had to do
nothing till he put on the stone. In " Elgin Kirk Session Eeeords "
(Dr. Cramond) there is an unexplained reference to this game
under the name of Duchman, apparently for Duckie Man.
In the domestic series the most important piece of furniture
was of old the deas (dais). Mr. Eoss knew it as the big seat at
the side of the house, to hold four, and not as the fireside settle.
The term is well known over Aberdeenshire : " Seated in the
deeee in Johnnie Gibb's kitchen " (Johnnie Gibb of Gushetneuk).
In the kitchen he noted the vessel-board above the dresser, the
saut-backet, and the meal girnel, a large, oblong chest. Eound
the front of the box beds against the wall hung the pawn, Fife
156 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
pawnd (Lat. pendo, to hang, through French). Of house utensils
there were the bowie, a round barrel for the milk, and the
scimmer " for reamin " or removing the cream on top. A
smaller and shallower milk vessel was the bain, probably from
the Gaelic bainne, milk. In South-western Scotland it is always
a washing-tub. In Sackville's "Induction to the Mirror for
Magistrates " (1555) there is an example of the word, —
" And Priam eke, in vain how he did run
To arms, whom Pyrrhus with despite hath done
To cruel death, and bathed him in the bayne
Of his son's blood before the altar slain."
Old-fashioned varieties of food lingered in sowens, and soor-dook.
Soup maigre was barefit broth, of water, pot barley, and milk.
Dainties were little known, such as in " the liths " of an orange,
a word which he had never heard.
I did not test my friend much on the wide held of natural
objects. He knew the Buchan for the lapwing, the wallop,
evidently in both cases a visualising of the bird's characteristic
flight. The rhyme, —
" Wallop-a, wallop-a weet,
Hairry ma nest, an' rin awa' weet,"
is a variant of the familiar
" Pees-weet, Pees-weet (Fr. dix-huit),
Hairry my nest and gar (make) me greet."
He knew the yellow-hammer as the yellow yorlin. From the
frog's spawn he got an indication of the weather. " If the
season was to be dry, it was in the centre of the pool ; if wet,
near the edge." He never saw this prognostic fail, but could
give no guarantee for a period beyond three months, when
the young came to maturity. In the plant world I note
only his Thissilaga (colt's foot) and Peenie (peony) rose for
the Fife Dishielogie and Speengie rose respectively.
The scene of these reminiscences was the farm- toon of Willie
Gallon. The " gudewife " was Leezie Harl — known, as married
women of old were, by their maiden name — and their man
or grieve, Kob Manson. " I was wi' them twenty years,'' said
FIELD PHILOLOGY 157
the old man. Like most aged toilers of those days, he had
suffered from rheumatism ; but now, he said, " I wud a been i'
my grave ten year ago, but it hed been for that baths," using in
" that " here the old Scottish and current Dutch form of the
article. There is no grammatical blunder in it. I heard a
Stonehaven fishwife, delivering an order and explaining her
difficulty in finding the place, say, "I've been a' roond that
hoossis." Eeeently I heard an Aberdonian joiner in Glasgow
tell his fellow-workman that he " could get up be that
steps." The idiom is common in the Gothic Gospels of the
fourth century.
Mr. Eoss gave me the interesting story of his early life under
his own hand. His narrative forms a valuable sidelight on rural
culture, or rather the want of it, in a secluded corner during the
first half of last century, all the more valuable as the vocal expres-
sion of a class among whom the rise of such another mouthpiece
as Burns recorded time will never know. I present it exactly as
I got it, and in this guise it is rudely eloquent, nay pathetic.
Here is an intelligent youth, reared in a parish which is supposed
to have had its share in those educational advantages with which
the half-informed credit John Knox, and this is how he had to
educate himself. Those responsible for national education have
the solemn duty imposed upon them of providing for intellectual
destitution, of affording to obscure incipient talent the oppor-
tunities it is impossible for it to provide for itself. But, as it
is, how often do we find it true that " to him that hath [monied
parents, leisure, tutors, books] shall be given " [bursaries, prizes,
honours] ! In every form of the world's wealth, be it intel-
lectual or material, the problem ever crying aloud for solution
is distribution in the proper quarter, not accumulation.
" Immediatly after the second Eeformation, which was
effected in 1690, there was a great wunt of Ministers of the
Presbitury. Persevaging hence (Following from this) a great
meny Parishes had none in those days the People mead a play
day of the Sabbeth they meat on the Abbey green (I refere to
my Natife Glen Pluscarden neir Elgin) in the forenoon & Plaid
at the Ba,ll with Clubs : in the afternoon they meat in Grups
& chaised Bees to get there Beiks ; in winter thay gathered in
158 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
one anothers Houses cracked there gocks: on the other six
dayes were employed in the work of the farm ; up in the morn-
ing at the flalie by five A.M. thrashed till seven, then had
Brackfast went to the fields Game home in the Glooming had
Dinner, then went to some Genter House Plaid at the Gards till
eight oclock then home to Supper, kale & kale brose Torneeps
& Torneep brose Sometimes brochen a thick kind of grouel : at
Ghristimes thay would have taken a whole week Playing Night
& day with a Dram now & again Some of them went home to
there food, back as fast as possable thay had a most intense
desire for playin Gards : a play thay termed three cart IJd. the
dale : thay would sometimes taken a day at Hunting there were
no Gam laws then thay fished after Dark with torchlight, firs
split up into long Candls the fish Glustord around the light
& thay then spaired them.
" The first Minister thay had in Pluscarden after the Eefor-
mation was a Mr. Hesbon his Stipon was eight pounds english,
a small manse, with a but & ben with a Gloset in the Genter,
he was vary much esteemed, the wives in the Glen, were allways
bring som present for him it was like a Hevn below Minister
& people were envloped in the Atmosphere of love ; big Stipens
dos not always mak loving Ministers he had no Beedel no Gown
or bands no Manesript he went ben the pass[age] with his Bible
below his arm, up to the Pulpet there Preached the Gospel with
such power his flock listining so inteently to the Power of God's
spirit Minister & herers souls being filled
" it was the strongest Man that was looked up to in these
days I will give you an instence of it : in Lochcarron : that
Parish had ben long without a Minister at last there was a
Mr. McLachlen ordained to go he went on a Sabbeth forenoon :
got all the young men playing at the Ball with a Mukel Eorey
as there Ghef he saw at once except he got to be master of him
he might go as he came : all there playgreens were beside there
Ghurches : these were the Old deserted Epispicle Ghurches : thay
did not all leave there comfortable homes for in East Aberdeen-
shire thay turned Presbiterian but to return : Mr. McLachlen
joined in the play & ultematly got the better of Big Eorey :
there were three ways of testing there Strenth the sweertree,
wrestling & a battle with the hands Mr. McLachlen got the
FIELD PHILOLOGY 159
master of Eorie he then ordred him to take so meny of the
people to the Church he douing the same, thay just got two
halones by the tim they came for the third the remnant had
fled : he then armed Eorie with a big Stick ordred him to alow
none out. when he went up to the Pulpet & preached that
Sermon was the mens of Big Eories converson he then became
an Elder & the tow were the meanse in Gods hand of douing
a great work ; there was a deal of ignorence & Superstetion a
relick of barbaresem : an old woman on hir Deathbed told hir
Caretakers to leeve hir neir the Yet that she might have time
to be up & away before thethrang Vass.
" Thay beleved in witchcraft & Feries Gosts all sudden Deaths
were effected by feries caled Elfs whou were contunley prowing
about on eviel intent ; & sudden Deaths was an elf shot there
were heard before death the shukkie mill : the noise a small
insect maks in decayed wood: thay beleived in some sudden
deaths to be don by a Witch casting a Cantertup in the path of
one thay did not love or baited thay alse beleived in days of
luck thay beleived in the power of Burtrie & roden tree thay
put bits of these in the iverseals that bound there Cows & above
there Doors : thay beleived in Witches having power to trans-
form themselves into hairs (hares) : thay could tak away the
Milk of a Neighbours Cow.
" Between the eand of the eightteenth centurie up till the
dawn of the Nineteenth was an age of great darkness Supper-
stetion & opresion Agriculter was in a vary Eoad (rude)
Condition ; the Common people were all Serfs the Lards (who)
had pot & Gallos in there own hands : the one for hanging the
other for Drowing whoever offended them were taken into
there Courts bound to a ston with an iron chain & then taken
at the Lards pleasure & consined to the one or the other thay
had stons all Bound there Courts for binding there victims two
hence there Mota above there Gait in Laten gang ye forth in
beast & fill the fetters.
" there were scersley any whisky it was strong Ale : but thay
learned to extract whisky from the Strong Ale : the Goverment
put on Excise offesries to catch & plounder then were the days
of deseption falsehood & judasem the poor Crofters had vary
sore time of it worken Day & Night : going ten twelve mils in
160 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
a Dark night an out of the way Koad with a Shoulty & a Coggie
on each side of the Horsie: sometimes they would be taken
from them : the way thay mead the Whisky thay had Sacks
mead of Hair which thay used for steeping the Barley after it
was steeped & dreeped it was then taken to some out of the
way place there to foment & become Malt — it was then taken
to a kill to dry & all don in the Dark: it was then taken &
ground in a Quren a vary angeint Mill the same kind as Jesus
speaks of when he says two Wemon shall be grinding at the
Mill the one shall be taken & the other left : after being ground
it was put into a Cask & there keept till it became strong Ale :
it was then put into a pot & boiled & the steem deverted into
a tube called a wirm which was laid amongst Coold watir hence
the steem cam out Whisky."
Notes to Ross Nabeative.
p. 158 — brochen, name for porridge, Gael, proclian, broohan, gruel — akin
to broth,
p. 158 — sweertree, a trial of strength : two, seated on the ground,
grasp a stout stick between them and try which will raise
the other up. It is the Sweir-Kitty in Teviotdale.
p. 159 — halones. Jamieson, hallion, a clown : a clumsy fellow, a sloven
(Banff).
p. 159 — roden = rowan: The most approved charm against cantrips and,
spells was a branch of rowan-tree, plaited and placed over
the byre-door — hence the rhyme, —
" Eoan-tree and red threed
Puts the witches to their speed."
In ploughing, the pattle or stick to clear the furrow, had to be
of the rowan for good luck.
As supplementary to the foregoing gleanings I may here
refer to another subject of interview. The road between
Banchory and Stonehaven is a typical bit of varied prospect
and interest. A few miles out of Stonehaven the wayfarer dips
down into the valley of the Cowie, and, crossing the burn by
the old brig where the tumbling stream seems hushed under its
canopy of trees, he commences the long ascent to what a Trans-
vaaler would call the Neck or notch in the hill land that opens
out to him the silvan landscape of Deeside. A little off the
highway he will see a lone, low-roofed cottage, its sombre grey
FIELD PHILOLOGY 161
relieved by a wealth of trailing rosebuds and its modest garden
patch. Here a sturdily independent pair, father and daughter,
planted their lodge in the wilderness. How they did it I shall
leave them to tell in the following verses, which I took down
from the lips of the sturdy dame, preserving, as faithfully as
I could, the pronunciation. Known to the country-side as
Cissy Wood, she still survives, a septuagenarian, the brave and
indomitable mistress of her own humble fortunes. The reader
will observe that, though there is little of the archaic in the
language, his ear will recognise in it a genuine example of the
tones of the Mearns.
THE BIGGIN O'T.
Tune—" The Eock and the Wee Pickle Tow."
There wuz an' auld man tuke a bit o' yon hull,
An' he wud gae try the biggin o't.
He hidna a hooss 'at he cud bide intill
An' his first wark wud be the biggin o't.
He biggit the wa's wi' gweed clay an' steen ;
Wi' heather he happit the riggin o't :
A cantier dwallin' wuz ne'er to be seen,
An' sorra a bit cam by thiggin o't.
He's plantit some tatties to full his auld wime,
An' sawn some neeps for the stainshin o't,
Wi' ingens an' carrots to gar them taste fine,
An' mak him mair fit for the trinchin o't.
He's sawn some corn his bannocks to be ;
He delv't it an' dung't it, for eident wuz he ;
The aul' earl kent brawly foo awbody wud see,
There wad naething be made by the flinchin o't.
Fin the day'd turned dreary, an' the rain doon did fa',
! then he gaed in to the planin o't,
To win to's auld pooch a shillinie or twa,
As there's neebody cares aboot len'in o't.
It's seldom the rich man hes siller to spare,
An' ere the poor get it they mun trachle sair,
Altho' that the winnin' breeds sorrow an' care,
Ee'll get plenty to help wi' the spen'in' o't.
162 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Fin the day lieht wuz deen an' him tired at the wark,
! then he'd set doon to the tun'in' o't
An' the young in aboot flockt fin it wuz dark,
An' yokit to dince to the soon'in' o't.
They dinct and they jumpit till their legs they got sair,
An' it growin' late they hame wards repair,
An' thankt the aul' carl for biggin's cot there,
An' aye blesst the day o' the foon'in' o't.
For ance on yon hull-side grew heather an' trees ;
The auld folk'll min' o' the plantin' o't.
An' in simmer it wuz swarmin' wi' birds an' wi' bees.
Which cheert his auld heart wi' the drintin' o't.
In the gloamin' the lads an' the lasses wud meet :
The whisperin' wuz fond, an' the kisses were sweet.
An' they leuch at the thing 'at wud weel gar'd them greet.
An' ne'er brak their heart wi' the thinkin' o't.
Bit noo there is naething bit scrabs to be seen,
The trees they're a' sawn for the wrichtin' o't.
Bit a' the tree roots they stuck fast to the green.
They gied him a sair back wi' the liftin' o't.
Sud the carl trincht a' he'll get muckle sweat wi't :
Ere he get it a' sawn, sud he e'er live to see't.
He'll hae twa simmer's suns yet an' ae winter's weet.
Afore he get wark wi' the dichtin' o't.
Bit may he yet live for to see it a' growin'.
An' a' stan'in' ready for reapin' o't.
Wi' twa breed-backit doddies to low i' the loan ;
There's naething sae gweed for the weetin' o't !
An' may he ne'er wint fat his auld heart can tak —
A snufF till his nose an' a coat till his back,
An' an auld neeper cronie an hour wi'm to crack,
An' len' him a ban' wi' the eatin' o't.
Though the words are almost all English, their vocalisation
is significant and local : —
hull for hill gweed for good
dwallin' ,, dwelling stainchin „ staunching
Fin „ when dinct „ danced
foow'in' „ founding wint ,, want.
FIELD PHILOLOGY 163
The few words calling for remark are drintin, evidently a
modification of droning ; scrabs, a variant of scrub, shrub,
applied to self-sown, stunted trees ; doddies, cows of the polled
Angus variety. Doddy is a round, ball-like head, as the seed-
stalk of the ribwort. Edmonston has curl-dbddy, naturally
clever, where curl is carle, or k^rel, a man. The word reminds
one of Burns's phrase, a stalk of carl-hemp.
Cissy Wood, the owner of the cottage, was a most remark-
able specimen of the best type of the Scottish peasantry. She
was born early in last century at the Limpit Mill, overhanging a
brattling burn, one of many that have worn a steep descent for
themselves into the North Sea through the cliff wall that
frowns on the tumbling waves at its feet between Stonehaven
and Muchalls. She had worked steadily since seven "intill
the mull," as she put it. " Speak aboot half-timers ! I wuzz
ay a hail-timer." When the larder, never very full, was low,
grumbling was met with, "If ee dinna tak that, ee can Uck
wint," equally significant whether we take the wint here for
wind or want.
Her temperament must always have run to the masculine
rather than to the weaker side. She was twenty-four before
she learnt stocking-knitting, or shank- wiving as she called it,
using one of the commonest of names for stockings, shanks,
known at one time all over Lowland Scotland. Her time
was devoted to her croft, her garden, and her workshop, for
she has in her own fashion solved the problem of a self-
contained independence on the land. She has been joiner,
blacksmith, and general mechanician to the neighbourhood, her
" neepers " as she called them. She could handle a hei-sned
{scythe), turn a lay (lathe), or put together a meal-bowie with
the best. Her two " freits " in gardening were raising potatoes
from the " plooms " (seed-capsule) and growing fantastic walk-
ing sticks. The potatoes were, the first year, the size of peas,
and could be " eatt 'gin the third eer." In colour they were
daintily mottled, black, brokkit and white. Her " brokkit " is
familiar Gaelic for anything, say a trout or fern, that is speckled
■or variegated in spots. The walking sticks grew freely from
willow slips. The branches, as they developed, were ingeniously
intertwined. When matured, smoothed, and varnished they
164 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
formed a "quaint device" much sought after by the curio
hunter. Kale-runts and thistle-stems were ingeniously turned
to the same purpose. This worthy woman's boast wasl the
converse of that male solitary's, Silas Marner. She could '^do
everything that the mere male attempted. To cap all, she
could, in her best days, inspire the rural dance on a fiddle of
her own making.
IV.— SIDE-LIGHTS
1. Vernacular of the Lake District
It is a hopeful sign of progress that the mutual dependence of
history, geography, and philology is becoming more and more
recognised and acted upon. The bond of union is that element
of human interest without which every study will soon lose
its savour. The specialist who gropes round the study of
his choice and sneers at others is but exploring his own dark
chamber to the exclusion of the sunlight of fact and nature.
N"o better illustration could there be of this helpful interdepend-
ence than what a glance at the map of England discloses.
Down the West Coast extend three well-marked groups of hill
country, Cumberland, Wales, and Cornwall, and in each and
all the historical, geographical, and linguistic elements are " con-
fusedly mingled," offering that prolonged quest which is so
fascinating to the genuine student. The Cumberland group is
particularly interesting as leaning more closely to Scotland
than to England, towards which the Pennines seem to have
presented a greater barrier than the Cheviots and the Solway
did on their side. As a principality it was of old the appanage
of the heir-apparent to the Scottish Throne, and as such raised
nice questions of feudal tenure, which often brought the Scots
and English to serious hand-i-grips, and made much history.
At a still earlier period it formed, with South- Western Scotland,
the country of the Strath-Clyde Britons, where the primitive
Celts formed a counterpart to that Frisian race which gave a
common character to the whole district between Humber and
Tay. All over this Strath-Clyde Celtic has vanished before Norse
with a strong Anglian admixture. It lives only in place-names.
In Galloway even the patronymic Mac precedes Williams and
Eoberts and Hughs, and the redoubtable Macdougall has become
Macdowal (pronounced Madool). To north of Galloway, again,
165
166 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
the Anglian conquest of Kyle in Ayrshire, in the eighth century,
contributed still more to reduce the Celtic area in the South-west.
The later Lollard movement in this district was probably a conse-
quence of this early settlement. But it is among the Cumbrian
dalesmen that the Norse element has been most persiBtent.
The Norse kingdom in Scotland, before it was swept away at the
battle of Largs, was in two parts, the Xorder-ey or Northern
Isles (Hebrides), and the Suder-ey or Southern Isles (ilan and
others). The bishopric of Sodor and Man still illustrates the
division. Besides this affinity of speech and race across the
Solway and the Sark, there was a long-standing trade con-
nection. For ages sturdy Galloways and wild Doddies (polled
cattle) " swam the Esk river where ford there was none " on
their way to the southern markets.
The historical and geographical aspects of the question bein.'
thus stated generally, let me follow up the linguistic trail.
Fortunately there lies before me an altogether admirable guide
in " A Glossary of the Words and Phrases pertaining to the
Dialect of Cumberland," By W. Dicldnfion, F.L.S. Piearranged,
Illustrated and Augmented by Quotations by E. W. Prevost,
Ph.D., F.RS.E. With a Short Digest of the Phonology and
Grammar of the Dialect by S. Dickson Brown, B.A. (Hone.)
Lond. (London : Bemrose & Sons. Carlisle : Thumam & Sons).
This work is a new edition of that published in 18-59, and
now improved by the elimination of elements not specially
Cumbrian, but merely peculiar pronunciations of ordinary
English. The Scottish student of the vernacular must put this
invaluable guide alongside of his Grigor's "Buchan Dialect,"
Edmonston's " Orcadian Glossary," and Dr. Murray's " Dialects
of the South of Scotland" — aU he has indeed to set against the
magnificent dialect work that has been done in England in a
field that is not any richer than his own. Dr. Prevost has now
completed this great work in an admirable "Supplement."
These two volumes it is a very special pleasure to me to utilifre
as valuable side-lights on the Scottish vernacular.
The "Supplement" is a substantial continuation, of over
two hundred pages, to the author's larger work on the same
subject, published in 1900. It runs on the same admirable
lines as its predecessor in the scientific treatment of idiom and
SIDE-LIGHTS 167
phonetics, sympathetic ingathering of material fast fading away,
and abundant illustration of the dialect of the dalesmen from
popular tale and song. Dr. Prevost has done work, unaided
save by inborn, loving zeal, that, even in frugal Germany, is
deemed worthy the aid of a State Department. Is there a class
of subscribers in Scotland public-spirited enough to give similar
countenance to the labourer there in a field that is quite as
rich, but, alas ! marked with decay ? There has always been a
double current of trade across the Sark, but traces of an early
and unkindlier state of matters have been more persistent.
Dr. Prevost quotes the significant couplet, —
" When Scots fwok starts to pou' their geese,
It's tyme to hooss baith nags and beese," —
an echo of the freebooter's "hership," when the Michaelmas
moon was welcomed as his lantern. In quieter times the Scots
pedlar took his place among the dales, a character that Words-
worth made the model for his " Wanderer." To the packman's
ear the Cumberland speech would sound homely. Familiar
would be its fondness for the dental ending as in sheppert,
forrat, anes-eerant ; the avoidance of the hard tone in bodd'm,
foot-pad (path); the vocalising of prepositions as in wi' meh
(with me) ; and the intrusion of a letter in such words as narder
for nearer, spreckled for speckled. There are shades of differ-
ence here. For the Cumbrian's " Ah divn't, he disn't, plural,
divn't " the Scot would say " Ah divna, he disna, we divna, they
dinna," showing his fondness for the enclitic na, a far older
negative than " not." Dr. Prevost accounts for the insertion of
V here by analogy with " Ah hevn't," but in these cases the v
is radical, (Ur being an old strengthened form of do as shown
in Moeso-Gothic.
Idiom is still more characteristic than phonetics, and here
the parallels ai-e most interesting. No one in touch with Low-
land Scots could fail to recognise kinship with these Cumberland
phrases : — I'se warrant, seckan a yan (sicna yin), the butcher's
killin' es-sel the day, noos and thans, thur ans (thirr ans), pennies
a-piece, whiles for sometimes, and the general use of the old pre-
position un meaning without (Ger. ohne) as a prefix sounding on.
In both districts one hears such words as oonpossible, onbonny,
168 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
onneat. There is agreement, too, in the marked preference for
the relative 'at instead of that, and the persistence of the plural
present of the verb in s. Both are well-known Northern charac-
teristics. Sometimes one sees these historic forms condemned
as if they were vulgar English. Thus the phrase, " They were
a man," &c., is called bad grammar. What is said is, " Th' wur
a man," where we have such an old particle as we find preserved
in German da used for inversion of the subject. Just as German
has both da and dort, Scots has thae, thirr. " Wur " shows the
regular wus changed in the final before a vowel. Other old
forms, very common in the Scots of the seventeenth century,
survive in Cumberland speech, such as the particles after com-
paratives, nor, as, be : " It's better ner gud like sugger te taties,"
" He's keynder as thee tuU me,'' " summat hy ordinar," and the
genitive without the apostrophe s {f cow horn). Northern
speech never used than after comparatives. When one hears
than in Scots it is for then. There are shades of differ-
ence here, too. The "as that" in the Cumberland, "He said
as that he wasn't cumin," is " 'at hoo " (that how) in Low-
land Scots. In intensives Scots has the "gayly," "varra"
and " fine " of Cumberland, but in addition " fell " (Ger.
viel), and " 'at weel " (Ger. ja wohl, yes, indeed). Of similar
persistence over a wide Northern area are such popular wit as,
" Wake as dish watter," " Eowtin like a quey in a fremd lonnin,"
"Maiden's bairns are aye weel bred," "He's no fed on deef
(worm-eaten) nits," " He hardly made sote to's kail," " Better
fleitch a feuU ner feight 'm," " Aback o' beyont whoar the meer
fwoaled the fiddler," "He dissna ken a S fra a bull's feutt,"
and " He hiss neah maar wit ner's pitten in wi' a speun." The
custom of the country substitutes a gander for a hen in the
saying, " Dancin like a steg on a het gurdle," while, in both
North and South, the following would now have little meaning :
" Sweerin like a tinkler," " Teugh as a soople " (thong joining
the two parts of the flail).
Extremely suggestive is the subject of Cumberland idiom,
especially since it exhibits all the characteristics of Northern
English as it has been so well preserved in Lowland Scots. A
few significant phrases only can be given, such as " t' words 'at
we use in oald Cumberlan'," " ah maks mesel easy," " a gey fine
SIDE-LIGHTS 169
day," " siccan a fellow he is," " a few broth," " he'll he five come
Lammas, "I'se quite agreeable," "mey peype's langer er (nor)
theyne," " who's owt t' dog ? It u'll be oor Tom's." The "I'se "
above is exactly the Dutch and Boer Ik is = I am, preserving
the Northern to be in the present tense. I have been asked by
a Kintyre fisherman, "Who belongs that boat?" meaning to
whom does the boat belong ? He was not any more ungram-
matical or illogical than the Cumbrian with his, " Who's owt
t' dog ? " to whom is the dog owing ? They both use the inde-
clinable interrogative as a dative. Likely, again, very frequently
means " I suppose : " " Mr. S. is away from home likely," does
not suggest any uncertainty, nor does " I will see you to-morrow,"
likely," which quite falls in with the Scottish attitude of non-
committal. The East Coast variant of " lickly " is " mebbe," or,
preferably, "mebbes," for "it maybe so." Play oneself: "Barns !
give ower ! ye've played yersels aneuf noo." In Fife, purpose-
like gudewives, greatly vexed with paidlin on the caum-staned
doorsteps, would come out and exclaim : " Tak the croon o' the
causey, vratches, and play yersels there." Meal's meat, what
will suffice for one meal, is in Scotland always a meal o' meat :
" Ah wadn't give 'm a meal's nieat if he were starvin'." Rackon,
to guess, imagine, suppose, has got a new lease of life across the
Atlantic : " I'll reckon the' daizter an' dafter," says she, " nor
iver I've reckon't the' yit." Up a, heet for aloft is a common
idiom in Hexham. Dr. Prevost illustrates thus : " Dan gev yah
greet lowp ebben up a heet." In the North of England, as often
in Scotland, one hears such awkward circumlocutions as Wadn't
cud dea 't. The sense is that of moral, not physical, inability —
he would be above doing it. " Another expression," says the
doctor, " somewhat similar, is, ' Won't can come,' " where, how-
ever, the idea of physical inability is intended. The same ideas,
expressed in the future tenses, as, "I will not can come," or
" Shan't can dea't," are not in use. " Nay, I tell thee he wadn't
cud dea't, I'll uphold thee ; I ken ower weel for that, wey he
wadn't cud din it." The favourite Glasgow circumlocution,
" Can I get going ? " is as nothing to these.
It says little for human nature that idioms of the colloquially
exclamatory nature are more frequently contemptuous than
complimentary. We have always with us the man who is only
170 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
too ready to say to his brother, " Thou fool ! " In an obscure
exclamation, Goavy-dick ! common to Fife and the Lothians,
and apparently expressing mere surprise, the Cumberland
dialect suggests that there is implied contempt. The plain
man in the Lothians, suddenly surprised at sight of something
comical, naturally exclaims, " Goavy-dick I " In Cumberland a
Gauvy is a fool, a simpleton, an open-mouthed fellow : " Thee girt
Gauvy, thoo." This is just the English gaby and the French gobe-
mouche, the fly-catcher. Gope is to stare with open mouth : —
" A gowped at t' chaps 'at war playing sangs." Other forms
are in the phrases — " Greet govin fuil ! " " Whee was't brong
thee a fortune, peer gomas ? " " T'ou's ayways in a ponder ; ay
geavin' wi' thy oppen mouth." In Scotland the metaphor is
carried still further. " Git oot o' ma rodd, ye muckle gawpus ! "
says the stirring gudewife to a loutish, idle fellow, varying it
for a lump of a lassie with taupie, French for the mole. In
some districts to gob is to spit. The Orcadian guhb is scum,
froth, foam. In Nithsdale gowf is to flaunt about, and a gowf
is a foolish person. As a mere exclamation, however, and a
kindly qne, comes the characteristic Border and Lanarkshire
lovenanty ! the equivalent of goavy-dick ! Jamieson's explana-
tion. Love anent you ! is too suspiciously neat. We are all
familiar with Paisley as the city of " Seestu ! " but the exclama-
tion is not confined to that Scottish Helicon. It is very common
in Orkney, and has a place in the kindred Norse district, the
dales of Cumberland — " Sista, if thoo leaves me, ah'll kill tha ; ''
" Sees te, Bella ; nay, but sees te ? " So thoroughly does the
conventional lay hold of us that one will say even to a blind
man, " See that, now ! "
To note down the peculiarities of grammar that prevail in the
spoken vernacular of the unlettered is a difficult task, but it is
a trifle compared to the problems of dialect phonology. And yet
while the vocables are being ousted by the ootners — the Cum-
brian for Uitlanders — of the school and the newspaper, and the
quaint idioms and proverbs and folk-lore slink into obscurity,
abashed by the inroads of the railway, the tripper, and the
tourist, the pronunciation of the locality seems to cling per-
sistently to the very air and soil. Mr. Dickson Brown's work
here is worthy of all praise as a valuable contribution to the
SIDE-LIGHTS 171
exploiting of an almost unworked section of the linguistic field.
The Cumberland dialect has been moulded by both Anglo-Saxon
and Norse influences. To the latter, carried across the York-
shire fells, is due the favourite abbreviated article t' for the in
all positions — e.g. t'teable, t'floor, t'cow horn. Of course the
t here is not the initial in the original " that " — still heard in
Scotland, as " give me that cleek " — but the final. The first
step of the change is seen in " the tane and the tither " for that
ain and that ither. The Dutchman keeps it as liet, while with
the Highlander it is a feeble breath, 'he. The dalesman, though
he spells water with a double dental, goes farther even than the
Glasgow man in eliminating this letter, witness his favourite
laal for little, while he will only say Hoo ! for the " Kailyard "
Hoo-t-ootts ! If this be due to laziness, he takes the extra
trouble of saying h for v as eben for even, whereas the Scot gets
rid of V between two vowels as often as he can. The dalesman
is lazy enough to say reesht and reet for the Scotsman's richt,
just as in German dialects nicht drops to nisht and nit. The
Cumbrian's enclitic negative is n't; thus he says divn't and
disn't where the Scot chooses the better part, dinna and dizna.
For the Scot's "u'll no gang" he says "ah willn't gang." In
common with the Southron, the presence of r affects him. On
the North-east he cherishes the burr, but introduces, where he
can, a peculiar after-sound of w, as in cworn for corn, to the
fwore for to the fore.
There is a wide field for comparison among the vocables. Many
are haimit enough, such as crine (shrink), dorting (ill-humour),
dub, fouthie, lum, reek, tine (lose), threep (argue), pree (taste),
shade (part hair), snod (tidy). Others differ from Scots in
meaning. Kittle is active, never difficult as in Scots ; unco is
strange, never intensive, as it is in " unco guid ; " ploy is employ-
ment, not a feast in humble life ; oot-weel is wale oot or select ;
threve is a great number, not a stock or set of corn sheaves.
A bole or recess in a wall is so obscure in Cumberland as to
require to be called a " booly hole." The Cumb. " This shoe
isn't a marras (match) te that," would be in Scots, "... isna
the marra o' that," or in the plural, " Thae shuen are no marras."
More useful is it to study those obscure words on which Cum-
berland practice throws light, since there must now be but a
172 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
limited acquaintance with them in Scotland. Some golfers
might enjoy this couplet, for we sometimes hear of one lamming
into his opponent, —
" Wid t' fwoak lammen intull t' chorus
It was neah whisper ah can tell yeh."
On the North-east Coast one may perhaps find the Burrow Duck
called the Stockannet, as still heard on the Solway shore. But
a glossary would in most cases be now needed for Scoto-Cum-
brian obscurities like lisk (the groin), wipe (a gibe or rebuke),
kickin' up a wap (row). Sype in Cumberland is to drain to the
last dregs, but in Scots it means to soak. Staw, to surfeit, is
genuine Scots, as " Plenty o' butter wad staw a dog." As more
or less local survivals in the North take " thyvel, a porridge-
stick " (East Fife, theel), " gwote, a gutter through a hedge ; if
■ covered in, called a cundeth " (Sc condie). This last is in
Lanarkshire known as a gote or drain. Gutter is another
form of the word. Of the numerous uncomplimentary expres-
sions in which dialect revels light is thrown on these obscure
Scottish ones : slinge or sloonge, to loaf about, to mouch ; doughy
or daichie, " A duffy gowk is a great soft fellow ; " mayzy or
mwozie, dreamy, sleepy. This last is a Galloway and Ulster
word. An Ulster man, giving his opinion of a third party,
not present, said, " Of all the mozies ! " In Cumberland a
" mayzlin' " is a simpleton. As a verb it is in the line, " I
mazle and wander, nor ken what I's dien."
In one particular the use of the familiar thou, as well as the
old English distinction between ye and you, the Cumberland
dialect is markedly archaic. Burns carefully retains " thow "
in such homely subjects as the ewe Mailie and the Auld Mare
Maggie, but it has disappeared from the modern vernacular.
While the Cumbrian question, " Ur ye gan teh t'fair ? " would
be quite familiar in Aberdeenshire, not so the answer, " Mebbe,
is thoo gan ? " The former shows the pronoun of respect, the
latter the true " heimliches Du " of the German. The idiomatic
feeling comes out in popular sayings, and here Dr. Prevost's
illustration by happy phrases is of the greatest service. Many
are good Scots with a difference, such as " sittin to t'bottom "
for a pot sittin in, " just noo " for i' the noo, " still an' on "
SIDE-LIGHTS 173
(however), " he's a laddie for o' maks o' spwort " for he's a lad
at a spree, " barley me that " for chaps me that. " Seekin th'
milk" for fetching it is characteristically Tyneside. I have
heard a nursery tot singing lustily : " Oh my ! wat a smell o'
sindgin ! Battle Hill is all a-fire. Seek the 'attie-indgin." "We
stump't away togidder as thick (friendly) as inkle weavers"
preserves a lost Paisley industry. A Glasgow man of the
eighteenth century conveyed from Holland the secret of weaving
coarse tape, long known and peddled over the dales as inkle.
The name is preserved as that of a Paisley street to this day.
The old Scottish saying, " To lick at the lowder," a variant of
" To live at hake and manger," is explained here by the note on
lowder as the foundation supporting the nether millstone. The
dalesmen knew at one time the terns, a hair sieve, the origin of
the phrase " to set the Thames on fire."
Naturally many old Northern words, interesting to the Eliza-
bethan scholar, linger among the dales. Shakspere finds many
illustrations here. Billy, common all over the Scottish Border
as brother, chum, is Bully Bottom, the weaver ; Jliar, to laugh
heartily, is " the fleering tell-tale " of " Julius Cassar ; " plash,
to trim the sides of a hedge, is " the pleached alley " of " Much
Ado ; " slive, to split, slice, is " the envious sliver " that drowned
poor Ophelia. But the Burns scholar is still more indebted to
the sidelights of the Cumberland " Glossary." Bumeywin is the
blacksmith ; chufty is fat-cheeked (" chuffy vintner ") ; ootliggers,
or cattle not housed in winter, is the " ootler quey " of " Hallow-
e'en ; " weed-clips is the " weeder-clips " that Burns turned aside
from the thistle. Daft Will in " Hallowe'en " " loot a wince,"
explained here as an attenuated swear-word, used in full in
Gibson's " Bobby Banks : " " 'Ods wuns (God's wounds) an'
deeth ! " Every friend of Burns's auld mare will understand
the kindly phrase in the Cumberland old song, —
"Tak a reap o' cworn wi' ye,
An' wile her (my meer) heamm, an' wile her heamm."
And when we learn that in the dales titty is a sister, and that
"she's deein in a wearin" alludes to a hopeless case of con-
sumption, we understand better two of our finest old songs.
Comparison with the usage of the Scottish border reveals
174 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
but few variants in meaning or form among the common stock
of vocables. Of such these few may be noted : — Creuve, a staked
enclosure for catching salmon (C.) ^ — a pig sty (B.) ; dad, obsolete
mining term, to shake (C.) — a blow (B.) ; gliff, a hurried look (C.)
— a fright (B.); jag, sucker or rootlet (C.) — a pin prick (B.);
jink, move quickly (C.) — avoid by a quick movement. (B.).
Parallels are more numerous. The familiar bien, well-to-do,
kindly, has here the sense of obliging, " Theer was niver a
kinder, bainer body leevt." The Border phrase "a bob of
flowers " for a bouquet is similarly used, witness, " She had put
on a great red bob of ribbon on her bonnet." " Chuck," a
miner's term for food, suggests a note from my Border friend: —
" In an evening school in Glasgow, about twenty-five years ago,
asking the meaning of 'delicacies,' I got the answer, 'Fancy
chucks.' " " Dub," so widely diffused in the North, is here
equally familiar. Anything larger, however, than a puddle of
casual water is separately named. When the river banks are
high and steep, the word " whol " replaces dub. This, in the
form of weel or well, is the regular name for a large pool in the
stream of the Tweed. " Fell," the common Scottish and German
intensive," has also its Border meaning of strong, hard-working, —
" A fell bit lassie, strong and clear,
But Tibbie was as thrang as ever." —
" Broken Bowl."
The Border phrase, a nibby stick, one with a crook, has the form
gibby or kibby in the dales. " To glower oot " is a Border game
in which two would stare at each other to see who would wink
first. In Cumberland it simply means a fixed, staring look.
" Skelly-eyed," both here and on the Border, has the sense of
squint-eyed. Finally, the familiar " wap," a disturbance, is
paralleled by a miner's description of the tragedy of Othello as
" A (blank) wap aboot a pokkit neepyin."
One might pick at random from the " Cumberland Glossary "
such parallels with vocables used in Lowland Scotland, more
or less modified to suit the different conditions prevailing.
Thus we have : Chun, the sprout of the potato ; " T' taties are
1 (C.) for Cumljerland, (B.) for Border.
SIDE-LIGHTS 175
sair chunned " or well sprouted. Shaw says : " A term applied
to the sprouts or germs of barley, but, as I have heard it, to
the shoots of potatoes when they begin to spring in the heap ; "
which also appears in Jamieson, who adds that it is used in
connection with the process of making malt. I always heard
the maltman calling these "cummins." They represented the
germination of the malt as dried on the floor of the malt-barn.
Cobble, to pave with cobblestones, to stone : " He could tell
that they also had another fish in a hole because they were
running up and down cobbling it," the poacher's trick to drive
the fish out into the shallower water. This is the diminutive
of cob, cop, cup, anything rounded, cup-like. Its Boer form is
the too familiar kopje. Chaucer's miller had a wart " upon the
cop right of his nose." I was forcibly shown what the old-time
cobble-hole was when travelling through Antrim. The bundles
of flax are kept down in water-pits, during the stage of putre-
faction, by rounded stones or cobbles : and as I passed the good
Orangemen were busy lifting out the fermenting mass and
spreading it abroad to dry, filling the railway carriages the
while for many miles with an odoriferous blend as of senna tea
and grease fizzling from a hot-plate.
Dow, to be able, to dare, or venture (with a negative), —
" A whusslin lass an' a bellerin cow,
An' a crowin' hen'll deu nea dow."
This fine old word, still in much and daily use in German, is
rarely heard now in Scotland. It recalls the well-known Burns
couplet, —
" But facts are chiels that winna ding,
An' downa be disputed."
Faymishly, splendidly, " We set off t' merry neet, an' gat to
Eostwhate famishly." How readily most of us settle down into
the ruts of our pet mannerisms of action or phrase ! All human
action tends naturally to the automatic. An old weaver had
one fixed reply to every opening for a twa-handed crack. To
a neighbourly inquiry, " Hoo are ee the day, Dauvit ? " came
the unfailing response, " Fawmous, mun," which was quite as
explicit as BuUer's " The men are splendid." In a famous city
176 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
in Fife dwelt worthy 'pothy Smith, whose favourite catch was,
" I'm not very sure," and he carried his Scots caution so far one
day as to answer to a neighbour's call at the shop door in
passing, " Are you in, Mr. Smith ? " " Well, I'm not very sure."
Feeky, nervously uneasy, used in reference to senile decay,
a development of its familiar force peculiar to Cumberland.
" Ah was terrible feeky till Ah hard thee fit in t' entry an' saw
theh pass t' alien." Here we have the " ayont the hallan " of
" The Cottars," where Hawkie was chewing her cud. This was
the treviss or partition separating the but room from the ben.
The passage crossing it inside the doorway was called the trance
in Scotland, not the entry. A clergyman, familiar with our
old-fashioned, long, narrow, dark country churches, tickled his
hearers when discoursing on St. Peter's vision by saying that
he himself had often preached in a trance.
Fowersom, a set of four, —
" An' a' the foursome gat as merry
As tho' they'd drunken sack or sherry."
Though the dalesman prefers wrestling to golfing, we have here
aptly visualised many a comfortable party of happy, middle-
aged worthies long past the record-breaking stage. Such a
foursome was one day holing out at the Ginger-beer hole of
St. Andrews Links, when the respective caddies compared notes.
To the inquiry, " Hoo's your men gettin' on, Jock ? " came the
response, " Dod, but they're doin' fine ; they hauved the lest
hole in fifteen."
Bare Gorp or Gorlin, an unfledged bird : " Geap, Gorbie, an
thou'll get a wurm." " As neakt as a gorlin." This is the " raw
gorbit" of our unfeeling youth. It recalls a scene, under a
spreading hawthorn tree, when I assisted at the beck of a
masterful cousin, considerably my senior, in the fitting out of
what we thought a braw butcher's shop, the joints and gigots
consisting of callow spyugs and nestling mice, perfect Lilliputian
piggies. A pleasanter reminiscence is Dr. George Macdonald's
exquisite piece about the bonnie, bonnie dell where the yorlin
sings, in an early volume of " Good Words for the Young."
His yorlin, applied to the yellow-hammer, must be the Cumber-
land gorlin, turned to another use.
SIDE-LIGHTS 177
Gulls, the Corn Feverfew (Febrifuge, chrysanthemuiri sege-
tum), a weed which gave, much trouble to the Birleymen of
the old townships when the crofters were too lazy to clear it
out. The word is the same as what we have in yellow and
yolk. Shaw says, " Benner-gowan. I have heard this name
applied to the fever-few of our gardens ; " to which Professor
Wallace, his biographer, adds, "Benner — Bennert or Bane-
wort." Banewort is either deadly nightshade or " Eanunculus
liammula," and therefore not the same as the Corn Gool.
H is dropped more frequently than it is used. The Scots
are mercifully preserved from this variety of " English as she is
spoke." Dr. Prevost illustrates thus : " Bessy, boil me a heg."
" Father, you should have said an egg." " Then gang an' boil
me two neggs."
Havver. Dr. Prevost quotes a saying about the Havver
bread, baked twice a year and carefully preserved for luck, —
" If you gang to see your havver in May,
You'll come weeping away,
But if you gang in June,
You'll come back in a different tune.''
Havver is oats. The word has long been obsolete, and Burns,
in the song, " 0, whaur did you get it ? " was working on an
old model beginning —
"0, whaur did ye get that hauver meal bannock?"
a ballad which suggested to Scott his "Bonnie Dundee."
Though not unknown to middle English, havver is distinctly
Northern, and leans to a Scandinavian origin. But the Anglo-
Saxon " oats " has quite superseded it. The German Hafer is
the same word, as also our haversack (lit. oat-bag).
Heft, to restrain, let the cow's milk increase until the udder
gets large and hard : " She's hef tit of her yooer." The former
sense is common over South-Western Scotland. On the East
Coast the more familiar usage is swoln in the case of cows,
and figuratively in the case of man as here: "A tak ill wi'
the firrst o' hairst. A buddie's sae heftit wi' the baps an' the
beer, an' fair hippit wi' the bindin'," was the sage reflection
of a Fife bandster before the days of the reaping quick-firer.
12
178 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Yooer for udder is a good illustration of omission of a dental
between vowels ; of, wa'er for water.
Hotch, what the Alston miners call a jig. The Burns
reader will remember the midnight Free-and-Easy in AUoway
Kirk,—
" Even Satan glower'd and fidged fou fain,
And botched and blew wi' might and main."
The word expresses primarily deep and rapid breathing under
excitement, as in " Hech, sirs ! " "a hacking cough," " Heigho,
the wind and the rain ! " and even the " Hoeh ! " of the phleg-
matic Teuton. The Scot's innate love of graphic metaphor
leads him to widen his words with the freedom of an artist.
" Any fish in the burn to-day ? " " Fish ! the pools is fair
hotchin'."
Kast, to place peats on end so as to dry them : " A pony
cart-load of peats had been cast by his sister." The Lowlander
knows so little on this head that he might think it referred to
throwing them out of the hole. The word properly implies a
change of position, as " a cast in the eye," " a cast ewe," " cast
up," and the saw, " Ne'er cast a cloot or May be oot."
K. — This letter was formerly pronounced in knit, knap, and
knot. " My grandmother used to articulate easily and without
effort the k in knitting, knee " (D. H.). I can distinctly remem-
ber that my grandmother said k'nife. An Aberdeenshire Jacob-
ite old lady, long after the memory of the '45 and its repression
of Scottish Episcopacy had died out, stoutly refused to honour
the Hanoverian, " though Bishop Skinner sud pray the k'nees
afPs breeks." A more persistent peculiarity is the omission of
the letter t when between vowels, common in Cumberland and
with all the slovenly speakers in south-western Scotland. The
dalesman's " laal," however, is more easily managed than the
Lanarkshire for little : " Axt him if he'd ivver seed laal
sprickelt paddicks wid phillybags an' gallasses on." Dr. Pre-
vost explains that " phillybags were long drawers visible below
the skirt, formerly worn by boys and girls " — a fashion we all
know from Leech's pictures of the early Victorians. But what
has " ta Phairshon " to say of this insult ? Some of his forebears
certainly got short shrift at Carlisle 'Sizes. An English book.
SIDE-LIGHTS 179
glossed by a German for his fellow-countrymen, calls a phillibeg
a weed worn by Scotsmen. He had got his " weed " from reading
in earlier literature such as in " Midsummer Night's Dream : "
" Weed (dress) wide enough to wrap a fairy in." The Cum-
brian "gallasses" is also Fife for braces or suspenders, and is
but a variant of "gallows."
Pawky, too familiar, sly, impudent : " Grace did not trouble
herself about the susceptibilities of pawky young monkeys."
" They caw't yanudder for aw t' pawkiest rapscallions." This
is certainly not the pawky we all have such a respect for. It
must be the " paik," a low character of Davie Lindsay's verses,
and one of " the poor relations " in words, " with a past."
Skeal or scales, a sort of huts or hovels, built of sods or
turfs on commons. This is the Jcelandic "skjol," shelter;
" skyling," a screening. As initial " sk " in Scandinavian and
Dutch has become " sh " (cf. ski and Eng. shoe), we have here
the summer " sheelins " of ballad and song. The hardening of
sh, though spelt sch, still holds in Cape Dutch, so that Scheepers
should be pronounced Skaepers.
This Norse skjol has assumed various forms among us. In
English the sheeling is the sheal, a temporary summer hut,
from a root, to cover. Professor Skeat connects the Icelandic
skjola, a pail or bucket, with what in Scotland is a skiel or
skeel, not at all forms in common use. At one time, however, it
did appear among us. When Nansen, after his historic voyage,
was entertained by the London Savage Club, the Norse shal was
•drunk, interpreted rightly enough as a sort of guid-willie waucht
■or loving-cup. It carries one back to a very different reception
of Norsemen, a Scottish one, when the nobles that brought over
Anne of Denmark as spouse to James VI. were feasted (1590)
in the house of the famous Napier, Master of the Mint, in the
•Cowgate of Edinburgh. The Provost provided "naprie & twa
•dozen greit veschell." These were the goblets or skolls (Ger.
Schale, cup ; ef. scale, shell) which were drained to the king's
" rouse " (Hamlet), long known in Scotland by the very name
used at the London banquet. In Edmonston's "Shetland
•Glossary" "scoU" is a roimd wooden dish.
Skiddaw Gray, a bluish-gray colour, a rough gray cloth from
Herdwick wool. The Keswick Kifle Volunteers are called
180 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
" Skiddaw Grays " because of the colour of their uniform.
Similarly, as a specimen of the " wut " of the man in the street,
the Mid-Lothian Militia, special care of the Duke of Buccleuch,
were known as the " Duke's Canaries," or, more contemptuously,
" Soordook Sogers," from association with the morning milk carts
round the Tron Kirk.
Tew, annoyance, distress, fatigue : " Ey ! it was a sair tew
that." To tease : " T' thowtes o' hevin forgitten sum tewt me
t' warst of a'." " Ah fand it gey tewsum wark." We have here
— Dr. Prevost has it in his glossary, but adds nothing in the
supplement — a word that has many duties and forms in Scots.
I believe it has to do with teuk or took, which Shaw explains
with Jamieson as a by-taste, a disagreeable taste.
Dr. Prevost, perhaps not unwisely, imposed upon himself
certain limitations. Keeping strictly to his text, he makes little
use of comparison with cognate dialect matter, and hardly ever
says anything as to the history of his words. Here and there,
however, there is a Something that requires " reddin up." The
word " ea " cannot well be both the " outlet of lime-kilns " and
the " channel of a stream." The former is the Scottish collier's
" in-gaun-ee," but the latter must be a wide-spread term for any
running water and of Norse origin in place-names. In the
" Supplement " it is " a gap, river mouth." In many parts of
Scotland the local burn is called simply " the waa'er.'' At Eye-
mouth the villagers always speak of their " Eye " as the Waa'er.
The author has, laudably, the courage to note even failures,
thus : " Hemmil (ohsol.), no description obtainable." But the
illustrative passage added shows that it is but a misreading for
" skemmel," entered elsewhere. The quotation is : " The sconce,
long-settle and hemmil are superseded by more modern furni-
ture." These illustrations, always apt and pithy, form an
admirable feature of what is an invaluable contribution to the
philology and folk-lore, not only of Scotland but still more, of
England.
The volume throws much light on an almost untouched
subject — the comparative study of dialects. With the Border,
of course, there will be much affinity. The Cumberland stock-
annet or sheldrake is so named on the Upper Solway, but
nowhere else except here and there on the East Coast north of
SIDE-LIGHTS 181
Forth, where also any nestling is a raw gorbet, the Cumberland
" bare gorp." Of pure Saxon affinities with the Tweeddale there
are wig, a tea-cake; hine, a farm-servant; Mnny, a term of endear-
ment ; and the curious gawm, to give attention to. " He nivver
gawmed me " is quite Border. Farther north it is better known
as gumption. The root is in the fourth century Gothic transla-
tion of the Gospels. The " hypocrites pray at the street corners
that they may be seen of men ('ei gaumjaindau mannam')."
Jamieson has gum, variance, umbra.ge, of which Lockhart, writing
his account of Union times (1707) says : " "Whilst this affair
(Malt Tax) was in agitation, as it created a great gum and cold-
ness between members of the two nations, it created a friendship
and unanimity amongst the Scots Commons."
The able editors have designedly refrained from specu-
lation on the historic aspects of their subject. The volume is
richly suggestive here. ' Their " wife-day or cum-mether " (Fr.
commere) is the Cummers' Feast of Old Edinburgh, a christen-
ing ceremony humorously sketched in " A Midsummer Night's
Dream." The rannel-trees, alluded to by Davie Deans in the
" Heart of Mid-Lothian," are fully explained as a part of the
old ingle and chimney-breest. Old farming customs are noted,
such as "the deetin (Sc. dichtin) hill," the equivalent of the
Scottish Sheelin Law, where the corn was winnowed. The
" tummel-car," Burns's " tumlin wheels," we are told, was repre-
sented in 1897 by one ancient survivor. "Syme," the straw
rope for securing thatch, is the simmons or sooms which the
tenants of Caithness had to supply for the laird's stacks a
century ago. The " spelk hen," annually due to the landlord
for liberty to cut rods , for securing thatch, clearly points to
the Orcadian spoUc, a splint (Eng. spoke, Ger. Speiche, the
spoke of a wheel). To this day round Loch Lomond barked
oak -branches are called speogs. The Morayshire custom
of corn-thiggin, when the poor or thriftless crofter went
round the clachan begging a pickle seed, is just the , Cum-
berland " cworn-later " asking at every house for " a lile
lock corn" for his first crop. "Lock" here is- often heard in
Scotland. A "fell lock o' us" is not a corruption , of lot, a
quantity. It is accounted for by the Orcadian lock, to .clutch,
seize hold of, the Icel. luka. In , Old Edinburgh the Lucken-
182 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
booths or close shops were so called in contrast to the stalls set
up on the street. The " lucken-gowan " is the closed daisy.
The latter part of the Cumberland compound " cworn-later "
seems to be connected with Go. leithan, to go, Eng. lead, a verb
with many derivatives. The Border herd's cruel mode of
splitting up birds, frogs, &c., is known in both districts as
spang-whew. In Clydesdale, again, a straining sieve is also
known as a syle. Stranger, still, is it to find faggot as a term
of reproach turning up in Campbeltown, where also skybel is
well known as a good-for-nothing. " In lots there were helter-
skelter skybels frae Carel " (Carlisle). Norse influence explains
these af&nities, as also the presence in the North-eastern counties
of such Cumberland words as grice and shot, applied to young
pigs ; gob, spit, foam ; geat, a bairn ; wax kernels (waxin kernels
in Fife) for glandular swellings in the neck ; sued, a scythe handle
(Kincardine) ; swine-crii (Fife criive), a pig-sty ; thyvel (Fife
theel), a porridge-stick; weyt (Fife wecht), sheep's skin cover-
ing a wooden hoop, to lift corn; whicks (Fife quickens), roots
of couch grass. It must be the same Northern leaning which
accounts for such remarkable German representatives in the
Cumberland dialect as byspel, a guy (Beispiel); flittermouse,
the bat (Fliedermaus) ; shirk, a slippery character (Schurke) ;
unfewsom, awkward, unbecoming (Ger. fiigsam, pliant) ; skemmel,
a long seat without a back. This last is German Schemel, a
seat. Butcher's shambles were stools to show the meat in open
booth or market as in Old Glasgow, where they were known as
shemels. But the whole volumes are calculated to send one off
on a stream of " divagations."
The " Glossary " could not but be suggestive at many points
to the student of Scott and Burns. SacMess, innocent, a word
now obsolete but used in " Kob Boy," appears in a Cumberland
sketch in dialect : " Ah wasn't sec a sackless as he'd teann meh
teh be." Curious is it to find the wyliecoat of the " Fortunes of
Nigel," and familiar in old literature, still used in Cumberland
in its usual sense of an undervest. The " rannel-tree," which
Davie Deans uses in his vigorous denunciation of latter-day
backsliding in Church and State, is annotated at great length
by Dr. Prevost. It was the beam from which hung the ingle-
crook in the large, open chimney. In "Guy Mannering" a
SIDE-LIGHTS 183
randle-tree is a tall, raw-boned youth. One naturally finds
more points of relationship with Burns and his open-air and —
to use a Greek in default of an English expression — autochthonous
muse. In his facetious apostrophe to the unbidden insect guest
he spied in church we have three Cumberland words — " ... an
auld wife's flannin toy . . . Aiblins on some duddy boy, on's
wyliecoat," Burns, again, in the " Twa Dogs " makes " Caesar "
so frankly human as to hob-nob with "a tinkler-gipsey's
messan ... or tawtiet tyke, tho' e'er sae duddie." Compare
this with the Cumberland couplet, —
" Me mudder merit me oald breeks,
An aye bit they wer duddy."
The " messan '' of Burns and the " Glossary " was originally a
lap-dog from Messina. During Knox's famous interview with
Secretary Lethington, the wily diplomat kept toying with a
messan on his knee. The two old-fashioned " bannocks " that
Burns alludes to — mashlum (of mixed meal) and hauver (oat-
meal) — have long ceased and determined in Scotland. Both
are Cumberland terms. In " The Cottars," it will be remem-
bered, the Covenanting Psalm tune, Elgin, " beets the heaven-
ward flame," and, again, the house-father wales a reading out of
" the big ha' Bible." Two of the words here are annotated in
a fashion that throws light on Burns's use of them. Thus the
" beeter " attends to the fire that bakes the oatbread. The.
" beetin stick " was used to stir the fire in the brick oven. A
recent publication illustrating " The Cottars " glosses the
" ha' Bible " as the one used in the great hall of a mansion.
Dr. Prevost's note is more helpful to the student of Burns than
this : " The manor house of small manors, now a farmer's house,
in contradistinction to a cottage " or humblest rural abode.
Folk-lore offers a rich hunting-ground to the antiquary
turned philologist. Here we have embedded the wit and the
wan-wit of the " rude forefathers of the hamlet." In this con-
nection Dr. Prevost gives some interesting finger-jingles, product
of the upland nurseries — Tom Thumper (a German, speaking
English, calls the thumb the thump), Billy Winker, Long Lazor,
Jenny Bowman, Tippy Town-end; also, Tom Thumper, Bill
Milker, Long Eazor, Jerry Bowman, Tip Town-end. The follow-
184 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
ing doggerel is ia use :^" This (finger) go t' wood. This un says,
what t' do theer ? To late mammy ; what to do w" her ? Sook
a pap, sook a pap a' t' way heame." The word " late " here has
an interest of its own. Dr. Prevost says it has two significa-
tions, . to seek and to bring. A Cumbrian will say, " He's gaen
to lait a lost sheep," or " He's gaen. to lait t' kye in to milk "
(Eichardson). One is tempted to compare with these tlie layt in
Jamieson, to allure, entice, an old word in Teviotdale, and his
"ill-laits," common in Angus for "bad customs." .The latter
was much used as illaits in Fife for " bad habits." The former
Jamieson traces to Icelandic. He says nothing of the expression,
" he never let on," " made no remark," when it was expected. It
can hardly be the usual let, permit. Kluge, under German
laden, to invite, shows that the two senses above are sub-
stantially the same in their origin in the Gothic lathon, as in
Matt. ix. 13 : " nith-than kwam lathon usvaurthans," I came
not to call the righteous ; in Luke ii. 25 : " Symaion beidands
lathonais Israelis," in A.V. Simeon, waiting (biding) for the
consolation of Israel.
Dr. Prevost supplies an interesting survival of the Gothic
lathon, to invite, in the Cumbrian laitin : " In many places in
the Lake district, when anyone dies, two persons from every
house near are invited to the funeral, and the houses within
the circle are termed the Laitin."
An. in teres ting group of vanished Scots can be culled from
the dalesmen. To scarce a living Scot is the squirrel known,
as he was of old, by the name " con." A Cumberland contri-
butor says, " ' Fat as a con ' is a simile I used to hear thirty
years ago " (1845). " Hind," the A.S. hyne, a manager of an
off-lying farm, is now heard only on the Scottish Border. Two
Scoto-French expressions, of old very common in Scotland, are
quoted from the dales. " Plague gang wi' them that tooly wi'
thee," preserves the Scots tulzie, a quarrel, street-fight. Still
more archaic is "Pie Powder," the ancient Court instituted
when the Peace of the Fair was proclaimed. It settled all
brawls and disputes over bargainings in which the outlander
pedlar was involved. He was known as Pied Poudr6 or Dusty
Foot.
While much of' folk-lore is extremely local, much of it again
SIDE-LIGHTS 185
seems to be almost world wide. We all know the Benjamin of
the family hand, Wee Willie Winkie, and the little Piggie-Wiggie
that cried all the way home. The Boer Tante amuses the wee
kerel on the stoep with tales of " Pinkie," the little finger. I
suppose there are still kindly mothers of the old-fashioned sort,
who, baby on knee and ready for By-by ! take the warm little
tootsies, one in each hand, and make them go through a wondrous
pantomime from dainty, coralline tips to rosy heel, to the jingling
rhymes, lips parted, and heaven-lit eyes aglow : " John Smith,
a falla fine, can ee shoe thiss hoarss o' mine ? (In largo
measure.) Yiss, indeed, an' thaat a' caan, juist as weel as ony
maan (larghetto). Pitt a bit upoan the tae, te garr the pownie
speel the brae (andante). Pitt a bit upoan the heel to garr the
pownie pace weel (allegretto), pace weel, pace weel (allegro), with
lively upsie-daesies !) " The folklore of school time is another
wide and interesting theme. At St. Bees School the master was
familiarly known as Mcks, which Dr. Prevost bases on the
expression to keep nicks, to keep account or tally by nicks or
notches, natural enough among shepherds who counted by
scores on the crook. Keep in the sense of to mind, mend, look
after, was very common long ago. Sir John Foulis, in his
" Eavelstoun Diary," has now and again the item "for keeping
my watch." " Boys keep nicks," continues Dr. Prevost, " when
watching the schoolmaster, and ' nicks ' is equivalent to ' cave ' : "
" While anudder kept nicks, watching up an' doon street.'' The
term is extended to the corporation schoolmaster, the policeman :
"Twelve nixes manhannl'd by yah man," seems a ridiculously
easy victory for the hooligan. To be nicked, i.e. caught, or hit,
was a common expression during the war. It may even be
implied in " Auld Nick," the catch-poll of souls. A good tuck-in
is as dear to the schoolboy as a lively shindy. Hence it is
natural to note : " ' Mint-cake,' a sweetmeat, made by boiling
down soft brown sugar and .water until a firm but ' short ' mass
was formed, strongly flavoured with peppermint, in shape two
inches square and a half thick;: somewhat resembling toffy, but
not so hard and, crystalline ; sold at two squares for a half-
penny "^-communicated by Miss Armstrong. The luxury of
my youth was "clack," known elsewhere as "gundy," and being
a messy preparation in much favour with the girls. These were
186 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
home products. A specific sure to mollify a colded throat was
" sugar-awlie," sold in short, black sticks, stamped at one end.
The Glasgow sweet, known in the trade as Tchuch Jeens, is
known to me only by name.
The biscuit and sma'-breed trade, now enormously developed,
has quite transmogrified the old-time fly-blown window-watchers.
Where are now the plump wee brown rabbits with currants for
eyes, the nickit baiks, the rings powdered with pink sugar, the
cheesies, Cupar hardies, and the ginger-breed demons ? These
last, standing grim and black, arms defiantly akimbo, and goggle
eyes, so impressed a bit lassie one day that, barely reaching the
counter with her bawbee, she asked the village Johnnie Aw-thing
for " ain o' thae hawpny deevils," so familiar were we long ago
with the deep things of theology. And yet our kindly English
critics speak with commiseration of our dismal creed. I re-
member, when in a sweetie shop in Heidelberg, being surprised
and amused as a little boy, putting down a kreuzer or two and
receiving three sweets in exchange — Protection in Germany
takes care of that — exclaimed with disgust, " Ah, wot a horrid
shame, Herr Schmidt ! " Nowadays the sorrows of exam.-driven
youth are tempered by the delicacies of Signer Nicolini, the ice-
cream man. I know the slider merely by name, but apropos of
it here are some of the words of Oald Cummerlan, illustrating
its dialect forms and uses. " Wor hes thoo been aw this time,
thoa sledderkin thoo ; thoo's a fair sledders an' nivver like ta
git back woriver thoo gangs till ; " " T' aad fella dizz nout but
' sledder about an' smeuk ; " " Wi' taes aw sticking through my
shoes I weade among the slatter ; " " T'wedder was slattery.
t'rwoads was slashy.'' An old-fashioned bailie, before the days
of public festivities, spoke of oysters as " nae better nor slithery,
fushionless glaur."
The " Cumbrian Glossary " is rich in illustration of folk-lore.
Children's games afford ready proof. A safety-valve under the
stern discipline was the barrin-oot at Pasch (Easter), or Candlemas
in Scotland, and at Christmas in England. " It was customary
for the boys inside school to sing, ' Pardin, maister, pardin,
Pardin for a pin ; If ye won't give us helliday, We'll nivver let
ye in.' " " Barrin-oot " was practised in Eoxburghshire on 21st
December 1907. The " beut-money," customary of old over the
SIDE-LIGHTS 187
higgling of the market, is practised at school in Teviotdale when
pupils are exchanging articles of different value (niffering). The
" fair horny," or appeal in these eases to honest dealing, is in
Cumberland used by colliers in dividing mutual gains. The
leaping game of " feut-an'-a-half " is played alike on both sides
of the Border. To the many Cumberland child-rhymes I add
this from the Border, —
" Ane's nane, twae's some,
Three's a pickle, four's a crumb,
Give's a cuddy's lade."
The old game, " Scots and English," is known in Cumberland as
"Watch "Weds." Each side put its caps at equal distances
from a dividing line drawn on the ground between the rows.
Pillaging then went on across the line. If one were caught, he
was retained prisoner. In " wed " here we have the familiar
wad, a pledge or surety.
The folk-lore of play never travels far from its native
district unless on the strong current of the very modern Golf
Stream. Cumberland boys, of course, know all about marbles,
which they assort as alleys, steanies, and gingers or pots. The
last was " a rough, common marble of red half-baked clay and
partially glazed. Steanies were brightly coloured, very hard,
and highly glazed : " Hoo mony steany marbles do ye gi' for a
ho'penny ? " The rough horse-play of the grown-ups, the halflins
or hobbledehoys, is hinted at in the once popular but now
obsolete amusement, " girnin throo a brafhn " — the Scots brec-
ham or horse-collar. This is the comic side of the much older
and really tragic, but seemingly off-hand, description of death
on the gallows : " girnin in a widdie," or rope of hazel twigs.
No account of old-time pleasures in the uplands would be
complete without some allusion to poaching. The humours of
local government through the Great Unpaid were never more
neatly hit off than in the speech : " When ah's a magistrate
ah'U luik ower sec things as sniggin an' nettin." Sniggin was
catching salmon as they lay in the pools by means of a bunch
of hooks, " t'west Coomerlan flee." These rake-hooks sniggled
over the bottom like eels, " snig " being an obsolete name for
a young eel. In those old days work and pleasure were blended
188 STUDIES IX LOWLAND SCOTS
in kindly fashion. Xo one contributed to this more than the
peripatetic tailor, ever a welcome visitor to the upland dales :
"Travelling artisans — tailors, shoemakers, and saddlers — went
to the houses of the country people to work, taking with them
their own material. They were paid so much a day and their
' meat.' This custom was formerly very common hereabouts,
but it is not so much followed now." It was called " gangen oot
t' whip t' cat." AU over Old Scotland the " customer " tailor,
working for customers, was known as Whip-the-Cat. A corre-
spondent said it primarily meant to " thrash with flail." One
certainly fails to see why the " harmless, necessary " house-
friend is chosen to symbolise itinerant labour.
Mining is the serious occupation of the Cumberland district,
and here there are interesting notes. The " in-gaun-ee " of our
colliers is explained by " ea," a gap, inlet, or gateway, used by
miners with reference to a pit. " It was i' t' boddom ee at
t' Park." Xew light is also thrown on the method of working
known as " stoup an' room." " If in driving a level in the lead
mines it is necessary at any point to carry the working upward
and continue in a plane parallel to the original level, the
material underlying the new level is a stoup. From these
levels short cross-cuts were made into the vein." Of course,
a room is any empty space, as "your room's better nor your
company." Anyone can see that the Dutch-Frisian race that
introduced mining and industries generally into Fife and the
Lothians was closely akin to the Xorse settlers in Cumberland
and Westmoreland. Xay more, this very word " stoep " was
transferred to the South African veldt. On the Boer homestead
or place, as he calls it, the doorway on his raised first-floor has
exactly such a stoup as is above described, with a double sloping
approach to it, as is still to be seen in many old mansion-houses
at home, and public buildings in Holland and Xorth Germany.
Such a stoup is shown in views of the old Court-house at the
Tron of Glasgow, used alike for hustings, speeches, magisterial
functions, and even executions.
Farm life has always been a stronghold of rural conservatism.
One would hardly expect a survival anywhere of the sport of
bull-baiting, yet the Cumbrian phrase, "Shak t' buU-ring,"
applied to the challenger at the village fair, analogue to the
SIDE-LIGHTS 189
Irishman's " Tridd on the tail of me coat," seems to preserye the
custom. Curiously the Kelso March market is to this day
known as the Bull Eing. The homely " coo-liekt," for hair that
would part only in one place, iS familiar in Teviotdale. The
Cumberland euphemism for an illegitimate, " cum by chance,"
the Bordei^er applies, as " come o' wills," to potatoes left in the
field and growing up in the following year. His " hick nor ree,"
said to a cart horse as a guide to left or right, is the Border
phrase, " neither hup nor hie," or neither right nor left. Another
farm variant is rig-welted, said of a sheep lying on its back and
unable to get up, and so the Scottish awal. It is formed of
rig, the back, and welter, to roll.
Weather-lore has always been in great favour with the rural
wise. "Morland fleud ne'er did good," refers to the damage
done in a hilly district by Lammas spates and the bursting
of water-spouts. All along the foot of the Ochils widespread
havoc has been caused in this way. On 4th October 1775 the
Tyne at Haddington rose seventeen feet. But the record flood
is the memorable one that Sir Thomas Dick Lauder described
so well. One can still, on crossing the new bridge at Forres, note
the almost incredible height to which the Findhorn suddenly
rose in 1829. Any abnormal summer, or want of it, has aired
much weather-lore such as this, —
" If t'esh sud bud afore t'yek,
Dor feyne summer wedder'U hoddenly brek ;
But if t'yek bud be seuner cummer
We'll sartinly hev a drufty summer.''
The Cumberland glossary says that hoddenly is frequently,
continuously, without interruption : " He's hoddenly been a
good husband to me." Hodden, sair hodden, in straits to accom-
plish a task : " Ah was hard hodden to keep mi tongue atween
mi teeth an' keep frae tellin' mi mind." This reminds one of
Scott's fool, who had little to complain of as fetch-and-carry
for the farm toon, save that he was " sair hodden doon wi' the
bubbly Jock."
190 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
2. Bkaid Scottis in the Transvaal.
We have had not a little information about the Transvaal
from within, but next to nothing about the language of the Boers.
And yet there are few more direct roads to the true inwardness
of the character and sentiment of a nation than its vernacular.
It must be confessed, however, at the outset, that it is a some-
what indirect method of approaching the subject to sit at home
here and discuss the speech of the Boer without ever having had
an opportunity of hearing a Boer speak. Failing this, I take
up my standpoint on a keen interest in Lowland Scots, spoken
and written, and with this I propose to compare the Cape Dutch,
or Kaapsch, as the Hollander calls it. Towards this aim has
been contributed the generous aid of an Afrikander now in
Cape Town, and of another who has left the Transvaal after
long residence there. Finally, an old and valued friend, the
late Heer E. P. Dumas, of Eotterdam, and formerly of Glasgow,
lent me of his wonderful resources, both in Dutch and English,
and especially sought out for me an admirable guide in " How
to Speak Dutch," by Professor W. S. Logeman, B.A., and J. F. Van
Oordt, B.A. This excellent manual, published at Amsterdam
and Cape Town, second edition, 1899, gives throughout practical
conversation in Dutch and Cape Dutch. I have kept almost
entirely to the vocables and phrases found in this book.
(a) The Taal.
For a century the Dutch Afrikander has been practically cut
off from his ancestral home in Holland. Doubtless his Church,
its Bible, and its preachers, have served to keep unbroken a
chain of communication, ever lengthening by time and distance,
and this kind of influence must have told specially in language.
But both the religion and the language have undergone a much
more rapid change at home in Holland than out on the sparsely-
peopled Veldt of South Africa. The consequence is that both
are old-fashioned and homely, and therefore admirably suited
to the mental and spiritual attitude of the pastoral Boer. With
a creed that has ceased to develop, and without a home-grown
literature, he has clung all the more fondly and tenaciously to
SIDE-LIGHTS 191
the antique vernacular which he has inherited from his fore-
fathers. He calls it lovingly die ou'we or oude Taal, using, to
name it, the root we have in tell and tale. In German still,
and in English of old, it meant to count, but the operations of
reading and counting in many languages appear readily to over-
lap and commingle. The Taal scarcely deserves the hard words
that have been applied to it as a barbarous and uncouth poly-
glot. The Scot can well sympathise with such treatment, for
the Englishman, disdaining to try to understand his dialect,
calls it unintelligible, vitiated English, and when he does con-
descend to make a lever de rideau out of it, mangles it through
his perverse habit of mispronunciation. The Dutchman looks
upon the Taal in much the same light. An intelligent Hollander
writes me thus : " I hate and detest the Boer idiom, which is
a repulsive amalgam of old and modern Dutch, with traces of
Platt-Deutsch and English, and only good, or rather bad enough,
to disappear from among the races of mankind." This is of
value, merely as emphasising my point, that the appreciation of
vernacular is incompatible with the attitude of what arrogates
to itself a claim to progress and culture. The Taal has merely
undergone natural changes on old lines, but less rapidly than
Dutch. It has borrowed a little from English, and almost less
from Kaffir, for no people ever learns much from a race on a
lower plane of culture than its own, though the two may be
commingled. The Highlander and Lowlander have always had
very close intercourse at many points, but English and Scottish
borrowings in Gaelic vastly outnumber Gaelic terms in Scots
or English.
The Taal, or Kaapsche,^ as the Hollander calls it, has closer
affinities with Lowland Scots than with any other European
tongue, except Dutch. Its resemblance to German is mainly
superficial. Certainly the philologist is constantly reminded
of German in studying the Taal, but the uneducated Boer or
German speaker would quite overlook this, for their consonantal
systems are entirely different. On the other hand, the Frisian
speech was, in very early times, common to the eastern and
1 Kaapsche, speech of the Cape, to which for generations the Dutch
colonists were confined.
192 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
western shores of the North Sea, and these shores were more
nearly opposite, and united therefore more closely by trade, on
the side of Scotland than of England. In addition, the two
peoples enjoyed substantially the same Calvinistic type of
Church, a type which has been even better preserved in South
Africa than in either Scotland or Holland. Certainly, during
the first half of the eighteenth century, a Scotsman would find
himself vastly more at home in Leyden, Eotterdam, or Amsterdam
than he would in London, or even Newcastle. The Boers them-
selves are well aware of this bond of union. The German
overseer in Olive Schreiner's " Story of an African Farm " tells
the knave, Blenkins, when introducing him to the Boer woman,
Tant Sannie, to call himself a Scotsman. The English she
hates.
It is a well-known characteristic of the Boer that he dearly
loves to walk in the old ways, and of these not the least
cherished is his vernacular. A few of the old-fashioned among
ourselves similarly cling fondly to their "braid Scottis," but
they are a fast vanishing quantity. The Boer always thinks
and speaks of his Taal or speech as die ou'we, his familiar abbrevi-
ation of old. Like the Scot he is fond of dropping I. Thus in
a version of " The Cottar's Saturday Night," by Eeitz, devoted
henchman to Kruger, he makes " the sire," die ou man, read een
sions lied (song) in d'Ouwe Taal, when " he wales a portion of
the big ha' Bible." This Taal is the Dutch of a century ago,
modified by the phonetic corruptions natural to the changed
surroundings and languid life on the Southern Veldt, and
mingled with such English and Kaffir as is necessary for inter-
course with the Uitlanders, to whom the old burgher's attitude
is as proudly conservative as that of any Prussian junker or
Highland duine-wassel, the over-lord whom the Norse imposed
upon Celtic communistic life. This type of the full-flavoured
Transvaaler is the Dopper Boer, an epithet that has sadly fallen
in English, suggestive as it is of that Simon Tapper-tit who was
the redoubtable hero of " Barnaby Eudge." In Dutch, however,
it still retains all the dignity of its German cognate, tapfer,
brave and valiant. From Dutch New York we have got it in
the very modern toff. But it is still a Scottish dialect word.
In Dumbartonshire as a note of admiration one hears, " My !
SIDE-LIGHTS 193
that's a topperer," with a verb also, to toper, to surpass, to
clinch. The Cumberland man applies " topperer " to any thing
or person that is superior, —
" The king's meade a bit of a speech,
An gentlefwok say it's a Topper." —
Anderson's " Cumberland Ballads."
The Dopper Kirk is the highest expression of this exclusive
unco-guidness, which also so markedly characterised the true-
blue Hillman of the seventeenth century. And with reason,
for both can trace their dourly militant Calvinism to the same
source — the Hollanders that baffled the legions of the Spanish
Inquisition. The Scottish Church in Eotterdam has for three
centuries marked the close affinity between Scot and Dutchman.
Here Wallace, leader of the hapless Pentland rising, was a ruling
elder, and so also was Hamilton, of " Old Mortality " fame, that
wilful but unfortunate leader who so bungled the defence of
Bothwell Brig. Here, too, John Brown of "Wamphray ordained
Kichard Cameron in 1679, to fall desperately afterwards
at Airdsmoss in 1681. From the Hillmen were recruited
those "doughty fighters, the Cameronians. The term Dopper,
applied to Dutch Calvinism in the Transvaal, is in no sense
ecclesiastical, though one sees it sometimes interpreted as the
Quaker, and again as the Baptist, Church. There is really
nothing to support either interpretation.
If we are to get along with the Dutch of the Cape we had
better try as soon as possible to understand this Taal to which
they cling so fondly. For nothing so wins the affections and
sympathies of a race with whom our lot may be cast as show-
ing a kindly interest in their homely speech. Unfortunately
the average Englishman is too apt to dispose of a strange tongue
as simply a " rum lingo " and not worth mastering. Similarly
to the Greek, everyone who did not understand his language
was classed as a barbarian, a babbler. In the case of an Asiatic,
a Polynesian, or a Negro dialect there is some excuse for in-
difference, but the Afrikander's speech is only indirectly a
foreign tongue. Apart altogether from those borrowed words
that reach us through education and trading intercourse, English
and Dutch are structurally akin, belonging as they do to cognate
13
194
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
branches of the great Teutonic family. Though in usage the
Afrikander's vocables largely follow German, his consonantal
system is frequently identical with English. Thus he speaks
of somer and winter, dag and daa'e {g elided) and nooit, hart and
bleed, vleesch and bane, steen and leem, vuur and water, and
ijs, melk and hotter, and brood and drank, a Bijbel and a boek
— all easily recognisable under the thin guise of altered spelling
and pronunciation. His familiar epithets are obviously akin to
ours, such as —
Taal.
Sc.
Eng.
Jong
yung
young
niuwe
noo
new
warm
warr'm
warm
keel
ciile
cool
siek
seek
sick
wel
weel
well
fijn
fine
fine
doof
daef
deaf (defif)
wit
white
white (wite)
grijs
grey
grey
The wearing-down process is very apparent in epithets like goeje
(good), rooje (red), breeje (broad), weije (wide), ouwe (old), koud
(cold). The Scottish vernacular does not go quite so far, though
one may hear 's-awfyka' the day for " It's awfully cold to-day."
On the other hand, an unnecessary dental was added as in
publict, witht. Such forms are found late in the eighteenth
century. A medial guttural is also objectionable to the Boer.
Thus he says daa'e for daage (days), and oo'ies for oogies
(eyes), and even a final g may go as in lui, lazy, where we
have an interesting modification of the syllable seen in Eng-
lish lag and laggard.
Action words also show close resemblances, such as we find
in leef (live), groei (grow), kom, gaan (go), ken (know), vergeet,
vergee (forgive), dek (deck), bloos (blush), sit, staan (stand), seg
(say), and leg (lie). "Words for relationship exhibit equally
affinity and lazy articulation — va'er (father), broer, neef (nephew),
but others have been little changed, as moeder, suster, and sussie,
seun, dochter. In North-eastern Scotland dialectic variations
SIDE-LIGHTS 195
show forms like fader, breeder, neeper (neighbour). This last,
again, is the Irish " Napper Tandy '' in the " Wearin' o' the
Green." South African speech has further remarkable affinities
with Scottish dialects. " Is dit die naaste pad ? " for Is't the
nearest (nighest) path or road ? might almost be heard here at
home. We regularly find neest for nearest in Scottish verse.
"When one hears in some country districts in Scotland such
words as nearder and faarder for nearer and faarer (Eng. farther
is wrongly formed), one is apt to regard them as ignorant
corruptions, but they are really double comparatives (naa-re-d-er,
faar-re-d-er), showing the older affix — re as in more — and the
latter er with d inserted to separate the liquids. Now in Dutch
it is the rule to insert d before er in adjectives ending in re, as
vere, verder (far, farther) and zwaare, zwaarder (sweerer).
The wearing-down process is still more apparent where
affinity with German is most direct. Thus we have na'ant (guten
Abend, good evening), eers (erste, first), lus (Lust, pleasure).
Here (Kleider, clothes), rus-plaas (Eust-platz, rest-place), rek
(reeht, right), eenvoudig (einfaltig, onefold), gen (kein, no), blij
(bleiben, remain), glo (glauben, believe), krij (kriegen, obtain),
spreck (sprechen, speak), slaan (schlagen, strike), snij (schneiden,
cut), verjaa (verjagen, drive off). But the consonantal changes
generally incline to the English or Low rather than to the
German or High Dutch type, as these examples show : Oudste
or ouste (alteste, oldest), deur (Thiire, door), ook (auch, eke), diep
(tief, deep), twede (zweite, second). It is curious to find that
Cape Dutch, like Scots, prefers to harden initial sch into sk in
contrast to German, as shown in skrij (Sc. skrive, Ger. sehreiben,
write) and schade (Sc. skaid, Ger. Schade, damage). As Heeren
Logeman and Oordt say, the rule is absolute, we ought to call
the prominent politician Schreiner, Skreiner, in Taal fashion,
and, this connects the name with the old Scottish trade of the
skriners, originally shrine-workers, and latterly cabinet-makers.
The most interesting affinities of the Taal are with Lowland
Scots, and this quite apart from borrowings. One of the most
characteristic features of our dialects is the fondness for diminu-
tives to north of Tay, evidently a survival of Norse and Frisian
influences. This is well marked in the Taal as in merrie (mare),
beitjie (bit), meisie (miss), wortjie (word), hartjie (heart), kereltje
196
STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
(carlie). In some cases one hears even the Scottish tones of the
voice as in —
Tad.
Sc.
Eng.
huis
hooss
house
muis
mooss
mouse
vrind
freend
friend
en
an'
and
kerel
caerl
carle
seker
siccar
secure
een
ane
one
heel
hale
whole
nieer
mair
more
groote
such
kijk
sweet
grit
sooch
keek
sweet, swaet
great
sigh
(look)
sweat
crau
craw
crow
dwijn
wijt
bees
dwine
wyte
beas (s. and pi.)
(pine away)
(blame)
beast
ure
oor
hour
juist
zoolang
duik
jilst
so long !
dook
just
good by !
duck (dive)
If we consider slight variations in sound, with or without change
of sense, further resemblances arise. Thus we find elk for the
Scottish ilka (each), speul, to play, for speel, to climb ; spoor, a
trace, for speer, to find out by asking ; hou (hold) for hud, and ge'
for gied (gave), both with dropped dental; stuit, to knock up
against, for stot, to rebound ; duiwel, the devil, for deevil ; loup, to
go, or run for loup, to jump. Boer preferences, even, seem to run
on Scottish rather than Dutch lines, witness his persistent choice
of maak (make) rather than the Hollander's do. Even phrases
have a familiar ring to the Scotsman's ear, as " een gang o'
water " (very hard to put concisely in English), or " jij moet
huis toe gaan " (ee mon gang to ee hoose). When in Fergusson's
" Leith Eaces " we read : " The races done, we hale the dules wi'
drink o' a'-kin kind," we have a genuine Taal phrase, " haal die
doel," to reach the aim or goal. The dulls are still familiar to
SIDE-LIGHTS 197
schoolboys as standpoints in the game of rounders. A Scot
might say with a Boer, "Dat's het" for "That's it," while such
phrases as these translate themselves : Hoe veel wil u be ? Ik
is met pa ; wat meen jij ? H6 je een beitjie brood voor mij ?
In grammar the resemblances between the Taal and Scots
are equally striking. The double negative is frequently used in
both, as "It'll no be hizz nether." The Northern English sub-
stantive verb uses is throughout, and this is the rule in Cape
Dutch: "Ik is een arm man," I am a poor man; "Die tije is
zwaar," The times is hard (sweer). The verb have is either hae
or het, singular and plural, as " 0ns het al-tijd lets te mis voor
een arm mens," Hizz hae all-tide something tae spare for a poor
man ; " Die kinders het vrinde genog," The children have friends
enough. So one hears in Scbtland, " Oor bairns hizz (or hae)
naethin' to maak a wark aboot." The Boer preserves the sub-
junctive as Burns and older writers do : " Ik ga niet uit want
(Ger. wenn) ik ben ziek," I go not out if I be sick. A parallel
idiom is, for the time of day, half two (half-past one), twal oor
(midday, twaalf uur, in Taal).
In one respect the Taal has the advantage of the Scots
vernacular. As a living speech it grows and adapts itself to
new conditions. How modern are these words and phrases,
alike in their old-world guise ! — faar-keeker, a telescope ; spoor-
boekjie, a time-table ; on-smet, to disinfect ; snij-dokters, cutting
doctors, surgeons ; ik shorthand ken en kan typewrite. One
looks, also, to such elements as metaphors, proverbs, and the
like for evidences of vitality in a language. The Boer's blad
stil (blade still) strikingly depicts a dead calm. These popular
sayings are simple, but expressive : —
Zoo vast as een Mip = so huge as a cliff
(cf. " The shadow
of a great rock").
slim ,, „ jakhal = sly as a jackal.
stil „ „ muis = quiet as a mouse.
zach „ veeren = soft as feathers.
dood „ een klip = dead as a stone.
koud „ ijs = cold as ice.
oud „ die Kaap = old as the Cape.
Een kerel as een boom = a fellow like a tree, a blockhead.
198 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Proceeding in less obvious directions, we meet with many
Boer words that are rich in suggestions of old-world ways and
words in Lowland Scotland. This is true even where com-
parison with German is directly involved. Thus the Volksraad
or council of the folk points clearly to German Eath, counsel, but
it lived almost to our day in Scotland. Burns in his " Epistle
to a Young Friend " says, " And may you better reck (heed) the
rede (counsel) than ever did the adviser." Its kindred sense of
good order survives still as in the phrase, " to redd up (tidy) the
house." The champion of the Eaad had an obviously German
name, Kriiger, a tapster, but this again is from Krug, well known
in Scotland as crock, a mug or tankard. Since this served as
a sign, a krug is in Dutch also a common public-house. The
regular Dutch for crockery is crock-werk. Leem, or clay, was
a seventeenth-century borrowing from Holland, for Sir Eobert
Sibbald in his " Stirlingshire " tells us where laim was made in
the county. Grigor says (" Glossary of Buchan Dialect ") that
in Buchan it now means a broken piece of crockery. It is
difficult to associate the simple, patriarchal, pious Boer with
a taste for the alehouse, but those familiar with him do not
hesitate to say that he is sometimes " under the influence."
Anyhow, he knows the Dutch for a village alehouse, kneipe,
familiar, as a comparatively recent borrowing from Holland,
among German students, who revel in their Bier-kneipen. One
is tempted to connect it with " the reamin nappie " of Burns. To
judge by the Buchan use of nappie it primarily refers to the jug
and not the liquor it contains. The Boer has two words for a
dram — a sopje and a slag. Thus in " A Veldt Official " a Boer says,
" Come in and have a glass of grog, Musgrave ; we'll have our
sopje anyhow." It suggests the soupe that old Hawkie afforded
in " The Cottars," though this was in the innocent form of milk.
The Taal " slag " is just the familiar Scottish slocken, to quench
thirst. In Shetland sluck is to gulp in drinking. And as gorge
and gully both involve the metaphor of a throat-like pass, so
slack is common in place-names for a defile. Thus we have
the farm of Gate Slack in the long glen or Pass of Dalveen, of
which Burns sings in " Last May a Braw Wooer."
The Boer is essentially a nomad, taking naturally to a roving
life in his waggon with all his dependants, as did his remote
SIDE-LIGHTS 199
Gothic ancestors when they moved slowly but irresistibly west-
wards across the great plain of Europe even to the shores of the
North Sea. But the monotony of his outlook over the arid,
treeless veldt is very different from that of his remote ancestor,
hemmed in by the weird gloom of the primeval forest, where
lurked the wolf and the bear and the wild boar. The climate
compels him to be on the move still. At the end of April he
packs up his waggons on the high veldt where he has spent the
summer, shuts up his house, and treks to the lower or bush veldt
for the winter feeding. The rains set in at the end of September,
when he returns to his house with his belongings. This is a
primitive custom of northern lands adapted to new conditions.
The " summer sheelins " lingered longest in the Highlands, but
they were general in Old Scotland. In the " Complaint of Scot-
land" (1545 ?) there is a delightfully realistic description of this
popular custom, which did more than all else put together to
foster the popular literature of ballad, song, dance, and folk-lore
generally. But of this aspect there seems to exist only Psalm-
singing among the Boers. Another seasonal word, oogst, harvest
(oo'st tijd, 'in the Taal), has also been transferred by the first
settlers to their new home under the Southern Gross, for it is
but another form of August. This oo'st of the Boer is the old
French Aoust (Aout) of his Dutch Huguenot ancestors. The
original significance of the term must long have been forgotten,
for this month is nearly mid-winter in South Africa.
An officer in the first Boer War graphically sketches the
landscape on the veldt ("Blackwood's Magazine," 1880-81):
"You may travel a hundred miles without seeing a tree.
Houses are ugly cottages, with low roofs of galvanised iron, so
low as to escape notice altogether but for the clump of blue
gums beside them " (cf. " Cottar's Saturday Night," —
" At length his lonely cot appears in view
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree ").
"A few acres not far off are under the plough. Through the
middle of the scene is a stream or bog, from which water is got.
Eound a part of it runs a stone wall to keep the cattle out. The
windows of the house have four small panes. Pigs, cows, and
dogs and children run at large together. The roads are a bit
200 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
of dirty tape thrown down carelessly on the veldt, and not even
pulled tight. Waggons are always straying from the track for
firmer ground. In bottoms flows a marshy spruit or burn.
Where there is a drift or ford this is churned into pools, where
maybe a dead ox is lying." If we substitute thatch for the
galvanised roof this might pass for a description of much of
Scotland, even so recently as last century. In fact it is a
graphic picture of an old-time Highland clachan set amid its
background of local colour. Certainly wheeled vehicles in Old
Scotland were fewer, but the bridle tracks sought the firm high
ground as independently, avoiding the bogs where the cattle
might be lairdet (bemired). The ford was as troublesome as
the drift, and equally a source of danger or delay when a spate
came down. The Boer transferred the name veldt from his
northern home. It is the Norwegian and Scottish fell. An
obscure survival of it in Scotland is haemit, a peculiarly expres-
sive word for what is homely and familiar. A less contracted
form — haemilt — prevails in the North-eastern counties, where
it means pasture adjoining an enclosure. In Icelandic it is
heimilt, a contraction for the heim-veld. One familiar only
with haemit might well take haemilt to be a corruption instead
of the purer and older form.
The Boer farming customs are much like those of Old Scot-
land, where the farm land was divided into the infield or arable
portion, enclosed by a fael or turf dyke, and the outfield or open
grazings on the moorland. The name itself, as bower, is regu-
larly used in Ayrshire for a dairy farmer on the steelbow, Fr.
metayer, system. Near the homestead was the loanin or haemilt
where the cows were kept at milking-time or during the heat of
the day ; and this ground, being thus heavily manured or tothed,
as it was called, raised the best here crop of the following
season. In the dry air of the veldt the cow-dung is invaluable
as fuel, but in bygone Scotland it was too frequently thrown
into the burn, which was as little conserved as a Boer spruit.
This word is well known in Scotland, though in a different
sense, that is, as the spruit or spout of a kettle. Before the
introduction of draining many were the wet spots where the
rushes grew in such plenty that the general name for the plant
was sprits Originally sprit meant to spurt or squirt out water
SIDE-LIGHTS 201
(Du. spruiten, Ger. spriessen). In English the root was trans-
ferred to growing, hence sprout. The Banff hill farmer applies
it to a particularly tough, strong rush which he twists into
ropes. " Spritty knowes " or wet, rush-grown spots (water
springs) were only too common in the pre-draining days. Burns,
too, tells how his mare Maggie stoutly " spread abroad her well-
filled briskit " and pulled the plough over " the spritty knowes."
The favourite term in the West of Scotland for the kettle nozzle
is not sprout but stroup, of Norse origin. The " Bachelor to his
Bellows" in "Kilwuddie" sings, —
" Eay ther than see a f rien' sae leal
Gang ony siccan roads,
I'd mak a poker o' yer stroup,
Twa pat-lids o' yer brods."
A ditch, again, is a sluit, an old Dutch and Boer word familiar
in Scotland for a mill-lade as being controlled by a sluice. The
Sclate, or old burgh, mill of Irvine probably meant originally
the mill on the sluit.
The nomadic habits of the Boer are reflected in his language.
To go on foot is to be a thief and a liar, as are all pedlars and
gangrel bodies, such as were those sorners who were hunted off
to their own parish in Old Scotland. Every honest Scottish
farmer must ride his own nag with sonsy goodwife on the pillion
behind, even though that were only a turf seat, the sonks that
we read of as doing such service. At the kirk-stile and before
the ha'-house stood the loupin-on stane, the counterpart of the
Boer stoep. This is not a Celtic racial feature but a Norse one,
for the Highlander has always been an infantry man, and kept
his garron merely for the pack-saddle. On St. Michael's Day in
Norse Scotland everyone in the township had to mount and
enjoy a mad gallop. Eiding the marches is still a great holiday
in some Lowland towns, and the hroose is not long extinct, in
which the wild stampede of the bridal party from the kirk to
the home earned for the first comer his bottle. To his horse
the Boer applies a modification of the German Pferd in the
form of paard or pirt. Cronje made his last desperate stand at
Paardeberg, the hill of horses. So much a part of the Boer's
202 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
life is his horse that he says, " Ik het een honger as een paard,"
for our " hungry as a hawk." But the bridle is known as toom,
identical with the English team, though in a different sense.
As in all primitive communities, the thong is the handiest
material for cordage, and this is the Boer reim or reimpjie.
" He had knee-haltered the animal with too great a length of
reim. . . . Tom, the Kaffir boy, was dressed in the ordinary
slop clothes of a store, more or less tattered, and more or less
ingeniously repaired with bits of reimpjie " ("A Veldt Official ").
In German the word is Riemen, but is also Old English. As it
is properly applied to long, narrow strips of hide, one should
connect it with the Scottish runes {m and n frequently inter-
change), the selvage of cloth. Hence Bums jocosely calls
mischievous youngsters run-deils, strips, as it were, of Old
Nick. In the Scots Privy Council Eegisters (1620) there is an
interesting example of the word : " Grite abuse by slascheing
of hydis and cutting of some of the rinie away."
To complete his equipment the Boer wants only his gun,
and this he visualises by a term peculiarly his own. " Eoden
could find no buyer for his old smooth-bore. A Boer would
pick it up. ' A good roer,' would be his verdict, ' an excellent
roer in its day ' " (" A Veldt Official "). This word is explained
by the German Bohr, a reed. It is only a variant of rush, as in
bulrush, or in Burns's " Green Grow the Eashes," where rashes
means, however, a different plant. The roer is the Boer's con-
stant companion. He is not only a born sportsman, but, as lord
over an inferior but treacherous race, he is a wary " man of war
from his youth up." Knowing himself to be left as his own
master, one of a governing few among many, he instinctively
selects the defensive positions which the country affords in
abundance. He prefers the advantage of a kopje, and using
the stones scattered about in profusion, speedily constructs his
schants or breastwork. Here we have the German Schanze,
common on the lower Ehine in the sense of a bundle of sticks,
such as the Dutch construct so cleverly to fence their water-
ways. This old Dutch word is used in the form sconce by
Shakspere, both as bulwark and humorously as the skull, the
bulwark of the head : " To knock him about the sconce with a
dirty shovel." When the Boer finds himself snugly en-sconced
SIDE-LIGHTS 203
behind his schants with roer in hand he is not, as we know
too well, easily dislodged.
The waggon is of no less importance to the nomad Boer. It
is his house, and, if surprised in the open, his castle too, for he
then forms a hollow square, or laagers-up, within the square of
waggons placed end to end. On the move in the waggon he
treks, and when he yokes and unyokes he inspans or outspans
respectively. There are two very common verbs in Lowland
Scotland — trake, to gad about, and troke, to barter — the former
of which is probably the Dutch trek, to take the road. In the
Cumberland dialect treak is an idle fellow, and as a verb to
wander idly about. " What is't ta treaken about this teyme o'
neet ? " There is no doubt about spayig, to stretch, being widely
known in Scotland, particularly to boys when playing bools or
marbles. In Orkney spong is to stride. Stevenson uses it
effectively in his " Underwoods," —
" An' whiles the bluid spangs to my bree,
To lie sae saft, to live sac free,
While better men maun do an' die
In unco places."
Not the least interesting phase in the study of words is the
modification of a radical idea under the influence of race and
environment. As every term involves substantially a buried
metaphor we thus see how unknown namers looked at the
objects to the naming of which they diverted the stock of
linguistic material that was the general property of the race.
Many Transvaal words are not only in form but also conception
identical with our own vernacular, but not a few, while radically
akin, are put to new uses. This is specially the case with
features of the landscape. It is natural to name the new and
strange by reference to the old and familiar. Thus the Norse
settlers in Clydesdale, arrested by the striking appearance of
the isolatiid hill, Tinto, nairied it after a home term, tand, a
tooth. So the Boers called those knobs that form the foot-hills
of the Drakenaberg, Kops or heads (German Kopf). But the
radical idea was nothing more than anything rounded and
prominent. Chaucer visualises his miller thus, —
204 STUDIES IN' LOWLAND SCOTS
" Upon the cop right of his nose he hade
A werte, and thereon stood a tuft of heres,
Eeede as the berstles of a sowes eeres."
The word appears with variations of vowel and sense : cup, cap,
cob, ettercop (spider), kibe (a swoln sore on the heel, Shak.).
Lower eminences, again, have the diminutive form, kopje, and
this is merely the Scottish cappie in the kindly wish, "May you
aye be happy and ne'er drink oot o' a toom (empty) cappie ! "
though the point of view is widely different. In Cape Dutch
hop is also the favourite word for "head," and not the Hollander
lioofd, which is used only in a figurative sense as die hoofd-laager
or headquarters. In Holland, on the other hand, kop is regarded
as a vulgar term for the head. Compare the vulgar English,
nut. Similarly, the French t§te is the Latin testa, a pot, while
in Scots the skull is the harn-pan.
There is indeed but little play for the imagination on the
monotonous veldt. It is otherwise with the torrent-swept
passes of the Drakensberg, where beck and spruit have eroded
the slopes into profound, rock-walled gorges. The Boer, modi-
fying the Dutch klip, a crag, calls such a place a kloof. Here,
habituated as we are to rock-bound coasts, the word is used in
the form cliff. Another feature of the lofty passes is a hoek,
such as Bushman's in the Stormberg, which cost G-atacre so
dear. " The ground sloped abruptly down from about a hundred
feet, forming with the jutting elbow of the cliff a snug, grassy
hoek or corner " (" A Veldt Official "). One sees in this word a
derivative from the Norse holka, more familiar in Scotland as
howk, to dig up. Hence at home here a hoek is called a hauch,
only the scene of it is not a rocky pass, but a broad flat holm
by a riverside. In Highland scenery it is the laggan, or laich,
place. Still more welcome to the trekker, as his cattle toil
wearily up the pass, is the nek. "Ambling along the dusty
waggon-road which led up to the grassy nek, about a mile from
the township," is a bit of description in "A Veldt Official."
This word is the equivalent of the French col (Lat. coUum, the
neck), familiar to Alpine climbers, and a form of Scots, nick,
notch.
Bygone social life in Scotland is reproduced in the speech of
SIDE-LIGHTS 205
the Transvaal. In Old Edinburgh, the mistress of a bonny land
in Advocates' Close, when the christening came on after a lying-in,
sat up in bed in high dress and received her acquaintances who
came to congratulate her and taste her sweet-cakes. This was
the cummers' (French, comm^re) feast, or in Dutch the Jcraam-
hezuk (German, Besuch) visit. Cummer is still a general rustic
synonym for a lass. In the Transvaal the bed on such occasions
is the kraam, a booth or screen, also the name of those stalls,
the krames, that were hidden away between St. Giles and the
Luckenbooths in Old Edinburgh. They were borrowed from the
picturesque shops that surround the cathedrals of the Nether-
lands. A Kram in Germany is a small shop, but the custom of '
the kraam-bezuk is there known as the Kind- (child) or Wochen-
bett (bed). Another singular survival both of Teutonic social
customs and vocables, is a Boer opsij or rustic wooing. The
term is a variant of up-sit (omission of final dental). The " up-
set " in a Scots burgh was the fee payable to the craft on admis-
sion to the trading privileges of a master. The conviviality
attending the function long survived among artisans as a
" foy." When a meisjie, or a widow well tochered with suffi-
cient skaap (sheep), is visited by an eligible Dopper, " kom
tae vrij " (woo), he off-saddles, and, if graciously received, pre-
pares to improve the occasion with the bucolic reserve of the
Laird of Dumbiedykes. The vrouw takes the long candles
from the shrank (cupboard), and leaves wooer and wooed to sit
up together till the grey dawn breaks, a custom which, in one
form or another, rural Scotland long looked on kindly. The
envied fair one, who has many of such vrijers, may have to
sit up four or five nights a week till the eventful choice is
made.
There is abundant evidence in language to prove that the
ancient Northumbria — that is. Lowland Scotland from Tay to
Humber — was a Frisian or Dutch settlement. Both find their
affinities in the fertile plains of the lower Danube among
those Goths for whom their good countryman, Bishop Wulfila,
translated the gospels into their vernacular in the fourth
century.' The very tones of his converts live in the Dutch —
206 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Dutch.
8c.
Eng.
wan
whan
when
dan
than
then
nu
noo
now
oot
oot
out
een
ane
one
In his version the thieves twitted (id-weitjan, Du. ver-witjan)
Jesus on the Cross, just as any Lowland Scot puts the wite
(Du. wijt) or blame on another. The hireling shepherd in the
parable is betrayed by his framath voice, the Dutch vremmd,
and Scottish fremd. Scott, writing to John Ballantine, says :
" Walter will be in town by the time this reaches you, looking
very like a cow in a fremd loaning " (paddock). The disciples
take of the fragments twelve baskets full of Iroclc (ga-bruko,
Du. brok), a term familiar in every kitchen. The Shetlander
calls the offal of fish, Irucks. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that
"all things are lawful, but are not expedient," which Wulfila
renders, " All bi-nah, akei ni all daug," where we have the Boer
deiig, virtue, merit, the root of which is primarily a pastoral
metaphor, to yield milk, then to be good for. It gives us
doughty, and do in the phrase, " Will that do ? " The old verb
dow, to be worth, be able, is still in use in Central Scotland.
In "Johnie Armstrong's Last Good Night" there is a good
illustration, —
" These four-and-twenty mills complete,
Shall gang for thee through a' the year ;
And as meikle of gude red wheat
As a' their hoppers dqw to bear."
When the Saviour sends out the twelve on mission He says :
" And put not on two coats " — " Jah ni vasjaith tvaim paidom."
Here Wulfila uses a very old word for a peasant's coat of sheep-
skin, faida. This explains the contemptuous Boer name for
an English red-coat, a rooi-baatjie. Both forms follow the
Greek /SaixTj, a peasant's coat of skins, not the modern Dutch
pije, a coat of coarse woollen stuff. This latter is what we hear
in pea-jacket and the mediteval courte-py. It is remarkable
that Dutch uses not this antique baatje, but jakse or mantle
SIDE-LIGHTS 207
(Ger. Jacke, jacket). In the Taal it is applied as in the sen-
tence, " Is die Heere nie bang dat het sal gaan reen ? . . . N6,
ons h§t almaal reen-baatjes " — Are you gentlemen not afraid
that it is going to rain? . . No, we have always waterproofs-
Calvary, again, in the Gothic is hvairneistaths or harn-stead
(Du. hersen-pan, Sc. harn-pan), the pot which holds the hams
or brains. This renders the phrase, " the place of a skull," in
the English version.
The homely aspect of life and its relations are naturally
prominent. The patriarchal head is the huis heer, or, gener-
,ally, the baas, based on the figure of the boss on a shield or
the Scotch bush, the nave or hub of a wheel on which the
spokes (children), felloes (dependents), and rim (outer world)
all depend. Vrouw, the housewife, is the term of honour in
preference to wife. The children are the kleintjies, the little
ones (Ger. Klein). Broers and broederen preserve the dis-
tinction in brothers and brethren. Kindly inquiries take such
forms as these : " Maarie, waar (whaur) is jou zussie ? Is dit
jou dochterjie ? " Conventional address is equally patriarchal.
One younger than the speaker is son ; of his own age, neef
(knave, in Ger. boy, lad) ; if a lady, tante ; if younger, nicht
(Ger. nephew). Ou is familiarly addressed to anyone, like our
old, old boy. Parts of the body are quite intelligible, such as
the " luff (or palm) van de hand," the oor (ear), and the oksel,
or armpit (Sc. oxter).
In the domestic series the Boer comes equally close to the
Scot. He mends the vuur (fire) with tangs (tongs), hoests
(coughs), has a kinJchoest (whooping-cough), snotters or snivels,
knows the virtue of a steek in time, taps his beer with a kraan,
admires a Ireed shouder and sound lids (Du. leden, C. Du. le'e,
joints, " lith and limb "), and prides himself in being slim
(Sc. slim, Du. slem, Ger. schlimm), believes himself to be kloek
(Ger. Mug, clever) or gleg i' the uptak like the Scot. His huis
has a roef, and a gevel (Gothic gibla, pinnacle of the Temple).
From the stoep one enters the one large common room, the
kitchie (Aberd.) of this ha'-house, with sleeping chambers
leading off it. The hultong and the mealies hanging from the
rafters represent the Scottish Iraxy and the weel-hained
kebbooks. The loft above is reached by a trap (Ger. Treppe).
208 STUDIES IN LOWLAIH) SCOTS
This is the usual Scots word for a ladder. In school to take
down a rival and thus climb higher in the class we called to trap.
The Taal calls a stair a trap, as in the sentence, " CJa die trap
op, loop voorbij (walk past) twee deure in die gang (passage), en
klop (clap, knock) dan aan die derde deur," where the language
is Scots enough to be easily followed. The "who goes up
my winding stair " connects trap as at once a stair and a snare.
The window, as in a Scottish borrowstoon when glass was scarce,
closes with a schut or wooden screen, a term in constant use
here in olden days. Amid the reek (So. Du. rook, smoke) hangs
the pot on the fire by the lum-cleek (Du. and Sc. lum, a chimney,
and klik a hook and eleek in golf), while the guidwife plies her
canny trokes (Sc. Du. drok, busy) about the kitchen in home-
made vel-schoen {fell or skin shoes), the bauchles or revlins
(Orkney) of the days before machine-made slippers. Out of
doors the Boer would recognise the sheep flake (Sc. and Du,)
or hurdle, originally of flaked or plaited twigs, and the
thoroughly Scottish saying, " Let the tow (rope) gang (gaan) wi'
the bucket," for the folly of crying over spilt milk. He makes
a kink (Sc. Mnch) on his tovj or tuig, and might easily hazard a
guess at the meaning of Bums's lines, —
" My fur a-hin's (oflf-wheeler) a wordy beast (Du. waarde bees)
As e'er in tug or tow was traced."
A Cape man, doing business up-country, was buying horses for
his waggon, and this is what the Boer seller had to say for
them : " Die paar paarde is goed geleer (weel learnt) in die
tuig." A pole or stick is a sta'rvg, just as in the Scottish phrase
to ride the stang, and to smother is to smore. When the auld
mare came to a stey (steep) brae. Burns reminds her, —
" Just thy step a wee thing hastet,
Thou snoov't awa'."
This shows the Boer moove, to walk smoothly. A " stey brae "
is in the Transvaal " een steile op-draus," a stiff up-drawing or
climb, where we have the same word as there is in stile, or steps
over a wall in the absence of a slap or a yett. It is, indeed,
surprising to find so many of the homeliest Scots expressions
SIDE-LIGHTS 209
in the Taal. One might fancy a private of the Scottish Borderers
becoming quite brotherly with a Boer,, for the jou (you to rhyme
with now) and the mij (me) of both are almost identical in
sound. The Boer's inquiry, " Is jou hoofd zeer ? " — is your head
sore, would not sound strange. Similarly a Cameronian in the
Scottish Eifies would find his strong r in " warm " quite equiva-
lent to the Boer's warem(e), as also the long vowel in school-
maistre (C. Du. meester). Both will agree in taking a wife or a
wifie in a depreciatory sense. The respectful vrouw is applied to
a woman. The Scot would understand the Boer's " Ga maar binne
in die huis" (gae mair ben the hoose), a "sully k^rel" for a
simple-minded sumph is his own phrase, and 'tweel I wat is
almost his way of saying "I am well aware" ("Net weel Ik
weet " — pronounced wait). "Who could miss " Ja, dat is het " — -
that's hit. When we read in Burns, " The gossip keekit in his
loof," we almost hear the Boer's "Hij kijk in die leof." The
obscure word iets, used in preference to the Hollander wat
(what) for anything indefinite, and its negative niets are very
common in the Taal, They are contractions for Scottish ocht
and nocht (Eng. aught and naught). Both appear in the
sentence, " H^ je een beitje brood voor mij ? " " N^, ik h6 ver
jou niets, maar (but, mair, cf, Fr, mais, majus) die man daar het
iets ver jou." "Neem een komme water en dicht die vloere
op " (take a kimmin o' water an' clean up the floor) shows, in
Tisem, an old English verb which Shakspere had in mind
when he qalled a pickpocket Corporal Nym ; while kimmin
(komme) is a well-known East Coast word for what would in
Lanarkshire be called a bine or bucket. " Die lum rijk zwaar "
is the Kaapsch (C. Dutch) for "The chimney smokes badly,"
where zwaar is the Lowland Scottish sweer, unwilling, but used
in a slightly different sense. The Boer says, " Die pad is zwaar
Zand " (the road is very sandy). " Die tije (tide-time) is zwaar " —
the times are hard, "Dat is veel waart" — that is worth a great
deal, and " G6 die man een stuk brood " — gie the man a piece
bread, these all sound homely enough.
The kijk of the Taal is felt by the Hollander to be not
so dignified as his ziet, which the Transvaaler again avoids.
Similarly the German thinks its cognate gucken nicM so fein
as sehen, But d Dutch is fond of kijk, as witness the homely
14
210 STUDIES m LOWLAND SCOTS
phrases — '' Kijk hoe mooi die weer nou is " (See how nice the
weather is now) ; "Kijk een beetje, daar kom mijn broer, Jakob ;"
" Hij kijkt naar je " (He's keekin naar ye) ; " Wach een \ beetje,
laa mij kijk " (Wait a bittie, let me [of. Lanarksh. Le'me] see).
" Een val ver die muis " is the Boer way of describing a mouse-
trap. Here we have the German falle, and, curiously, the East
Coast of Scotland word also, a mooss-faw (Norse musfoU), with
the usual dropping of a final I. A val deure is a trap-door.
Evefi the youthful Boer would understand the Doric, to swei
(Du. zwaai, swing) on a gate and to be roopie with a bad cold,
for his roep (Sc. roup, an auction) means a call or a hoarse shout.
From the sway or swei-cruck, in the old Scottish kitchen, hung
the kail-pot. The request of the family doctor is equally familiar :
" Laa' een beetje jou torig zien." " Wat kan ik voor u doen,
Jufvrouw ? " (Let me see your tongue. What can I do for you.
Miss ?) When he says " Daar teekens is van een besmettelijke
ziekte" (there are tokens of an infectious sickness), he uses an
expression almost identical with the Lowland Scots, smit and
smittel. The Dutchman speaks plainly. He calla corns, for
example, likdoorns (body- thorns), using, the old word we have
in lyke-wake, and calls a surgeon a snij-dokter or cutting doctor.
He even turns his humour in grim directions. " Hei izet hoekie
omgegaan " is his euphemism for " He has died." He uses here
the diminutive of hoelc a corner. Some may see in it a connection
with our slang, Hook it ! and Hooky Walker.
It will be seen that our current vernacular can claim close
kin with the Cape Dutch. But the comparison also carries us
back to olden times. There a roes has still the force it had in
Hamlet's " The king has ta'en his rouse," for boisterous con-
viviality. One can recognise in it the Orcadian ruz, to praise,
boast. Burns to Gavin Hamilton sings, —
" Expect na, sir, in this narration,
A fleechin, flethiin Dedication,
To roose you up, and ca' you guid,
An' sprung b' great and noble bluid,
Because ye're sirnamed hke his Grace."
In Dutch, too, there is a very strong expression fot constant
tippling in the verb zuipen, familiar to us in our saep, to soak in.
SIDE-LIGHTS 211
More reputable illustrations, socially, are seen in mise, to spai'e,
as in " 0ns li6 altije iets ver een arm mens to mise " — "We havfe
dlways something to spare for a poor man. A parallel is found
in the Cumberland syper, as "The Hivverby lads at fair drinkin
are Sypers." In mise, to spare, we are reminded of the Scots
thrifty savings bank on the mantelpiece, the misert-pig, noted in
Grigor's " Glossary." The reader of such a fine illustrator of old
manners as Allan Eamsay meets with many interesting points in
Cape Dutch. His Luckenbooths, from the Dutch luilcen, to close,
means the shops that were not mere temporary stalls. The lok-
man was the jailer, and the closed daisy was said to be loeken.
The vernacular look for a quantity is no corruption of lot, but
merely a synonym for a nievefu' or fist-full. In the expression,
again, for " he is dressed," the Cape Dutch " hij trek aan "
reminds us of Roger in the " Gentle Shepherd," —
" An few gangs trigger to the kirk or fair,"
or the swains in " Hallowe'en," —
" The lads sae tng wi' wooer babs,
Weel knotted on their garten."
The series " zout, peper, mosterd, azjin (vinegar), zoet olie," is
of much interest. The obscure azjin reminds us of Hamlet's
" Woo't drink up Eysell ? " where we see the same stem, essen
to eat, with a different termination. The form olie for oil
is exactly what was so familiar to Allan Eamsay and Fer-
gusson in the vernacular of last century. It is the Dutch
form of the Latin oleum. In old speech it was always a dis-
syllable, hence the Olie or Oyl6 wall of St. Katharine's, near
Edinburgh,
But the Taal reminds us of many such points of social and
trading contact between old Holland and Scotland. This .is
still more evident when we turn to farming terms. The Boer
applied his rustic terms to the novel conditions of the mining
industry. Thus he spoke of myn-pachts or mining leases, and
here we recognise the pact and paction or bargain of our own
country. But more, strangely Btill, along the Forth or Dutch
212 STUDIES IN LOWLAOT) SCOTS
shore of Fife a small fanner is spoken of as a pachter or lease-
holder, and sometimes described contemptuously as a pauchlin
buddie. And even in so serious a matter as high politics words
familiar in old Scotch land-tenure are heard. The Boer con-
stitution or Grond-wet shows the well-known term a wad-set
for a property pledged under a mortgage, and in our vernacular
a bet or pledge is always a wad-g-er. A very common name,
too, in Scotland for a farm, a place, is universal in South Africa.
Thus one asks, " Hoe v'er is dit na die plaats van Oom Piet
Steen ? " How far is it to (Ger. naeh) Old Pete Steen's place ?
The homestead in the Lowlands is the toon (Ger. Zaun, hedge,
fence), but this the Boer uses strictly in its original sense of
an enclosure, or in rural England a garth, as in the phrase,
" Een meus kijk uit op die tuin," one may look out over the
garden, given as one of the attractions of a particular lodging.
The cultivated land of the Boer is without our most trouble-
some weed in olden times, the gool or wild marigold, but he has
the name in his ged, yellow. He knows nothing of the old-
fashioned bere or big, but oats he calls by its antique Scottish
name, haver, a word that the song preserves in its " haver-meal
bannocks." And when he mows his com he speaks of whetting
his scythe with a dijp, just as an Ayrshire man still does.
Though he uses a Kaffir word for his sheep-pen (kraal), it might
very well be called a fank as in the west of Scotland, for this
shows his verb vangen to catch, from which comes our quaint
legal terms, infang and ootfang theft, and the common descrip-
tion, " off the fang '' applied to a water-pump when too dry for
the valve to catch.
(&) Dunmn Gray.
Mr. Eeitz, Secretary of the quondam Transvaal Eepublic,
enjoyed an English education, but seems to have returned to
his home on the Veldt a confirmed separatist. His sense of
patriotism, deepened by his sojourn here, led him to do for his
brethren what King Alfred did for his Englishmen, and that
was to supply them with a native literature, or at least a
temporary substitute for it. He knew well that nothing so
SIDE-LIGHTS 213
supports the flame of patriotism as pride in the national speech.
This was in every way a laudable and progressive policy.
Krugerism, on the other hand, represented, to the Uitlanders
of Johannesburg and the Eand, a retrograde Conservatism.
Eeitz rightly tried to foster a popular literature, and so he
chose for the models he put before the young Boers such pieces
as " John Gilpin*" and, above all, the poems of Burns. They
were published, fifty in number, in 1888, when he was Chief
Justice of the Orange Free State. Of these pieces the outstand-
ing ones are " The Cottars," " Tarn o' Shanter," and " Duncan
Gray," They are suggestions more than translations. With
skill and judgment he selects the features that suit the Boer
environment, and adds many touches that spring out of the
changed situation. All of them throw most interesting light
on the peculiarities, of the people. In "The Cottars" Eeitz
admirably illustrates the rural homeliness and isolation of Boer
life, combined with characteristic social and devotional traits.
" Tam " shows the Boer in convivial mood, the victim at once
of good fellowship and uncanny spooks. He cheats Auld Nick
through his slimness and mobility. In " Duncan Gray," again,
we have the Boer in the lighter vein of a wooer or vrijer, a term
that is a survival from prehistoric times, for it is just the
masculine of the Freja or Norse Venus of our Friday or Freja
Day, and stdl heard in the Ger. Frau. In the Gothic goSpels of
the fourth century, frijon, to love, is cotnmon, while our Lord
is generally addressed as Frauja. The wooer is the young
farmer, Daautjie or Danie Grouws (cf. Ger. grau, grey), while
the wooed is the meisje (missie), Maartjie or Martha. A word-
for-word translation will enable the reader, with his Burns in
hand, to judge of the merits of the pieca It will be noted, in
this interlinear translation, that wherever an English word
could be found that was closely akin to its Taal equivalent it
has been used, though archaic from the modern point of view.
The second line, as the oft-recurring refrain, need appear only
once.
214 STUDIES IN LQWLAND SCOTS
DAANTJIE GEOUWS.i
Daantjie kom hier om te vrij,
Danie comes here for to woo.
Ja, met vrijers gaat dit soo,
Yes, 'mid wooers goes it so ;
Sondags-aants het hij vfer moet rij.
Sunday-eves he far must (O.-Eng. mote) ride.
Maartjie steek haar kop in die luch,
Martie sticks her head in the light,
Kijk soo skeef en trek terug,
Keeks so slyly and draws back,
Sit ver Daantjie glat op vlug.
Sets Danie clean on the wing.
Daantjie smeek en Daantjie bid.
Danie flatters -and Danie entreats (O.-Eng. bid, to p'ay).
Maartjie's doof en blif maar sit.
Martie is deaf, and remains however seated.
Daantjie such vir ure lang.
Danie sighs fow hour long.
VSe die trane van sijn wang.
Wipes the tears frorri his cheeks (Ger. die Wangeji),
Praat van hemselve op te hang, ,
Prattles of hirnself u^-to-hang,
Die tijd versach ^ maar oris gevoel.
But (maar cf. Fr. mais) time softens mr feelings.
Verachte liefde vford ook.koel.
Despised love w(nih (becomes) eke cool.
" Sal ik," aeg' hij, " nets (Ger. nichts) een gek,
"Shall I," says he, "an oyi,t-andout gowk (fool),
Om een laife meisie vrek ]
Fm- a laughing lassie be-driven-away ?
Sij kan naar die hoenders trek."
She can near the hens go.''
^ The text, of this piece is given in that unique and interesting collection,
" Robert Burns in Other Tongues," by Dr. Wm. Jacks (Glasgow : Maclehose,
1896). For help in the English translation I am indebted to my esteemed
friend, Miss Frances du Toit of Rondebosch, Cape Town, an accomplished
Afrikander. The language, though not the sense, I have altered so as to
suggest affinity wherever it exists.
2 Versach, as if Scots fer-soak, makes soak.
SIDE-JLIGHTS 215
Hoe dit kom lat dokters vertel,
Uow it comes let doctors tell.
Maartjie word siek en hij word wel,
Martie grows sick and he grows well.
Daar's lets wat an haar borsie knaa.
There's something what {that) in her hosojn gjiaios.
En hartjie-seer begin haar plaa,
And heart-sore begins her to-plague,
Haar oogies glinster ook maar braa.
Her eyes glisten eke more bright (Sc. mair hraw).
Daantjie was een sacbte ^ man,
Danie was a soft {Sc. sauchie) man,
En Maartjie trek haar dit soo an;
And Maaiie took it to her so,
• > Daantjie, krij ^ jammer in sijn hart.
Danie felt pity in his heart.
■ Die liefde groei weer an sijn part.
Love grew again {Ger. wieder) on his part.
Nou leefsulle same sender smart.
;. • Now-live they together without vexation.
The Boer vernacular offers many points for annotation to the
curious in matters linguistic. German, as the least altered living
Teutonic speech, is, of course largely represented here, \yitness
om = um, met = mit, aants = abends, glat = glatt (smooth),
vir = vier, trane = trane, van = von, !sijn = sein, .wang =
wange, gevoel = gefiihl, ons = unser, verachte = verachten,
word = werden, seg = sagen, same = zusammen, oogies =
augen, krij =.kriegen. But scarce any of these are unknown
to Scots or old English. Thus . while modern English says
evening, Scots shows the same softening as the Taal, witness,
" Hame cam oor gude man at een." We have now lost the
useful verb, wore? (becomes), but Scott uses it in " Woe worth
the hour!" This piece, again, shows two of the commonest
words in Cape Dutch that are explained by Scots and
German, though at first sight obscure. These are the positive
lets (ocht = ought), and the negative niets (noeht). But the
J Sachte, softened, lit. soaked.
2 Krij, kriegen (German), acquire, obtain.
216 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Taal, in following the Dutch, is consonantly akin to Scots
and English, rather than German, as is shown by comparison of
the following Boer Words with their German cognates : — te = zu,
terug = zuriiek, op = a,uf, doof = taub, tijd = zeit, ook = auch.
We have here also the favourite corruptions of the Taal. Thus
a dental, both final and medial, frequently disappears as rij for
ride, Ger. reiten, luch for Scots lieht, or weer for German
wieder (cf. Eng. with-stand, with-hold), drif for drift. A
similar softening is seen in ySe for wipe. Such elisions are
common in all linguistic growth. Eeitz's language, indeed,
shows nothing to justify the popular contempt for the Taal as
a vulgar hotch-potch of corrupt Dutch^ English and Kaffir.
To the Scot the Taal must always sound familiar, for he can
turn an intelligent- ear to both the Dutch and the German
elements in it. The sounds are often exactly his own. The
query, " Hae ye faur te gang ? " is just the Boer, " He'you ver
te gaan ? " The Boer constantly uses kijk, to look, though in
Scotland it is but little heard out of the nursery. In South
Africa, however, photographic views are kiekjies, and a field-
glass is a ver-kiekjer. Similarly in en for and, een for a and
one, ure for hour, and lang for long, we are on homely ground.
The Scot, again, has ceased to sound the guttural in such
(sigh), but to " keep a calm souch," is still for him a discreet
silence.
Eeitz's rendering is spirited, though we miss some character-
istic touches. "On blithe Yule night when we were fou," is
discreetly changed so as to suggest the long distances on the
lonely Veldt and the pleasures of the Op-sit oji the great social
evening of the week. In the very expressive skeef, we have
what is really only a variant of the Scottish skeigh. The change
of final is paralleled in laugh, enough. Of course Ailsa Craig
must go, but while to " remain seated " may be de rigueur on such
occasions in Boerland, the change is weak. Nor can the Lover's
Leap be always practicable in the sun-dried spruits, so " spak
o' lowpin owre a linn " is dropped. " Grat his een baith bleert
and blin," is feebly rendered by "wipes the tears from his
cheeks." The phrase " een gek " is however stronger than " a
fool" of the original. "Hunt'e gowk" is to play April fool.
The word is also in the familiar play-rhymes, given in a former
SIDE-LIGHTS 217
section (p. 128). This imitative name for the cuckoo (A.S. gaee)
denotes a simpleton in many lands. Its monotonous note in-
spires the Cumberland proverb, " Ye breed o' the gowk, ye've
nae rhyme but ane." Gibson, poet of the dales, has, " T' pooar
lal gowk hesn't gumption enough."
" Een laffe meisje " is only a " giglot lassie," a very different
thing from a "haughty hizzie." The sly humour, too, of
"Duncan was a lad o' grace," has been missed in the phrase,
a "soft or tender-hearted man." The sach here is a familiar
Scottish word for soft, while, contemptuously, sauchie is a
simpleton. In the Buchan dialect a selch is a big, stout, daichie
or doughy fellow, somewhat after the fashion of the seal.
Selch, in fact, is a dialect equivalent for seal, of which
it is but the f uUer form. On the whole " Daantjie Grouws "
is a vigorous and characteristic specimen of the Boer ver-
nacular, and gives a very favourable impression of the trans-
lator's literary tastes and sympathies. There remains only
to add, that in all the piece under discussion we have but
three terms with which the Boer war made us familiar — kop,
trek and ons (our), which last is in the title of the Bond organ,
" Ons Land."
(c) The Cottar's Saturday Night.
Saterday-aant in 'n Boerewoning — Saturday-e'enin in a
Boer-wbning (dwelling, farm).
Eeitz was evidently in whole-hearted sympathy with " The
Cottar's Saturday Night," though here too his work is in no
sense a reproduction but an imitation. We miss the beautifully
appropriate local colour of the original — the graphic scenery of
the opening, the elder bairns drappin' in' and all the cackle of
the clachan, the saintly sire's exhortation to well-doing and
faithful service, l)he finesse of the blushing Jenny and the pawky
gudewife, the artless love-making, the kindly Hawkie " 'yont the
hallan," and the specially Burns touch in deprecating the ensnare-
ments of artless love. His gray-haired sire is the House-father,
the Klein-baas (little Boss) of a patriarchal, self-contained estab-
lishment who has nothing to say of hard manual labour at the
beck and call of a master, or of " service out amang the farmers
roun," for there were none to hire on the Veldt.
218 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
The Season is, of course, not the gloom of November but the
end of harvest, the Oest-tijd of the Boer's Bible. The sickle is
away (die sekels weg), and there iS joy in prospect of the morrow's
rest. Greetings go round (Naant, Gar. Guten Abei^d) from the
eldest son (die oudste seun) to the little ones (die kleiijtjies).
Brothers and sisters sit round upright in the hall (broers and
susters sit rondoin upsij) after the fashion of an old-time funeral
party, and each outvies the other, in gossip : " The social hours;
swift-winged, unnoticed fleet " (" die tijd die vlieg so ongemerk
verbij " = the tide flees so unmarked for-by). There follows a
specially patriarchal function, the feet-washing (voet-wasbalie
= f eet-wash-pailie), grateful surely in that dry, dusty land.
It long survived in Scotland as the rough horse-play of the
evening before the wedding.
The watchdog barks (die hoiide blaf = bowffs, bluffs), and
a knock at the door brings the conscious blush to Elsie's cheeks.
The young man (die jonkman) greets (greet), Oom, Tante en
Niggie (Ger. Nichte, niece), Boer conventions for host, hostess
and girls. The sire, talks to the kereltjie (carlie) of horses,
pleughs". and kye, but in Boerland this i? horses, sheep an4
cattle (perde, skaap en vee). The Taal vee is in the openiug
of Henryson's fiae pastoral,—
" Robin sat on a gude grene hill,
Kepand his flok of fie."
rfom the "neebor lad" (neef Koot, the lad Koot) we pass to
Maatjie (Maatie, the gudewife) preparing the supper (die Opsit,
a solemn social function). Instead of the " halesome parritch "
fin(i Hawkie's yill the table is decked with —
" Rijs, kerrie, kluitjies, en wit brood
En hotter waar die vrou op trotsig is,
'N kora vol melk,"
which may be rendered — Rice, carraway sweets, tarts, and white
bread and butter, of which the Erau is proud, and a cog of milk.
A iSouth African assures me that kluitjies here is not clotted
(our dot, clod) cream, which that land knows not, but "a sort
of tart with a sticiy, sweet paste inside. Kluit in the Taal i^
SIDE-jLIGHTS 212
a lump or clod, and substantially the same 4s. Se. cliite, ankle,
hoof of a sheep. The kom milk is .the.Pifeshire kimmin with,
the suffixed article. " Help jouself, neef Koot," But what cares
he for the cake ? (koek of tert, mea,ning cookie, and tairt). The
" of" here is not our preposition. He gazes (kijk) rather at his
Elsie ; her dear eyes are worth more to him (" haar liewe oogies
is hom meerder werd "). Lowland Scots do uot, indeed, say
mairder (more) but they say nearder.
The supper done ("die, maaltijd 's klaar") the "Tatriarg"
takes the Bible, "die selfde Boek, wat al sijn voor-ouers had" (the
self-same Book, what all his (Ger. sein) fore-elders had). It is
the " big ha'-Bible," such an one as that wherein William Burness
entered the baptisms in Boer fashion, " waar die doop-registers
staan." In old St. Andrews the Baptists were known as The
Dippies. The head of the house of old uncovered only for
prayer, and so here, —
"Sijn breerand. hoed: eerbiedig afgehaal, - ■
Sijn bartdie is all grijs, sijn hare ijl" — ,, .
his broad-brimmed hoed (hat) reverentially (Ger. ehrbietig) aff-
haling, his beard all grey, his hair thin, — ^
"Hij lees 'n Sion's lied in d' ouwe taal " —
he reads (wales) a Sion lay in the old speech.
There is no note here of the Covenanter's " wild warbling
measures," but they sing with gees (Ger. Geist), heart and voice.
They hearken as the old man reads (die ou man les — Ger.
iesen) of how Moses smote the Amalekite (the Boer's Kaffir
foe) and David groaned (ge-sug, sooched) under God's anger
and chastising hand (kastijdend hand).
This Priester-praal or Evangelical part is done with real
feeling. Thiere is the picture of the Christ tied " an die Kruis
met bloedrig sweet " (sweat), —
"Hoe Hij die hier gen (Ger. kein) rusplaas had op aard,
Daar Bowe tog die twede naam besit " —
lipw; He who here no rest-place had on earth, there 'Bove
(JHeaven) yet the second name; Owns. , ; ,
220 STUDIES IF LOWLAND SCOTS
There is nothing of the breaking- up of the party in such
a self-contained household. But we have the secret homage of
the parent-pair (stil en bed-aard spreek toen die Gristen-vader,
the grey-haired sire), and the prayer to Him who decks the lily
fair in flowery pride (wat met prag die lilies kan beklee = who
with pride the lilies kan beclad).
There is of course no eulogy of the simple non-Prelatic
services of the home, no patriotic outburst inspired by Old
Scotia and Wallace's undaunted heart, but the piece conclude
with an almost literal rendering of the Burns couplet, —
" But haply, in some cottage far apart,
[surely a close appeal on the Veldt]
May hear, well pleased, the pure language of the soul :
And in his Book of Life the inmates poor enrol' " —
"Ter wijl uit so 'n stille needrig hoek,
Hoor hij die reine siele-taal met wel-behaa
En skrijf dit iu Sijn ewig lewensboek." i
(d) Tam o' Shatiter.
The Boer translator is not nearly so successful with " Tam
o' Shanter " as with " The Cottars." The rustic setting, the pious
sentiment, the Biblical flavour of the latter, seem to elicit
a more sympathetic response. In some respects "Tam" should
have been equally congenial. The Boer, whether in his cups or
in his wanderings among the eerie,, baboon-haunted kloofe, is
peculiarly susceptible to the influence of unholy spooks on his
nerves, a peculiarly Dutch term for bogles that may very
plausibly claim kinship with our own Puck and the "wee
Pechs" of Scottish folk-lore. The strengthening with initial s
is no unusual feature. But Eeitz so completely misses the
humour of the situation and its inimitably dramatic touches
that one wonders if we have here another racial illustration of
the joke and the .surgical operation. Few fresh features are
imported into the tale, and only about a third of the original is
used. The piece is entitled "Klaas Geswint en sijh Pgrt," or
in German, Nikolas Geschwind (thej mobile) lindCsein Pferd
SIDE-LIGHTS 221
(and his horse). The commonplace beginning is unworthy of
Burns's vigorous visualising: "when you perhaps with your
mate up in the village sit laughing and chatting, you forget you
must go home (vergeet jij, jij meet huis toe gaan), otherwise
Elsie will beat you. She now sits by the fire and mutters, 'I'll
get him soon as he comes home.' " We miss the graphic picture
of Auld Ayr's High Street at the close of a market-day, the
chapmen homeward bent, the change-house going " like a cried
fair," and the prospect of moorland roads in winter. Elsie is
a poor substitute for Kate, but the vrou, well used to the
" handy rung " for the Hottentot help, threatens to beat her
man (slaan, Ger. schlagen, Eng. slog). Por " nursing her wrath
to keep it warm " we have merely Irom, expressive in a way, for
it is akin to the word for barm or yeast. Eeitz moralises on the
frequent want of appreciation of a wife's advice, to him indeed
the raison d'ttre of Klaas's subsequent mishap, —
" Jammer dat mans so selde hoor
As hulle vrouens, ver hul' knor ;
Dit is maar so — hul' kaan maar praat,
0ns luister tog nie na hul' raad.
Dat dit so is, het Klaas Geswint
Een donkernag oek uit-gevind ;
Toen hij terug rij van die Braak,
Had Klass geluister na sijn vrow
Dan had dit horn nog nooit berou."
Pity 'tis that men (mans) so seldom hear (hoor)
When their good wives scold them ;
But so it is — they can speak at will,
We listen never a bit to their good advice.
That that is so, one Klaas Geswint
One dark night e'en found it ;
When he rode home from the Braak.
Had Klaas listened to his wife
Then this had never happened to him,
Elsie's scolding does not want for directness. Not a day
passed but she said to him, "Klaas, you are indeed an old
rascal (alte skellem); not a night you have been out of the
222 STUDIES IN LOWLiiirD SCOTS
house but you conduct yourself like a beast, and when Koos
Titles goes with you, then it goes badly with you two." There
is here the identical epithet Burns uses, skellem, Ger. Schelm.
It has now quite dropped out of the Scots vernacular, but is
preserved in Gaelic as sgeilm, boasting, prattling. The booz-
ing in the change-house is done con amove. "Ee'n afi,nt, in
plaas van huis toe gaan " (Sc. ane eenin, in place of hooss tae
gang), Klaas tipples with his Mrels in die hnijp, where we have
a Dutch word that has been borrow6d by the German students
for their Bier-kneipen. The glass which he induces his mates
to give him is een slag, still heard in the Scottisli phrase, to
" sloken (moisten) one's drouth " or thirst. So they " ge' oom
Klaas oek nog een dop" (so they gie old Klaas still another
swig). In dop we have a word once in familiar use in Scotland.
One of the Lowther family, travelling from^ Carlisle to Edinburgh
(1629), records in his Journall or diary how, on going to bed for
the night at laird Pringle's on Gala Water, his host gave him a
doup of ale, or, in his own Cumberland dialect, a noggin of beer.
The word is applied also in Cape Dutch to an egg-shell, and
implies anything deep and rounded. In illustration we have the
cognate Ger. Topf, a cooking-pot, Eng. spinning-top, and in Scots
and nearest to Cape Dutch, candle-doup or the conical end of
a candle. The result of the. conviviality waste render Klaas,
in Boer phrase, " mooi hoenderkop," beautifully fowl-headed.
This may only visualise the erratic action of the bewildered
hen, well known to cyclists, or a brain disease which makes its
feathered victim whirl round and round and then fall helpless.
The word mooi (Lat. mollis, soft) is as useful a,n epithet to the
Boer in the Boer taal as bonnie in Scots, Thus he applies it
to a river, a horse, a woman (haiidsorae vrouw),
Eeitz weakly omits the strikingly human elements of the
story — the miller, the smith, the woman in the kirk- toon " with
a past," the "chuffi0 yintijer " and his spouse, and above all the
souter, immortal Bacchanal. But moralising attracts him, so he
tackles his author's visualising of Pleasure thus : '' Pleasure is
like a young cucumber. If you pick it, it simply withers ; or
like a tortoise in his shell, as soon as you touch him, he pulls
in his head." We have hete two similes that appeal most
strongly to the Afrikander — "een jong Icoinkommer . en eeii
SIDE-LIGHTS 223
skulpad." On this latter term Mitford's powerful t'al'e, " A Veldt
Official," throws light : " He is -a young horse but a, good one
and will stand fire like an arm-chair, though he does shy like
a foal now and again at a schuilpaat the size of a snail." By
this name is the land tortoise known all over South Africa.
Cape differs from Hollander, Dutch in hardening initial sch,
hence the difference in spelling here. The term is historically
notahle. Kruger, in a famous parable, once likened the Uitlander
to the sktdpad, whose head he cannily waited to lop off as soon
as the unhappy creature, unwarily progressive, should emerge
from its cover. In most tongues the crab and the tortoise
designate something pinched, stunted, crooked. Hence this
Dutch term appears in Scots as an epithet, shilpit, very familiar
and expressive. Thus in Ford's " Morning Walk," —
" Wee shilpit bairnies fill the doorsteps,
An peer oot through the window panes."
So Scott calls sherry a " shilpit drink," not, as the glossarists
explain, because it is insipid, but because, when tart and sour,
it causes a wry face. The wines of old had to be sweetened iri
a posset to make them palatable.
Tarn's nag bears here the name Kol, very cotnmon for a
horse, and always designating one with a white star on its fore-
head, what Burns called " bawsent." An Englishman, bargain-
ing with a Boer for. a pair of horses, has them thus described :
"Daar staat een, die licht-bruine 'met die kol; en daar in die
hock die ander, die donker-bruine ook met een kql"-^there
stands one, the light brown with the blaize (kol) ; and there in
the corner the other, the dark brown, also with a blaize. The
Scottish ploughman equally favours such a horse and calls it
" Star," Klaas's meerie is still frisky though her back is a bittie
hollow (" al was haar rug, 'n bietjie hoi "). In rug here we
have the Sc. riggin or ridge of a hduse, i .
Keitz fails to face the droll visualising, of Auld Nick, but
merely says he played on a tromp for forty spooks in a clump.
His playing is expressed by speul. Get; Spieleif, %nA long in the
Scots vernacular in such phrases as spiel the wa', spiel a tree,
where it means to climb. 'The insttanieiii, too, is thei rural
224 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
name for the Jew's harp, the trump. The witches are timidly-
sketched as die goed, the stuff, the things, and almost as naked
as a poodle.
It is significant of much that, whereas Tam " skelps through
mud and mire, crooning some auld Scots sonnet," Klaas whistles
(fluit = flute) the nine and ninetieth Psalm to keep his courage
up, for the Boer is as fond of psalm-singing as a westlan' Whig.
He dreads to meet uncanny spooks, for he must pass " die
kerk-hof," haunt of bogles. For the "hof" the modern Scot
finds a Saxon term, churchyard, but the town graveyard of
Dundee was of yore known as the Auld Howf.
Equally significant of Boer tactics, too, when Klaas is
pursued by the witches, is his appeal to his mare to do her
utmost, not in clearing the brig, rare in the Transvaal, but in
crossing the drift or ford, often enough exposed to sudden floods.
" Go it, Kol ! " he shouts, " the devil cuts your spoor ; here lies
the drift. Up ! she's over ! " A born huntsman, the Boer knows
the spoor well, the Scots speer, to follow a track, to ask one's
way. But, exposed for generations to unseen dangers, he knows,
too, what it is to have his retreat cut off, as Klaas dreaded here.
The denouement is rapidly sketched, —
"Haar st^rt het hul glad uit-geruk ;
Mar Klaas is los, dis iin geluk " —
Her tail was clean pulled out ;
But Klaas is safe, a piece of good luck.
The st^rt here remains on our coast, as a note of Viking raids, in
Start Point, and, with more peaceful suggestions, in the name
of a bird, the redstart. " Uit-geruk," again, is simply the
Scots rugged or pulled out. There remains only to point the
moral in the fashion of the good Predikant, —
" Ver die wat lus het cm te draai,
Wil ek mar net d^n wortjie raai :
Gedenk aan Klaas Geswint sijn pirt,
En vraag jou selve : waar's baar stSrt ■? "
Rendered literally this would read : —
SIDE-LIGHTS 225
For him, who knows (wot) desire (lust) to turn round
(Ger. drehen),
Will I but one word-ie advise (rede) :
Think on Klaas Geswint his horse,
And ask (Ger. fragen) yourself, " Where is her tail 1 "
"Tarn o' Shanter" is manifestly but an exotic on the Veldt.
The Boer is out of sympathy with the characteristic humour of
the situation. He lays hold of the conjugal aspect, so indispens-
able to the peace of his self-contained home. He emphasises the
eerieness of the situation and its call for caution, but we miss
the jocose familiarity and kindly humanity of Tam's relations
to the witches.
15
v.— FAETHEE AFIELD.
Of the two items here presented, that on French words in
Lowland Scots calls for no apology. The old connection
between Scotland and France is one of the few links with
•Medisevalism that might be considered popular. This popu-
larity could hardly be said to be the fruit of any extensive
acquaintance with Scottish history. It would seem to owe
much of its persistence to the genius of Sir Walter Scott in
his " Quentin Durward."
The list, though probably not exhaustive, has the merit of
showing a series of borrowings extending over many centuries.
Arranged in chronological order, as far as possible, these borrow-
ings show contemporary usage. Not a few of Scoto-French words
must have got into the stream through well-known literary
tradition from Chaucer and the alliterative poets onwards, but
the contemporary usage, which the evidence here presented
illustrates, stands outside of the convention of books and inde-
pendent of any influence exercised by English. "While the great
mass of the words cannot fail to appeal to the reader familiar
with the Scots vernacular, a large proportion must have
speedily dropped out of use. They are much in the position
of those borrowings which we still owe to the war corre-
spondent or the adventurous traveller in remote and little-
known lands. They vanish with the conditions which led to
their importation.
The second item. Primitive Aryan Civilisation, would seem,
on a superficial view, to have only a remote connection with
Lowland Scots. Closer study, however, will show it to be com-
plementary to the opening article of the volume. That article
aimed at linking on the vernacular to that primitive Teutonic
influence which supplanted the prehistoric Celtic in the Low-
lands. The present is an excursus into the wider field of com-
5!26
FAETHEK AFIELD 227
parative philology. It discusses the only accessible evidence
for that matrix of culture, social custom and attitude to the facts
of nature and life which moulded the vernacular of Scotland in
common with its cognate European tongues.
The illustrations that I have here garnered owe much to
the published researches and arguments of the late Professor
Max Miiller and to Professor Sayce. It was the writings of the
former that most powerfully impelled me to follow up my youth-
ful reading of Trench's charming studies into the wider field of
comparative philology. But most of all is the article based on
the teaching of the late Professor Aufrecht. He was the first
holder of the Chair of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in
Edinburgh University. As these lectures have never been
published, so far as I know, I believe I am doing a welcome
service to linguistic study in incorporating them with my own
researches.
1. Scoto-Febnch in the Lowland Veenaculae.^
But slight evidence of the " Auld Alliance " has survived
in the vernacular. Any influences exerted on the nation by it
were at no time more than political. France used Scotland
merely as a thorn in the side of her rival, England. The
political movement came to a head during the Eeformation
struggle, but the battle of Langside (1568) dealt the final blow
at the Catholic reaction. Even this political line of influence
has left scarce a survivor in the vocabulary. The long reign of
the Old Faith might have been more fruitful. On the evidence
of language the hold of Catholicism on Lowland Scotland has
been of the slightest. The once familiar Pasch (Easter) and
a dairgie (Domine, dirige nos) are among the very few of its
survivals.
Actual intercourse between the two countries was of the
trading kind, but such interchanges as existed were carried on
with Northern France through Dutchmen and Dutch ports,
1 In the revision of this section I have been favoured with the valuable
aid of my esteemed friend, Mons. F. J. Amours, B.A., well known as a
distinguished scholar both in Scots and French.
228 STUDIES IN" LOWLAND SCOTS
mainly Campvere, or through the Huguenot city of Bordeaux,
then also in the hands of Dutch traders. But the East Coast
of England, particularly the port of Hull, came under similar
influences, so that no list of word exchanges can claim to he in
any special sense Scottish. Word exchanges under this industrial
head have mainly a social significance.
In other two directions seventeenth-century influence might
well have been very considerable and lasting. These were the
military and the academic. The Scot abroad, under both aspects,
has played a part in literature in no way borne out by the
evidence of the vernacular. A typical soldier of fortune, Sir
James Turner, tells us he went through all his Continental
fighting without knowing French. Graham of Claverhouse,
though he got his baptism of fire abroad, uses no Prench in his
correspondence save such a word as allya (Fr. alli6), an ally,
relation by marriage, but it is often used by contemporary
Scottish writers. In the arts of peace many youthful Scots
gained posts in Huguenot colleges, such as the Melvills, Boyd
of Trochrig, and others, but they use scarce any borrowings
from French. Sir Thomas Hope, Lord-Advocate, through the
critical times of the Bishops' War and the Solemn League and
Covenant, himself the grandson of a Frenchman settled in
Edinburgh, had some of his sons educated in France, but uses
surprisingly few French words. Sir Thomas Lauder, again,
later known as Lord Fountainhall, studied and travelled in
France through the middle of the century, but he uses very
little French. After his day, under the influence of the English
Eevolution and the Orange King William, the academic stream
flowed towards Holland.
Borrowings from one language by another are either few or
many, just as one regards the question of origin. The evidence
of this origin, in the case of Scoto-French, is to be found in the
literature of the past, but here we come under book and imita-
tive influences, and these are deceptive. I present a few
examples from sources that can hardly be called literary. Such
evidence has the merit of being contemporary, undesigned, and
unbiassed by art. I now present it in chronological sequence,
premising that it is in no degree exhaustive. It has, however,
the advantage of showing popular use of the words at the time.
FARTHER AFIELD 229
" Ledger of Andrew Halyburton " (1492-1503), ed. by
Cosmo Innes.i
This quaint old Edinburgh merchant was stationed at Camp-
vere as " Conservator of the Privileges of the Scottish Nation
in the Netherlands," and therefore at the gateway of traffic as it
passed to and fro between Scotland and the Continent.
Gallandis. — James Homyll, his brother-in-law and agent
in Scotland, " payit me wi' challenges " (reproaches) " and evill
wordis and onsufferabyll. God keip all guid men fra sic
callandis ! " In a French translation of " Tarn o' Shanter " the
" chapman billies leave the street," of the opening scene, appears
as —
" Quand les chalands abandonnent la rue."
This word, said to be Flemish rather than French, has long
been familiar as callant, a lad. In the days of old " Heriot's "
in Edinburgh, the foundationers were known as callants.
Chamer ; Fr. chambre. The Archdeacon of St. Andrews
gets " a mat to his chamer " (1499).
Corf, a basket; Fr. corbeille, Lat. corbis — "A kynkyn of
olives and a corf of apill orangis."
Cramoisie, cramasie, a cloth; O.Fr. cramoisin, cramoisie, a
form of crimson.
Oralog (mendyn), a watch; Fr. horloge, a clock. Bishop
Elphinstone, founder of King's College, Aberdeen, has his orolog
repaired and fitted with a new case in Flanders through
Halyburton's agency.
Fantonis, slippers — " Blak welvot to be pantonis to the
Kingis grace." Akin to patten, an iron ring that could be
slipped on to the sole of shoe or clog to admit of moAdng
dry-shod about the miry surroundings of the untidy clachan ;
Mod.Fr. patin is a skate. The Accounts show the older form
of the word. Diez connects it with Fr. patte, a paw.
Pasch, Easter; Fr. P4que for Pasque — "Hydis, I trow,
salbe the best merchandise that comes here at Pascha, for thar
is mony folkis that speris about thaim " (1502). This word had
long been familiar through the Romish services of the Church.
1 The "Ledger" is examined minutely in my "By-ways of History"
under the title, " Scottish Trade in the Olden Time."
230 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
Say (red), silk ; Pr. soie, bought for the Archdeacon of St.
Andrews for a frontal to an altar.
Taffetas, plain silk cloth ; Fr. taffetas. Halyburton uses the
French form.
Tapischere, tapestry — "Twa drauchtis fra Edinburgh to
Striveling." Fr. tapisserie, tapis, a carpet.
Tassis of silver, cups ; Fr. tasse.
" Ye'll bring me here a pint of wine,
A server and a silver tassie." — Old Song, 1636.
Tivis — " Twis, to put all the silver weschell in." Fr. 4tui,
a case. Common in German as a borrowed word.
"Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer," vol. vii., 1538-41.
As this volume contains the expenses of James V.'s visit to
France, it is unusually rich in foreign words, but few have lived
or come into common use.
Bahuttis, bibs — "For making of twa collaris of welvot
plattis, twa bahuttis, twa litill collaris." Fr. bavette, from have,
slaver ; Sc. bavard, worn out, bankrupt ; Fr. baveur, a driveller.
Boge — "Ane chandellair callit the boge." Fr. bougie, wax-
candle, so named from a town in Morocco.
Buye, a water vessel — " Ane grete watter buye." O.Fr. buie.
Bain, a tub, now firmly rooted in some districts of Scotland,
may be the Gael, bainne, milk.
Cv/rchessia, night-caps — " Curchessis to the kingis grace." Fr.
couvre-chef.
Disjonis, breakfast — "To by milk to hir disjonis." Fr.
dejeuner. This word lived a long time. The item here referred
to was for the " bam Elizabeth," a natural child of James V.
Dornielc, linen cloth, made at Toumay, whence the name.
Dule-weid, mourning dress ; Vr. deuil, mourning.
Fleggearis, arrow makers paid "For the foddering of ij™
auld ganzels" (arrows) "for the croce bow." Fr. fltehe, an
arrow, hence Fletcher.
Tailzeour, telzour, tailor ; vernac. teelyir, tiler ; Fr. tailleur.
After the Union of 1603 James I. made strenuous efforts to
foster trade and home industries in the poor country he had
FAETHEE AFIELD 2'31
left. The records of his Privy Council, sitting in Edinburgh,
tell the story of how his masterful chancellors tried to carry
out his wishes on the lines of a benevolent protection. In this
connection the tariff of 1612 is of much social import. From
its items I cull a number of French names of articles, which,
if not in actual use, might probably be imported at the same
time as the article.
Buist, a needle-case; sand-buist, sand-box, used instead of
blotting-paper, as it is still in Germany. The mark Branden-
burg was called the Sand-Biichse of the Holy Eoman Empire ;
O.Fr. bostia, boiste, a box; Mod.Fr. boite, boisseau (whence
bushel).
Baheis or Fuppeitis, dolls; Ital. babbeo, a blockhead; and
Fr. babiole, whence the baby clown on the head of the
staff with which the Elizabethan stage fool excited laughter.
There was deep contempt in Cromwell's "Take away that
bauble (the mace)." Puppettis is the Fr. poup6e, a doll. Chil-
dren used to fashion a miniature stage of paper on which tiny
figures were moved. Eyelets gave a peep of the play to the
invitation, " A preen to see the puppie-show."
Chaffing dishes, braziers, warming-pans ; Fr. chauffer, to
warm by rubbing.
Chandlers, chandeliers, candlesticks ; chandelle, a candle.
Grogram, Fr. gros-grain, a coarse cloth.
Tripans, Fr. trypan, a surgical instrument.
Trencher, wooden platters, a word in universal use; Fr.
tranchoir.
Turcusses, turkes, twisters, pincers, tourniquets; Ital. tor-
ciare, to twist (Lat. torquere) ; O.Fr. torser, to pack up, gives
the familiar turs, to pack up in a bundle, to carry off hastily.
Turse. — The Exchequer Accounts have numerous entries
for tursing household and other stuff (cf. truss, trousseau,
torch ; lit. a twist). To tirr has long been in use in the
sense of raising or disturbing, for example, the soil of field or
garden.
An interesting Commentary on the Tariff of Custom Uueo
(1612) is preserved in the library of Glasgow University in the
shape of a shrivelled leather pocket-book which accompanied
232 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
James Bell, a merchant burgess of Glasgow, on two business
journeys to Holland, 1621-22.^ He was not what we would
now call a foreign merchant, but took with him, on commission,
the ready money of his clients for investment in trading ven-
tures. The words of his entries must, therefore, have been in
actual use at the Cross and Tolbooth of Glasgow.
Chandlers — " To by to Mairen " (so pronounced still) " Stewart
sum chandlers " (candlesticks) " turnit." Ft. chandelier.
Chyres (grein), green chairs ; Fr. chaire in sense of a pulpit ;
from Lat. cathedra, a seat, see of a bishop. Bell's spelling
(sometimes chayres occurs) seems to follow the French pro-
nunciation.
Cissills, probably chisels from Fr. " ciseler, to cut or carve
with a chisel." — Cotgrave.
Frenyes, fringes ; Fr. frange. Bell followed the Dutch pro-
nunciation and spelling, frangie, where g has a y sound.
Oabarts, cappers, the lighters that brought the goods up the
Clyde from Dumbarton ; Fr. gabare, a lighter.
Plumbe damies, long the name of the damson in Scotland.
Plumdammas is a character in Scott's " Heart of Midlothian."
The form follows the French, prune de damas or Damascene
plum.
Suher, sugar, interesting as following the Fr. pronunciation.
Tinder, wire, tinsel, thread ; Fr. 6tfncelle, what glitters ;
from tat. scintilla, a spark.
Travelloure, Fr. travailleur — "Giffin to Jhone Mortoun,
travelloure, ane barl seap " (soap), pronounced as it stiU is in
the vernacular. In the seventeenth century ea = § in French,
as it still is in Ireland; compare the Irishman's repeat and
Fr. r^p^ter. Almost the sole survival in English is great. In
Pope's time tea was pronounced tay.
Trebuchet, a balance ; " trie balks " or wooden beams, he
elsewhere calls them. He uses the actual French word, not, as
it appears, ever naturalised among us. As a noun trebuchet
means a bird-trap ; as a verb, to stumble. The basic notion
of a beam is found in the O.Fr. buc (bucket), a trunk.
1 Bell's " Ledger " is examined at length in " By-ways of History,''
p. 163.
FAETHEE AFIELD 233
Tm-kes, grappling irons ; cf. turcusses above, " hammer and
turkes " for the blacksmith.
Annatto is a surprising exotic to reach Glasgow through
Holland early in the seventeenth century. It takes the forms
annotto, arnotto, and is the South American name for a tree,
common also in Jamaica, the seed of which dyes silk a deep
yellow, and is used for colouring butter, cheese, chocolate.
I saw the preparation from it quite lately on an Ayrshire
cheese farm.
Wirsat (worsted) passments, Fr. passementerie, a novel addi-
tion to the comforts supplied in a seventeenth-century booth.
Gaprus, copperas — "ane trie caprus;" Fr. couperose; Lat.
cupri rosa, rose of copper, used to dye black and make ink.
The story goes that a Glasgow merchant sent to London an
order for copperas, but his bad spelling was read as capers, of
which the weight sent seemed completely to outrun the possible
demand. Fortunately a shortage of capers followed and he
cleared his stock at a thumping profit.
Chapelet is exactly the Fr. form, and diminutive form of
chapel ; Mod.Fr. has chapeau, a hat.
The old Latin grammars give long lists of vocables, sup-
posed to be useful to the boys in the absence of dictionaries.
The meanings given frequently throw light on the current
vernacular. The French elements in them are few. The
Vocabula have, from our point of view, little or no educational
value, as they are not well adapted to aid either construing
or speaking. They must have commended themselves to the
compilers as instruments of torture.
Andrew Duncan, rector of Dundee Grammar School, regent
in St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, and minister of Crail,
introduced the following in the Appendix Etymologise to his
Latin Grammar (1595) : —
Boise, vter, a wine loise (wine skin, bottle, jar) ; O.Fr. busse,
buse, buce, a cask for wine. As Dutch buyse, the word was
long known in Scotland as a buss or fishing-boat.
Bonet, riscus, a bowell (bole), or lonet caisse ; Fr. bonnet.
Caisse, bowel, a basin, is still vernacular. Caisse is Lat. capsa,
whence capsule.
234 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Bruit, rumor, fama; hrute, bruit, noise.
Chicknawd, talitrum, a spang, a chicknawd (chiquenaude, a
fillip, flirt or bob — Cotgrave); naude = noeud, knot, knuckle;
Lat. nodus, whence nodule. " Talitrum, a rap or fillip with the
finger." — Suetonius.
Hurcheon, herinaceus, a hurcheon ; Pr. hdrisson ; Lat. ericius,
the prickly one, the hedgehog. From it comes urchin.
Lowe, liceor, to lowe (bid at auction), to cheape; allouer,
formerly alouer, let out to hire ; Low Lat., to admit a thing as
proved, place, use, expend ; allocare ; " the law allows (assigns)
it to you," in " Merchant of Venice."
Mowles, pernio, the mowles in- the heels (chilblains); Fr.
mule, slipper, kibe.
Odll, merula, an osill ; avis, the blackbird (merle) ; Fr.
oiseau, and Shakspere's " ousel-cock." Also derived from Ger.
Amsel, found in England as early as the eighth century (Murray).
Panton, crepida, a pontoun or mule (slipper) ; Fr. patin,
Eng. patten. Creepie (crepida) is a low stool, " Ne sutor ultra
crepidam," let the cobbler stick to his stool. Murray says of
panton, " origin unknown, but certainly not from patin."
Parsell, petro-selinum, parsell ; Fr. persil. Sir Thomas Hope,
in his " Diary " (1641), speaks of a dream in which he is caught
in a thick mist, in hortis petrocellanis, as if it were in the gardens
of parsley. But he is not thinking of the Lat. petro-selinum,
from which " parsley " is derived, but punningly refers to his
pet name for his favourite mansion of Craighall, near Ceres, in
Fife. On another occasion he enters a solemn vow when on
the point of setting out ad Fetro-cellam (Craighall).
Pertrik, perdix, a pertrik, paitrik, partridge ; Fr. perdrix.
Pursie, anhelus, pursie or short-ended. Pursie is short-
winded. Palsgrave has pourcif for Mod.Fr. poussif, so poulser
for pousser, to push, from Lat. pulsare. Und, breath, is very
common in Barbour and old writers, but long obsolete. It
is of Norse origin.
Sowder, ferrumen, sowder, solder; Fr. soudure ; Mod.Sc.
soother.
Suldarts, cohors, a band of suldarts ; Fr. soldart, a soldier.
Triacle, theriace, triacle, remeid against poison. This is the
modern treacle, a word with quite a history. Mod. Eng. a sove-
FAETHEE AFIELD 235
reign remedy, from ft/ptaKos, belonging to wild or venomous beasts.
The late Dr. MacCuUoch, of Greenock, made this liaguistic
" treacle " the subject of a delightful article in an early number
of "Good Words."
Truncheor, orbis, a truncheor or round body ; Fr. tranchoir.
David Williamson's " Vocabula " forms an appendix to his
"Eudimenta Grammatices," published by Eobert Sanders in
Glasgow, 1693. His grammar was one of the latest of the
many recensions of the Dunbar Eudiments. Originally compiled
by the first of the post-Eeformation pedagogues, Andrew Simson,
schoolmaster in Dunbar, it had held its place in all the grammar
schools for over a century. It was soon after superseded by
the still more famous work, the first of the kind to be written
in English, of Thomas Euddiman (1714).
Allya, affinitas ; Fr. allay, alli6, ally, relation (by marriage),
in very general use during the seventeenth century. Claver-
house introduces it in his letters.
Awmrie, repositorium, an amhrie ; an awmrie, a chest or
cupboard; awmous dish, a beggar's platter; Fr. aum6nerie,
aumone, Eng. alms.
JBuist, pixis, a buisi. Diez says that in the tenth century
buxida, from accus. of the Greek pyx, a box, was corrupted into
buxida, bustia, whence O.Fr. boiste, Mod.Fr. boite.
Choffer, foculus mensarius, a choffer or chafing dish; Fr.
chauffer, to warm. This preserves a trace of the old-fashioned
brazier for the table. Chauffeur is the very latest importation of
the word. But the Scots workman has long called his portable
fire-grate a choffer.
Disj'une, jentaculum, breakfast and disjune; Fr. dejeuner.
This word is quite archaic now.
Pottage, puis, pottage, as if made from pea soup (pulse) ; Fr.
potage.
Servet, mappa, a servet or any tablecloth ; Fr. serviette.
Siedge, classis, the siedge; Fr. siege, a seat. Used in this
sense by Spenser.
Trencher, quadra, a four-neuked trencher; a four-cornered
wooden platter, hence "corner dish;" Fr. tranchoir.
From James Carmiehael, of Haddington Grammar School,
236 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
whose Latin Grammar (1587) renders some of his vocabula in
the vernacular —
Ghesbol, the poppy, from the ball-like capsule or seed-case ;
Lat. capsa ; Fr. caiss6.
Tirlets = caxLceWi, from Fr. tirailler, to pull about. He
" tirled at the pin," the equivalent of our knocker, is a phrase
in an old ballad. The cancelli were the movable cross slits of
wood that did duty for glass in the old-time windows. In the
Accounts for the city of Glasgow, 1713, is the item — " For new
glass windows to the session-house and tirlies " of the Hie Kirk
or cathedral (" Glas. Eecords," 1691-1717).
During the seventeenth century there was increased inter-
course between the two countries, but there was little bond
of national sympathy. On the absorbing Church and constitu-
tional questions no link of connection could be formed. The
exiled Eoyalists, and the Continental wanderings of the Scot
abroad, whether for military service or learning, made no great
linguistic impression. The following may be given as a sample
of borrowings as they appear in some books of the century : —
From Sir Thomas Hope's Diary (1633-45)—
Abillzeamenis, modern habiliments; Fr. habillement, from
habile, ready.
Bruttit (Fr. bruit)\ " It is bruttit that Capitane Cokbume
Gwpitane (O.Fr.) J is deid."
Essay (essai) — " It sail half ane essay " (trial).
Ohlissis 1 11 •
„,, , V obliger.
Ublisc/iement }
Travell (travailler) — " I sail travell to draw them to their
tryall."
Valour (valeur) — " The valour of the tithes."
From a contemporary report by an Englishman on the
Covenanters at Duns Law (1639) —
Bases. "The blue bonnets have blue woollen waistcoats,
pair of bases of plaid and stockings of same, pair of pumps,
mantle of plaid over left shoulder and under right arm, pocket
before knapsack, pair of dirks on either side pocket. . . . We
FAKTHEE AFIELD 237
gazed in wonder at targes and dorlachs or quivers of mane of
goat or colt with hair on and hinging behind so as to be like a
tail." The garment in question here was worn between doublet
and short hose in the fashion of the seventeenth-century kilt.
Fishermen wore such a garment loose till the end of the
eighteenth century. The connection of bases with Fr. bas, a
stocking, is disputed. Murray says, "Apparently an English
application of Base, bottom, lowest part."
From Eow's Appendix to Blair's " Autobiography," on the
execution of Hackston of EathiLLet (1680) for the murder of
Archbishop Sharp —
Panse, to staunch a wound ; Fr. panser. " The Council had
a singular care of him, causing jpanse his wounds, &c., lest he
should die before coming to the scaffold." Also in Montgomery's
"The Cherry and the Slae" (1628).
From the "Inventory of Goods of Sir Peter Young" (1628),
pedagogue to James I. —
Muntar, a watch ; Fr. montre.
From Spalding's " Troubles," on Charles I.'s entry into Edin-
burgh, 1633—
Calsey, causey ; Fr. chauss^e ; Bevel — " The calsey was revelled
(fenced) frae the Nether Bow to the Stinking Style, with staiks
of timber dung in the end." This seems to be an English form,
from Lat. revellere, meaning to draw or keep back, as " Eevelling
the humours from their body." — Harvey in " Imper, Diet."
Scoryettis, burgess; O.Fr. escorcher, to pluck off the skin,
to burn the surface of anything ; Eng. scorch. Scoryettis was
some kind of cake or confection.
From the diary of Sir Th. Lauder, when studying in France
(seventeenth century) —
Bitch-full — "Eleventh Nov., St. Martin's, a very merry day
in France for Swiss and Alemands (I'Alemande), who drink like
fishes. Find only three good feasts, — St. Martin's, les trois
Eois" (of Cologne, I suppose), "and Mardi Gras, All drinkes bitch
full theis dayes." Burns has this expression for extreme intoxi-
cation. Fuller form is licher-ion, i.e. full as the beaker, to the
238 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
bung. Can this be Fr. becqude, a billful ? If it be a metaphor
from hitch in the ordinary sense it is unintelligible.
Booh — Pery — Tci{p — " Bairns in France have exercise of the
tap (toupie, a spinning-top), the pery (pirouette), the cleking
(small wooden bat like a racket), and instead of our gouf, which
they (know) not, they haves hinyes." Add bools, marbles (Fr,
loule) ; also in bowling, Lat. bulla, a piece of lead.
From "Glasgow Kecords" (1691-1717): Burgh Records
Society, 1908. We have in these Records the familiar usage
in a Scots burgh at the time of the Union —
BilgetH — " To the quarter-master for his pains of giveing hilgets
for the localities " (1695), Here we have an attempt to render
Fr. billets, the rrnouill*': in which was a familiar Scots soum'J.
We have also frenzies for fringes, where the same sound is
represented by z. Similarly the name Daniel is spelt Dainziell,
cf. guinzees (guineas;.
CMrv/rgeon, surgeon — " Helping him to satisfie the chirv/rgm
and furnishing d/rogs " (1G96;.
Lrogg, as above ; Fr, drogues. The pronunciation has re-
mained to this day.
Ffyad, a fund ; Fr, fond,
Ga.dgf,, a measure — " The baxters have raised their dame a
considerable hight above the gadge and measure eoncluded."
The word is still so pronounced. It is Eng, gauge, gage, to
measure the contents of a vessel^ and of French and Low Lat,
origin. It is not necessarily a borrowed word, biit the pro-
nunciation, gadge, and the derivative gadger, an exoL'ieman, are
distinctively Scots,
Ldtron, a reading desk — "The lettron of the clerk's
chamber," Fr. lutrin ; Eng. lectern ; O.Erig. leterone, lectrun,
from Low Lat. lec-trinum. " It l;a« no connection with lecture"
(Skeat). As the precentor's desk it lived till that functionary
was ritualised out of existence,
Nott/ir, a notary — " His pairtie called in a nottar" (1701);
Fr. notaire.
,S'y«r, a sewer — " Go no farder south nor the north Kid« of the
syre between gavell and well" (1692) ... "a strand or sayre"
(gutter). The word is now pronounced syver. Skeat traces it
FARTHEE AFIELD 239
to the O.Eng. sewe and shore in Shore-ditch, and derives from
O.Fr. essuier, esuer, to dry, but the true sense is to drain dry ;
Lat. exsucare.
The " Eecords " yield an interesting group of Latin-derived
words, mostly verbs, which, though most probably only a re-
flection of grammar-school influences, are curious as following
French rather than English formation. They are these —
Acerese, Fr. accroissement ; Eng. in-crease — " Conveniencie
that might acerese to this burgh" (1696).
Oompesce, Lat. compescere, to restrain — " To compesce these
troubles "(1706).
Contigue, adjoining, contiguous ; Fr. contigue — " Four seats
contigue in the head of the trans or entry " (1702).
Dite, to write ; Eng. in-dite ; Lat. dictus ; Fr. dit — " For paines
in dyteing securities " (1700).
Evite, avoid; Lat. vitare, to shun; Fr. 6viter — "Put to
expense which they cannot evite " (1715).
Exerce, exercise ; Fr. exercer ; Lat. exercere — " Exerceing the
said office" (1693).
Exoner, exonerate ; Fr. exon^rer — " It is but just that they
be exonered and freed" (1716).
Expede, Fr. expedier, to despatch, expedite (cf, impede) ; Lat.
expediri — "Expenses depursed for expeding the signature of
the saids lands " (1696). The plural adjective, saids, is a curious
survival of Norman-French usage.
Exeem, exempt ; Lat. exemptus — " Fisher baats are exeemed
by law " (1697). Fr. exempter is not followed here.
OUddge, oblies ; Fr. obliger, to bind— " Inact & obleidge
themselves as shall be needcessitated " (1700). The pronuncia-
tion here is English of Queen Anne's time.
Sv/plee, supply ; Fr. supplier — " Power to lay on the suplee
and public burden of this burgh " (1701).
The following words, from general sources, represent elements
that still live in the vernacular : —
Ashet, Fr. assiette, a plate or dish, large platter on which
meat is served.
240 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Barley, a truce in a game ; Fr. parlez. Barley-break was an
old English game.
Beaver, Fr. bevoir, boire, the merendum or lunch, otherwise
fcnir-oors. It was a grammar school vocable.
Bawlee — "Ane balbe," St. Andrews Kirk Session Eecords,
ii. 683 ; Fr. has billon, base coin.
Butry, bajan, a freshman at Aberdeen University, has been
explained as from butor, a booby, and bejaune for becjaune, a
nestling (lit. yellow-beak), a ninny.
Certes, my certie ! Fr. certes, indeed, certainly.
Brace, a chimney piece—" A braeebrod in excise chamber "
(" Glas. Eecords," 1706). This may be from Fr. bras, an arm.
Compare jamb, a projection or wing ; Fr. jambe, a leg, familiar
as the jambs or sides of the fireplace.
Cheetie-pussie ! Fr. chat.
Close, Fr. clos ; vaucluse = vallis clausa, a square, a court.
Condie, Fr. conduit, a passage, pipe.
Fattrels, falderals ; O.Fr. fatraille, trumpery ; fatras, rubbish,
trumpery.
Bowet, a hand lantern ; Fr. boite, a little box. Spalding says
that when Cromwell ordered the Edinburgh burgesses to show
bowets at their close-heads nightly, the effect was to bring
back the day. Cf. moon, as Macfarlane's bowet for reiving
purposes.
Cummer, kimmer ; Fr. commfere. Cummers' or gossips' feast
(eighteenth century), described, as practised in Edinburgh, by
Eliz. Mure of Caldwell (1712).—" CaldweU Papers."
Dyvour, a bankrupt ; Fr. devoir ; Lat. debtor. Murray rejects
devoir and suggests Eng. diver in the sense of " plunger," not
a very satisfactory explanation.
Fachous, facheuse, troublesome to do. "Its fachous wark
pikin' a paitrik ; " Fr. f ^cheux.
Fent, in a lady's skirt ; Fr. f ente, a slit, cleft.
Fushonless, pithless ; Fr. foison, plenty, ia Shakspere.
Gag, in the game of " smoogle the gag ; " Fr. gage, pawn,
pledge ; also in the form geg.
Groser, a gooseberry ; Fr. grossier, coarse ; but other native
forms are grosart and grozet.
Haverel, a simpleton ; Fr, poisson d'avril, an April fool. Also
FAKTHEE AFIELD 241
explained as from Jiaver, to talk foolishly, itself of unknown
origin.
Jigot, Fr. gigot, leg of mutton.
Jambs, sides of a fire-place ; Fr. jambe, a leg.
Face, paiss, peise = weights of a clock ; Fr. peser, to weigh, —
regularly used in the seventeenth century, long obsolete.
Parish, Fr. paroisse. Mediaeval English as well as Scotch.
Pend, and paund ; Fr. pendre, to hang ; an archway, a hang-
ing round a bed, a valance.
Petticoat-tails, species of shortbread ; as if from petits-gatelles
(Fr. g3,teau, a cake). See Meg Dods's " cookery " in " St. Eonan's
WeU."
Popinjay, Fr. papegai, the parrot. See " Old Mortality."
Puppie — "A preen to see the puppie-show," children's play;
a puppet show ; Fr. poup6e, a doll.
Sklate, slate ; Fr. delator, to fly into fragments.
Spaul, the shoulder ; Fr. dpaule ; Lat. spatula.
Sybows, a species of onion, young onions ; Fr. ciboule ; Lat.
eepula, cepa, an onion.
Joist, a beam. "When the building is first joist heigh"
(" Glas. Eecords," 1696) ; M.Eng. gyste, jist ; O.Fr. giste, place to
lie on (Cotgrave) ; M.Fr. glte, lodging, etymologically a support
for the floor. Scots distinguishes joist (jaste), just (jiiste), juice
(jice).
Toolye, tuilzie, a broil, quarrel; Fr. touiller, to mix con-
fusedly.
Turner, a coin once very common in Scotland = 2d. Sc. = a
bodle ; Fr. tournois, because coined at Tours.
Tureen, a soup basin ; Fr. terrine, an earthen pan ; Lat. terra,
earth.
Treviss (common in Scots and in Chaucer), division between
stalls in a stable ; O.Fr. tref ; Lat. trabs, a beam.
Tweel—" Eow weel the bonnie tweel, row weel the plaidie ; "
Fr. toile, cloth.
Scoto-French in Burns's Foeins.
Bums was proud enough of his French to air it in his
correspondence, but the words he blends with his native ver-
nacular must represent the popular absorption of centuries.
16
242 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Aumous, alms, almesse ; Pr. auin6ne. " She held up her
greedy gab, Just like an amous dish." — "Beggars."
Awmrie, a cupboard; almonry, aum6nerie. Almerieclos, in
old Arbroath, stood on the site of the Court where was the
awmrie or treasury of the Abbey.
Cadie — " E'en cowe the cadie " (Ch. Fox). — " Earnest Cry,"
Fr. cadet.
Castocks, kale stocks or runts ; as if for chou-stocks, from
Fr. chou, a cabbage ; Lat. caulis. Stock is, of course, of native
origin.
Corbie — " Corbies and clergy are a shot richt kittle." — " Brigs
of Ayr." Fr. corbeau. Compare the " corbie-stepped " gable of
old houses.
Dool, Fr. deuil, mourning. "0' a' the numerous human
dools, 111 hairsts, daft bargains, cutty stools." — " Toothache."
Douce — "Ye dainty deacons, an' ye douce conveneers. To
whom our moderns are but causey cleaners." — "Brigs of Ayr."
Fr. doux, douce ; chauss^e.
Dour, Fr. dur, hard. " When biting Boreas, fell and dour." —
" Winter Night."
Dyvour, a debtor ; Fr. devoir. " Crash them a' to spails. An
rot the dyvors i' the jails ! " — " To Beelzebub."
Gree, prize ; Fr. gr^, grade, rank, degree ; Sc. to bear the gree.
" Where glorious Wallace aft bure the gree." — " To Wm. Simson."
Gusty, Fr. gout. "An' just a wee drap spiritual burn in,
An' gusty sucker." — " Scotch Drink."
Hatch, to fidget. " Even Satan glowred, and fidged fou fain.
And hotched and blew wi' might and main." — " Tarn o' Shanter."
Hocher, to jog, shake, toss.
Joctelegs, knives, from Jacques de Liege, famous cutler. " An'
gif the castocks sweet or sour, Wi' joctelegs they taste them." —
" Hallowe'en."
Mell, Fr. mSler, to mingle. "It sets you ill Wi' bitter,
dearthfu' wines to mell our foreign gill." — " Scotch Drink."
Tawpie, foolish, thoughtless young folks ; taupe, talpo, a mole.
"Now gawkies, tawpies, gowks, and fools, Frae colleges and
boarding schools. May sprout like simmer puddock stools. In
glen or shaw." — Verses written at Selkirk. Gawkie; Fr.
gauche; gowk, the cuckoo.
FAETHER AFIELD 243
Toy, toque, a bonnet. "I wadna been surprised to spy
You on an auld wife's flannen toy." — " To a Louse."
2. Primitive Aryan Civilisation.
" There is no Aryan race in blood, but whoever, through the
imposition of hands, whether of his parents or his foreign
masters, has received the Aryan blessing, belongs to that un-
broken spiritual succession which began with the first apostles
of that noble speech, and continues to the present day in every
part of the globe. Aryan, in scientific language, is utterly
inapplicable to race. It means language and nothing but
language; and if we speak of Aryan race at all, we should
know that it means no more than x + Aryan speech." Thus
does Professor Max Miiller tell us that in attjsmpting to
reconstruct an ideal social unity for the Aryan race we must
not look for aid to ethnology. The question is one which
concerns the continuity of speech not of blood, an inheritance
of mental attitude towards the world of spiritual and natural
phenomena within and without us far subtler and profounder
than any perpetuation of the characteristics of complexion and
feature ; for an Aryan speech writes its own history in virtue
of those inherent principles which govern its growth and decay,
or rather regeneration — principles which, by reason of their
persistency of type and uniformity of action, alone go far to
prove in this case a primitive social unity. What those prin-
ciples are it is not my object either to investigate or prove, but
rather to show how those mutual affinities, which are known to
exist within a European unity of tongues, and connect them-
selves again with a certain well-marked Asiatic unity, point to
a time when the makers of those tongues dwelt somewhere
together, and developed a common civilisation whose leading
characteristics are stamped upon Aryan progress down to the
present day.
If we exclude, on the one hand, the Magyars of the Hun-
garian plain and the Osmanli of Turkey — both the remains of
an irruption from Asia within the historic period — and, on the
other, the prehistoric Basques of the Pyrenees and the nomadic
Lapps and Finns of the northern mark, we find that all the
244 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
languages of modern Europe have well-established racial affini-
ties. They group themselves round four centres, which, again,
are further reducible to two. Let us regard the map of Europe
as a rhomboidal figure with its greater axis lying east and west,
and corresponding to the line of the Alps with their prolonga-
tions. In the lower half place the classical tongues — Greek
right, Latin and her Eomance sisters central and left. In the
upper half, again, across the snowy peaks and stretching far
northwards over the great central plain, lost amid elfin meres
and gnome-haunted forest, roam the Teutons. By the eastern
angle, pressing close for hundreds of years upon Eoman and
Teuton alike, come the Slavs of the Southern Steppes and the
Sarmatian plain ; while, thrust far away into the western angle,
the old-world Celt looks sadly on the mist-clad mountain and
the melancholy western main. These four groups, with a wide
range of dialectic variation peculiar to each, have yet innumer-
able features in common that constitute them a distinct European
unity. They range themselves, however, under two distinct
types — a Classical and a Teutonic. The Slav is a link of con-
nection to east, Celt to west, but both lean to south, and, as far
as phonetic affinities are concerned, are Aryan dialects of the
Classical type.
The discovery of Sanskrit to western scholars, dating from
the foundation of the Calcutta Asiatic Society (1784), revealed a
singularly suggestive Aryan unity existing in the far east, and
possessing in its sacred books a literature that was old long before
the Homeric poems took definite shape. The ancestors of the
Hindoos and the old Persians reached the Indus together, and
there developed a common religious and social system. They
named the great river (the Indus), Sindhu, the goer, the runner.
The country beyond was named, from the river, Sindhya, the
Scinde of Napier's punning despatch, Peccavi (I have sinned).
After this people divided, the western or Persian branch
developed phonetic laws of their own, such as the use of an
h for a Sanskrit s, so that, when the Greeks came in contact with
them, these transmitted to us the name of the river as the Hindus
or Indus, and the country as Hindia or India. This Persian or
Iranic branch spread over the plateau of Iran, and their speech
is now known as that of the Zend-Avesta and the cuneiform
FAETHEE AFIELD 245
inscriptions of Darius. Their Hindoo kinsmen pushed beyond
the country of the seven rivers into the Dakshin-aranya, or
great southern forest of the Deccan, calling the aborigines
blacks, just as in later ages Olive's soldiers knocked their high-
caste descendants on the head as niggers. A great religious
schism seems to have accentuated some original distinctions
between the two peoples. The Sanskrit deva, a god, became in
Zend a demon, while the Hindoos retaliated by making Asura
a giant at war with the Vaidic gods. The Persians, on the other
hand, put Asura (root, as, to be) in the place of honour, who
then became the Ahura-mazda or Ormuzd of Zoroastrian dualism.
But the Sanskrit grammarians had no difficulty in inventing a
derivation for the word, namely, a not, and sura a god.
The proofs of the connection between this Asiatic and the
former European unity form the very kernel of comparative
philology. They are invaluable, not alone in the phonetic
aspect of the question (Sanskrit and Zend range themselves, as
far as Grimm's law is concerned, under the Classical or southern
European group), but still more, and of far deeper import, in
respect of the clue they afford to the difficult problems of com-
parative grammar and mythology. Suffice it here to say that
Sanskrit explains the significance of the name Aryan as an
eponym for the whole family. In the Vedas the Aryas are
believers in the Vaidic gods in opposition to their Gentile
enemies the Dasyus. Later, it meant belonging to the three
upper castes, and especially the third or cultivators of the soil.
Its root is seen in Lat. ar-are, and English ear, to plough. The
name points to that immemorial custom which loves to dignify
a nation or a family by associating its origin with the possession
of land, and proves the early existence of that Aryan earth-
hunger which reaches its acme in Ireland, the Erin that is said
to be just another form of the common race-name.
No one can ever venture to conjecture when all these races
existed as a primitive unity, or why they broke up, or in what
order, or whence sprung the initiative for that dialectic growth
to which they owed their phonetic differences. But we have
learned to know and distinguish the various branches of the
stock, and to formulate the law under which all comparisons of
them, one with another, must be studied. It remains now to
246 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
apply this knowledge by comparing a few groups of cognate
terms in the Aryan dialects in evidence of a linguistic unity,
subsisting among the various members of the family, and of a
relatively advanced stage of civilisation, reached by the proto-
Aryans before their separation. Professor Max Miiller has
drawn up similar lists in his "Biographies of Words," and
there he lays it down as a general rule " that whatever words
are shared in common by Sanskrit and Zend on one side, and
any one of the Aryan languages on the other, existed before the
great Aryan separation took place, and may be used as throwing
light on Aryan civilisation, such as it was at that distant time."
To this it has to be added that cognate terms, peculiar to one
only of the unities (Asiatic or European), are evidence that they
were developed after the primary schism, but existed antecedent
to any secondary schism. Developments by growth within each
unity from a common stock of primitive roots are evidence merely
of the persistency of those distinctive Aryan peculiarities, —
the inflexional system and that significant word-change whereby
we continually specialise the general or generalise the special.
Thus we confer epithets that in course of time become divested
of their meaning — " the counters of wise men but the money of
fools " — and consequently require an efibrt of literary emphasis
to vitalise or supplant them, the secret, in short, of a rich and
expressive vocabulary and a copious literature.
CoNTKACTiONS : — Vaidic, Sanskrit, Zend (Old Persian), Greek,
Latin, Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Cornish, Gaehc), Slavonic, Lithuanian,
Eussian, Teutonic, Old High German, German, Icelandic, Gothic,
Anglo-Saxon, Scottish, Old and Middle English, shown by their
initials. Where no meaning is given after a word it may be
assumed to be identical with that of the head-word under which
it stands. Roots and radical meanings are in italic type.
AUTHOEITIES CONSULTED: — Profcssor Aufrecht's Lectures;
Max Miiller, "Biographies of Words," 1888; Skeat, "English
Etymological Diet.," 1884; Pick, " Vergl. Worterbuch der Indo-
ger. Sprachen," 1870; Curtius, " Grundziige der Griech. Etymol.,"
1873.
1. Family Ties.
Child-Woeds. — Papa, S. and Gr. tata, L. tata, C. tat, SI. teta.
Go. atta. Mama, S. atta, T. aithei. Foster-par eTit, Ved. nan^,
FAETHER AFIELD 247
L. nonnus, nonna (nun), Ved. ambha, Icel. Embla = AmbhaiS,
(ancestress of human race), Ger. Amme.
Father, Pa — , protector, S. pitdr, Gr. and L. pater, T. fadar,
M.E. fader. Mother, Ma — , manager, S. m^tdr, L. and SI. mater,
C. mdther, T. modar, M.E. moder. Husband, ruler, S. pati, L.
potis (able), SI. pats, Go. fath. Wife =prorfMccr, Ved. GnS (wife
of the gods), S. ^gkxA (gana), wife, yvvr/, SI. jena, C. ben, Go.
kwen, queen, quean. ^OT<i = hegotten, or male child, SI. and Go.
sHnu, wos (o-utos), G. suth. 'Da\jguteu = milkmaid, S. duhitar,
Ovydr-qp, SI. dukter, Ir. dear. Go. dauhtar. Brother, hearer,
S. bhrAtar, L. frater, Gael, brathair, SI. bratru. Go. br6thar.
Sister, joy, happiness, S. svdsar, L. sorer (svosor), Ir. sethar,
SI. sestra, Go. swistar, M.E. suster. Father-in-Law, S. svaQura,
eicv/oos, L. socer (svocer). Cor. hveger, Sl. svekru, Go. swaihra,
O.E. sveor, Ger. Schwieger. Widow, vindh, vidh = awanting, S.
vidhdvS, L. vidua, W. gweddw, SI. vidova, Go. widuwo, Ger.
Wittwe. Orphan, Ivreft, Ved. arbha (little), L. orbus (a little
one), op<^ai'ds, 0. arbe and T. arbi (inheritance). In addition,
there are common terms for uncle, son, daughter, and sister-in-
law, husband and wife's brother, grand-son, grand-daughter.
Aryan civilisation was distinctively social, based on the family
unity. The terms expressive of the family ties are of two quite
different kinds. The child- words (German Lall-worter or prattle-
words) seem to take us into the penetralia of word-making.
They point to the monosyllabic stage of aboriginal speech, and
do not conform to Grimm's law. The Semitic Abba claims
kindred with them, while Nausik5,a addresses her father as
Trdinra (^iA«, ! dear papa, exactly as an English girl would.
To our Celtic nurses we owe dad and daddy. In Wulfila the
Goth began his Paternoster, " Atta unsar," whence the historic
Att-ila or little father. Varro says that children in ancient
Italy called food papa, father tata, and mother mama. Our
spelling mamma is due to the mistaken connection with Lat.
mamma, the breast. Nonnus and nonna were originally a
mother's brother and sister. The Sans. akkA is the Lat. Acca
Larentia, mother of the Lares. The Ger. Oheim, Sc. erne, Boer
1 Italic g in Sanskrit indicates the soft or palatalised sound, as in
"George."
248 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
oom, L. avus, avunculus (cf. uncle, nunkey), all point to a primi-
tive type of family life. The other names for family relationship
show a distinct advance on the monosyllabic type. "We have
now reached the significant or epithet stage. The affix -ter is
a very common inflexion to show agency. Thus in the Vedas
mtitar is used as a participle. The th in father and mother is
thought to be due to the influence of brother. The Sans, vidhdvt,
a widow, was early explained by the native grammarians as from
vi = without, and a fictitious dhavS. = a husband. The initial gw
in the Welsh is the general Celtic equivalent of Teutonic w, cf.
guarantee = warrant, Guillaume = William. Under orphan, C.
arbe appears in Sc. and M.E. orpiet = peevish, quarrelsome, and
in the phrase, to erp = be constantly grumbling, " to harp upon
a grievance." It will be observed that grandfather is unrepre-
sented. The head of the family was the father, whether he was
really so or not, and engrossed all attention. Grandson, how-
ever, was named, S. ndpat, Ved. nap = offspring, and Lat. nepot
(is), from a root nap = bind. With this our nephew and niece
are cognate.
2. Man Generally.
Man = (a) thinker, Ved. Mdnu, L. mas (mans), T. Mannus,
Go. mans ; = (&) chosen, hero, S. vira, L. vir, Ir. fear. Lit. vyras,
Icel. verr Go. wair, E. wor-ld, Ger. Wel-t ; = (c) strong, S. nara,
ndry-a (manly), Oscan ner, Nero, Neria (wife of Mars) a,vrjp ;
= {d) terrestrian, L. homo. Lit. zeme (land). Go. guman, yeo-
man, bride-groom. YOVNG = guarded, S. yuvan, L. juvenis, Lit.
jaunas. Go. juggo. Child = conceived, S. vi-garbha. Go. kil-thei,
child, calf.
Of these terms the first (a) is specially Teutonic. The
Hindoos and the Teutons both used the word, man, for the pro-
totype or ancestor of the human race, and both recognised in
man the possession of the god-like gift of reason that looks
before and after. The commonest later names in Sans, are
m^n-ava and man-ushya. Go. mannisk is Ger. Men-sch, and
is adjectival. The second (6) is the most widely diffused — S.
vara = suitor, virya = vires, vir-tus. Its compounds are extremely
interesting: decurio and centurio contain it. Cantuarii is
Latinised for Kent-were (men of Kent), wergeld was com-
FARTHER AFIELD 249
pensation for manslaughter, wor-ld is O.E. wer-old, the age
of man, a seoulum and sum of human experience, affording
curious comparison with other modes of expressing such a wide
generalisation. The third (c) is entirely awanting in Teut. and
Slav. In Oscan ner was applied to the nobles in the State.
The fourth (d) is not in Sans., and has had little vitality in
Teut. The Go. gunia Wulfila applies to Zacchams.
3. Home.
HovfiVi = builded, S. d&xak, L. domus, SI. domu, 0. dam. Go.
timrjan (build), timber, Gor. Zimmer. Door. — S. dvar (dhvar),
dvpa, L. fores. Lit. durys (pL), Go. daur. Straw-bed. — S. stara,
L. torus, C. srath, SI. straje. Go. strau-ja. Hamlet (1) = abode
(vifj = enter), S. ve^a, vaika, oTk<k, L. vJcus (veicus), SI. visi,
(Jo. weihs, — wich. (2) Fenced place. — (a) S. vara-ta. Worth
(village), (b) O.E. tin = town, Ger. Zaun (hedge), (c) S. pur
(strong place), pura, t6X.ii, Lit. pilis, S. puru = plenus, plebs.
As the names for man show that the primitive Aryans had
advanced far beyond the simple concepts that clustered round
the hearth and child-life, and could cope with epithets that
implied considerable powers of reflection and generalisation,
so do those for house and home show a stage of comfort very
different from that of the neolithic cave-dweller or the nomad
Eskimo. One fancies in the terms for hamlet a distinction
between northern and southern Aryans, due probably to the
condition of the country over which each set had spread. In
both cases a, simple enclosure constituted a hamlet — outside, the
village mark or common pasture land, and within, the homes.
To this day in many ]>arts of Germany the scattered homestead
is unknown, the Farmyard being a Hof in a village. The Sans,
and Greek terirw, however, add to the notion of a defended
place that of a busy crowded populace that made its acropolis
the rallying point I'or a more lively civic development in street
and agora. Signilicant in tliis connection is the commonest later
Sans. I'or a man, puru-sha, literally a townsman. The favourite
Teutonic town, on the other hand, points to a more scattered
baclvwoodsman kind of settlement. The North German plain
is one vast monotonous expanse of wood and vvater, within whose
250 STUDIES IX LOWLAXD SCOTS
limits the lonely settlers would develop a simpler bucolic sodefy,
slow of wit, dreamy, but home-loving. In Lowland Scotland a
farm homestead i; a town. Even a few houses standing apart
and supposed to be, if not actually, enclosed within a hedge
fence, form the cotton or cot-toun of the farm.
4 Domestic Anvnw.ls.
CATrLK= tethered, pastured. — S. pa^a (pa^ rope), L. pecus,
SL peku. Go. faihu, A..S. feo, Ger. Yieh, fee, .Sc. te. BcxL=
strong. — ^Yed. sthuia (bull), sthurin (beast of burden), sthula
(strong;, Gr. and L. taurias. SL turn, W. tarw. Go. stiur, steer.
(ys. = wrrifr. — ^S. nkshiin, d L. veho (carryX ^. y-chain (pL),
Go. auhsa (ct wax, to grow), Ger. Oehse. Cow = (a; heUower. —
S. go, gans (m. and t), Gr. and L. bos, SL gow, C. bo, M.E. cu, Ger.
Kuh (for kavi; ; (J) railher, dhenu, OrjXvi (giving milk), L. filia.
Lit. de-te (infans). Go. daddjan (suck). Sheep = (a) protected =
youngling. — S. aAT, avis (attached), Gr. and L. ovL=, Lit. avi, Ir.
oi. Go. awi-str (fold), awe-thi (flock), ewe ; (fe) ddthei, in-ceded, —
S. rira (vara, wooUy), uma (wool), urana (vamna, a wether),
€«/»os (wool), L. veUus (fleece), SL vluna, W. gwlanen= flannel,
.So. flaunen. GoAX=affile. — S. aga, (aga), a^ina=oi7''s (goatskin),
SL ozka. ^OBS&— quick. — S. aova (akva), Z. aspa (Hydaspes)
JsTTos, L. equus, Epona (goddess of horses), lit. aszva, "W. osw
(Jo. aibwa, A..S. ehu, GaeL and Ir. each. J'jUs=hegottefi. —
.S. pu-tra (son), pota (jouug), L. puUus, Go. fula, K fiUy. PlG=
(a) f/r'AvMd. — S. su-kara, ts, L. su.=, Lit. svini-ja, T. sv-ein ; (tj
=grvMier. — S. grish'ii (boar), ghrish-ti (piggie), yoipan (xof^uK),
Xorse and Sc. grice, E. Gris-kin. Jjo-x. — Ted. and S. rvan,
Ki''^v, L. canis (cvauisj, SL szun, Ir. en. Go. bunds.
These terms Olustiate still more clearly the simple agiicul-
txiral life of the Aryans. Th^ snrronnd themselve-s with tixc-se
domestic animals that still tenant every homestead, and name
them with intelligent observation. All the dialects agree in
giving a general significance to the name for cattle, and from
the earliest period there is attached to it the sense of property,
cf. cattle (capitalia), capital, and chatteb. The beast of burden
is the sturdy ox. In ."^ans. go-pa, a cowherd, gives a common
word to rule or govern, and the Hindoo title (^aikwar still
FAETHER AFIELD 251
preserves the importance of the original office. The Umbrian
filia sus is a sucking pig. That so expressive and widespread
a name as was given to the Aryan horse has not been preserved
in common use among the Teutons is intelligible, and points to
the east and open plain as its home. The Eomance dialects
have dropped the common Latin equus, while modern current
Gael, and Ir. prefer capuU and garron. That the initial aspirate
in Greek is wrong is shown by such names as Aristippus.
5. Wild Animals.
Beast = 0.E. deer, 6rjp (4>r)p) L. fera, SI. zveri, Go. dius.
Beae = shining, S. riksha (arksa), apKro^, L. ursus (urcsus), Lit.
lokis, Ir. art. Wolf = tearer, robber, S. vrika (Ved. = enemy).
X-vKoi, L. lupus, SI. vluku, C. fael, Go. wulfs. M.ovse= thief, S.
mUsh, /*w, L. mus, SI. misi, A.S. mus, pi. — i, mys (mice = mise),
L. mus-culus (muscle, creeping thing under the skin). Hare =
cleft (nose), S. qaga (^asa), S. " man in moon " is hare in the moon,
SI. sasins, T. haso, hare. Serpent = (a) throttler, ccmstrietor, S.
ahi (aghi), ex«, (viper), L. anguis, Lit. angis, eyx^'^^« = anguilla
(eel), C. escuing (water-snake), M.E. el (agla), Ger. Aal;
(6) creeper, S. sarpa e/ra-erov, serpens.
6. Birds.
Bird, generally, S. vi, oi-wvds, L. avis, ovum, SI. aje, T. ei (egg),
pi. eigir.
G!OOSE,= gaping, laughing, S. hamsa (ghansa), x^"' L- anser,
C. geiss (swan), Euss. gus', Bohemian hus (cf. John Huss),
O.H.G. Kans, AS. g6s (gans). Duck, S. ati. L. anat— , vrjTTa
(averia), Lit. antis, O.H.G. Anut, Ger. Ente, O.E. ened, M.E. ened,
d-rake (end-rik = duck-king). Crow = (a) noisy, S. karava,
Kopa^, L. corvus, O.H.G. Hraban, raven, L. crep-are, make a noise ;
(b) croaker, S. kru9 (croak), SI. kruk, 0. cru, O.H.G. Hruoh,
rook. Cb.as'E= calling, Z. krounkn, yepavoi, L. grus, C. garan,
SI. zervi, A.S. cran. Cuckoo, S. kokild, kokkv^, L. cuculus, SI.
kukavica, C. cuach, T. kuckuk, Sc. gowk (gauche, gawky).
Owl, S. uluka, oXoXvyaia, L. ulucus, Sc. hoolet.
252 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
7. Plant Life.
Birch, S. bhiir^a, Euss. bereza, Sc. birk, M.E. birche. Beech
or Oak, [S. bhaga], S. bhaksh to eat, <#»j7os, L. fagus, O.H.G-.
Puohha (Buche), A.S. b6k, O.E. b6cen (adj.). Sallow = wa^er-
haunting, S. sara a pond, eAtxij, L. saUx, Ir. saileacb. O.H.G-.
Salahd, M.E. salwe, Sc. sauch. Osiee, E. wi — , plait, S. veta-sd,
(reed), tVea (willow), L. vitis (vine), W. gwden. Lit. zil-wittis
(gray willow for baskets), Danish vidie, E. withe, wind, Sc.
widdie. Eeed, S. kaldma (reed-pen), KaXafi-os, L. culmus (stalk),
C. kalaf, Dutch halm, E. haulm (der. quill).
The last three groups are all important as affording some
clue to the common home. The larger ferce Tiaturce are absent.
Those we have here are familiar to the northern verge of the
Temperate Zone. The ordinary features of the bear are over-
looked here, and a name is given him that is connected with
the place he occupies in mythology. Similarly, the name of
the hare is accounted for by early folk-lore, in which he plays
a large part all over the Aryan world. Under serpent-words
it should be noted that there is no trace of any worship of
the creature. In the larger forms it is dreaded, but for the
harmless ones there is no change of radical meaning. From
the Celtic clearly comes the Scotch ask or esk, the eft or
newt. The bird- terms are few and all northern, notably the
crane, which does not extend further east than Armenia. The
use of the word as a machine, as well as bird, seems very old.
These bird-terms are all of the imitative kind. Such creatures
all attract attention first by their cries.
8. The Farm.
Field, E. ag — , drive, V. a^ra (agra, place where cattle are
driven out), aypos, L. Ager, Go. akr, E. acre. Path, E. pat-, spat-,
stretch out, S. pathas, ttoitos, L. pons (pathway), SI. pati, T. fad,
Sc. paeth. Plough, S. drya landholder, L. ar-are, SI. orati to
plough, Ir. ar-aim, I plough, S. ira and urvarS, = Ipafe, apovpa =
arvum (ploughed land); S. ar-itra = C. ar-athor = L. ar-atrum
(a plough), Norse aror, «V''^/*os = L. remus (oar); Go. ar-jan=
M.E. erien = ear (to plough), oar. Sowing, E. sa — , cast, scatter,
FAETHER AFIELD 253
S. si-ta (furrow), L. sero (seso), Go. saian. Wain, E. wah — ,
carry, S. vdhaua, oxos, L. vehieulum, SI. vozw, C. fen, A.S. waegn
and waen. Axle, E. aff — , drive, S. dksha, a^tov, L. axis, C. echel,
A.S. eax, O.H.G. Ahs-ala (shoulder), Sc. oxter (arm-pit). Yoke,
E. yug-, join, S. yugd, fvyov, L. jugum. Lit. junga, W. iaw, A.S.
geoe, ioc.
Farm- words show a simple, rustic, but by no means nomadic,
life. The Vaidic a^ra reminds us of the old Scotch loanin or
field kept in grass near the farm-town. The roads are simply
footpaths leading to the out-fields or the village mark. The
North- Western dialects agree in restricting the root ar- to
plowing, but the common name for plough seems to have been
lost, for the modern word has been developed within the
Teutonic unity — Frisian and Sc. pleuch, Swedish plog, Euss.
pluge. It is the same as plug, a block of wood. The familiar
Teut. hoe, Sc. howk is in Sans, koka, a name for the wolf.
9. Food.
COEN = E. ju-, sustainer, S. y^va (barley), ydvasa (fodder),
(iLai, Lit. yavas, C. e6rna. Meal = (a) E. mar — ground, ruhied,
S. malana (rubbing), /ivA?;, S. mola, SI. melja, C. melim. Go.
malan (to grind) ; (&) E. kar — crumbled, S. Aurna (flour), yvpi^,
L. granum, SI. zruno, C. gran. Go. kwairnus a quern, E. eor-n,
ker-nel, churn (Sc. kirn). Mead, S. madhu (sweet, honey),
pidv, L. mel, SI. medus, A.S. medu, O.Ir. med (drunk).
Water, E. wad — wet, S. udan, v5<op, L. udus, 0. dour, Euss.
vod-kja = Ir. uis-ce (whisky), Go. wato. Salt, E. sar—flow, that
which runs together, cf. serum, S. saras (lake), aXs, L. sal. Ir.
salann, E. sole. Go. sal-t., Sc. Saline (place-name).
10. Occupations.
Build, S. dru (a tree), daru (wood), Sopv (spear-shaft), Ir.
daur, SI. drevo, Go. triw-eins (adj. = treen), axle-tree. Cut,
S. kartani (scissors), Kilpto, L. cul-ter. Go. hairus (sword). Plat,
S. prik, irkeKm, and L. plico. Go. flahta (plaited), Sc. flaik (hurdle),
E. flax. Weave, S. va, urna-v§,bhi (wool-spianer, spider), v<j>ri
(web), L. vieo, SI. viti. Sew, E. nah = sna, bind, S. nah, Gr. and
L. ne-re, Ir. snathad (needle), Ger. nahen, E. needle. Knead,
254 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
R dhigh, handle, form, S. dih, L. fingo, Go. daigs = dough.
Dress, S. vas (clothe), «tr6^s=L. vestis, Go. vasti.
The food-grains seem to have been a late development, and
are named on separate lines, the primitive staple being a kind
of spelt playing such a part as we find in Homer and among
the Jews and Arabs. Grinding [was done by the simple old-
world hand-mill, and the action involved in it is expressed
by two distinct roots. Mead implies a knowledge of fermen-
tation. From the existence of a common root for salt, it does
not follow that the primitive Aryans had any acquaintance
with the sea. Our word tree retains its original reference to
the use of timber as the only building material. The use of
osier-twigs in plaiting, of wool in spinning, and of clay as a
plastic material, and the naming of them from common roots,
prove an early common acquaintance with the primitive arts
of basket-making, weaving, and pottery.
11. Seasons.
Spring. — Orig. same as the dawn = u8has (va8as= aurora),
R. vas-, give light, S. vasanta, eap, L. ver (veser), SI. vesna, Ic.
vair, A.S. Eastre (austara), the spring goddess, E. east (auost).
Winter. — S. hima (cold, snow), hSmanta, x"">' (snow), x*'/^"'
L. hiems. Lit. zima, Norse gymbr (year-old sheep), Sc. gimmer.
Snow, E. snigh — , wet. — S. sneha (moisture), Z. (jnizh (to snow),
vi<f>a, L. (s)niv(is), nivis. Go. snaiws. Month, Moon. — E. ma — ,
ineasurer, S. m§,s, /i^v (month), fi-qvij (moon), L. mensis. Lit. menu,
Ir. mi. (mens), Go. mgn-oths, A.S. mgna. Day, E. div — , shine,
S. div, diva (by day), L. dies, W. dyw, SI. dini. Yesterday,
orig. = Ttiorning-heyond. — S. hyas, x^«> L. hes-ternus, Go. gistra-
dagis, yester-day. Night, E. nuk — , fail, disappear, perish,
S. nakti, vu^, L. nox. Lit. naktis, Go. nahts. Year, S. yatu
(time), hora, A.S. gear, Ger. Jahr.
12. Civil Life.
King (a) as father. — S. ^'anaka, L. ^-enitor, Ger. Konig, A.S.
cyn-ing (son of the kin or clan) ; (h) as protector — S. vi9-pati
(master of the wic or village-community), SI. vesz-pati (only
of God and the king); (c) as ruler — E. rak — reach, rule, S.
FAETHEE AFIELD 255
ra^-an, L. rex, Ir. riogh, ri, Go. reiks (ruler), Ger. Eeich.
Village-commune. — Sabha (community), SI. sebru, Go. sibja
and Ger. Sippe (affinity), Sc. sib, O.E. sibbe (peace, affinity), E.
gos-sip. Kin = E. gan — begotten. — S. ganas, ytvos, L. genus, Go.
kuni (race, tribe), E. kind-red.
Season-words yield a further hint of a northern Continental
home, with a more or less humid climate in which the welcome
change from the long ungenial winter was as the burst of sun-
shine through the cold and mist of a gloomy night, and the
dawn of gladsome spring was merged in a too short summer day.
Time was measured by the moon, of little service otherwise in
that wolf-haunted forest-land, and therefore playing but a small
part in primitive mythology. Day is the reign of divine, life-
giving light, as night is the waning of Nature's powers in a
death-like gloom. The terms for civil life show that a more
than rudimentary conception of social polity existed. The basis
of union is kinship by blood, and the ruler is the father of related
families, the guardian that defended the tribe on its threshold
(the encircling mark), or even the one most distinguished by
personal merit chosen to a still wider sway.
13. Mind.
Thinking. — E. ma-, measure, S. manas, /xevos, L. mens, SI.
mineti, 0. menme. Go. mun-s. Wit = seeing clearly, S. vid, olSa,
L. videre, SI. vedeti. Go. wit-an, Ger. wiss-en (to know). Know-
ing, E. make to know, teach, S. g^ntimi (I know), y vwo-ts, L. g-nosco,
SI. znati, Go. kannjan (make known), Sc. ken. Willing = choose,
a. vri. (choose), v^ra (wish, excellent) ; L. volo, S. voliti. Go. wil-
jan — will, well. Awe, E. agh-, choke, S. amha (angha, constraint,
pain), axos, Ir. eaghal. Go. agis — awe, ugly, ug-some.
14. Myth.
Sun = light-giver, S. siira, svar (sky), a-eipios = Sirius, L.
ser-enus = <reXrivq (svar^nS,), C. sail. Lit. saul. Go. sauil. Staro
= strewn or light-strewers, — Ved. star-as, dtn-qp, L. stella (ster-ula),
C. steren, Go. stairno, star. Wind and Weather,— E. vdr—,
blow, vtita, L. ventus, Lit. vetra. Go. waian, A.S. weder, — weather :
K. an , breathe, S. anila, ave/ios, animus, Sc. end (breath).
256 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
Thxjndek (a) = sound, groan, S. stanita, L. tonitru, A.S. thunnr,
IcEL. Thor (god of thunder), Thurs-day ; (6) = strike, S. VadM-tra
(thunder-bolt), T. Wuodan (Woden), Odin, Wednes-day. Daek-
'S'E,ss = what dims, mist, S. llamas, raj^ani (night), Gr. Erebus,
Orpheus, Go. rikwis, Sc. reek (smoke). Fire (a) S. agni, L. ignis,
SI. ogni ; (J) firestich, S. pramantha, Prometheus. Bug-beak,
S. Bhaga, Phrygian, Zeus Bagaios, Ir. puea (sprite Puck), Sc.
bogle (scare-crow). Heaven = (a) bright sky, S. dyaus, Dyaus-
pitar = Dies-piter = Jupiter, Diana, Janus, S. deva (a god). Lit.
devas, C. di, Norse Edda, Tivar (gods), Tyr (god of war), Tuesday
= Tiwes-daeg ; (6) = all-emiradng and all-seeing, S. Varuna (sky)
Uranus; (c) = living, being. — K. as, to be, V. Asura, Z. Ahura-mazda,
cf. Jehovah = T am, that I am.
The terms under these heads enable us to plant Aryan
civilisation deeper, showing as they do a more profound grasp
of what is in the best sense culture. They prove the truth of
the maxim — "Nil in intellectu nisi prius in sensu." Whatever
may be the psychologist's verdict on the scholastic question of
primum eognitum and primum appellatum, these primitive con-
cepts tell us that the Aryans reached the abstract through the
concrete, and moved in a world of quick sensations. They had
even grasped the Kantian distinction of subjective and objective,
differentiating the wissen from the kenTien, the savoir from the
connattre. The higher consciousness is choice, and the most
solemn and impressive symbol for physical pain and religious
dread is found in the sensation of choking. The last head
reveals to us the boundless region of comparative mythology.
Here we read the unconscious literature of the Aryans, the
sacred books of the race. It has the same physical basis as the
terms for mental operations. The cardinal fact of the Aryan's
simple existence was the ever-ending, ever-beginning struggle
of the bright sun, eternal type of his own lot. Against his hero
are arranged the powers of nature, the demons of the cloud and
the darkness. His love is the dawn-nymph. In the first blush
of their love she coyly eludes him ; fair but faithless and fleet-
ing. In the heat of the day she will haunt him, till once again
in the glory of his manhood she meets his embraces, and they
sink together into the mystic Avillon with his twiUght smile
irradiating her azure brow. Thus did the simple Aryan endow
FARTHER AFIELD 257
the phases of natural life with a personality like his own ; on
this all-absorbing thouie he lavished his nascent powers of
literav)- expression in the signiticant epithet ; and all this with
such truth and vitality that, from Homer down to the latest
moilern novel, the primitive solar myth — the varying fortunes
of luno and heroine, the cruel machinations tliat separate them,
and their iinal re-union — doniiniites the whole realm of literary
make-believe.
Professor Max Miiller sums up the results of the foregoing
iu(iuiry in these words: — "Looking tlieu at the whole evidence
which the languages of the wirious ^Vryau nations still supply,
we percei\'e that before their separation their life was that
of agrieultural nomads, and probably most like the life of the
ancient Germans, as described by Tacitus. They knew the arts
of ploughing, of making roads, of building ships and carts, of
wea\'ing and sewing, and of erecting strongholds and houses,
more or less substantial. They could count, and they had
divided the year into months. They had tamed the most
important domestic animals; they were acquainted with the
most useful metals, and were armed with hatchets and swords,
whether for peaceful or for warlike purposes. They followed
tlieir leaders and kings, obeyed their laws and customs ; and
were impressed with the idea of a IMxine being, which they
invoked by various nauu^s."
It is impossible to su}- when or in what way the causes which
ha\e produced the existing distribution of the Aryan tongues
began to take etl'eet. It is due to a highly-elaborated tlexional
system, aiul a vtuy early appearance of literary forms, among
many other considerations, that philologists like Max Miiller
were led to place the common centre of emanation nearer to
the Asiatic than to the European unity. There is no doubt,
moreover, that these tongues range themselves in groups that
tra\'el on divergent lines. We are on liistorical ground, too, in
saying that the original rupture between North-west and South-
east was rendered permanent by internal causes due to the
growth of an elaborate social and sacerdotal system peculiar
to the Asiatic section, and by such external agencies as the
inroads of tlie Tartar hordes from Central Asia, and the
siiread of Semitic influences from the South-west. Bearing-
17
258 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
in mind that the oldest names for the outstanding features
of the country in Europe are of Celtic origin, and that the
Celts are, both in point of locality and civil progress, an out-
lying, isolated, and diminishing stock, we may safely infer that
they were the first to move westwards. All the traditions
of the Grseco-Latin stock point to an Eastern origin, and that
a very remote one. On the other hand, not till the fourth
century do the Teutons emerge from obscurity and take a place
in literature. They are then on the lower Danube, but driven
into the Empire by ruder barbarians on the North. The trans-
lation of the New Testament by the Bishop of the Goths, Wulfila
(about 360 A.D.), constitutes, philologically speaking, the Veda
of the Teutons. The language of the Goths retains very many
of the characteristics of the primitive Aryans, and throws
besides invaluable light on the whole subsequent dialectic
growth of the Teutonic tongues. The Slavs, having for centuries
to maintain a hard contest between their Teutonic brethren on
the west of the Sarmatian plain and the Mongol savages of the
east, have arisen but slowly out of their primitive barbarism.
Their language, however, preserves some singularly interesting
archaisms.
As the great schism that has permanently separated the
Asiatic from the European groups brings us nearest to the
proto-Aryan period, whatever throws light upon the significance
of that event serves still further to illustrate the stage of culture
which the combined stock had reached. We have seen on what
points of material, mental, and moral culture they all agree. It
will be important to notice in what respects they differ. Eoots
will be found to divide in a mysterious way, so that the North-
western group, for example, prefers to express the action of
milking as stroking, softening (marg-), the South-eastern as
drawing (duh-). Similarly the root ar- goes to Europe as
ploughing, and remains in Asia as rowing, the Hindoos betak-
ing themselves to another common radical (karsh — to draw) to
express the former action ; while the Sans, kshuma is supplanted
in the West by linen, flax. Of more special growths we have
the Vaidic soma as a sacred beverage remaining strictly in the
East, while vinum spreads all over the West. It was probably
due to climatic conditions that the Hindoos added to the primi-
FAETHER AFIELD 259
tive set of phonetic symbols such new peculiar forms as charac-
terise the Sans, alphabet. But the most striking proofs of an
imperfectly-developed common civilisation remain to be noted.
For example, whereas the ear for phonetic variations was so
developed as to produce a rich fiexional system, and perpetuate
minute shades of accentuation, the colour sense, as might be
expected, was a late growth. The Sans, for colour is varna, lit.
what covers, and is the same as vellus and our wool. It was
also chosen to express caste, a most significant specialisation of
its force. But this vagueness in colour-naming is best shown in
the case of the metals. Gold is S. hir-anya, hd,r-ita, Z. zaranya,
zairita, SI. zliitu, zelenu, Go. gulth and our gold, Gr. chrusos.
These all agree in naming the metal from its colour, the yellow.
From the same stem, however, come S. hari, green, and Lat.
gilvus, fiavus, and our yellow ; from S. harit, red, Lat. f ulvus.
The neutral tint of silver is more easily decided ; it is S. ra^rata,
the white, or ra^'ata hiranyam, white gold, just as in Scotland
zinc was called white iron. The Lat. arg-entum has the radical
sense, but it is lost in the Teut. dialects. The third metal shows
the greatest variations of colour-naming, so much so that it may
have been applied to copper, bronze, or iron. It is in Sans, ayas,
Lat. aes, Go. aiz. In Wulfila the apostles are to take no aiz
(money) in their girdles. Gr., Lat., and Teut. have developed
their words for iron on quite independent lines. When we deal
with the names of commodities that are the products of an
advanced civilisation, we are in the region of loan-words, inter-
esting as evidence of a very early commerce, and this necessarily
complicates the question as to the higher culture of the proto-
Aryans. Some of these loan-words are extremely old — sugar-
candy, for example, came from India in the remotest times,
crystallised on sticks of cane or bamboo. Sugar is the S. Qarkara
= gravel, Pers. shakar, Lat. saccharum, and Gr. with slight
change, M.E. sugre. Candy is S. kandha, a stick, and Pers.
quandat, quandi (sugared). The word lives in Lowland Sc. as
gundy.
The only point that now remains to be discussed is the home
of the Aryas. We were long satisfied with locating it some-
where in Western Asia, probably in the region stretching south
from the Caspian and along the valley of the Oxus, on the one
IHIO STUDIES IN LOWLAND SCOTS
side reaching up the slopes of tiio raiopainisnn ami Hiiuioo-
Ivoosh, and on the other to the Arnienian Higldands. Tliis
position gives ns, mindful of the saying, cr oricnte lit.v. a reason-
able eentie of development, and aecords well with siieh histovicnl
facts as bear on the point. In res]ieet of natural produets and
cliuiatie conditions it lends itself to the deduetit>ns already
drawn from the lists of most widely dilliised terms, lint a
European centre has long been claimed for tlie Aryan disper-
sion, somewhere in South lUussia, the Danube, the shores of the
Baltic, and so on. This theory would make the proto-Aryans
spring from the rude builders of tlie lake-dwellings and the
kitchen-middens. It points to the absence of any common
word for lion, tiger, elei)liant, eanicl, ape, as inimical to any
Asiatic source. It says that the only common trees named,
birch and beech, are natives of middle Europe not of Asia.
Max j\[iiller discusses the whole (piestion, and replies Id Ibis
argument on its own lines. There is no doubt that the pre-
historic condition of middle Europe was unfavourable to the
early growth of civilisation. In point of fact, when there at
all, it came late and from the south. Dense forests co\'ered
a marshy land. The inhabitants must have been confined to
the neighbourhood of lakes or of the sea, where ah^ie were the
means of easy subsistence. If, then, the dispersion was from
such a centre, there ought to be a common word for fish, yet
the Sans, matsya, and the Teut. and Celt, fish are from diU'erent
radicals; common names for shells and shell-fish are entirely
absent. The eel is not found in the Black or Oas])ian Sea, and
the name, though from a connnon root, is of A\'estern and later
growth. The sea itself ought to, and does, have a connnon
name, but this proves little. In Sans, maru is a desert, liter-
ally that which is dead, and Lat. mare aiul our nunc and
extensive Tent., Slav., and Celt, forms point to a Western
development. Why, on this hypothesis, should the Enrojiean
Aryans forget in the East so prominent a natural environmenti
as this? The name for ship, too, is common. It is Sans, nau,
Gr. and Lat. nans, A.S. nuca, and Ger. Naclien, a skill', from
a root seen in nare, to swim or float. It primarily appli(>s
to a boat on a river or lake, and has not spread far in tlie
Teutonic dialects. In bird life the crane is not in Sans, buli in
|'AI;thki;. aiikiJ) 2«i
'/,i:U(\, l/c,f;;uiW) l.lic l/ini iUicn not, iii.ic.;i,(| fiirUidr <::wX UifUi Annf.u'iii,
wliili; Uk; r|i)ail a))|)C,;i,rii holJi in HfuiH. and <it: iim tlti; rctjirnin;/
mil;. 'I'lio ciiinc, would l/c new l,o Uiokc wtio wiuit, woHt, fainilifir
if Uicy wont, oiijil,. Of \i\iuiin Uio !.7',nc,rii,| |,(;rfri l,tc,c, ;i,h l,inil)C,r Ih
M,lonoc,orriino;i l,o fill, 'I'Ijc, ijiunin^^ of irifliviiliial t,r(;c,H JH unootiiiin.
'i'iior*! in no (|<'liriil,(i ooniinon Uum. \',\nu}n(Ki>^r. hi roll, So. \i'u\i)
ii|)|;(',aii) In H/uiH, (i,H t,li(! nanio of a liark nhoi) m writ-inj^^-rnaLoriiiJ.
Tlio l/oooli, iiHi'd m a food, in (ionlincd t,o t,lic, Norl,l]-weHt. 'I'lio
woni Ih l,lio natiio of t,lio oak in (in:i:k. 'I'Ik; l.al,. (|M(;if;iiH,
iif^ain, Ih t.lir! 'I'omI/. fora ha and onr lir. HiiL tho whole, iLiyn-
nionj; from t.ho |)lii,nl, ii.rjd a,iHtnal life for(.rr.!tH l,liiU, t,h(!n) ar'o
a Horn, a,nd fanna of a,lt,il,iidn an well an ]al,il,iidii, atid IL wa«
iKivcii' inipliiul t/liat t,li(i |)fo(,o Aiy/uiH liv(!d anywiioro but/ on
l,li(! iijilandM of woHl/crn AhIii. whore, l<;uio|)ea,n l.rcoH and familiar
lun/nalH l/liriv(i. Ho l-hal/ it, Ih not, ne,(;(!HMary t,o admit,, as I'rofoHHor
Mii.x Mdlier dooH, l;hii,l, t,lie niMrien for lion, t,i(^(!r, oid,, ffdj.dit, have
li(U',n for^/olien \iy t-liOHO woHl/Ctrn trihoH that li^ft, t,h() liaunlH
of t,lie,HO e,ron,l/iii'(!H. ThiH woidd ho inl,elli),,dlj|e, for what t'A-.mc.H
t,o ho ^.;i^noraJly UHod i:i)im'.H In he named. 'I'huH in t,he pre-
lid.ie, (layM in Me.ot,lM,nd flie lee,t,ern wu,H i'li.miliiu'. Ah I'renhy-
t,iirianiHtn fook liold of t,lie [leople tho readiuf^-degk, known for
II, while (iH t,lie let.t.min, wiiH a|)|)li(^d t,o l,lio |)re,e,{inl,or'H doHk,
iMid ill fimo wiiH l'or),{(itl.en an l')|iiHi',o|)aey hee.amn un|)0|)iilar.
The ii,|ie and l,i).i;er ii.ro Htriel,ly l,ro|)iea,l. The lion Ih more
widely diCruMod, luid tlio word iH Haid to he an liido-l<;uro|)eiui
one, Hi)^nil'yilif^ t,lie rii,viiij^ or roarinj; one. The eanidl preHcntH
II. real diriieiilty, I'er liiuifriii., tJie home of a well-liiiowii variety,
Im lulmit/fedly neii.r the iinnfre of iMieienI/ Arya. ICIephanl, Ih a
loan word wifli ii. eiiriouH liiHtory t/lial, hIiowh it.H Aryan nni^iii.
The aniiiiid wiiH unktiowii in fhe WohI. fill hrouffht l,o SouLherii
Ifidy hy l'yi'''liiiH, thouKll ivory IiimI heen Hpread hy Lriule.
The word ele|iliaiit/ appearH in t/lie (iotJiie traimlafion of the
New TenfiMnenl.. Wullilii., aX ii. hiHH l.o tranHlal,e the («i,niel-
liair e,oal, of the ilMpt/inl., uhoh iiluhii.iiduH, liiH Ootliie eipiivalent
hir elephaiiL It waH the only name hir a largo eii,Hl,ern
(|iliMlriipeil, known to him, that would Hiiif. The word in
ii,ppareiil,ly Hemifie., eleph, an ox, huti eoiil,iunH a Siiim. Hleiu,
ihha, wifll the lleh. ii,rfiele prelixed. The Saim. ihhii,, Htroii}j;,
powerful, Ih a e iiion iiiuik^ applied l,o the luiinnil, imiiI its
262 STUDIES IN LOWLAND SOOTS
appearance in the west points to a familiarity with the creature
after the Hindoos reached Southern India and to an early trattic
by the Arabian Sea in ivory.
The interest of this whole question for the student of the
Scots vernacular lies in the evidence it affords of a primitive
unity within that circle of the West Aryans, known as the Low-
Germans or Teutons of the flat shores bordering on the lower
Ehine, the Baltic and the North Seas, to which not only our
northern speech but also our chai'acteristie cultural develop-
ment belongs. It is beside this point to follow the question
into those wider issues which go to the root of the whole science
of Comparative Philology. Suffice it to indicate in brief the
conclusions arrived at by so eminent an authority as Professor
A. H. Sayee in his '' Principles of Comparative Philoloij;y." He
there shows how the philological point of view has changed in
recent years. Notably has Sanskrit been dethroned from the
commanding position on which its far-reaching discovery had
placed it. The study of anthropology and folk-lore, of Assyrian
and Egyptian records, and of living tongues now growing imder
primitive conditions in the dark places of the earth have all
profoundly affected accepted theories.
On the question of the orighial home and unity of the
Aryans Professor Sayce adopts Latham's view and assigns a
centre of distribution inclining more to Europe than to Asia.
He holds that the European vocalic system is older than the
Indie, and that the East Aryans ai'e the latest and most distant.
A permanent cleavage between East and West Aryans seems
to have been effected by an inrush of Northern Turanians, to
whom are due the cuneiform inscriptions of the Babylonian
tablets. On these no Aryan elements appear earlier than the
seventh century B.C. When or how, again, tiie West Aryans
distributed themselves over the Central Plain of Europe and
roamed westwards to the Danube, tlie Phine, and the Baltic it
is impossible to say. That the wandering instinct was strong
within these pioneers of Western civilisation is writ large in
history. We find Wulfila's converts nourishing under condi-
tions of comparative enlightment in the Danube valley as early
as the fourth century, determined Teutons pouring out of the
forests of Central Germany gave imperial Pome for centuries
FAETHEE AFIELD 263
her hardest frontier question, while their kith and kin were
soon to sweep the Xorth Sea as Angles, Frisians, and Xorsemen.
On every page of the foregoing Studies there will be found
evidence of the continuity and persistency, within the Lowland
Scots vernacular, of those features that are most distinctive of
this Western Teutonism.
It may help the student to have, as footnotes to this
article, a conspectus of Professor Sayce's views on the oru/ines
of the Aryans. As a distinguished Egyptologist and Assyrio-
logist, he has a wider grasp of the situation than the earlier
Orientalists could have had : —
(1) To Greek, and not to Sanskrit, we have to look for
light on Aryan speech.
(2) Sanskrit not now regarded as the parent Aryan speech.
(.3) The primitive Aryan, a coarse, squalid savage, defending
himself against the climate, clad in skins.
(4) Early Aryans' presence in Asia Minor given up : no
Aryan names on cuneiform monuments between Kurdistan
and the Halys.
(5) Whole strip from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf
Turanian at the earliest date known : cuneiform tablets due to
a Turanian inrush.
(6) Eastern Aryans of India and Iran, the latest and most
distinct branch.
(7) Westward flow of Aryans not likely begun before the
Turanian inrush.
(8) This flow not south by the Caspian but over the Tartar
steppes on its northern shore: therefore little sea influence
shown.
(9) European Aryan home a track, bleak and wintry ; want
of a common name for same object in East and West Aryan
may be due to loss, as well as to ignorance, of the object itself.
(10) A primitive European Aryan language, hence the
original branching — East and West — repeated in Europe into
Kelt.-Ital., Hell, Teut., Slav.
(11) Not till the West Aryans settled on the shores of the
Baltic, or, possibly, of the Black Sea, did they break up — shown
by agreement in the word for sea, and in the beech, which
grows only to the west of line, Koenigsberg — Crimea.
INDEX
An attempt has been made in this Index to provide in it not merely
a reference to proper names, but to the subject-matter of the volume.
With this purpose in view, the details have been grouped under more or
less comprehensive heads. Many of these have intentionally received but
slight treatment in the text, having been introduced merely as Ccisual
steps in the argument, or as incidental illustrations. Thus, under such
names as Rome, Constantinople, and the like, the reader is not to look
here for information on their historical importance.
Aryan, 17, 19, 226, 243-62 (passim). ,
Aryas. See Table of Contents.
Authors quoted or alluded to : — (a) English — Addison, Joseph, 76, 113 ;
Aytoun, Professor, 85 ; Bacon, Francis, " Essays," 141 ; Beaumont and
Fletcher, 127 ; Boswell, James, 119 ; Burke, Edmund, 36; Caedmon,
2 ; Chaucer, 20, 22, 39, 61, 76, 84, 153, 203, 226, 241 ; Defoe, 94 ;
Dickens, 39, 192 ; Eliot, George, 164 ; Fletcher, John, 127 ; Gibbon, 4 ;
Goldsmith, 117 ; Gray, 89 ; Hobbes, 95 ; Henley, 78 ; Hole, Dean, 64 ;
Hume, David, 77-8 ; Jeffrey, Francis, 94 ; Johnson, Samuel, 27, 42,
117, 119 ; Jonson, Ben, 40 ; Kipling, Rudyard, 95 ; Langland, "Piers
Plowman," 61, 71 ; Macaulay, 109 ; Milton, 2, 96, 131, 144-5 ; Pope,
60 ; Raleigh, " Soul's Errand," 84 ; Saokville's " Mirror," 156 ; Shak-
spere, 6, 30, 32, 35, 38, 41, 51, 60, 69, 72, 73, 77, 81, 87, 88-90, 107,
123, 130, 139, 149, 152, 173-4, 179, 181, 202, 209-10, 234, 240;
Smollett, " Humphrey Clinker," 78, 81 ; Stevenson, " Underwoods,"
76, 98-9, 203 ; Spenser, 61, 65, 84, 96 ; Swift, 94 ; Tennyson, 60 ;
Thomson, James, 77 ; AVordsworth, 59, 60, 167.
(b) Scots — quoted or referred to as using Lowland Scots : — Alexander, Dr. W.,
"Johnnie Gibb," 16, 23, 42, 60, 147, 155; Barbour, "Brus," 19, 20,
30, 31, 39, 42, 61-3, 96, 234; Baillie, "Letters," 77 ; Barrie, J. M.,
59, 63, 75, 97, 117, 118, 134 ; Blair's Autob. 237 ; Blind Harry, 61 ;
Beattie, James, 75, 78, 94, his " Arnha," 154, and " Scoticisms," 76, 94 ;
Bell's "Ledger," 231-3 ; Burns, 31, 39, 41-2, 59, 60-6, 68-70, 76-8, 85,
90, 96, 98-9, 102, 104, 106-8, 112-3, 117-8, 137-9, 150, 154, 163, 172-3,
177, 181, 183, 198, 201-2, 223, 230, Scoto-Fr. in Burns, 241-3 ; Carlyle,
28, 60, 62, 78, 113, 117, 132 ; Chalmers, 75, 85 ; Cockburn, Henry,
59, 94, 100, 110 ; "Complaint of Scotland," 199 ; Crockett, S. R, 97,
98 ; Dunbar, 61, 96 ; Douglas, Gavin, 61, 76, 87, 96 ; " Duguid, Dr.,"
150; Fergusson, 61, 69, 98, 101, 106, 112, 127; Ferrier, Miss, 60;
Fountainhall (Lord), 228-237 ; Gait, 60 : Halyburton's " Ledger,"
229-230 ; Hamilton, Mrs., 60 ; Henryson, 61, 136, 218 ; Law, the
INDEX 265
iJiarist, lOS ; Lindsay, Sir David, 61, 96, 1 79 ; Kames, Lord, 84 ;
Montgomery, "Chcriy and Slae," 237; Holland's "Buke of the
Howlet," 123 ; Hopu, Sir Thoniiis, 229, 235 ; " Kilwuddie," 201 '; Lock-
hart, 181 ; Miicl/iren, Ian, 117 ; Macdonald, George, 99 ; Nicholson's
"Jiiownie," 29; Ramsay, Allan, 33, 63, 106, 112, 127, 211; Scott,
27, 41, 42, 60, 70, 96, 98-9, 117, 132, 177, 189, 223 ; Waverleys, 10,
181, 182, 193, 205, 226, 232, 241 ; Sibbald, Sir Robert, 198 ; Skinner,
.fohn, 62, 106 ; Skinner, Bishop, 178 ; Thomas the Rhymer, 20 ;
"Uiquhart, Robert," 85, 89 ; Wynton, Chronicler, 61.
Balladh— As I went on a Monday, 22, 31 ; Brownie of Blednoch, 29 ; Battle
of Harlaw, 90 ; Book of Ballets (Tho. Morley), 155 ; Carrick for
a Man, 107 ; Cheild Roland, 18 ; Ciimbc;iland Ballads, 193 ; Herd's
liulludH, 132 ; Hairst Rig, The, 64, 128-129; Johnnie Armstrong, 206;
Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre, 132 ; Peebles to the Play, 61 ; Sir Patrick
Spens, 33.
Bible References— 2, 3, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 64, 65, 85, 87, 147, 181, 184,
206, 207, 249, 261.
Childbbn's (iAMES, 106, 127, 129, 131, 135, 165, 185-7, 196.
Church, The, 73-5, 119, 121-134 ; Calvinism and Calvinistic, 192, 193 ;
Catholic and Catholicism, 227 ; Covenanters and covenanting, 193 ;
(Jistercians — Pluscarden was not a Cistercian foundation, as
stated in the text. Alexander IL granted the settlement, in a
(charter of 1236, to the White Monks of Vallis Caulium (valley of
cabbages) in the Netherlands, founding about the same time Elgin
Cathedral. The Abbey, as we see it, was mainly the work of the
lienedictines from Dunfermline, who acquired it in the fifteenth
i^ntury. After the Reformation it fell to Alexander Seton, builder of
Fyvie and all-powerful chancellor under James VL, 143 ; Culross, 64 ;
Kinloss Abbey, 143 ; Pluscarden, 143 ; Presbyterian, 144 ; St. Giles
(Elgin), 144 ; St. Serf, 64.
Cottar, The— Cissy Wood's Story, 160-4.
Cottar's (The) Saturday Night in (.'ape Dutch, 217.
Dialect— Effect of Printing on, 109, 141 ; Of the Schoolboy, 109 ; Vulgarity
in use of, 117.
Dialects— General, 97 ; Classification of, 99-100; Study of, 103, 104-105,
no, 139, 141 ; in Fair Lsk', 112 ; Germany, 108-112 ; Switzerland, 100.
Dialects illustrated (JE^n/yiis/t)— Anglican, 82, 83, 101, 165, 166 ; Cumberland
(general), 68, 146, 149, 151-153, 167-180, 182; Geography and
I'jthnology of, 165 ; Scots Connection, 165, 167, 681 ; Archaic Element
in, 173; Idiom and Grammar, 168, 170-171; Dorset, 42 (Barnes);
Kent, 132, 146 ; Somerset, 38 ; AVilts, 101 ; York, 146, 101 ; South and
North, 45, 168.
Dialects illustrated («■»(.<)— Alierdeen, 28, 45, 65, 66, 75, 78 Aberdonian,
266 INDEX
78, 99, 100, 104, 106, 110, 123, 130, 133 ; AberdeensMre, 147, 153,
155, 157, 172, 178, 194; Angus, 98, 99, 133, 139, 163, 184; Angus
and Mearns (phonetics), 161-162 ; Ayr, 42, 66, 221 ; Ayrshire, 99, 102,
103, 107, 112, 113, 148, 150, 166, 200, 201, 212 ; Ban£F, 42, 133, 146,
150, 151, 153, 160 ; Buchan, 23, 64, 99, 101, 105, 147, 148, 151, 153,
154, 166, 198, 217 ; Borders (The), 30, 65, 76, 98, 99, 125, 127, 154,
160, 170, 180-182, 184, 187; Campbeltown, 102, 182; "Flory Loyna-
chan," text and glossary, 113, 116; Caithness, 62, 65, 99, 181 ; Edin-
burgh, 18, 86,98, 102, 105, 111, 119, 127-8, 130, 132, 135, 146, 179, 180,
181, 205, 211, 229, 230, 237 ; Dumfriesshire, 100, 103, 142, 150, 151;
Dumbartonshire, 181, 192 ; Fife, 31, 42, 64, 65, 66, 71, 75, 85, 99, 102,
104, 109, 111, 113, 118, 120, 121, 124, 130, 133, 134, 135, 139, 140, 142,
147, 148, 149, 152, 153, 155, 156, 169, 170, 172, 177, 179, 181, 184, 188,
210, 211 ; Northern, 9, 13, 45, 63, 77, 83, 90, 91, 97, 102, 146, 168, 169,
173, 182, 197 ; Village Life in, 117-139 ; Vocables of, 139-141 ; Forfar,
70, 104, 111, 128, 139 ; Galloway, 65, 98, 99, 102, 104, 111, 125, 139,
165 ; Cattle Trade, 166, 167 ; Words and Idioms, 172 ; Glasgow, 36,
81, 88, 102, 111, 134, 135, 150, 169, 171, 173, 174, 182, 186, 188, 232,
233, 236, 238-9 ; Lanarkshire, 42, 66, 72, 83, 99, 125, 127, 139, 150,
170, 178, 182, 203, 209, 210 ; Lothians, 42, 65, 98, 99, 111, 170, 188 ;
Kincardine, 98, 161, 182 ; Wood Narrative, 160-164 ; Moray— Farm
Life in, 141-160 ; Ross Narrative, 142-160 ; Phonetics and Vocables,
152-154 ; Dialect, 64, 66, 99, 125, 133, 136, 181 ; Nithsdale, 142, 147,
170 ; Shaw's Glossary, 149-177 ; Ulster, 103, 123, 124, 132, 148 ;
Orkney and Shetland, 10, 18, 42, 62, 63, 69, 70, 71, 85, 88, 100, 101,
103, 123, 124, 125, 131, 132, 133, 134, 146, 149, 152-154, 166, 170, 181,
198, 206, 210; Orcadian Sketches, 18; Edmonston's Glossary, 42,
100 ; Norse, 65, 110, 132, 165, 166, 182, 195 ; Perthshire, 129, 133.
Farm Life in Morayshire, 141-160. See for details. Contents IIL 2.
Folk Lore, 129, 130, 135, 136, 154-155, 183, 185, 186, 187 ; Avild Nick, 185 ;
Candlemas, 151 ; Charm(a), 160 ; Clyack Feast, 154 ; Clooty, 152 ;
Guisers, 104, 129 ; Hades, 28 ; Hallowe'en, 129, 154 ; Hansel Monday,
75 ; Hogmanay, 104 ; Maiden, The, 154 ; Mummers, 104 ; Pechs, 220 ;
St. Katharine's "Well, 211 ; St. Swithin's Day, 153 ; St. Michael's Day,
201 ; Wee Bunnock, 150 ; Weather Lore, 189.
Folk Names for (a) Animals : — Ask, esk, the newt ; calls, to a cow, 148,
duck, 149, pigeon, 149, la^jwing, 156, bat, 128, turkey-cook, 130 ; clip-
sheer, earwig, 149 ; oushie, wood-pigeon, 124 ; dunter, eider-dvick, 124 ;
gellie, leech or tadpole, 120 ; foggie-toddler, yellow bee, 149 ; garie-
bee, 149 ; golak, beetle, 149 ; gleg, gnat, 122 ; keelie, sparrow-hawk,
122 ; lerricli, lairrick, lark, 126 ; paitrick, partridge, 124 ; rannie,
wren, 129 ; Sandy Cam'l, pig, 133 ; St. Anthony's pig, 133 ; staig, colt,
147 ; stokannet, sheldrake, 172, 180 ; spyug, sparrow, 125 ; teuchat,
lapwing, 125 ; wallop, lapwing, 156 ; whaup, greater curlew, 119 ;
whittret, weasel, 124 ; yellow yite, or yorlin, yellow hammer, 156.
For (6) Plants : — Apple-reenie, 119, 121 ; bachelor's buttons, 121 ;
bane-wort, 177 ; benner gowan, 177 ; bun-weed, 148 ; boon or boor-
tree, 123-4, 159 ; corn fever-few, 117 ; curly-doddy, ribwort, 123 ;
dishielogie, tussilago, 156 ; gairner's gairtens, 121 ; gool, 148 ; grundie-
swallie, groundsel, 123 ; little goodje, sun spurge, 123 ; lilly-oak, lilac,
121 ; liij^uorice, common rest-harrow, 123 ; lucy awrnits, earth nuts,
INDEX 267
123 ; soorocks, sorrel, 123 ; speengie rose, peony, 121 ; stinkin
Elsliender (Alexander), stinkin Willie, stinkweed, and weebie — all
names for ragwort, 148.
Folk Songs, 130, 135-136, 146.
Grimm's Law and Diagram, 7-9.
Historical Allusions :—(!)— Events, 2, 61, 71, 76, 77, 89, 90, 120, 157, 166,
193, 228, 231, 235, 236, 237. (2) Personages— " Robin " Bruce, 107 ;
Kno.x, 77, 157, 183 ; Melvill, Andrew, 77 ; Dundas, Henry, 120 ;
Harley, Earl of Oxford, 94 ; Huguenots, 199, 228 ; Hardwioke, Chan-
cellor, 89 ; Turner, Sir James, 229 ; Sweno, Norse hero, 143 ; Pyrrhus,
261 ; Kob Roy, 78 ; Darius, 245 ; Cope, Sir John, 89 ; Graham of
Claverhouse, 228 ; Haokston of Rathillet, 237 ; Archbishop Sharp,
237 ; Cromwell, 27, 77, 78, 231, 232, 240 ; Lord Stair, 89 ; Lord Lorn
(1st Marquis of Argyle), 77 ; Lethington (Secretary to Queen Mary),
183 ; Lollards, 166 ; William of Orange, 228 ; Alexander II., 143 ;
James V., 119, 230 ; James VI., 77, 127, 179 ; Jacobites, 77, 88, 120,
178 ; Napier, Sir Charles, 244 ; The Union, 181.
Languages ilhistrated : — Anglo-Saxon — 1, 2, 9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 24, 39, 41, 43,
44, 45, 65, 123, 128, 171, 177. Danish— 70, 108, 112, 149 (Denmark).
Z>tt«c7i (Holland)— 13, 19, 25, 32, 43, 72, 171, 179, 188, 191, 192, 196, 201,
202, 203, 204, 205, 206 (in Soots), 209, 210, 220, 228. Dutch (Cape-Taal)—
13, 179, 185, 188, 191, 192, 193, 194, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203,
204, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 222, 224 ;
Taal (affinity with German), 195, 215 ; affinity with Gothic, 206 ;
phonetics of, 194, 195, 223 ; phonetics of Braid Scots, 190, 195, 196, 197,
198, 202, 203, 215 ; Burns in "Taal," 192, 198-9, 210, 212-17, 220-25 ;
Reitz's translation, 212-13, 216, 220. ^n^Ks7i (general)— 76-71, 66, 204 ;
historical, 24, 29, 30, 34, 39, 84, 127, 165, 166, 202, 232 ; grammar,
34, 35, 36, 39, 76, 78 ; phonetics, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 79, 80-3, 86 ; pro-
vincial dialect of, 97 ; Soots in, 97 ; Inglis tongue, 76. French — 11,
37, 71, 83, 104, 170, 199, 204, 229 ; in Scots, 184, 227-43. German—
High, 7-9, 12, 124, 153, 168 ; Low, 7-9, 31, 195 ; Heliand, 25 ; general,
177, 182, 191, 198, 202, 205, 209, 215, 216, 222, 231. /ranic— 244,
263 ; Zend-Avesta, 244 ; Ahura-Mazda, 245, 256 ; Indo-European, 7,
9, 22, 261. Keltic— general, 7, 39, 41, 63, 67, 77, 124, 178, 192, 200-1,
222, 226, 244, 258 ; Gaelic, 39, 40, 42, 63-4, 66, 67, 68, 77, 83, 103, 110,
124, 163, 191, 200-1, 204, 222, 247 ; Erse or Irish, 39, 77, 81, 124, 150,
232, 245 ; Welsh, 248. LaJira— general, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 247 ; in Gothic,
15 ; grammars in Scots, 233-7 ; grammar, 15, 35, 37, 40, 90 ; Greek—
general, 193, 244 ; grammar, 8, 10, 35, 40, 90 ; in Gothic, 11, 15, 19, 26,
27, 32, 36. Norse— 32, 65, 182, 195 ; Frisian, 7, 9, 13, 43, 16o, 188, 191,
205 ; Icel., 179, 181, 184, 200 ; Norse-Kelt., 25 ; Norse-Goth., 32 ;
Norse in Scot., 166 ; Scand. (Norse), 5, 7, 10, 14, 39, 42, 63, 66, 110,
132, 171, 177, 179, 180, 188, 201, 204, 213 ; Runes, 6, 9, 10, 11, 21 ;
Phcenician, 9, 21. Sanskrit— 7, 14, 39, 40, 90, 244, 245, 246, 258, 262 ;
grammai', 40. Semitic— 14, 257, 261. Slavonic — 7, 18, 19, 244. Teutonic,
—11, 21, 28, 35, 37, 41,43, 64, 90, 194, 205, 226, 244, 248, 258, 261.
Vaidic— 18, 34, 243, 257, 258.
268 INDEX
Note to Norse above. — The bulk of the volume goes to illustrate, directly
and indirectly, the ancient and enduring influence on the Makers of
Lowland Scotland of their Norse kinsmen from over the North Sea. In
this connection Chalmers in his "Caledonia" says — "The Flemings who
colonised Scotland in the 12th century settled chiefly on the east coast, in
such numbers as to be found useful, and they behaved so quietly as to be
allowed the practice of their own usages by the name of Fleming- Lauche
(cf. Eng. Dane-lagh), in the nature of a special custom." So it happened
that the " Laws of the Four Burghs " forms one of the oldest and most
illuminating documents on the history of the Scots vernacular. This
couplet, in popular fashion, gives emphasis to the point : —
" Boeytter, Brea (d), in (an') griene Tzis,
Iz goed Ingelsch in' eack goed Friesch."
It was late before the name Scottis tongue was given to Lowland speech in
contrast to Erse or Gaelic. In point of fact, the Lowland tongue is mainly
the archaic form of the ancient Northumbrian, and therefore ought to be
invaluable to the student of historical English.
Minor sources — Abbotsford Series (ed. G. Eyre Todd), 106 ; Atkinson, Mr.,
103 ; Alliterative Poems (ed. F. J. Amours, B.A.) (Sc. Text Soc), 124,
227 ; Angellier, Mons., 108 ; Baillie, Robert ("Letters"), 77 ; BaUantyne,
John, 206 ; Beo^vulf, 17 ; Birrell, Augustine, 95 ; Bopp, 17 ; Breal
("Essai de Semantique "), 91 ; Burness, William, 219; Burt, Edward,
111, 113; "By-ways of History," Colville's, 229-233; Calderwood,
Mrs., 89, 92, 109 ; Campbell, Sir Colin of Glenorchy, 77 ; Carmichael,
235 ; Chambers' Dom. Annals, 102 ; Traditions, 105 ; Popular Rhymes,
150 ; Christison, Sir Robert, 79 ; Cunningham of Craigends (S. H. S.),
127 ; Cramond, Dr., 155 ; Carrie (biographer of Burns), 78, 117 ;
" Diversions of Purley," Home Tooke, 38 ; Dick- Lauder (Moray
Floods), 189 ; Dunlop, Matthew, 116 ; Elphinstone, of King's, Aber-
deen, 229 ; Erskine, 79-80, 86 ; "Farewell to Edinburgh," 98 ; Flory
Loynachan, 113-6 ; Foulis, Ravelston, Diary, 185 ; Furnivall, Dr.,
40 ; Gibson (Cumb.), 101, 105, 173 ; " Good Words" (Dr. MacCullooh),
235 ; Gregor, Dr., 101, 105, 129, 133, 142, 166, 211 ; Grimm's Law,
7-8, 17, 41, 245; Grosart, Dr. ("Poems of Alexander Wilson"),
105 ; Haldane, Dr., 73 ; Hamilton, Mrs., 60 ; Heliand (Die), 25 ;
Henderson, T. F. (Scott. Vernacular Literature), 96 ; Hermand,
Lord, 86 ; Holland's " Buke of the Howlat," 123 ; Horace, 33 ; Innes,
Cosmo, 229 ; Junius, Francis, 2 ; Kantian Philosophy, 256 ; Latham,
262 ; Law, Dr. T. G. (Nisbet's Scots Test.), 44 ; Laws of Four Burghs,
39, 61, 87 ; Lowther's Journall (1629), 222 ; Masson, Professor, 2 ;
Morley, Henry ("Shorter English Poems"), 61, 71, 136 ; Miiller, Max,
243, 246, 260-261 ; IMure, Elizabeth, of " Caldwell Papers " (1712), 240 ;
Nansen, 179 ; Napier of the Mint (1590), 179 ; Nisbet, Murdoch, 43,
44 ; Miss du Toit, 214 ; Olive Schreiner, 192 ; Penelope in Scotland,
98 ; Penn, 94 ; Privy Council Regs., 63, 202, 231-232 ; Punch, 79 ;
Purvey's Revision of Wyclif, 43 ; Records— Burgh, Kirk-Session, and
Guilds, 63, 236 ; Robertson, Joseph, antiquary, 64 ; Robertson, historian,
78 ; Robertson of Ochtertyre, 88 ; Ross, John, Narrative, 157-160 ;
Ruddiman, Thomas, 235 ; Sackville, Induction to the J\Iirror for
Magistrates, 156 ; Sanders, Robert, printer, Glasgow, 235 ; Schippert,
108 ; Skene, historian, 64 ; Simson, Alexander, grammarian, 235 ;
Skeat, Prof., passim ; Skinner, John, 62 ; Stanley, 81 ; Smith, Adam,
78 ; Statistical Account of Scot., 101, 102 ; Stevenson the Engineer,
INDEX 269
133 ; Ten Brink, 108 ; Thomson, Thomas, antiquary, 100 ; Tudor's
Orkney and Shetland, 132 ; Varro, 247 ; Wallace, Dr. William, 65 ;
Wallace, Professor, 177 ; Wallace, Covenanter, 193 ; Wiggin, Kate
Douglas, 98 ; Willcock's Argyll, 77 ; Wilson, Alexander, 105 ; Wood,
Cissy, 161, 163 ; Wyclif's Bible, 1, 43 ; Young, Arthur, 132 ; Young,
Sir Peter, 237.
Moeso-Gothic, historical names connected with — Adrianople, 6 ; JEgenxi, 5 ;
Alario, 6 ; Andalusia, 5 ; Asia Minor, 2 ; AtauK, 6 ; Arian heresy, 3 ;
Athanaric, 6 ; Attila, 6 ; Auxentius, 3 ; Balkans, 5, 6 ; Bulgaria, 3, 6 ;
Cappadocia, 5 ; Carpathians, 5 ; Chalons (battle), 6 ; Claudius (Emp.),
5 ; Constantinople, 3 ; Dacia, 5 ; Danube, 5 ; Decius (Emp.), 5 ; East
Goths (Ostrogoths), 5 ; Ermanaric, 5 ; Eusebius of Nicomedia, 3 ;
Erithigern, 6 ; Huns (Tartars), 5, 6 ; Moesia, 3, 43, 44 ; Odoacer, 6 ;
Theodoric the Great, 2, 6 ; Theodosius (Emp.), 6 ; Trehizond, 5 ;
Ulphila=Wulfila, 1, 2, 6, 205 ; Valens, 6 ; Vandals, 5 ; Wallachia, 5 ;
West Goths (Visigoths), 5.
Moeso-Gothic, fragments of — Arezzo scrap, 6 ; Bucharest ring, 6 ; Book of
Kings, 3 ; Codex Argenteus, 2, 6 ; Facsimile as frontispiece ; Epistles,
40 ; Epistle du Rumonim, 6 ; Ephesians, 29 ; Milan fragment, 6 ;
Viennese MS., 10.
Moeso-Gothic Gospels, names associated with — Camb. Univ., 2 ; Dort, 2
Dusseldorf, 1 ; Francis Junius, 2 ; Landgraf of Hesse, 1 ; Arnold
Mercator, 1 ; Prague, 1, 2 ; Ruhr, 1 ; Stockholm, 2 ; Upsal, 2
Werden, 1 ; Wulfila (Bishop), 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24,
26, 35, 40, 41, 42, 64, 65, 87, 133, 147, 157, 181, 184, 205, 206, 207, 213,
258, 259 ; his translation, 2, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27,
28, 29, 30-3, 38, 49, 53, 65, 82, 133, 147, 206, 247, 258, 259, 260. For
further details, see Contents I.
Nationalities referred to— France, 108, 227-41 ; Germany, 136, 138,
153, 167, 186, 188 ; Goths, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 15, 28, 43, 205, 258
Guth = God, 28 ; Gut-thiuda, 6, 7, 22 ; Gutos, 6 ; Gothones, 6
Holland, Hollander, 2, 25, 66, 72, 103, 110, 138, 188, 190-1, 193
196, 198, 204, 209, 211, 228, 232-3 ; Hindu, 113, 244, 258, 250, 260
Non- Aryan — Basques, 243 ; Eskimo, 249 ; Lapjis and Finns, 243
Magyars, 243 ; Mongols, 258 ; Osmanli, 243 ; Scotsman, 191, 192, 206,
207 ; Scot, The, 77, 110, 206, 207, 209 ; Scots, imitative, 81-5, 94,
110 ; Scottish, bi-lingual,. 71, 77, 79 ; Scottish, in Ulster, 103, 123-4,
148; Scottis, braid, 192; Scottis, braid, = Doric, 14, 85, 92, 99, 210
Scotland, 156, 165, 166, 167, 199, 200, 201, 203, 204, 205, 211, 212,
250 ; Transvaal, 132, 160, 190, 205, 208, 209, 224, 259.
Persons and Places of Linguistic Interest — Ahura-mazda, 245 ; Auld
Howf, Dundee, 224 ; Buchanan, 81, 111 ; BuUers o' Buchan, 149 ;
Bushman's Hoek, 204 ; Cupar-Ang-gus, 81 ; Cowgate, 81, 111 ; Dak-
shin Aranya, 245 ; Deccan, 245 ; Erin, 245 ; Esk, 143-149 ; Eyemouth,
180 ; Farintosh, 16 ; Fridge, Frier, 22 ; Frome, 81 ; Gaikwar, 250 ;
Gate Slack, 198 ; Gart, Garth, Gort, 25, 51, 65 ; Golgotha, 17 ; Great
Orme's Head, 14, 20 ; Horatius Codes, 17 ; Hydaspes, 250 ; Jupiter,
256 ; India, 120 ; Indus, 244 ; Kaisar, Caesar, Czar, 11, 15, 18 ; Kelso,
111 ; Kirkcaddy, 81 ; Krames, 205 ; Kruger, 63, 198 ; Luckenbooths,
211 ; Lichfield, 40 ; MacDougal, Madowall, Madool, 165 ; Malloch,
270 INDEX
Mallet, 83 ; Murdoch, Murdok, 83 ; Mackenzie, Menzies, 84 ; Miln-
gavie, 19 ; Mount, Mounth, 61 ; Nero, 248 ; Norder-ey, 166 ; O'Dell,
10 ; Ormuzd, 245 ; Paardeberg, 201 ; Rheingau, 19, 22 ; Rome, 6, 81 ;
Rouinania, 6 ; Saline, 253 ; Sand-Biichse, 231 ; Scinde, 244 ; Selkirk,
111 ; Sodor, 166 ; Start Point, 224 ; Suderey, 166 ; Thursday, 256 ;
Tinto, 18, 203; Tins, Tuesday, 10, 21, 27, 28 ; Veldt, 200, 204, 216,
217, 225 ; Wednesday, Wodin, 256.
Popular Verse — Adam and Eve, 130 ; " Arnlia' " (Beattie), 154 ; Biggin' o't
The, 161 ; Broken Bowl, The, 174 ; Carrick for a Man, 107 ; Cherries
on the Rise, 127 ; Fife Toast, A, 134 ; Ford's Morning Walk, 223 ;
Niewi-nievvi-nik-nak, 128 ; Nursery Rhymes, 128, 183, 185; Nursery
Rhymes (Border), 187 ; Rhymes, 167 ; Rhymes (Cumb.), 173 ; Scots
wha hae, 112 ; The Priest o' the Pairish, 146 ; The Weaver, 120 ;
Wee Bunnock, The, 150 ; Wee Wiflckie (Alexander Watson), 106 ;
Weather Rhymes, 189 ; When Auld Robin Bruce, 107.
Proverbs — Lowland Scots, 66-71 ; Lowland Scots and Cumberland, 167,
168, 177, 217.
Social Customs — Birley man, 64, 177 ; Boer Op-sij, 205, 218 ; Bull Ring,
189 ; Candlemas Feast, Cummers' Feast, 181, 205, 240 ; Duke's Canaries,
180 ; Callow's Hi]l, 67 ; Hebridean tanning, 101 ; Jeddert Justice, 67 ;
Kraam-bezuk, 205 ; Mercat Cross, 72 ; " Macfarlane's Bowet," Michael-
mas Moon, 167, 240 ; Nicks (Cu.), 213, 223 ; Pasch (Easter), 15, 157,
160, 220, 227, 229 ; Riding the Marches, 201 ; Ross Narrative, 157-160 ;
Sheelin' Law, 181 ; Skiddaw Grays, 180 ; Soordook Sogers, 132, 180 ;
Summer Sheelins, 199 ; The Broose, 201 ; Tumlin' Wheels, Tummlin-
car, 181 ; Wochen-Bett, 209 ; Whip-the-Cat, 188.
Vbrnaculae, The Scots— (1) General— 4i-b, 62, 64, 79, 96, 97, 109, 192 ;
imitative, 81-5, 94, 110 ; bi-lingual, 71, 77, 79 ; in Ulster, 148 ; New
Test, in Scots, 43-4 ; Scots and English, 76-95 ; Scots law terms, 72-3 ;
Scoticisms, 35-6, 39, 40, 76, 78, 84-94, 122 ; " Kailyard," The, 60, 98,
117, 140, 171 ; "Scottis tongue," 87 ; "braid Scottis'," 192. (2) Vocables
of — 86-95, 113 ; terms for quantitv, 86, 138 ; expletives, 86 ; epithets,
86-87, 92 ; archaisrns, 87, 89, 90, 93 ; social interest, 92-3 ; Scots
vocables familiar in English, 97-8 ; spurious Scots, 97, 117, 118 ;
Scots malapropisms, 84. (3) Orarivmar of— 63, 71, 76, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90,
91, 92, 94, 171, 219. (4) Phonetics and idioms of— 12, 36-39, 41, 79, 80,
81, 82, 83, 84, 110, 113, 118, 171-2, 174 ; Scholarship (Scots), 41.
Village Life in Fifeshire, 109, 157. For details, see Contents IIL
PLACES EEFEERED TO CASUALLY
Anster (Anstruther), 152
Arbroath, 128, 242
Ardchattan, 143
Armenia, 252, 260
Auchinleck, 27
Bactria, 261
Badenoch, 143
Beatily, 143
Black Sea, 260, 263
Black AVafcer, 143
Buckliaven, 75
Byzantium, 3
Calcutta Asiat. Soc, 244
Campbeltown, 113, 116
Campvere, 228, 229
Canterbury, 16, 248
Caspian, 260, 263
Ceylon, 22
Craigliall (Ceres), 234
Crail, 234
Cupar, 70, 103, 186
DoNAU (Danube), 9, 260, 262
Dunbar, 235
Dundee, 104, 111, 119, 131, 224, 233
Drakensberg, 203, 204
Elgin, 143, 144, 145, 155, 183 (tune)
Fair Isle; 112
Falkland Palace, 119, 120
Findhorn, 145
Forres, 143
Garioch, 90, 112
German (North), 249
Germany, 249
Glaniis, 119, 120
Hamburg, 26
Hawick, 139
Hebrides, 63
Hindoo Koosh, 260
Hull, 228
Humber, 103, 165
Inverness, 78, 110, 145
Iran, 244
Irvine, 201
Islay, 65
Kbldon Hill, 143, 145 : Heldon in
text
Kilmalcolm, 81
Kintyre, 113, 169
Kirriemuir, 134
Kyle, 166
Leydbn, 192
Limpit Mill, 163
Lithgow Peel, 62
Locher Moss, 100
Lomond Loch, 99
Lossie, 143
Lucklaw Hill, 121
Mark Brandenburg, 231
Milngavie, 19
Muchalls, 163
Newark, 64
Newbattle, 143
Ochtertyre, 88
Osnaburgs, 120
Oxus, 258
Paisley, 98, 105, 127, 170, 173
Paropamisan, 260
Pathhead, 66
Petlethy, 119
Konaldshay, North, 132
Rotterdam, 190, 192
Eoumania, 6
Sark, 166, 167
Sarmatian Plain, 244, 258
271
272
PLACES EEFEEEED TO CASUALLY
Soots Craig, 119
Selkirk, 111
Sobraon, 121
St. Andrews, 111, 119, lb2, 176
Sharp, Archb., 119, 237
Arobdeacon of (1502), 230
Andrew Duncan, regent in St.
Leonard's (1595), 233
Kirk-Session Records, 240
Start Point, 224
Stonebaven, 142, 160, 163
Stratb Clyde, 165
Switzerland, 100
TOHRNAY, 330
Tours, 241
Trebizoud, 5
Turnberry, 107
Tyne at Haddington, great flood
(1775), 189
VII— GLOSSAEY
SCOTS SECTION
To confine within reasonable compass the huge mass of vocables and
phrases introduced into the text, a selection has been made. As the
whole aim of the volume is to interest the reader in the Scots Vernacular,
this element has been made the dominant feature of the list. Thus Scots
head- words are given in italic. Words, also, of which the origin is not indi-
cated, are to be taken as Scots. Italicised words are to be considered cognates
with each other or with the word under which they are placed. Only such
words as are held to be cognate with Lowland Scots have their linguistic
origin noted thus — E.= English, G. = Gothic, Du. = Dutch, C. Du. = Cape
Dutch, Da. =i Danish, Fr.= Frisian, Ic. = Icelandic, N. = Norse. To these
add local varieties of Scots, such as Ore. = Orcadian, Cu. = Cumberland,
No. = Northumberland, North = Northern, Ab.= Aberdeen, Mo. = Moray,
Kinc. = Kincardine. Relationship with these emphasises the essentially
Teutonic character of the Scots Vernacular. Outside this circle are noted
Celtic (Ga. = Gaelic) and French (F.), illustrative of external influences of
historical interest. Scarcely any references have been made to general
Ind.-Ger. affinities in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Semitic. ObvioiTS
contractions are or. = origin, obsc. = obscure, prob.= probably, conn. = con-
nected, cog. = cognate, perh.= perhaps.
Dictionaries Consulted —
New English or Oxford Diet. — as yet published, ending with " Ribald-
ously," excepting and P — referred to as N.E.D. — Editors, Sir James
Murray, LL.D., and William Craigie, LL.D.
Skeat's Philological — Sk.
Skeat's Moeso-Gothic Glossary— Sk.
Jamieson's Scottish — Jam.
Imperial English— Imp.
Kluge's German Etymological — Kl.
Edmonston's Orcadian Glossary — Ed. or Shet.
Gregor's Buohan Dialect — Bu.
Prevost's Cumberland Glossary — Cu.
MacBain's Celtic— MacB.
Jakobsen's Shetland Dialects.
Annotations, more or less complete, have been made on many of
the words. These take the place of what might have been footnotes
throughout the text. Wherever, too, the explanations, or conjectures in
tracing to their sources words occurring in the text, have failed to find
support from authorities quoted, such discrepancies have been clearly
marked by a f on the left, so that the reader can at once check all doubtful
statements. Such annotations are entirely supplementary to the discussion
of the word in the text.
With regard to the dictionaries referred to above, the permanent value
of Professor Wright's monumental work, the English Dialect Dictionary,
must be gratefully acknowledged, but for the special purpose of my
subiect it could be of no great service. It could have furnished many
273 18
274
GLOSSAEY
variants, but such investigation lay quite outside my plan. More to the
purpose was Jamieson's Dictionary, tut its well-known faults of matter
and arrangement seriously hamper the student. A thorough and well-
informed report on " Jamieson," the outcome of long-continued annotation,
was contributed several years ago to the "Glasgow Herald" by the late
Mr. J. B. Fleming. These notes form one of the most valuable contri-
butions to the study of the Scots Vernacular. I have made use of them
wherever they had a bearing on the contents of the " Glossary," where they
are initialled J. B. F. I have also incorporated passages illustrating
" Jamieson," culled from time to time by Mrs. David Murray of Cardross,
an ardent enthusiast in such old-world lore.
This is not a " glossary " in the usual acceptation of the term, since it
mainly gives references to the explanations m the text and not merely
meanings. Its additional illustrations and fresh gleanings, it is hoped,
will give it a value in itself.
Ai
A, 79, 80, 81, 111, open namesound,
as for ea (Ir.) in great; shut
sound, Sc. Ital. ; light, as final ;
broad in Loth.
^Aacht, 12, possession. Eng. aught.
Go. aiht-s, from agan, to owe;
not connected with Go. waiht-s. —
N.E.D.
Aba, 22, Go. adv. suff.
Abba, 18, Go. father ; Greek
Abr-aba, 22, Go. ably, from abrs,
strong ; able is of Fr. or.
Ace, aiss, 135, ashes. Go. azgo, 25,
N. ashe ; hence the Sc. ; cf. buss
for bush
Acorn, 19
Action words, 194
Adduced, 72, Sc. law term
Adna, 20, for Sans, anna, food, rice ;
lit. what is eaten
Advocate, 72, Sc. law term
Aetes, 19, A.S. aetes tilian, to get
food ; aet, food ; Go. at-isk. See
aits
Af-haims, 25, Go. from home, Sc.
hame, haim-s, a village (Go.)
Af-hwapjan, 48, Go. to choke ; var.
of hwopjan, to boast, whoop
Af-wairpands, 33, Go. ; Ger. werfen,
Eng. warp, A.S. wearp. Go.
wairp-an, to throw ; cf. moodie-
iimrt, the mole
Agis, 30, 51, 255, Go. awe, ugly,
iigsome, which see
1 Words not found here may be looked for in the Sc.-Fr. Section. The Indo-Ger. cognates
(246-256) have not been entered here except as regards their Sc. or Go. elements.
Ahmins, 26, Go. spirit, arj/jbo.
Ahwos, 19, Go. floods of rain, Lat.
aqua, from Go. ahwa, water
Aihwus, 21, 250, Go. horse, Lat.
equus, in aihwa-tundja, 21, the
burning bush ; lit. the sharp,
swift one ; Lat. ewer, sharp ; Gael,
ech, N. ehioa
Ain, 32, Go. ain, Eng. one, a, an
Air, 28, Go., or Sc. ere, early
Airth, 11, Go. airtha, earth, Du.
aarde. So. yird
Ais, 26, Go. brass, coin, Lat. aes; a
borr. word
Aithei, 18, Go. mother
Aits, oats, 20, 23, Go. ai-isk for
cnr6piiJ.ov, a field of corn, root eat.
See aetes
Aix, aex, 26, Go. ahwizi, axe. In a
North, gloss, on Lu. iii. 9 ; Go.
akwizi is A.S. aex
Aiza-smitha, 26, 259, Go. copper-
smith; lit. iron-smith
Alcran, 19, 20, 48, 252, Go. fruit,
der. from aire = field, acre; cf.
A.S. "aecyres lilian," flowers of
the field ; also acorn, fruit in
general, not from oak, but from
A.S. aecer, a field, for akern or
acern
Aleph, 10, 21, eleph, Heb. ox, hence
alphabet. See elephant, ul-
bandus
Alids, 66, Go. fatted (calf), aljan, to
nourish, Lat. alere
Alleys, 187, Cu.
GLOSSARY
275
Alongst, 89, 90, for alongest, an em-
phatic form treated as a super-
lative, obsolete in Eng.
Alphabet, 21
Amsa, 17, Go. the shoulder, prob.
misreading for ahsa, ox-ter,
O.H.G. ahs-ala, 253
An-an, 31, 255, Go. to breathe, only
in us-orean, to expire. See aynd,
eend, anst
Anda-wleizn-s, 18, Go. countenance,
O.E. and-wlita, O.N. and-lit, M.E.
anleth — Northern. N.E.D. quotes
from Beowulf and Rushworth
Gospels. See wleiz
Anent, 94, Sc. legal term, with final
t in Eng. as early as 1200, but
long obsolete ; O.Sax. an eban, Ger.
nehen for en-eben
Anes errand, 137, going as a special
message, anes = once, poss. used as
adv. ; Cu. anes-eerant, 167
Annatto, 233, native Amer. name,
var. anatta, annatto. [Misplaced
at p. 233, not Sc. Fr.]
Anst, 31, Go. grace, favour, from an-
an, to breathe ; Ger. Gunst is for
ge-unst, O.H.G. anst. See anan,
usanan, eend
Antarin, 48, Go. anthar, Ger. ander,
ither
Apple-reengie (g hard), 119, Arte-
misia abrotonum, Linn., lit. the
plant which saves from death.
Introd. from France in Qu.
Mary's time. Abrotonum in O.P.
abroigne, avroigne, ivrogne (dial.),
which last is the Aberd. iveringie.
The modern pp is a harking back
to the ah of abrotonum, immortal
Arbi, 26, 247-8, Go. heritage, Ger.
erfe, A.S. yrfe, an heir, Gael, earb,
trust, akin to opcftavos, Lat. orbus,
Eng. orphan, Sc. orpiet; with a Go.
der. arbja. Grimm connects Go.
arbaiths, toil, Ger. Arbeit, O.H.G.
arapeit. See erp, orpiet, arpiet
Argie-bargie, 92, argle-bargle, argue,
wrangle
Argues, 92, proves
Ar-jan, 23, 245, 252, Go. erien, M.E.,
E. to ear
Ark, 24, a chest
Arka, 24, Go. meal-arfe in Sc, borr.
from Lat. area, arceo, to guard
Arms, 29, Go. poor, Ger. arm
Arpiet, erpit, stunted, starved, akin
to Go. arbi, arbja, A.S. yrfe,
Du. erf, Lat. orbus and orphan.
See also arbi
Article (def.), 39, 171 ; art. as t'
As, 90, after comparatives, a worn-
down form of all-so; cf. Ger. als,
in Scots sense
As, 89, relative
Asans, 23, Go. harvest ; asneis, a
hired servant
Asilu-quairnus, 24, Go. ass -quern,
asilu-s, A.S. esol, Du. ezel, Ger.
Esel — borr. from Lat. asinus, with
I for n; quairnus, a hand-mill,
Ic. hvern, from root of corn. See
quern
]Ash, 149, 252, wet or water newt ;
apparently a worn-down form of
O.E. Athexe, Ger. Eidechse ; N.E.D.
Not connected with the river
name, Esk, water (Gael.)
At, 89, prep.
At for rel. that, 39, 63, 69, 87, 168,
170
'At hoo, 40, 168, how that
-4.tta, 2, 18, 246, Go. father, atta,
aithei.
Att-ila, 2, little father, Go. ; Gael.
oide, foster and god-father
'At weel, 168, = Ger. ja wohl
Auga-dauro, 25, Go. window ; lit.
eye-door
Augo, 17, Go. eye, Lat. oculus
Auhns, 24, Go. oven, Sc. oon, as
Arthur's Oon, near Falkirk, now
destroyed ; auhn-& preserves the
Teut. base ; uhna, A.S. ofnet, a
little pot, shows the radical
sense
Avihsus, 21, Go. ox, lit. the carrier.
The long vowel (o-ax) in Sc.
preserves the orig. guttural
Aurti-gards, 26, Go. vineyard, exact
equivalent of orchard, for ort-yard,
wort being plant in general
Aurtja, 23, 26, Go. a husbandman,
Eng. worts, oris, roots
Auso, 12, 17, Go. ear, Lat. auris
Averse, 89, to or from
Awe, 51, Go. ageai, to caiise to fear,
agis, awe, ugsome
Awi-str (fold), 21, 250, awe-thi, Go.
cog. Eng. ewe
276
GLOSSAEY
Awn, 20, Eng. ear of corn, Go. ah-s,
ah-ana, chaff — "the little sharp
thing," Lat. aous, a needle
Aimome, 98
Azjin, 211, 0. Du. ; of. eysell
(Hamlet)
B
Baas, 207, C. Du., Amer.-Eng. boss.
N.E.D. says, supposed cog. with
Ger. Base, female cousin, baas,
master, both arising out of dialect
child-words for father (badar) in
various familiar senses
BaasM plooriis, 110, bruised, perh.
N., but possibly onomatop.
Bab, 114, to close, Ayr.
Bachelor's buttons, 121
Back o' beyont, 168
Bad, 56, Go. pret, bidjan, to pray ;
cf. to hid one's beads or prayers,
from Go. hida, a prayer or bead
Baikie, in coo-baikie, 131, 147, piece
of wood fastening cows in stall
'\Bain, 156, 230, bainne (Gael.),
milk, MacB. Ir. banne, a drop,
SI. banja, a bath, Eng. bath.
N.E.D. says bath not conn, with
bain, but is Ger. bahen, cog.
fovere, orig. idea = heat ; no
Gael. conn.
Bairn, bairnie, bairnlie, 2, 19, 24, 32,
56, 66, 69, barn-ilo, Go. from
bear, "We're aw Joahn Tamson's
bairns," O.E. beam, Go. " Thata
barn, Jesu "
Bairseag, 151 (Gael.), a scold, N.
berj-a, to strike, cog. birr, birrle
Baitr-aba, 22, 30, 87, Go. bitterly
Balm, 121, balsam (flower)
Bands, 75, necktie of a beneficed or
" ]Dlaced " clergyman. — Not in
Jam.
Bandster, 177, K.
Banewort, 177
Bannock, 150, 183, Gael, bannach ;
bunnock, 107, Lat. panicium,
panis, bread
Banst-s, 24, Go. a barn, O.E. ®bos,
O.N. bds-s, E. boosy, M.E. bosig,
a cow-stall, O.T. ''-'banso-z, Ger.
Banse
Bajps and beer, 129, 177, baps, a thick
cake, generally with yeast in it
Barefit broth, 1 56, made with a little
butter or dripping, but without
meat
Bare-gorp, 181 (Cu.), a nestling
bird. See gorbet
Barley-break, 155
Barley me that, 173, Cu., syn. of
chaps me
Barrin-oot, 186
■\Bauch, 12, 86, 129, dulled, as ice
after thaw, synon. wauch; perhaps
O.N. bagr, awkward, N.Eng. baff.
"not Go. bauths, deaf."— N.E.D. ;
weak, pithless, bauths. Go. deaf ;
ch sometimes interchanges with
th; Go. bauths not under bauch
in N.E.D., but cf. sense in Go.
bauth wairthan, 12, to become
worthless
Bauchles, 208
Bauckie, 18, 154, bawki-bird, bak,
baukie —
"The laverock and the lark, the hawkie an^
the hat,
The heather bleet, the mire snipe ;
Hoo mony birds is that ? " J. B. F.
Baudrons, 68, 135, pussy —
" Here baudrons sits and cocks her head "
" Old Ball."
Gael, beadrach, a playful girl ;
beadradh, a fondling
Banks, 131, 140, 151, dividing ridges
between fields, left in grass ; com.
Teut. O.N. bjalki, a beam ; also a
weigh-iecMTi —
" Give your neebor the cast o' the hauk."
Hugh Miller.
Bauld, balths, 14, Go. bold, Ger. bald,
quickly
Bawsent, 223
Be, bi, 52, 62, Ger. bei, E. by
Bead, Seadsman, 56, Go. bidj an, to pray
Beaked, 122, basked ; bekand, 62,
may be only a form of bask, which
again is a variant of bath. — N.E.D.
Beck, to bathe, Eoxb. — Jam. Beek,
beik —
" While the sun was beakin' warm and
bonnie,
Owi-e the hauglis and holms o' the
Garnock." Duguid. (J. B. F.)
Becd, 139 (suppurate), var. of
I, a blain, Du. biiil.
Ic. bola, a Islain, feu. biiil, Ger.
Beule, Go. uf-bauljan, to puft' up
GLOSSARY
277
Beam, 20, 26, 197, boom, Du.
boom, A.S. beam. Go. bagm-s, a
tree
Bear, 38, to carry ; Go. bairada,
bairanda, bairan, passive ; from
bairan, to bear, or carry
Bear, here, 20, 23, 200, 212, tbe
coarse variety of iar-ley ; Go.
hari-zevas, made of Jarley
Beck, 204, E., from N. bekk-r, Du.
beek, Ger. Bach = brook
Beds, 127, child's game
Beenin, 149 (Buoh.) to heene, make
the staves of a barrel swell
by steeping. See Go. hulna, to
swell. — Jam.
Beese, 167, Cu., Sc. beas', pi. of beast
15eeter, 183, Cu., beetiu stick, Cu.
Beeis, 183, lit. makes 6ei-ter, mends
the fire
Begovd, 36, 89, past of Eng. hegan, 92
Begowh, 128, 150, Sc. "For he meets
wi' a great hegech frae empty
binks." Jam. begeik, begink,
begunk ; prob. under influence of
" gowk," the cuckoo ; Ab. begeck,
Bu. begyte
Beiks, hikes, 124, 157
" Tliiang as bumbees frae tlieir bikes,
The lauds an' lastes loup the dykes."
'\Beist, 32, 132, comm. Teut., or. obso.
Du. and Ger. beist ; Fris. bjilst —
" beitan, bite," not conn.— N.E.D.
Bend-leather, 1 34, for soles of boots
Bennert, 177, Nithsd.
Berry, 25, 26, Go. basi, in weina-basi,
the grape
Besom, 85, 137, a broom, O.Fris.
besma ; Ger. Besen. As an op-
probrious epithet strictly Sc.
"A.S. besma. Go. bisma ; cf. Lat.
ferula."— Kl.
Bethel, headle, 14, 73 ; hetheral, 118.
Bedellus is the Latinised form.
O.E. bydel ; from Go. hiudan, to
oli'er
Bet-ter, 29, batiza, batists, Go. hetter,
best
Beut-monej, 26, 130, 186, buit. Go.
bdta, advantage, good ; Eng. to hoot
Bew, 81 (Lan.)blue
Bewray, 30 (Bible), Go. wrohjan
Bid, 56, to order, combines two
originally distinct verbs — (1) O.E.
beodan, Go. biudan, to command ;
Sc. bode, an offer at an auction. ;
Baidjan, 56, is for biudan. (2)
O.E. biddan. Go. bidjan, pray,
ask urgently, Sc. ftetZesman
Bide, 33, 90, Go. beidan.; 6ic?e = stay ;
also endure, tolerate
Bien, 136, 174, Eng. dial, bain ;
O.N. beinn, straight, hospitable
Big ha'-Bihle, 219
Bike, 124
Billy, 173 (Borders), companion
*' Ye are a lad, ye are but bad,
An' a billie to his son a canna be."
" Bord. Minstr."
familiar form of "Willy. — N.E.D.
Bine, 209, Lan.
Binnd, 36, Go. bindan, to bind
Birh, birch, 252
Birley-man, 64, from byrlaw, burlaw,
the law of the baer (Ic.) or village
community
Birse, 134, 151, bristle
" The elshin, the lingle, and the birse ! "
" Souters o' Selkirk."
Birssy, 63, irascible, Gael, bairseag,
a scold
Birsling sun, 122, scorching. Jam.
birsle, brissle, to parch by fire.
A.S. brastl, glowing, brastlian, to
burn. "I trained on birsled
peas and whisky." — " Tom
Cringle's Log." (J. B. F.)
Bi-sunja, 33, Go. See san, sooth
Bit, 94, a bit bread
Bite, 32, Go. beitan, to bite
Bittock, 86 (dimin.)
Bi-waibjan, 26, Go. to weave. Root
general over Ind.-Ger. tongues,
evidence of high antiquity of the
art
Black-a-vised, 61, dark visaged
Blad, 197, C. Du. leaf in general ;
cf. "Ilka blade o'gress"
Blate, 86, 137, bashful. Go. bleiths, 32
" An' leukit feel bUUe."
" Christmas Ba'ing."
"Ye're no blate," by litotes, in-
solent
Blaioin, 134, boasting, from blowing
(fig-)
Blowaiis haithjos, 23, Go. flowers of
the field, blooms of the heath
Blinnd, 18, blind, blinds. Go. blind
Bocht, bauhta, 12, Go. pret. of bugjan,
to buy
278
GLOSSAEY
Bob of flowers, A, 174, Cu., of un-
known or. ; perhaps conn, with
Gael, baban, babag, a tassel ; pab,
flax refuse ; O.Ir. popp, a bunch
Bodach, 63, 177, Gael, a silly
person, a carle, So. a hiddie
Bodd'm, 167, Cu. and Sc.
Bogle, 18, 256, bugbear, goblin; in
Sc. lit. since 1500 : of uncertain
origin.— N.E.D.
Boka, 39, Go. book, bokareis, scribes,
bookers
Bole, 171, boal, small recessed cup-
board in a wall Or. unknown
Bolner, 149, Ic. to swell. See beal,
bullerin
Bond, 72, So. law term, mortgage
Bone, 124 (Ger. Bein), Eng.
Boolie-backit, 88, Sc. hump-backed
Boohj hole, 171, Cu. var. of bole
Boost, 102, buist, behoved, under
necessity to ; also bu'd, had to
" Twa eUs o' plaiden bude be bocht."
Booth, 24, binds, Go. the table,
booth, Ger. Bude — root, to build
Bour-tree, boon tree, 123, 124, the
elder. " Uncert. der. — bore in-
consistent with earliest and dialect
forms ; ioweranswers phonetically,
but unlikely with regard to sense ;
bound-tied, from marking bound-
aries." — N.E.D. This last a mere
guess
Boutent, bowden, 147, to swell ; noth-
ing like it in Jam. or N.E.D.
Bower, 200, a farmer, on steelbow
system, bow, O.N. bti, farming,
farm stock, Ger. Ban, Bauer,
C. Du. Boer
Bowie, 156
Braffin, 187, a horse-collar
Brags, 128, Eng. brag, not in
Jam.
Braxy, 207, a disease in sheep ; prob.
conn, with break ; A.S. broc,
disease
Brecham, 130, 187, E. dial, bargham ;
peril. O.E. beorgan, to protect
with hame, q.v.
" A brecham and a cardln' clout."
"Jac. BaU."
Bredd, broad, 29, 32, Go. braid-s
Bree, bril, brye, 114, var. of brizz,
bruise
Bree, 203, brow, " Bree-bree brenty,"
&o.
Breed slwuder, 207, C. Du. broad
shoulder
Breest, 17, Go. brusts, breast
Brether (as pi. for brother ; long
obsolete), 102 ; Shet. breder
Bricht, 12, Go. bairhts, bright
Bride, bruth-faths, 18, Go. lord of
the bride. See faths
Bring, 10, Go. briggan
Brintlin, 145, Mo. a form of hrunt,
Eng. burnt ; not in Jam. : bruntlin
is a burnt moor (Buchan)
Britchen, 130, a piece of horse har-
ness, poss. from breech
Brither, brothar, 18, Go. brother
Brixn, 97 (bruise), O.E. brysan, to
crush
Broch, 25, a burgh, a pledge, bairgan,
Go. guard, preserve ; baurgs, a
town ; O.N. borg, a castle ; Go.
iam-js-waddjan, town-wall
fBrochen, 158, 160, Mo. porridge,
Ir. brochan, cog. broth. — MacB.
" Not cog. with broth."— N.E.D.
Brock, 29, 206, O.E. ge-broc, E.
dial, brock, a fragment, Du. brok,
Go. bruko — from "break;" fish
offal, Shet. ; to do work unskil-
fully — " A widna hae that tailyor ;
he brooks sae muckel claith." —
Gregor
Brock, 105, a badger ; brokkit, 163,
speckled. N.E.D. sub brock, bad-
ger, Gael, broc, prob. cog. (^opicos,
grey, white, the " speckled "
Brokkit, 163, " a briekit sheep, dark,
with white legs and belly." — Edm.
Brom, 221, C. Du. cog. with Sc.
barm
Brook, 34, enjoy, endure, Go.brukjan,
Ger. brauchen. Bruik, bruke,
brook — bruk not in Jam. " Mar-
garet Loif gevin license to marry
Andro Elemyn, and bruk the
twa merk land in Scheddylstoun."
— " Glas. Rental Book." (J. B. F.)
Broom, 81, Eng. (brougham)
Broon kaidis, 138, bronchitis
Broose, race of, 201, mounted party
at a country wedding; "of un-
certain origin." — N.E.D.
Brucks, 206, Ore. fish offal. See
brock
GLOSSAEY
279
Bubbly jock, 130, the turkey, So.
bubble, to blubber
Bu'd to be. See boost
Bu^jan, 12, Go. to buy
BuuM, 65, Border, sbeep-pen
'• O, the ewe buchts are bonnie,
Baith e'enin' and mom."
BuU-baiting, 188, "Shak t' bull-
ring," Cu.
Bull Ring, 189
Bullerin out, 149, 150, O.Fr. bullir,
to boil.— N.E.D. M.E. bolne. Da.
bolne, to swell. See bolner
Bultong, 207, C. Du.
Bun — bunaoh, boon, 124 ; Gael, bun
tata, potato, from E. MacB. says
it contains folk-etym. in bun, a
root. A.S. bune, stalk, reed,
prob. cog. ; root bbu, to grow,
<f)vo) ; Ger. Beule, a swelling
Bunker, 102, cog. with bunk, bank,
bench ; not in Jam.
Bun-wed, -wede -weed, 123, 148
Burg, broch, burgh, 25, Go. baurgs,
bairgan
Burneijwin, 173, bum- the- wind, the
blacksmith
Burr on the Borders, 111, 171
"^Bmh, 207, box in centre of a wheel
in which the axle works, Sw.
hjul-bossa, wheel-bush ; not conn,
with boss.— N.E.D.
But and ben, 176, for be-out and
be-in ; of. Du. Buiten-hof and
Binnen-hof, at The Hague
" Butter and bread," 92
By, 90, So. after comps.
By ordinar thrang, 127
Byspel, 182, Cu.
C
0. Dutch, affinities with German,
195, 215, 216
Caber, 67, MacB.— cabar, a rafter.
Caddie, 102. Not in Jam. or N.E.D.
CaiUeach, 154, Gael, old wife, nun,
the " veiled one ; " cog. Lat.
pallium, a pall. CaiUie, cowl,
Lat. oucuUus, Sc. cool
Caird, 153, 154, a gipsy, tinker, Gael.
Sc, in borrowing, has debased the
orig. sense of art, craft ; var.
kyaird
Cairl, carle, 163, O.N. karl. Go. kerel,
a man, churl
Cairneedy, 133, Bu. carneed, crine,
to shrivel. Not in Jam. or
N.E.D. MacB. has crannadh,
withering, shrivelling, Ir. orannda,
decrepit, from cran, tree, running
to wood. Jam. has a var. —
cranshaoh
Cairrit, 91, var. of carried, fig. used
Caker, 104, Forf. ; not in Jam. or
N.E.D. ; prob. from cake
Callow spyugs, 176, unfledged
sparrows
Calm souch, 216, sigh, with guttural
sounded
Camanachd, 127, Ga., the " crooked
thing," cam, bent ; camag, a club,
camas (Cambus), a bay
Candlemass cockfight, 151
Cannas, cannis, 70, 148, Bu.
Cannis-breid, 148, from canvas
Cantertup, 159, for cantrips, charm,
trick
" Here Mausy lies, a witch that for sma*
price,
Can cast her cantrips, an' gie me advice. '
" Gentle Shepherd."
Cappie, 204, dim. of cup ; Bu. " He's
as fou's cap or stoup'U mak him."
— Gregor
Carblin, 102, from carble, carb, O.N.
karpa, to brag; cf. carp; Bu.
wrangling, followed by wi', if a
person, and, aboot, if a thing.
Carcidge, 102, carcase
Carl-doddy, 154, the plaintain ; carl,
in sense of "male" in plant
names ; dod, anything ball-like ;
carl-hemp, hemp, 163, male flower
of ; curl-doddy, naturally clever
(Shet.). See also ourly-doddy
Cam, 133, to soil, Bu. Not in Jam.
or N.E.D.
Garrick, 99, 127, 140, Ei. shinty or
hookey stick, form of crook
" Garrick for a man," 107
Carsackie, drsackie, 102, workman's
coarse blouse ; cirrseckie (Fi.)
Cast up, 92, 178, to rake up the past,
to throw
Cattle beass, 35, 71, 167, cattle beast,
cf. bees, Cu.
Oauf, 21, calf. Go. kalbo ; chaff is
similarly sounded in Sc.
280
GLOSSARY
Caum-staned, 169, pipe-clayed
C'ayshin, cayshner, 72, 103 (caution,
cautioner), Sc. law
Clmllenge, 87, 92, So. law
Ghampet, 88, 129, mashed, champ
from an original chamb, identical
with jam and jumble, imitative of
action of chewing. — N.E.D.
Chapel of Ease, 144, quoad sacra,
supplementary to parish church
Chaps me! chops me! 102, 127, 173,
from chap, chaup, to fix upon by
selection ; "Belg. kippen, to
choose ; " cog. with cheap, chap-
man. "Jam. I. 409, but chap
only, not the phrase." (J. B. F.)
Char, 78, for jar, by a Gaelic
speaker
Charlock, 64, B. Sinapis arvensis,
O.E. cerlic ; or. unknown
Chattel, 71, E.
" Oheatery's cholcet you," 127, cheat-
ing = Nemesis
Cheef, 127, very friendly ; chief,
136. Not in N.E.D.
Cheesies, 186, Fi. cheese biscuits
Chekis of the yett, 62, door-posts,
cheeks (Barb.)
" Che vor' ye," 38, Lear.
Chield, 14, 68, generally bairn in Sc. ;
O.E. did. Go. Idlthei, womb, child,
chiel, a variant
Chiels, 175, fellows
Childer, 102, children (O.Sc.)
Chin, 17, Ga., kinnus, chin-cough =
kin-cough. So. kink-hoast
Chitterlings, 130, E. smaller intes-
tines of pig, &o. ; or. doubtful
C^lows, 102, 135, 140, small coal (Fi.) ;
not in N.E.D.
Chree, 83, Sc. dial, for three
Chuck, 174, Cu., Lan.
Chufty, 118, 173, Cu. chuflfy, chaff,
plump-cheeked, or. obs. ; prob.
a var. of chafts, the jaws and
chew
Chun, 174, Cu.
Cip, 102, play truant, common Lan.
and the West, also kip. Not in
Jam. or N.E.D.
Clahhy-dhxi, 116, black clah or mussel.
In the 17th cent, they were sought
for, under this name, in the bed
of the Clyde opposite Glasgow
Green.
Clack, 102, 185
Clagum, 130, treaole-toflfee, olag ; Da.
klag, sticky mud, ckiy, clog, Kleoks,
a blot (Sc. blob) of ink, is a corn-
par, modern usage in Ger. ; clocks,
milk boiled till it acquires a dark
colour and peculiar taste (Shet.)
Claise, 53, clothes
Claith, 53, cloth
Claty, 115, var. clarty, liorty, simpler
forms clat, clot. ' ' Gavell of house
east side Saltmarket of catt (for
clat) and clay."— "Gl. B. Recs.,"
1692. A road-scraper is still
called a clatt in Glasgow ; klurt,
a lump, also to daub (Shet.)
Clashing, 137, gossip, an echoic
word
Cleckine, 32, 130, litter of rabbits
or brood of birds, Fi., O.N. Klekja,
Da. klackke, to hatch ; cf. cletch,
clutch, cleokin, " a brood of
chickens, is given in Jam. but
not clatohin, a common form."
(J. B. P.)
Cled, cleddit, 53, clothed
Clerk, 4, 109, scholar
Clet, clett, 152, O.N. klett-r, a sea
cliff. Da. kUnt, a flinty rock
Cliob, 147, Gael, oliobach, cliobag ;
cliobeag, a filly
Clip, 147, Mo., a hoyden, Ab. dippy,
Fi. pert
Clippy, 128. See Clip.
Clip-shears, 122, 149 ; O.N. klipp-a,
to cut with scissors ; " prob. ident.
with L. Ger. klippen, to make a
sharp sound, to clap." — N.E.D.
Cloth, 94, idiom
Cloor, 139, 152, a blow or its mark.
O.N. klor, a scratch ; klo-a,
claw.
Clooty, 152, clootie, the Devil as
cloven-footed. Perh. from claw ;
Du. klauwtje, little claw, ankle
bones, hoof
Gliite, 152, 219, or. sense, firm lump,
clump, ball ; Du. kloot, a ball ;
Ger. Klosz
'* Six guid fat lambs I said them ilka clute."
" Gentle Shepherd."
Clyaoh, 154, Gael. See caillach
Clypes, 128, Lan. tittle-tattle ; or.
doiibtful. (?) A.S. clypian, to
speak
GLOSSAEY
281
CoaLrees, 121, Lan. coal depots,
bings. "A sheep-ree or fold
(Loth.) ; rae, wrae, cattle-yard ;
ree, reed (Fi.), do." — Jam.
Cob, cop, cup, 175, 204
Cohhk, 175, dim. of cob, small, water-
worn stone
Cobbling, 175, Cu. poaching term
Cobble-hole, 175
Coddis, 58, husks, pillow. N. koddi,
a pillow ; Da. kodde, a bag,
kudda. Ore.
Cod-out, 58, to shake out — said of
over-ripe pods
Cod-ware, 58, pillow-slip ; A.S.
waer, pillow-cod
Coern, 80, 94, 171, corn ; Cu. cworn
Coffin trams, 118, poles bearing the
coffin
Colies, 146, Mo. prob. Ic. kollr,
round-head, a hay-cock
Come o' wills, 189, Cu.
Complainers, 72, appellants, Sc. law
Compound tense, 37, Go.
Con, 184, obs. the squirrel
Condescends, 72, Sc. law
Conjugational ov simple passive, 37
Contermashous, contumacious, 84,
136
Conventional address, 207
Convey, 72, Sc. legal term
Coo, 68, cow
Coo bailde, 140, 147, Fi. See baikie,
147
Cool, 81, a cap, var. of cowl, hat,
cucullus. See caillach
Coo-Uckt, 189, hair that would part
in one line only. Jam. has only
cow-lick, in above sense
Coom, 135, Fi. coal-dust ; O.N.
kain, film of grime ; Shet. koom,
anything much broken, coal, bis-
cuits, &c. ; var. goom, 114
Coom, - ceiled, 128, Fi. arched or
rounded top ; said of a garret
room ; cog. Eng. coomb, a small
valley.— N.E.D.
Coonts, 134, counts, sums
Coordie, 128, coward
Coorie hunker, 129, Lan. coioer, and
hunker, to squat down on haunches
Coosie, 128, Forf.
Cop, 204
CorJcs, 105, 112
Correlation of adjectival clauses, 39
Corruptions of the Taal, 216
Coterie words, 109
Cothie-juke, cothie-guckie, 151, Mo.
Cothie, coothie, 68, 86, 137, 151,
couthie, only in Sc, akin to O.E.
ciith, from cunnan, to know, fa-
miliar, affable. Go. kunds, known,
Ger. kundig, couthie ; cf. kythe,
known, uncouth, unco
" nk couthie word."—" Wh. Binkie."
Gotten, 94, get on well together.^
Swift
Cot-toon, 65, ploughmen's row of
houses at a farm
Couatit, 58, coveted
Coup, 97
Gran, 207. See kraan
Craobh, 67, Gael, a tree, the "split-
table " one
Grap-wa', 128. See coom-ceiled
Crave, 88, to dun, for a debt
Craw-flee, 127, Fi. a boy's game,
crow-fly
Oreesh, 63
Creuve, cruive, cruve, 67, 174, criv
in Bu. ; Northern only : a hovel,
sty, salmon-trap ; akin corf, a
bfisket, Ger. Korb. "Ane schiep
criff (pen) bigit on the Gallow
Hill hot licence of the town,"
1628.—" Banff Records."
Crine, 133, app. Gael, crion, little,
withered, crined, shrunken. —
N.E.D. MacB.— "Root kre ap-
pears to belong to root ker,
to destroy, as in Go. hair-us, a
sword " ; cf. catVneedy, as verb
to cause to grow stunted, "Y've
crinet yir caar (calves) by speh-
nin thim our seen." — Gregor ;
creenie-crannie, the little finger
(Ab.)
Cripple, 102, lame
Crovk, 198, O.E. croc, N. krukka ;
KL connects with Ger. Krug, Du.
kruik, lo. krukka, A.S. crocca,
M.E. crokke
Crom, 62, kink, Bu. Du. kram, a
hook, crook
Crock, 198, crockery. Or. Celt,
crog, crogan, a pitcher ; in Eng.
and Teut. generally
Crock- werk, 198, C. I)u. = crockery ;
cf. Du. krug, a public-house
282
GLOSSARY
Groaning, 224, liumming over a
tune. Croon under croyn in
Jam. a very unusual form ; " to
whine " certainly wrong ; happi-
ness and contentment implied
rather. (J. B. F.)
Grooss, 70, 86 ; only in Sc, from
Frisian. N.Eng. crous, Du. krys,
curled, Fr. krfls, curly
Groude, 58, a fiddle ; W. crwth, a
violin
Groupie, 13, croaky. Imitative
conn, with crow, croak
Gruden, cruban, 102, 116, crah or
partan (Sc). Ir. crubadh, to bend,
crook, N. krjup-a, to creep, Sc.
cruppen, bowed
Grummie, 131, the "cow with the
crumpled horn "
Grummock, 107, staff with a crooked
head. Gael, cromag, from crom,
crooked
Groon o' the causey, 169, centre of
roadway
Gry, 87, 92, to call, a call
Cry on, 92
Guif, 136
Gum hy chance, 189, Bord.
Gummins, 140, 175, Fi. Jam.
"cumming, a vessel for holding
wort." Cog. coomb, O.E. cumb,
Ger. Kumme, a vessel
Cundeth, 172, Cu. var. of condie,
which see
Curators, curdtors, 80
Gurly-andrew, 123, Fi.
Gurly-doddy, 123, 163, doddy, polled,
what has a rounded head, wild
scabious, ribwort plantain. Chil-
dren apply it to scabious or
Devil's-bit—
" Ourly doddy, do my biddin,
Soop my hooss and shool my midden."
" Ohambei-s' Rhymes."
Gum, 86, 104, 138, var. of corn.
"An' mix the gusty ingans wi' a cum o'
spice." — "Gentle Shepherd."
" I hae na a corn," Shet. A curney,
a large [number, as "a curney
of piltacks" or coal-flsh (Shet.)
Gushie, 124, cushat or stock-dove
Guss-in, 13, cousin
Gustomer (tailor), 188
Gutchick, 129, Mo. prob. Gael. dim.
cooch-ack, in dog-covich, a kennel,
and syn. with chicken-cavie or
hen-coop. Not in N.E.D.
Ciite, 152, Mo., queet, Ab. Cuit,
the ankle, is "not given (Jam.
I. 548), and no cross-reference to
coot nor cute." (J. B. F.)
Guttit, 88, cut
Gutty soam, 103, North, cutty, short ;
subst. a wanton. See soum, seme,
sime, sinmiins.
Cworn, 23, 181-2, 253, Go. ; later,
kaurn, Cu.
D
D, intrusive in adjectives, 195 ;
elided. 111, 178, 210
D in -d,-ed, 36
Dad, 139, 174, a rough blow, a lump
of anything ; dawd, daud, " not
given, but dodd is (Jam. II. 72),
to move by succassation!" (J. B .F.)
daddjan, 250, Go. to suck, cog. with
Lat. filia
Baffin, frolic, not in E.D.D.
Bcrft, 69, imbecile. No. Go. stem
dah, in sa-daban, to happen, gives
daft and deft; or. sense, fit, apt,
then inoffensive ; cf. silly and
Ger. selig.— N.E.D.
Dags, 23, Go. day
Daichie, 132, 172, 217, dough, duff,
(dial.). Fris. deeg, Du. deg, Ger.
Teig, Go. daig-a ; or. sense,
"what is kneaded" ; Eng. doughy,
pallid, deighle, a simpleton. —
E.E.D. Not in N.E.D.
Baidle, daidlie, 128, No. pinafore ;
cog. dawdle ; dud, Gael, dud,
a rag, " or. unknown." — N.E.D.
Daiff, daubs, 18, Go. deaf, af-
daubnan, to grow dull. The or.
long vowel pres. in Sc.
Daing, haing, 115, 116, minced oaths
Dairgie, dirge, 74, 227, funeral feast.
Lat. " Domine, dirige nos," in the
office for the dead
"An' he helps to drink his ain di-aieie."
" Ballad."
Daizter, 169, dayster, Yks., worker
by day, not by piece. — E.E.D
Not in N.E.D.
GLOSSAEY
283
Dakshin-aranya, 245, Sans. Dak-
shin = Lat. dexter, right hand,
and aranya, forest, jungle. The
priests, worshipping the dawn in
the East, had the Deccan on the
right hand, hence its name, the
southern forest
Bang, 153, No. ; Ic. dengja, to
hammer; "a hard blow: to knock,
bang."— E.E.D. Var. dung, "Ne
ver (true) man shall hae the door
dung in's schafts that wud be in."
—"Kirk Records," 17th c. See
ding and on-ding
Dapper, 192 ; Du. dapper, Ger. tap-
fer, brave, sturdy ; Dopper Boer
Daps, 114, var. of dabs, small
flounders
Darg, 105, No. for day-wark, a job
or fixed task.— E.E.D.
Darn, 101, Am., dash, Eng.
Daur, 25, 249, Go. door, pi. daurons
Dauthi-dedeina, 37, Go. dauth-s,
dead ; in So. a noun, e.g. to the
deid. Dedeina is here the 3rd pi.
affix of the past conjunctive of
the weak verb dauthjan, to kill.
Daver, 102, stun, stupefy, stagger,
for doaver, to be in a dose. O.N.
dofna, Go. daubna, to become
heavy, dover, to fall into a light
slumber.— E.D.D. This is the
usual Fife form. The daver of
E.D.D. is unknown
Daw, 136, as lazy, idle ; not in Jam.
"A workin' mither maks a daw
dochter."— Prov. (J. B. F.) See
dilly-daw
■\Dawtet, dawtie, 69, a darling, pet,
petted ; daiit, to make much of.
" Etym. unknown ; conn, with
dote excluded."— N.E.D.
Deaded (me) it, 37, nursery grammar
Deal, dealsman, 32, Go. ga-dailans.
Ger. Teil, E. deal, dole
Deas, 155, Ab. dais or settle
Decreet, 72, Sc. law
Dee, 39, Ir. for the
Deefnits, 168, deaf nuts
Deeple, 147, Mo. var. of dimple,
dunt and dent ; cf . Ger. Dumpf el,
a pool.— N.E.D. Eng. dibble, not
in E.E.D. = "settin plants on the
Sabbath, a dmiill in his hand." —
" Elgin Records," 1648
Deetin, 181, Cu., var. of Sc. dichtin
Definite article, 45
Deid, 37, dead, n. and v. : verb dee.
O.E. d^ad, Du. dood, Ger. todt,
O.N. dauthr, Go. dauths ; af-
dauthjan, to put to death ;
"would be the deid of his
wyfe."—" Elgin Records, 1699"
Deid sweer, 137, extremely lazy,
absolutely unwilling ; sweer, Ger.
schwer, heavy
" Deil hait," 12, 138. Jam. hate, halt,
haid, a whit, atom. Ic. haete, a
particle. " The Deil haid ails
you," replied James, "ye oanna
abide ony to be abune you." —
M'Crie's " Knox." This quotation
scarcely bears out the alternative
explanation "Deilhae'd" (have it)
Delate, 72, Sc. law
Delude, 84, for dilute (malap.)
Demonstratives, 45
Dentals slurred, 83, 111, 178, 216
Depone, 72, to give evidence, Sc. law
term
Depute, 72, Sc. law
Derivative inflection, 36
Dern, derned, dearn, 31, A.S. dark ;
dearn-VLXiga, secretly. Go. ga-
tarnjan, to hide, dernd, Fi., pon-
dered, noun, dernin ; O.E. dernan,
Fris. dern, Teut. ■•■ darnjo, hidden,
secret ; verb, O.E. diernan, H.Ger.
ternen ; obsol. as adj., survives
as V.
" This darned within my breist this mony a
day."—" Gentle Shepherd."
Descriptive epithets in So., 86
Deug, 31, 206, 0. Du. virtue, merit ;
cf. Ger. Tugend, Go. dugan
Dialectic growth, 8
Dicht, 70, 102, 181, Sc. to wipe
up, to winnow corn. O.E. dihtan,
used in many senses in O.E. and
Ger. ; to wipe up is sp. No. ;
diglit, poet. Eng. ; obsol. as "to pre-
pare," cog. Ger. dichten — N.E.D. ;
Ger. dichter in 17th c. authors
is general ; A.S. dihtan, set in
order, E. dight — all borr. from
Lat. dictare, to dictate, compose
Di-da, 35-36, 167, Go. reduplicating
pret. of a possible verb, * dedjan,
to do, ga-deds, a doing. Di-da =
did. Ger. thun. That.
284
GLOSSAEY
Dike, 103, Ayr. a ditch, O.N. dike,
Qer. Teich, a pool ; sense varies
bet. ditch and bank ; lit. " dug or
thrown up." " February fill the
dike."
Billy -daw, 136, Sc. form of dilly-
dally, as noun, in sense of
untidy get-up : " a slow, slovenly
person." E.E.D. has the quot. in
the text
Diminutives in Sc. and C. Du.,
195
Dimple, 147, Mo. to dint, make an
impression, as of dimpling : quots.
in E.D.D. are modern ; none from
Moray. See deeple. "Yesudna
dimple yir taties." — Gfregor
Dinna, dizna., dizn't, 168, 171, "do"
with negative
Dirdum, 150, No. "Or. unknown :
not So. dird, a blow, conse-
quences of error." — N.E.D. "The
loon took a haud o'im, but he
gae 'im a dirdum fae 'im, and
ower 'e yod (gaed)." — Gregor
Discharge, 72, So. law term
Dishielogie, 123-156, Fi. tussilago
or oolt's-foot, dishy-lagy, Roxb. —
E.D.D.
Dius, 12, 20, 257, Go. deer, any wild
animal as in Shak.
Div and divna, 112, 167, 171, sp. Sc.
also dis, disna, and dinna, for do,
does not, and don't. The v here
is an odd survival of an Ind.-Ger.
causative formation, common in
Sans., as stha, to stand, sth-ap-
ayati, he causes to stand. Not in
N.E.D.
Divot, 149, Sc. ; No. thin, flat piece
of turf. Jam. from Lat. de-fo-dere,
to dig
DiTOi-feoht, 125, fight with thrown
turfs ; divot, origin not given in
N.E.D.
Divvel, 78, 196, devil, by a Gael,
speaker. " Ministers, when they
fall, are like angells that are
divells." — Alex. Henderson to Gen.
Ass., 1638
Do, 206. See dow
Do, 36, Eng. auxiliary, is not in
Go. except in past tenses of weak
verbs, e.g. lagi-dedjan = I lay-did,
I laid, from lagjan, to lay
Doach, 102, salmon-trap, peculiar
to Gall. ; or. unknown ; not in
E.D.D.
Dochter, 18, 247, daughter. Go.
dauhtar
Dockens, 119, No. ; O.E. doccan, Ger.
Dockenblatter, Gael, dogha, bur-
dock, anything valueless — " no
worth a docken "
Daddies, 163, polled cattle, Ab. ;
dod, doddy, a rounded hill
(Bord.) ; dad, a lump, Fris.
dadde, lump, bunch. — N.E.D.
Abbrev. of George : not in these
senses in E.D.D. See curl-doddy
Doer, 72, So. law
Doited, 110, sp. No., obtuse from
age, perh. var. of doted; pron.
deitit in Fi.
Domestic series, 207
Dool (for quoits), 131. See diiles
Dop, 222, C. Du. dop, shell, husk,
cover. N.E.D., " Of Norse origin,
O.N. daup." Var. doup, deep,
candle-doup, Ger. Topf, a pot
Dopper-Boer, Kirk, 192, 193, C. Du.
Dorbie, 134, a mason, Fi., prob. akin
to O.Fris. derf, Ger. derb, sturdy,
O.N. thjarfr, common
Dortin, 137, since 1500, obsc. or. ;
sulks, ill-humour. "Dorty Janet's
pride." — Allan Bamsay
Dorts, 69, sulks, Bu. to over-nurse —
" She dorts awa at that geet o'
hers,an'saygeein'tfeesic." — Gfregor
Dottrifeed, 151, Mo., rel. to dodder
and totter, dottered, dotard, senile.
—N.E.D.
Double negative, 197
Dough, 132, 254. Ger. Teig, Du.
deeg, A.S. dah, O.N. deig ; from
Go. deigan, to "knead," daigs,
dough. Of. Ger. Sauerteig ; cf.
Lat. fingo
Doughy, 172. See daichie
Dow, 31, 69, 175, 206, can. No.
Go. dauh, pret. ® dauhta. O.H.G.
'* tohta ; Go. dugan, Ger. taugen,
Sc. docht and dought, to be good
for, strong, to avail
" He downa guns to rest for Ms lieart is in a
Hame."—Uogg.
Dowie, 86, given under dolly in
Jam. (II. 77). " The dowie dens
GLOSSAEY
285
o' Yarrow" is not referred to.
(J. B. F.)
Drag, 146, North, a drag-harrow
JJraigens, 127-134, K., kites, dragons
t Drake, 251, usually mterpr. as
"duck-king," the d representing
a radical, as seen in Du. een-d
Lat. ana-t-is. Kl. says, "Ger.
Enterioh is the O.Teut. anut-
trahho, the latter element of
which being obscure in origin."
Dree, 23, 61, Go. driugan, to serve
as a soldier ; ga.-drauhtins, soldiers
under the centurion (Matt. viii.
9) ; A.S. dreogan, to endure ; der.
dree, drow ; Go. ga-drauhts, a
soldier, from driugan
Dreich, 153, No. dregh, earlier
form of dree, O.E. dreogan, Go.
driugan, to do military service —
revived as archaism ; dwarf, not
conn. See driugan
Drintin, 162, 163, Kino. Not in
N.E.D.
Drive, dreiband, 23 (Go.), pres. part,
of dreiban, to drive, O.E. drifan,
Ger. treiben
Droch, 139, dwarf. O.E. dweorh,
Fris. dwirg, Ger. Zwerg, ••' dhwerg-
=o-6p<^os= midge, " droich, perh.
metath. of duerch or similar form
of dwarf ; Gael, droich, borr." —
N.E.D.
Drok, 208, busy, 0. Du. See trokes
Drorin-room, 82, Cockney
Droshachs, 115, Celt. var. of drugs
Drownded, 35, drowned
Drusan, 48, Go. to fall, whence
dross, drus, fall— "great was the
fall (drius) thereof."— Matt. vii.
27. In N.E.D. dross cog. with
Ger. driusen
Dubs, 66, 171, 174, pools, No. ;
"or. uncertain."— N.E.D.
Duchman, duckie, 155, Mo., "a
small stone on a larger, and at-
tempted to be hit off by the
players "
Buddie, 183, Cu. Cf. duds
Du%, 172, Cu. See daichie, doughy
Dules, dool, dole, dulls, 106, 127, 131,
196, stone as mark, post; Ens.
dole, Du. doel, aim, butt.
Dunderhead, 134, a blockhead: or.
obsc.
Bunt, 97, a dull blow, var. of dint ;
a large piece —
" Dunts o' Icebbiick, taits o' 'oo,
Whiles a hen, an' whiles a soo."
Dunter, 124, 140, Pi., eider duck,
Ore.
Dusty miller, 121, Auricula
Dwalla, 153, Cu. to wither, dwale,
O.N. dvol, delay, Sw. dvala, a
trance
Dweeble, 86, prob. a form of Lat.
debilis. Not in Jam. or Imp.
Dunne, a dwinin, 34, fade away; O.E.
dwinan, N. dvina, to vanish, Du.
dwijnen
E
E, 79, 81, 84, 110, thin sound for a ;
So. ee for i
Ea, 180, 188, in place names
Each, ech, 21, Gael, (war) horse.
See aihwa
fEager, 30, not conn, with Go. ogan,
to dread, but with Lat. acer,
through O.Fr.
Ear of corn, 20, So. ick-er, Ger.
Ahre, Du. aar. Go. ah -s, Lat. acus.
the "sharp" thing. E. and Du.
drop the gutt.
Ear, 23, 252, to plough, O.E. Go.
arjan, A.S. erian, Lat. arare
Earn, Erne, 20, as in Ger. Adler, for
adel-ar, edel-ar, noble bird ; or.
aar in Ger. is the eagle, and still
in dial. Cf. Go. ara, O.N. are,
O.E. earn, Du. arend
Eben, 171, Cu. even
-Ed, 88 (suffix) ; =var. -et, -it
Eddicate, 89, educated
Eedixoatt, 75, idiot
Eeldin, 122, fuel. A.S. aeling, from
selan, to burn
Eend, end, eynd, aynd, aynd-les, 31,
234, 255, breath, from Go. an-ara,
which see
" An' a' wurr blithe to tak' their eind."
" Christ. Ba'in."
-Ei, 39, 45, Go. pron. particle. Sans.
ya
Eidmt, 126, 161, active, diligent,
or. unknown ; eidentlie
Eirn-mail, 29, rust on linen. Sea
mail
286
GLOSSAEY
Eis-arn, 26, 259, iron. Du. ijzer,
O.H.G. Isam, Ger. Eisen
Elephant, 21 , 74 105 ; elephant first
in Edinburgh (1680). "Of the
ultimate ety. nothing is reaUy
known." — N.E.D. Deriv. in text,
that of the late Prof. Aufrecht,
a Sanskrit scholar of European
repute
Elshon, 134. Ore. alison; E. awl,
Ger. Able ; root, Sans, ar-pa-ya,
to pierce, causal of ri, to go
Elys, 62, 251, eels (Barb.)
E-nyuch, 13, enough ; Ger. genug
Go. pref. pres. ga-nah, it suffices,
ga-nohs, sufficient
Erde, 49, earth. Also airth, yird
Ernin, 133, rennet. M.E. rennen, to
run in sense of coagulate, var.
earn, yearn, A.S. yrnan, to
run
Erp, 248, to. See arbi, arpiet
Esk, 166, river
Eak, 149, Fi. newt
Etter-cop, 204, the spider ; etter-cap.
Ger. Eiter, A.S. attor, poison, O.N.
eitr ; cop, cob, a tuft, a spider,
C. Du. kop, any round lump or
knob
Ettle, 75, 97. Ic. aetla, ettla, to
think, determine
Even, 88, think equal to
Except, 90, 91
Expiry, expiration, 92
Expressions for small quantities,
138
Extinguish, 72, Sc. law
Eyme, eem, 63, 69, 71, uncle ; Du.
oom, A.S. iam, E.G. eme, uncle
on the mother's side, Lat. avun-
culus, Go. * auh-aims, where h = c
(Lat.). Lat. aviis, Go. awo, grand-
mother, Ger. Gheim. See Oom
Paul, 63
F sound, 111
Fa', 82, fall
Faarar, farder, 195
Faarder, 195, farther
Faar-keeker, 197, C. Du.
Fadar, 18, 247, Go. Sc. fethir,
faethir, E. father
Fadreins, 18, Go. parents
Fael, feal, 149, 200, a sod ; turf,
Gael, fal, a sod
Faggot, 135, 182
Fagrs, 29, Go. fair, from faih-a.n,
to suit, Ger. fug-en, causal oi fagrs
= to make suitable, A.S. faegrs,
fair
Fahan, 212, Go. to grasp, A.S. fon,
vangen (Taal). Kl. "conn, of
finger. Go. figgr-s, with this root
f anh not certain "
Faihu, 10, 20, 21, 250, Go. cattle,
or. property in cattle. Du. vee,
Ger. Vieh, Ic. fe, Sc. /e
Fail, 72, 137, become bankrupt
Fair homey, 127, 187, fairplay in
the game of " hornie ; " descr. by
Jam. sub voce
Fairzna, 18, Go. heel, Ger. Ferse,
pres. only in Ger. among Teut.
tongues
Familiar epithets in Taal, Sc. and
E. 194
Familiar thou, 172
Fani, 23, Go. fen, mud, Fr. fene,
Du. veen
Fanh, 65, 212, a sheep-pen. Gael.
Fang, faing, valve of a pump- well,
fang, v. to catch ; Ger. fangen, Go.
figgrs, finger.
" He thooht the warlocks o' the rosy cross
Had /anf/ed him in their nets sae fast."
" Bord. Minstr."
Fanners, 146, winnowing or dichting
machine, brought from Holland
by Meikle, 1710
Farm-toon, 25, 65, homestead
Faths, 18, 24, 247, Go. lord of the
feast, conn. Go. fodr, a sheath,
as the protector. See Indo-Eur.
preserved only in Sans., Go.,
and Lat., akin to fath-ti. See
fother
Fauho, 20, fox, peculiarly Teut. ;
or. the tailed one. Sans, pwccha,
a tail
Faus, 29, few. Lat. paucus. Go.
fawai, pi.
Faw, 124, 210, Ger. Falle ; inooss-faw,
C. Du. muis-val, N. miis-foll,
mouse-/aM or trap, what/aZk. Of.
^it-fall
FawwMus, 175, Fi. falmishly, Ou.
GLOSSAEY
287
Te, 10, 20, O.Sc. cattle; or. pro-
perty in farm stock ; Eng. fee,
Sc. kitchen fee, Qer. Vieh. See
faihu.
Fear, 16, Gael, a man, Lat. vir. Go.
wair, A.S. waru
Feck, 86, 138, a quantity. "The
maist feck," the bulk ; from effect.
— N.E.D.
" What feck o* stirks an' milk coos hae ye ? '
Feckless, 87, fu.tile
Feeky, fikey, 63, 86, 136, 176, fidgety.
O.N. fikenn, eager
Feel a smell, 91
Feet-washing, 218, C. Du. and O.Sc.
Fell, 56, 168, 174, Go. filu, Du. veel ;
common intensive ; Ger. viel, and
also/eM, sturdy.
" A snod bit lassie, fell an' clever."
•' Broken Bowl."
In N.E.D. Sc. sense classed under
fell, fierce
Fell, 17, skin. O.E. fel, Du. vel,
Ger. Fell, Go. thruts-^H, leprosy,
Lat. pelUs. " The form felt, for
pelt, is a confusion of felt, a kind
of cloth."— N.E.D.
Felling me, 106, "fooling," Ab.
Fencing the tables, 74
Fends, 70, defends
Fer, for, 33, 56, Go. fair, far, faur,
intensive prefix ; Ger. ver.
Fer-fochen, 56, fatigued, done up.
Conn, with fecM, fight, Ger. Ge-
fecht, Du. ge-vecht
Fermentum, 32, Lat. in Go. Gospels,
leaven of the Pharisees
Ferse, 18, Ger. heel
Feuar, 72, small landholder
Feut-an'-a-half, 187, Cu. ; cf fit'n-a-
half, Fi. a game
Few, 94, 169, as a noun
Fey, 22, fairy, fay, Fr. fee. It.
fata, fate
Fichil, 128, 140, Gael, fachail, strife
Figgra-gulth, 15, 26, Go. finger-gold,
ring
tFijands,/emi,56, pres. part, oifijan.
Go. to hate, fiend, Ger. feind, Sc.
" feent a bit ; " fiend, Go. fijan, to
hate, Ger. feind. N.E.D. "obsc.
or., can hardly be a variant of
fiend"
Fill, 17, 27, Go. skin, in thiuts-fill,
leprosy, from thriutan, to threat,
and fill, skin, Lat. peUis, Eng.
fell
FiUy, 250, foal, Go. fula,
Finevir, 154, whenever, Ab.
Finger-jingles, 183
Firlot, 150, O.N. "fiorthe hlotr,
fourth part " of a boll
" A firlot o' guid cakes my Elspa' beuk."
" Gentle Shep."
Firr'm, 80, /orm, bench
Fiscal, 72, Sc. law term
Fisks, 11, Go. fish, liat. piscis
Fit, 17, foot. Go. fotus
Flachter-golak, 125, 149, Ic. flag,
spot where turf has been cut,
O.'N.flaga, slab of stone, thin turf ;
Eng. flake, flay. Da. flaae, Boer,
vlei, holm land. Ore. flaw, flaa,
C Du. vlei
Flahta, 253, plaited. See flake
Flake, 24, 208, a sheep fence, O.N.
hurdle, Du. vlaak, •■■" O.Teut.
flehtan, Lat. plectere, plait, a
wattled hurdle. Go. flaihtan, to
weave, flahta, a plait of hair
Flalie, 158, a flail (Ab.)
Flannen, 183, 250, flannel, a more
correct form than flannel. W
gwlanen, gwlan, cog. with wool
Flauchter-s^ade, 125, 140, for paring
turfs ; flauch, to fiay.
"A dibble an' a flauchter-spade"
"Jac. Ball."
Flaws, 131, 140, spec. Sc. a fragmen
of a horse-shoe nail, O.N. flaga
slab of stone, flaw ; or. sense
" something peeled or struck off,"
and " something flat."
Flax, 253, E. See flake
Fleech, fleich, 69, 168, flatter ; obsc.
prob. Go. ga-thlaihan, to treat
Idndly. Du. vleien, to flatter,
Ger. flehen, to beseech. — "Fleech
till the gudewife be kin' "
Fleed, 145, prob. var. of field. Mo.
Jam. "a head-rig" (Ab.). Not
in this sense in N.E.D
Fleyin', 68, frightening. O.E. a-
flygan, to frighten away. Go. us-
flaugjan, fleg, to frighten — conn,
with ^2/
Flyte, 128, scolding match
288
GLOSSARY
Fliar, 173, Cu. laugh heartily, fleer,
N. flira, to grin. Jam. " to gibe,
taunt," a "fleering tell-tale."—
Shak.
Flings, 68, kicks up the heels.
" She sat an' she grat, an' she iate an' she
Hang"
Flit, 70, remove, M.E. flitten. Da.
flytte — conn, with fleet
Flittermouse, 182, Cu. Ger. Plieder-
maus
Foal, 20, Go. fula
Foarrie, 132, farrow, ferry (Bu.), cow,
Du. verre-i.oe, ceased to bear, Fl.
verroe-'koe (16th c.)
Fode, 18, in ballads, a man. Jam.
" f oode, f eode, a man."
Fog, 92, 149, moss ; unknown or. :
fjugg, Shet. airy stuff
Foggie-toddler, fuggy-, 122, 140, 149,
small, yellow bumble-bee, that
toddles among dry moss — fog
moss, foggie-bee — Jam.
Fondness for diminutives, 195
Foo, 40, Ab. who
Foogie, fugie, 128, 151, one beaten
in a fight, Lat. fugio, to flee —
relic of school cock-fights, fuga,
flight (law Lat.) ; Bu. to play
truant — " The twa loons fugiet
the squeel an' geed awa t' the
widds, an' hairriet craws' nests
a' day." — Qregor
Fool, 20, 81, 111, fowl, Go. fugls,
bird
Fomsday, 39, Sc. dial.
Foot-pad, 167, path, Cu.
" Fork and knife," 92
For-lioo, 33, to forsake ; for -how,
O.E. for-hogian, for, reversing,
and hogian, to think, care
*' And the merle and the mavis for-hoo't
their young."—" tiu.'9 Wake."
Forrat, 167, Ou. forrit, Sc. forrard
Father, 18, E. to stop a leak by
covering it with a sail. Go. fodr,
a sheath, conn, with faths, a
lord (cf. food, feed), O.Teut.
" fothro, a sheath, O.E. fodor, Du.
voedr. Kl. says "two different
roots are confused in futter (Ger.)
* Go. fodjan, feed, food, and Go.
fodr, a sheath." See faths.
Four-square, 92, square
Fousom, 153, fulsome, offensive in
smell
Fouthie, 171
Fowersom, 176
Foy, 205, a feast, Shet., Ic. fog-und
Fonie, 85, 149, soft, Du. voos, N. fos,
L.Ger. fussig, spongy
Frain, 31, 56, complain, ask, O.E.
frayne, freyne, fregnan, O.N.
fregna. Go. fraihnan, Ger. fragen.
Jam. fryne, to fret from ill-
humour, frynin. Not in N.E.D.
Fraising, 34, 153. N.E.D. has
frail, to creak, Sw. frasa, to
rustle, /raise, a fuss, commotion.
Go. fraisith, teniptest
" He may indeed, for ten or fifteen days,
Mak meikle o' ye, wi' an nnco fraise."
Allan Ramsay.
Fra-itan, 56, to eat up, Ger. fressen,
E. fret, O.E. fretan, Du. vreten
Fraiw, 48, Go. teed, fry, spawn, Ic.
frae. Da. fro
Frake, 85, a wheedler ; fraih, s.v.
fond discourse ; fraildn, 140, 153.
Not in N.E.D.
Frammelt, 147. See thrammelt, of
which this is a var.
Frauja (masc), 22, 85, 205, Go.=
master of the hoiise, Du. vrouw,
Ger. Frau; or. sense, "tlie first"
in the house ; cf. Ger. Fiirst,
O.N. freyr. Go. '' fraujis (fern.)
fraujo, Ic. Freya in our Friday.
Distinguishes Our Lord in Go.
Gospels. See free
I'ra-was, 56, Go. pret. of fra-wis-an
to spend ; was ; Ger. war ; or.
sense, to stay in a place
Freeh frack, 85, Ore. weak, delicate,
O.E. free, Ger. frech, insolent,
O.N. frekr, greedy. Go. friks
Free, 22, 56, ballad term. O.E. /r&,
O.Fr. fri, Du. vrijer, a wooer,
O.N. fri-r. Go. frei-s, frijon, to
love, " dear," of kindred, a free
man, E. friend. See freen
Freen, freend, 56, 127, friend, A.S.
freond. Go. frijonds, pres. part. ;
from frijon, to love ; cf. Lat.
amicus, amare ; Du. vriend : or.
kinsman, Du. vrijer, a lover. See
free
Freits, freit, 122, 148, 163, anything
superstitiously cherished, often a
GLOSSAEY
289
hobby, O.N. iiitt, news, avigiiry.
O.E. freht, oracle, from Go. fraih-
nan, to ask. See f rain
Fremd, fremit, 32, 64, 206, strange,
foreign, spec. Sc. O.E. fremede,
Dii. vremmd, H.Ger. vremde,
strange. Go. franiaths
*' Is this the way the fremit serve us ? "
" Broken Bowl."
Fremd loanin, 168, strange loan or
cow-yard
Freyr, 22, N., prob. same as
surname Frier
Friks, 85, Go. in faihu-friks, greedy
of money. A.S. and O.E. freca,
a hero, O.N. frekr, greedy, Sw.
frack, daring. Jam. freik, frick,
a strong man, petulant ; Ger.
frech, bold ; C. Du. vrek, 214
Frius, 23, Go. frost, A.S. frhsan,
frSorig, Ger. frier-en, Eng. freeze,
Lat. pruina
From, 89, after, different
Fuls, 29, Go. foul, fou-n\a,rt=foul-
marten
Fuhie, 68, 125, compost, manure,
f ulzie, — " what is trampled under-
foot "
Furthie, 86, 137, 140, hospitable,
free in giving, f orthy, disposed to
put oneself /orf A or forward ; var.
foothie —
" That's gi'en wi' furthy glee."
Furesday, Futirsday, 83, Thursday
Fushonless, 87, " not given in Jam.
at all, meaning under f oisonless, an
Eng. word." Shaks. foison, plenty.
(J. B. F.)
Put. ind. and pres. subj., 37
Futhork, 11, Go. ABC, the Runic
alphabet, from the first six Runes,
f, u, th, 0, r, k
Fwore, 171, Cu. fore
G
G, 11, 83, its hard sound; gg=ng
in Go.
Gaan, 208, 0. Du. See gang
Gab,68, fluency — " he has the gift o'
the gab ; " — var. of gape, prov. E.
gob, the mouth, borr. from Gael.
gob, beak, mouth ; O.F. gob, a
gulp ; cog. gobble, gobbet, gabble
Gaby, 170, E. See gab
Gad, 12, 23, goad. Go. gazd-s,
spike, O.N. gaddr, O.T. •■■gazdja,
O.E. gyrd, yard ; or. sense seen
in Go. gad, a pike, fish with
snout. Kl. sub Gerte says, goad
and Go. gazd have a common
origin, contrary to N.E.D.
Ga-dailans, 32, Go. partners, Sc.
dealsmen
Oaebie, gebbie, 125, 152, hen's crop,
" pron. against conn, with gab" —
N.E.D. ; cf. Gael, giaban, the giz-
zard
Gaed, 34, 56, went, Go. iddja, O.E.
yode. See gang
Gaet, 62, road
Gaffer, 127, gefera, A.S. companion,
equal, retainer from faran to
fare. From godfather rather than
grandfather in sense of an old
man. See playfare
Gaggan, 56, Go. go, gang; gagg-s.
Go. way, street, O.E. gangan,
supplanted by gdn, go, Du. gaan.
Da. ga. See gang
Ga-hlaiba, 24, Go. fellows of the
loaf; or. term superseded by
" bread " in general sense
Gairnjan, 33, 56, Go. to long for,
to yearn. So. girn, Ic. girna, to
desire, gairnida, Go. pret. =
yearned. See green
Gairtans, 70, garters
Gaisen, gaissend, gissen, gizzend, 33,
149, of a tub, leaking through
drought, Ger. giessen. N. giosa,
to spurt, gissen, leaky. Go. giutan,
to pour
Gaits, gaiteins, 21, Go. goat, Sc.
gait ; goat-ling
Ga-juko, 48, Go. from jukan, to
yoke : a parable, that which is
paired, a simile
Galeithandan, 48, Go. from leithan.
A.S. '\lithan, Eng. lead, leiten,
O.N. litha to travel — cog. lead,
lode, load. Ger. laden, is Go.
lathon, to call, invite
Galesun, 48, perif. of lisan, to gather,
A.S. and Eng. lease, to glean
Gallasses, 178-9, Fi. in form, Cu. var.
of gallows; cf. bellisses= bellows
Gallop, 17, Go. ga-hlaupan
Galsh, 150, Mo., prob. conn, with
19
290
GLOSSAEY
gash in gash-mouthed, wide-
mouthed, ■voluble. Xot in Jam.
Guiiti, 32, Go. gaagian. The G. pret.
iiiiljii shows the conn, with verb
of going in Sans., Gr., Lat. Its
Sc. form is gaed, M.E. vode, with
prefix ge-, as ga-iddja
Gamut, 125, solan goose, O.E. ganot,
Du. i/t'iit, Eng. pnn-d-er. In A.S.
the sea is the "i;<iHOft;i bath "
d'anstU, 136, 140, ganseUiii, Bu.
Gar- or gor-, 149, intensive prefix
Garda, 25, 51, Go. yard or fold,
ijard-s, a house, or. sense, an en-
closure; garth, Gev. gurt, giirten,
-A..S. gyrdan, girf. Go. gairdan,
O.X. garth, — all, primarily, hedge
round the homestead
Ctarda waldands, 25, Go. head of the
house, lit. iiard-u'iehliiig
Gardciter'g gairteiis, 121, garters
Garr, 70, 185, has almost superseded
"make" in So. In Sc. gar, to
force. For X. sense of "do," Sc.
uses gar as " make or cause to do,"
widely Teutonic, O.X. ger(v)a,
O.E. gearwian, Eng. yare and gear,
Ger. gixrben, gerben, to tan
Game-hee, 149, Mo. In archaic
Eng. as garabee or hornet : gaiu-
as in gerfalcon, gor-cock
Garron, 71, 201, Gael.
Gart, garth, gorth, gortchiii, 25, 65,
Go. qarda, gtird, X. garth-r. Da.
gaard ; common forms in place
names. See garda
(Jaruns, 25, Go. market place, where
jieople run together
Gatwo, 26, Go. a street, as in Sc.
gate, road. X. gaita, Ger. gasse,
from get, not " go "
Gtnr, 67, 139, rack, flaw, or. uncert.,
gell, a crack, Shet., galli, a defect
(Ic.)
(inwi, 19, 22, 23, Go. a country dis-
trict, cog. E. yeoman
(Jawm, giiani, gome, 33, 181, to stare
(C'u.), stare \'acantly ; also goaw,
to recognise, "he never goamt
me." l».X. gaum-r, Go. *'gauma,
lieed ; gaumjan, to observe
GaifjiHs, 85, 136, 170, simpleton,
pvob. from gawp, gape, to yawn
or iiiijic
Ciayly, 168, Cu. Sc. geyly
Ge-, 17, prefix, M.E. ve-, v-, i-. Go. ga-
Ge', 196, C. Dn. for "gave, Sc. gied
Gtuiis, 127
Geat, 182, Cu. See get, Ab.
Geavin', 170, Cu. See goave, goavy
GObun, 11, Go., gayvoon, they gare
Gtddis, 62, pike, spec Sc. X. gedde,
giidd-r, a spike. Go. gazd-s. See gad
Gttl, 212, C. Du. yellow. See gool
Cicfallen, 84, Ger. Chaucer, i-fallen
Gi-td, geld-ing, 23, 148, castrate, X.
geld-a, Ger. gelze. Cf. galti, a
pig (Siiet.). See giltha. — Xot in
Jam.
Gellies (g hard), 120, 140, tadpoles,
leeches — var. of jelly. Bu. geal-
caxil, ice-cold (g soft)
Oer-biek, 131, Ore. the gerss- \grass)
bank or bank. See bank
German partitive, 94
Get, SS, 169, as auxiliary, " Can I
get going ? "
Gett (pron. geetX 33, 66, Ab. child.
X^t in X.E.D. Gyte, var. of gait,
from get, he-get a child, a first-
year pupil in Edin. High School.
Jam. get, gett, geat, geit : — "A
theiffls geit." — "Elgin Keconls,''
1627
" Whingin' gett^s aljout your ingle side."
" Qen. Shep."
Oerel, 25, 150, 207, gable. Go. gibla.
Da. g-avl, Ger. giebel, lit. "the
outermost "
Geg, 168, Cu. intensive
CJeyser, 33, le. lit "the gusher"
Giban, 12, Go. to gin; Sr. gee (g
hard)
Giglot, 137, 217, 140, var. of giggle
Gilpg, 85, 137, a romp
'*The gilpv siood ond lem'liod (lauched)
tell blata."— ■• Christ. Bn'iu'."
Giltha, 23, Go. sickle. le. gelda, Sc.
;/t7(^ to castrate ; Eng. geld-mg.
See geld
(?i»i /III)-, 254, Sc. a two-year-old cwc,
X. ginibur
Gingers, 187, Cu.
Gin!, gin-', 127, a hoop for play or
for a ban-el — var. of girth ; X.
g^jorth, Go. t;airda, a girdle
Girn, 33, 56, (>2, 67, wee]\ girn, spec
Sc. sense, to bo jieevi.sli — var. of
grin. Girn, a wire snare for rabbits
(iLOSSAltV
291
diniiil., Klf), IT/ri, mM>i: won] uh
Kfiui/iry, lull, /iji|i. 1,1) a iJu'mI,.
Him', piiciil-i/inml
(litidn, ill. II, 'iiulil.iUi:, 187. Hi'.i: (^iiiiTi-
iii.Ni, wimIiIjii,
lit mm, iiTitiiH, I!), ii.'i, 70, <io. ({dih
iti MniiKi^ 111' lii'j'li : cog. wiUi grow
Oiii, Hfi, 170, (Jii. gnail,, Hi:, grit,,
(in: groHH
OiMtrit (lii-t/iH, iirdjOo. yi'Hl.rccrj-ijiiy
')iiil,un, .'!.'), ')(). t,o iioiir oiil, wnl,(:r ;
( li'r. ijiimKii, Hii. iii::;:i:iiil,, ICiig. ;/mo/(,.
Him', p;ii,iHi',ii
r,7(i///', IHd, imikI. "Tlii'.y Hiiy (!liriHt
will get, a lili'i'Id'il I'lii'.i', l)y Uii'.
(/ii,l,i'. An (ih III', Ki'l, l.liiH iloni',
llr, iiihmI, wiuiIi', t.lii'. gliirrr, iiiyri',
III' oiirHliiH." " I7l,li I'.. Huriiiotm"
(llriiii, rhyii, ijlrijrr, m, I ii'2, I ii.'t, l.'ll,
(^M,il lly, liorHi'.-lly
'W,7«/ i''l,|ii' ii|i.(,ii,l(," :w, M, HO, 207,
i|llir,|( ill illl,l',llif.;i',liri',, ,N. gkigg-r,
rli'iir, I'li'iir-Hi^lil'i'il, Oo. gliiggw-
llliM, (). 10. gli'll,W, I'Ir.Vrr
/f7r:r//;//, H'^i, rl'. (io. glllggWUbll,
ii,r(',iii'al,i'ly 'ii.Kjti.jiw'i
li'lr.nliiM, I ill, (l|il,ii.
Illi'll, ijli'f; ijlri'ji, (II), i^v.. Huniiil., l-o look
/IHI|lliMl,, yll'ill, k'v'i Hl|llilll.-I'yi',ll
0'////; I7'l, alHii (III. '
(///«/i;ii'niill(l, II, I'old I'liiiiiiii,' on, IliH,
Hpi'i',. Hi',. ; iiluk, mIhii a Hli(,'lil' look.
-N.IO.I). ■
• ilovi', 10, A.H. glof I'orKi'-lol'. Hcc,
lol'a
llliiirn; I7'l, H|ii!i',. Hi'. Io hI.IU'i! wiUi
wiili',-o|irii iiyrH : glowi'l'-ool,, (Jil.
l)n. (j/ii, l,o Hl,ari', 10. i/lfn'r
(In, 8ft, lOiif,'. Hi',. l,liroii'gli-|ijl,
(liHivy dirk, llill, l:iH, 170, (/"'""!, l,o
Hl,ar(^ Hl,ii|iiilly : a liroiul, variuil,
,'<liii'i'. .Iiiiii. givrH aim) ^oir, novi',
Hoii|i, ^(ii,wr, Kaiil'. Nol' ill N.IO.I).
Huh, l7o, viir. Ill' (/((/'; K'i''''i Mi'iiiii.
IVol ll, H|lil., Hlll'l'.
(loi'il, ilii', '2i!l, (I. Dii. do. K'""I-'S
gooil, Hi', H'llili'. ili'iv kooiIm,
|iio|ii'i'l,y. A I'oiiiliiiiii Hi', ilcriva-
livn Ih ijiiitiilii, iimiiiirn, liolli as
V. iiiiil II, "'riii'ri''H iiMi'l,liiiif{
u'lMir nil' Hci'il liny I'or ki'I'''''"
^;iilai'k,M nil' illini' i'i'H,il,i'i',M o' Miat,
kill," wii,4 l,lii^ liolil liKHi'i' ol' an
All. runner
llutiik, lUa, 1-10, 1 ID, a liri'I'li', (liii'l.
l'ori;)mi' (I'orki'il) f,'olla(;li, l.lii'. itur-
wig. .lam. L'i'llorli (Ayr, Uf'r.),
gii,vi:l(H',k. Not in N.l<!.l). A]«o
iiH ^follauk or liorny gollack
(lolil, iiO, 'Jo. giilUi, radical Hunwj
"yellow." Hi'i', gool
OoiiiaH, 170, On. No(;N.I0.1X
(Joiiicril, K), l.'U!, i/n'iarii.i:ml-, (!u.,
He. a fool. Hilly I'rilow. Jain.
yniuvii], "a ilari.goiMi'ril o' a wiii', "
( Jooilie (lil.t.li',), r^.'i, HUn H|iiirgi',
','iinl. i/ulil., (M. I'lH, 177, ill Mo. f,'i',ni',r-
ally I'alli'il f^wi'i'l ; ii'idl(il,), thu
gold (lowitr, 1)11. goiid-l)loi!iii. (Jer.
Oold-I)l\iiiii',, 10. corii-Kool
(,'iiiiHi:, l.'M, a (,ailoi''H iron, handle
liki', a gooHi','H iii'.ck
(lo|M', 170, (.'. Dli.
(Inrlid, ijiirhid, tlni-liliii, I '25, 176, nii-
llcdged liirdH, from ijnrh, Hi'''''d.y ;
'/'//■/J, Oil. young liird : coj,'. wil.li
gmh, grip, graH|j
lliiri'iii'k, I'll), ri'ii or moor cock
(Jorliii, 170, On. var. of gorp. Hce
i/nrlid, yiirliii ; giirliii, a lioy, a
gorlicl,, Hlii',1,., conn. Ic. karl
■|(<oi'Hi', 10, O.IO. (/(«■«/,, Ocr. ijiii'di:,
liarlcy, akin l.o Ijiil.. luiri/ini/iii,, or.
Hinni'.l.liing liriHMy or prickly : mil,
I'oiin. with gruHM
OoHpcl, ii7, O.IO. (/(;'(/, H|ii',l, triiiiiS. of
Or. cvangcliiim. Oo. Miiiitli-w/i'/-
/"// from l,liiiil,li,H,good, and Hpillon,
1,(1 aiinonncc, Hpcll
Itiimiji, I;i7, O.IO. L'oil-Hilili, ri'lal.i'd,
godfal.lirr or goiimothi'r
diili; I7'2, liiiii., gwoti',. On. "About
till' draining of l.lic locli allow,H
him to make \\\n Htank-gote to
l,liM,ti',iri',i',l,."— " Ola,Hgow licrordH,"
Klllll
(litip-im, liirlcni.-ijiiii^iiii, '\H->,, also
Oiti'l. and Ic, from golland, glolii'.
Ilowrr. Hi'i', gool and lock
^'(.l^/.:, cuckoo, 'JKI, 21^2, -lt>[
\(liiii<ii(:ii, iiini'iiiu. full, yriH,y»!y/-fli', .'i.'i,
l.'iH, liaiidl'id. N. gaupii ; or.
Hi'iiHe HiiiKli' liaiiil hollowed, -
N.IO.I). docM not mention Oo.
kaiipiitjaii in l,lii,'< coiinection iw
in l,exl,
l,'ntfii,iirtn)i, 11(1, ,Mpec. He. S\v. gre]),
I 111. greli, 11, fork for niiiniire ; var.
grip, grope. Hee gripple
Oraphie. lle,'^e|■iptive epithets, HO
292
GLOSSARY
Greedy, 29, Go. gredags, grCdus,
hunger
Greexh, 150, fire-place, cog. Ir.
grushach. See gris
Greet, .30, 35, 87, siJec. Sc. cry. O.E.
giaetan, N. gr&ta, Oo. grfitan, to
weep, grat, pret. Go. gai-grot
" She sat an' she prat
An' she flet an' slie dang."
Grewy, " one of the most expressive
of Sc. words, to be looked for
under grewing (II. 452 Jam.),
where you are referred to groue,
growe." (J. B. F.)
Grice, 68, 133, 182, 250, sp. Sc. a
young pig. O.N. griss. Da. gris,
Skr. grishti, E. griskin, N. grici-
fer, grice or swine fever
Grien, green, 129, to yearn, A.S.
geornan, long for. See gaimjan
" Then a' the hcioss for sleep begin to grein."
Fergusson.
■\Griere, 93, 128, Sc. farm-bailiff.
W.Sax. gerefa, in Eng. reeve,
sheriff, land-grave, Ger. Graf,
conn. A. 8. r6f, active, not Ger.
Graf.— Kl. Sk.
Gripple, gruip, 132, Du. greppel, a
ditch, from Du. grip ; grips, grips,
O.E. grip, a burrow, groop, Ger.
Graben. See graep
Grippy, 69, tight-fisted, Du. gripicli,
from grip
Grips, 132, hand-i-grips, a fight at
close quarters
Gris (Irish), 150, grushach. See
greesh
Groop, grupe, gruip,l32,GeT. Graben,
drain in cow-byre ; Eng. graft
(obsc.) ; Du. gracht, a ditch, and
street on either side of a canal,
yrare, to dig
Groode, 153, shivering with cold ;
groue, growe, groose to shudder ;
grue, goosg skin on approach of a
cold. Of. Ger. grausaxa.
GrooHiii, 138, Ger. grausen, a shiver-
ing (cold) fit, gruse, groosy, grue,
to shudder from cold, dread, &c.
<^ier. grausen, Du. gruwen
Grozets, grozers, grossaiis, 127, 240
Grumphie, the pig fechoic)
Grundie ewalhe, 123, groundsel,
grunde-3wylige(10thc.); grundee-
swelgiae (7th c). N.E.D. dis-
cusses the confusion of these two
forms, not ve:y satisfactorily
Gucken, 209, colloquial Ger. like
Sc. seestu'. Cf. keek, which see
Gude, 29, 81, god-s, goth-s, gen.
godis. Go. good, or. sense, fitting,
suitable ; Du. goed, Ger. gut,
landed estate
Gudge, (Ab.) 23, 56, 65, 112, a peas-
ant. Go. gaujans, peasants, gauja,
a peasant, 21 ; gawi, a country
district, in place names, 19, 22 ;
gudge, not in N.E.D. Jam. has
gudget,a camp follower, Fr. goujat
Gud-hus, 25, Go. Oo(fs house, guth,
masc. in sg. and pi. gutha. In
Go. neut. in pi. neuter. In or.
use anal, to Lat. numen and deus.
— N.E.D.
Gud-ja, 28, Go. priest, good man
Guildee, 116, Cptn.
Guisers, guisard, guini/i, 104, in fan-
tastic guise
Gulls, 177, Cu.
Gully, 133, .spec. Sc. or. obs. — a
large kniJEe
" A lang kale gnlly hung doon by his side."
Gum, 181
jGuma, 16, 248, 249, Go. man. A.S.
guraa, " groom, difficult, — not
from guma."-— N.E.D.
Oumpshm, gumption, 33, 136, 181,
217, judgment, mother wit,
rummle - gumption. Not ex-
plained in N.E.D. Conn. O.N.
gaumr, care, heed. Go. gaumjan,
to take notice of. See gawm
Gundy, 130, 185, 259, syn. of clack,
which see
Gnnst, 31, 245, Ger. Kluge = ge-
unst, O.H.G. gi-unnan=gbnnen :
oldest form anst (without prefix
ge-). Go. ansts, A.S. liSt ; with
gonnen, cp. Du. gunnen, A.S.
unnan, O.N. unna. For Go. root
ans = Ger. ■'•> un.s, unsan, O.N. iiss,
A.S. OS = Godhead, Sans, asura for
ansura. See an-an, eynd, &c.
Our-pug, 71, Orc. = a small Shetland
horse
Gurthie, 140, "app. spec, to what
burdens the stomach." — Jam.
Bu. galsoch, gulsoch, fond of
good eating. — Oregor
GLOSSAEY
293
Gus-gus! 67, 133, call to pigs, Ic.
gosse, a pig, Sc. gussie, "Goosie!
goosie ! " ; grumpiiie, K., a pig,
Ic. grnmfie, a spectre ; grynta, to
grunt, Shet.
Gutty, 150, pot-bellied : gut, the in-
test, canal of animals, Go. giutan,
to pour, Sc. and O.E. gote, a
drain ; cf. Fi. gutsy, gluttonous.
A dignified Aberdeenshire burgh
official was popularly known as
Gutty Willie. See gaissen, giutan
Gutter-gaw, 140, a pustule shown on
feet between the toes after padd-
ling in gutters : " conn, with gall
either as bile, Du. gal, Ic. gall,
or with O.P. galler, to gall, in F.
gale, scab on fruit, Lat. caUus,
thick skin."— Sk.
Gynnys, 62, gin =Tioose, from engine
Gyte, 33, silly, to gang gyte, perh.
cog. with giddy, out of one's senses
" Screamed like a young gyte."
" Christ. Ba'in'."
H
H., 12, 82, 177, Cu., before a vowel
in Go.
Haa-penny deevels, 130, 186, hawp'ny
d — , old - fashioned gingerbread
figures
Hoar = mist, 98, of. hoar frost, and
prob. O.N. harr, hoar, hoary
Hack, 146, North, a muck-rake. Du.
Juxh, hoe, Eng. hack. See howk
Hm, 197, for have, C. Du. M
Haemit,]iamil, 153, 171, 200,hamald,
hamelt, hamel, from hame, home,
O.N. heimolt, Sliet. heimilt,
pasture adjoining a yard or en-
closure ; hamly, homely, 62
Hafflin, 66, 137, 187, young plow-
man, hawflin, si^ec. Sc, one half-
grown
Hafjands(and-), Go. answering: from
hafjan, to heave. Ger. heben, to
lift, Lat. cap-i-o. Cf. Bible, "lifted
up his voice "
Hagg, 66, 140, cow-tender. Not in
N.E.D.
Haggis, 98, dish, now spec. Sc, der.
unknown, Fr. hachis is later
Haihs, 17, Go. one-eyed.
Haims, 32, village, Go. haim, af-
haims, from hontie. O.E. hain, Du.
heem, Ger. heim
Haims, 130, Jam. hammys, hems,
collar of working horse. Du.
haam, O.F. ® ham — to hold against.
" Not known bef. 1300." N.E.D.
See brecham.
Hained, 70, 130, saved. Not in
N.E.D. Hain, to spare, save from
exertion : —
" An' swankies they link aff the pat
To hain their joes."—" Farm. Ha'."
Hairdeis, 68, Go. a herdsman
Hairst, 94, 128, 129, autumn, Ger.
Herbst, harvest
Hairus, 25, Go. a sword, A.S. heor
Hait, 12, a bit, an atom. " The de'il
hait ails you."— Jlf'CVie's "Knox."
Ic. haete, common phrase, also
explained as "De'il have it,"
which see
Haithi, 23, Go. heath
Hake and manger, 173, live in plenty
Haldand, 24, 35, Go. keeping, hold-
ing, Eng. hold, O.E. haldan, N.
halda, Ger. halten, Go. haldan,
Sc. hud, hudden ; Go. only to keep
cattle, which term superseded it
in Sc. ; hald, for hai-hald, Go.
pret. of haldan
Hale, 106, to take a goal. Not in
N.E.D.
Hale-apotheh, 86, 138, Sc. entire or
v:liole quantity, Gr. apothek6
Half two, 197, Sc. idiom
Halja, 28, Go. Ml. O.N. and Du.
hel, or. "the coverer up." See
hool ; Go. huljan, to cover
Hallan, 68, perh. dim. of hall, screen
wall inside doorway, inside porch.
— N.E.D.
*' Richt scornfully she answered him
Begone ye hallan-shakker."
Hallion, halones, 160
Halp, 36, Go. helped, pret. of hilp-an
Halts, 17, Go. halt, lame, Eng.
limp, v., to make a halt
Hamfs, 17, Go. one-handed =ha-
nifa. Skeat, under hamper, con-
nects it with hamfs, M.E. hamelen,
to mutilate, render lame, hammle,
an ungainly walk, Ic. hamla and
Ger. hammel, mutilated. See
294
GLOSS AEY
nieve, neive : hummel has many
uses in Sc. — hornless, mean,
shabby, to dress bere or barley
'\Eansel, 15, 32, a Xew Year gift.
"Form coiT. to O.E. handselen,
mving of the hand over a bargain,
O.X. hands-al, money handed over
to anyone. The usages — luck
penny, auspicious inauguration,
&e. — not accounted for by these ;
of. handsel, earnest money, Ger.
Handgeld."— X.E.D. Go. hnnsl,
gift laid on the altar, hunsla-staths,
the altar. X.E.D. does not note
Go. hunsl in this connection
Hantle, 86, 1.38, a considerable
quantity; not kno'mi before 1700;
or. obs.— X.E.D.
Hardies, 186, Fi. hard biscuits
Sare-shfd, 151. Jam. "hare-shard,
hareshaw = harelip, harchatt,
hareskart (Renf.), from hare, and
Ic ska, a particle, Ger. Scharte, a
gap," A.S. sceart, shard
Harjis, 23, G(o. army, Ger. Heer,
Eng. herr-ing
Earmless-loonie, 139, natural or im-
becile, Lat luna, the moon. Xot
in X.E.D. Cf. a "dwamly
ciaiter," Lan., in same sense
Harn^dout, 110, herden, burden,
contr. of harden, a coarse fabric
made from han^s, Du. heerde,
threads of flax, O.Teut^ tJT*^-
hi^mi, coarser parts of flax separ-
ated in hackling. Clout, var. of
cloth, Ger. Kleid
Hariu, 14, 16, 17, 118, 204,
207, Go. hwaimei, brains, hwair-
nei-staths, Golgotha or place of
a skuU, Du. hersen-pan ; spec
Se. ham-pan, the skull, brain-
pan ; bams, brains. O.N. ^Jame,
bu. hergenen, Ger. ge-hime
Hat, bitten, 88, Ore. hote, hotteu,
hutt ; Ore. pret. hit
Haubith, 17, Go. head, A.S. heafod,
Lat. caput
Maugh^ 19, 23, holm-land. Go. hugs,
a field, O.E. hallt^ comer, nook,
Du. hoek
Haus-jan, 12, Gc>. to hear; -widely
Teut. Go. alone shows .«, ga-
hausjan, to hear ; « and r inter-
change
Have a irani, to, 91
Haver, 72, Se. law, " witness having
documents to produce in a suit ;
not given in Jam." (J. B. F.)
Haveril, 98, 136, spec. Sc. one who
havers or talks ■vrithout sense — or.
unknoAvn. — N.E.D. Hyreral, a
lounger, idler. — Ed.
Harrer, haffer, 177, 183, 212, oats,
"presumably Norse." Fr. haver,
Ger. Hafer, var. hauver
Haversack, 177, oat-sack. Seeha\'\er
Hawse, 18, 56, neck, O.E. and
O.N. hals, Gk). hals, bass. Ore.
Pap o' the hass, given in Jam. as
Ulva for Uvula. (J. B. F.)
He, 39, 78, 171, dee, for the, in Ir.
and GaeL dialect respectively
Hearken., 88, hear a child his lessons
Heath, 23, 32, Go. haithi, haithno, a
heathen woman ; or. sense, prairie
land. Ger. Heide
Heather-reenge, 119, i«enge, var. of
rinse or range. Either will suit
sense
Heech, liee, 12, 38, high. Go. hauh-s,
bauhnan, to be heedi, to hithteu.
Ger. hoch, Go. bauhnan, to lie
esalted
Hech J 53, deep breath, exclamation ;
Sc. form of heigh ! " Hech Sir? ! "
not given in Jam. (J. B. F.)
Heckle, 70, to dress ; flax ; v. and n.
var. of hadde, haichel
Heft, 56, axe handle, O.E. haefte,
Ger. Heft, Eng. haft, ha ic, heave,
that by which anyt hing is held.
— N.E.D.
" El natore hefts in sauIs that weep an'
pine." Ailan Unittsay,
Heftet, 56, 131, 147, 177, ga-haftida.
Go. cleaved to : haft, O.E. liaeft,
Ger. Heft, a handle, root in heave
or have, O.N. hefta, to bind, retain
(milk, urine), Ger. heften, heftet,
acclimatised, as sheep to pasture.
Shet. provided with
Hei-fned, 163, liav-cutter
Hemmii, 180, Cu. presumably mis-
reading for skemel, which see
Herdwick wool, 179, Cu.
Heritors, 72, landlords, Sc law
Herried, harriet, herryin, 124, 151,
155, robbed (a nest), var. of,
harry, harrow, deriv. from Go.
GLOSSARY
295
liai-jis, an army, and widely Teut.
See harjis, hersliip. Bu. " Thu
loons got a gueede soun dribban
for hairrien the craw's nest." —
" They hao near hand henit hale
Eltrlck Forest and Lauderdale."
" Bord. Minst."
fHerr-ing, 23, O.E. hering, Du.
haring, Qer. Haring, Hering,
F. hareng. Gen. explained as
from heer, an army — "the fish that
comes in hosts," but its short vowel
is against this. — N.E.D.
Heirt, 17, heart. Go. hairto, Ger.
Herz
fHerrth, haurja, 25, burning coals.
Go., Du. haard, Ger. Herd,
fireplace, floor. N.E.D. does not
notice connection of hearth with
haurja
Herry, 137, a virago, perhaps akin
to Ger. Herr
Hership, 167, A.S. here. Go. har-
jis, a troop and soipe (abst. term),
Ic. her-skap-r, ravaging. See
harjis, herry
Hery, 52, M.E. to praise, O.E.
herian. Go. hasjan, hazjandane,
pres. part.
Het, 171, Du. def. article
Hetzen, 69, Ger. = to set on dogs to
flght
Hey, hay, 19, Go. hawi, meaning
grass, herb ; Du. hooi, Ger. Heu
Hey-soos, 146, hay-sows, hay-ricks
Hi, 45, Go. this, old pronon. stem
Hick nor ree, 189, Cu.
//I'cto-iiy-piokery, 115
Hiding, 101, thrashing
Hie, 53, Eng. to hasten, O.Sc. hyand,
hastening, O.E. higian, to pant,
Du. hijgen, Ger. heichen, Sc. liecli
Hilda, 27, Pr. name, the gracious one,
O.E. hold, Du. hon, Go. hulths,
gracious, wilja-halthei, benevo-
lence, *' hilthan, to be inclined.
See hulths
Himins, 23, Go., Ger. Himmel
HimseV, 91, himself, in "He's no
the day "
Hind, 65, 181, 184, ploughman —
chiefly on Borders. MJl. hine,
0. North, in sense of famuli :
hine faedar (Rushw. Gl.)= pater
familias, A.S. hyne, Cu. hyne.
In hind, fem. deer, the d is
radical ; O.E. hind, Ger. Hinde,
Go. hinthan, to catch
Hine, 45, E. dial, him
Hinny, 85, 181, term of endear-
ment, var. of honey
Hip, 151, var. of hop, to pass over.
M.E. hyppe, Ger. hiipfen, Go.
"huppjan, O.E. hoppian, O.N.
hoppa, to hop
" Nor hip the daft and gleesome saunts
That flu Edina'8 seat." Ferg.
Hippit, 177, hip muscles strained
and tired
Hirdsell, 24, 68, sheep stock of a
hill farmer ; hirsel, O.N. hizla,
safe keeping ; hirtha, to herd,
Go. hairdeis, a herd. — N.E.D.
Hirplin mawkin, 97, 122, 129, hirple,
to walk with a limp, run like a
hare ; or. unknown ; spec. Sc.
" He hosts an' he hirples the weary
day lang." *'Ball."
Hirrd, 24, herd, hairda. Go., O.E.
heord, Ger. Herde
Hirsled, 85, moved with effort, O.N.
hrista, to shake. Da. ryste, rustle —
"John hirsled on his specs "
Hi-sfy! 127
Hit for it, 35, 45, 1 97, 209. C. Du. het
Hive, 152, Mo. the hoof, Du. hoef,
Da. hov
Ilizzy, 137, var. of hussy, from
housewife
Hoast, 138, 207, A.S. hwosta, Ic.
hosti, imitative, C. Du. hoests
Hochlan, 115, var. of hobbling
Hoddenly, 189, Ou. continuously ;
app. hodd is a var. of hold
Hoek, 204, 210, 0. Du., corner (Boer),
Du. hoek, haak, corner, angle,
nook, Eng. hooh. The Hook of
Holland
Hoo, 40, how
Hoodie or howdie craw, 64, the hooded
crow
Hoofd, 204, C. Du. head, Ger.
Haupt
Hool, huil, hule, helyt, 28, 62, pea-cod.
Eng. lutU, shell, pod or husk =
what covers. Ger. Hiille, Htilse,
hulls (Sart. Res.) clothes, Go.
huljan, to cover. " The kind
296
GLOSSAEY
corn has its ain hool." — Prov.
Shet hule, husk. " My heart is
out o' hule "
Hoolet, 251, the owl, Ger. heulen, to
howl or hoot as an owl, O.F.
huller, to yell. Teut. forms gener-
ally without aspirate, A.S. i\le,
O.N. ugla, Lat. ulula
Hoosaes, 25, 83, Go. hus
Hoo-t-ootts, 171 ; "not given at all in
Jam." (J. B. F.)
Horn, 72, 131, So. law, proclaim
bankrupt, outlaw ; from horn as
trumpet, v. to call
Hornie (Fair) Hornie, the Devil,
Sc, the Horned One. See Fair
Hornie
Horse-chestntit, 21. "Called in
English horse chestnut for that
the people of the East countries
do with the fruit thereof cure
their horses of the cough." —
Gerard's " Herbal," 1597
Hotch, 178, hotchin
Hovin, 131, 147, swollen (app. to cows)
with, overfeeding ; cf . heave, hove
Howe, 23, Eng. hoe, hollow, Ger.
Haue, Eng. hough, Sc. howe,
howk, Go. hoha, N. liol. Da. huul.
Go. hul-undi. See howk
Hoiof, 224, abode, resort, C. Du.
kerk-hof, Ger. Kirchhof, church-
yard, 0. Du. hof; "howff not given.
Houff refers you back to hoiff ;
Hoffe, a residence" (II. 601,
Jam.). (J. B. F.) "A timber
hoofe to be meithed " (measured).
—"Glasgow Records," 1696
Hoiok, 146, 204, 253, to hollow, N.
halka, root of holl-ovf with dim.
formative k, Go. hul-undi, a cave,
us-hulon, to hollow out, Sc.
haugh. See howe
Hree, 83, chree, Lan. three
Hrukjan, 13, Go. to crow, rooh,
onomat.
Hud, hold, 73, keep
Huddin, 24, held
jjue (wee), "a wee hue maer," 138.
Paisley humour was to apply the
phrase to the Sheriff at the time
(Mair). Both his stature and name
fitted the expression. "Hue, a
tasting, app. to solids or liquids."
— Jam.
Hugan, 26, 33, Go. to think ; hugs,
Go. understanding. See for-hoo
Hugs, 19, 23, Go., Sc. haugh, Eng.
holm. N.E.D., under haugh, says,
"app. from O.E. halk, corner."
See hoek
Huis heer, 207, C. Du. = Sc. hooss-
maister
fHulths, 27, Go. merciful; hold,
Ger. gracious, O.N. hollr, A.S.
hold. Go. un-hultho, unclean
spirit ; un-hold, sin. Kliige does
not connect Ger. Held, a hero, as
in the text, with Ger. hold, but
finds it in A.S. haeleth, a man.
See Hilda
Hundfaths, 15, 18, Go. hundred-
lord, centurion ; cf. braut-faths
Hunds, 250, Go. hound
Hunker-tottie, 129, 140, a position in
sliding as a game. Or. obs.
Fris. hauk, corner, home in a
game. Cf. O.N. hokra, to crovich,
huka, Ger. hocken, to sit on the
heels, Sc. hock, the ankle joint,
and E. hough ; prob. akin Shet.
hookers, bended knees ; cf. Sc. hoch
Hups, 17, Go. hip, O.E. hype, Du.
heu]D, Ger. Hiifte
Huird, huzd, 12, Go. hoard, treasure,
O.E. hord, hidden, O.N. hodd
Hiv-, 82, Go. and Sc. hw-, E. wh-,
pre. Teut. kw-
Hwairpan, 14, Go. to throw, warp
Hwaiteis, 14, 20, 23, Go. hwaits in
text, Sc. hwait, wheat
Hwapjan, 48, Go. to choke, var.
of whopan, whoop, whopper,
whooping-cough
Hwas, 14, 40, Go. who. Sans, kas,
Sc. whaw
Hwaurms. 14, Go. drtigon. So. wurrm,
worm. Sans, krimi, carmine, crim-
son
Hwe, 40, Go.
Hwi-leiks, 14, 40, Go. which, Sc.
whilk
Hwithon, 14, Go. older form of
withon, to shake, Lat. quatere
Hwotidedun, 14, Go. rebuked,
whetted
Hyand, 53, hastening, Eng. hie
Hypothec, 86, Sc. law
Hyucks, 128, 146, hoolcB, sickles,
syth-/!.2/Mt7>;
GLOSSAEY
297
I, 80, 81, thia vowel sound of ;
final light i is -ie
Ick-er, 20, ear of corn. See akrau
Iddja, 34, Go., Sc. gaed, O.E. yode
Id-weitjan, 206. Go. See wMte (v.)
ler-oe, jeroy, 63, Ore. Gael, iar after,
and oglia grandchild
tiets, 12, 138, 209, 215, C. Du. any-
thing ; neg. niets. Perh. cog. -vvith
Ger. jetzt, itself obsc, but its older
form ietz. — Kl.
I-fall6, 84, Chaucer. See ge-fallen
Ik, 38, 169, 197, Go. and'C. Du. I.
In O.E. ik and I were in use
tog. till 14th c. ; I alone in
N. and Mid. after 1400; in S.
ich remained till, in 16th c, re-
duced to ch, as cham, chave, chiU,
wth auxl. verbs. See " che vor
ye"
Ik-ei, 39, Go. I who
-ila, 2, Go. dim. ending
Ill-laits, 184, Angus ; ill-aits, Fi. ;
ill-gait, syn. Bu. — " A thocht he
wz gain t' dee weel, bit he's back
till a's ill-gaits." — Gregor
Ill-set, 70, 137.— Notin'N.E.D.
" Ye're owre ill-set. As ye'd hae meesir
ye sud mett."— " Farmer's Ha'."
Implemented, 72, law, made good.
Income, 139, an on-come, morbid
affection, or tumour
Inconvene, 92, inconvenience, malapr.
Iiifcft, 72, Sc. law ; cf. en-feoff, to
im-est with heritable property, a
fief
lugaan-ee, ingaun-ee, 180, 188 ; " not
given, but ingaan, ingain and in-
gaand mouth are." (J. B. F.)
Ingh-lowe, 68, the fireside ; prob.
Gael, aingeal, fire, light. — N.E.D.
Inlie, 173, early form of linen tape,
from Holland. Du. enkel, single
is conjectured as origin. — N.E.D.
Xot in Jam.
Inlichten, en-lighten. Go. inliuhtjan
In, 89, as prep, in Sc. — in his offer,
in life, in a present
Inspan, 203, C. Du. See spang.
In-tatk, 92, a fraud, deception
Interlocutor, 72, Sc. law, decision
Inversion of the subject, 168, Sc.
and Ger.
lol-air, 20, Gael, iol, yellow, and air,
bird. See gool and earn, erne
I'se quite agreeable, I'se warrant,
167, 169; archaic Sc Cf. Du.
ik is
r the noo, 172, just now
Itlier, 48, other; pi. ither for older
ithere. Sc. antarin, Go. anthar,
Ger. ander
Iver-sell, 147, Mor., var. of over-sells.
See sells, sile. ]S^ot in N.E.D.
J a, -ya, -ie, 28, dim. suff. This
diminutive, so characteristic of
the N.E. counties, is very rare
in Elgin Kirk Records of i7th c.
Jag, 174, Cu. and Bord.
Jiiiq-a-ring, 127. Xot in Jam. or
N.E.D.
Jink, 174, Cu. and Bord.
Jiuka, 34, 48, Go. strife ; jukan.
Go. to contend. See yoke, yokin
Joabing, 122. Jam. job, a prickle,
jobbie. "App. onomat. as sound
of an abruptly arrested stab." —
N.E.D. Cf. Bu. dob, a prick,
Perth, drob
Jobbings, 94, repairs
Jookery-packery, 82, 85, for jookrie-
pawkrie, Fi. N. E. D. doubts iijouk,
conn, ^vith duck, Sc. djuk, to
bend or swerve quickh', dodge ;
packery, for pawkery ; cf. pawky
Jots, jotterie, 152, Mor. — jobs. Jam.
"Jotterie, odd or dirty work." —
Ettrick
Ju, je, 56, Go. now, already, Ger. ja,
A.S. jes, E. yes
Jugg-o, 248, Go. young, Ger. jung
Just noo, 172, Cu. for "i' the noo"
K
K, 14, 152, 178, initial, sounded k,
hard, sound of. Nursery rhyme
in which h is always sounded —
"John Knox fell over a knowe
an' cut his knee on a knife."
(J. B. F.) It sounds strange to
hear, in a German school, of
K-nox, the Reformer
298
GLOSSAEY
Ka, 40, Sans, wlio 1 Sc. whaw 1
Kaapsche, 191, var. of C. Du.
Taal
Kail-runt, 68, 123, 129, No. form of
cole ; Lat. caulis, cabbage ; Jcail-
stock, in same sense
Kaisara-gild, 34, Go. the "tribute
money ; " Csesar-gold
Kalbo, 21, Go. calf, Sc. cauf
Kalds, 29, Go., Sc. cauld, cold
Kalpa, 40, Sans, a body, Lat. corpus
Kasa, 25, Go. a pot, kettle, Go. katils,
Du. ketel, kessel, borr. from Lat.
catillus, a food vessel
Kast to, of peats, 178, Cu. ; in sense
to throw, E. cast
Kaupatjan, 33, Go., prob. cog. with
cuff, Sw. Icufva, to subdue, cow,
kuffa, to thrust
Kaurn, 23, Go. corn
Keelc, 209, 210, 219, to peep, not in
O.E. ; Du. kijk-en ; cf. teet
Keelie's eyrie, 122, 140, sparrow
hawk's nest^ — from the bird's
cry
Keelivine, 134, any coloured pencil,
or. made from keel, ochreous
iron-ore, ruddle ; Gael, cill
Keep, 185, mind, look after, repair,
maintain in proper order — sense
archaic in Eng. " The saids
bestiall not being keeped eats the
petitioner's comes." — " Glasgow
Records," 1695
Keep nicks, 185, Cu.
Kempin', 64, 128, 146, Ger. Kampfen,
to strive in doing a piece of
work, O.Fr. kempa, Du. kemp (e),
Ger. kampe, Eng. camp, Lat.
campus, a plain. " A' the coern's
no shorn be kempers." — Prov.
N.E.D. Shet. kemp - rooth, a
rowing match
Ken, kenned, kennin, a sample, 34, 70,
255, Go. kannjan, cause to know,
O.E. cennan, Er. kanna, Du.
kennen, Ger. kennen. In later
tongues, to know ; but in Sc. it has
supplanted know. "I no kan"
(Berw.) for I dinna ken
Kenspeckle, 84, Sc, obsc. or., but, like
N. kjennespak, quick at recognis-
ing things
Kerel, 163, 185, 209, 218, 222, Ore.
and C. Dii. ; cf . carle, churl
Kibe, 204, W. cib, a cu.p, "malady
in shape of a cup, from swelling
form." — Sk. See cob, kopje
Kick-up, a, 92, disturbance, wrangle
Kiekjies, 216, C. Du.
Killogie, or kiln-logie, 150, covered
space in front of a kiln ; Shet.
fireplace of a kiln
Kiln-huggie, 150, Ore. For huggie,
see hugs
Kiltheis, 248, Go. chield, child
Kimmin, 66, 68, 132, 140, 209, 219,
Fi. bucket, coum, Eng. cuming,
coomb, O.E. cumb, Ger. Kumm,
a vessel, O.Teut. kumbo, a vessel.
North, coom, kim, a milk can,
M.E. kim (e) lin. App. reL to O.E.
camb, combe, a tub
Kin (Jmin), 151, rent paid in kind,
gen. fowls ; Gael, caan, the head,
cMn, poll-money
Kinch, 17, 208, 0. Du. kink, twist
in a rope, Ger. kink, Ic. kikna, to
bend at the knees
Kinkhoest, 17, 207, C. Du.
Kirn, rantiri him, kirn stick, 107, 134,
"uncert. or. — -harvest -home or
harvest supper, cutting of last
handful of corn" N.E.D.— Ic.
kvern, E. corn. See quern
"As bleak-faced Hallowmas returns,
They get the jovial rantin' kirns."
" Twa Dogs."
Kirn, 88, E. churn
Kisten, 74, chesting, coifining, putting
into the chest or coffin.
Kitchen, 67, Sc. butcher-meat, any
kind of food eaten with bread, &c.,
as a relish ; " fee, dripping, the
skimmings of fat meat "
Kittle, 74, 79, 171, spec. Sc. difficult,
V. =to tickle, prob. of N. or.;
O.N. kitla, to tickle, Ger. kitzeln:
unknown outside Teut.
Kittlen, kitting, 92, 121, or. young
of any animal, a kitten ; " comm.
only identified with O.N. ketling-t,
a kitten." The loss of final g in ing
quite regular in Scots. — N.E.D.
Klecks, 130, Ger. a spot, as of
ink, a blur ; in Campbeltown, a
" stollm." " To gather a stolm,"
said of animals when with young.
— Edm. See klack
GLOSSAEY
299
Kleintjies, 207, 218, C. Du., Ger.
klein
fKleuz, 152, Ger. split ; not a Ger.
word as given in text
Klik, 208, C. Du. cleek, which is
No. form of O.E. cleche = clutch,
Sc. cluik, a claw ; from latch,
modif. hy loss of A.S. prefix ge,
seen in A.S. gelaecan
Klip, 204, C. Du. a crag, var. of clifif
Kloek, 207, C. Du. clever, Ger. kliig,
Du. kloek, N. klokr ; or. ohsc.
Of. Sc. gleg
Kloof, 204, C.Du. a ravine with steep
sides ; var. of Du. clif, pi. cleve, O.N.
klif
Kluit, 218, C. Du. See cliite
Kluitjies, 218, C. Du.
Knap, 67, 152, as in stane-knappin or
stone-breaking, knapped ; Du. and
Ger. knappen, to crack, snap, bite ;
Bu. var. knack, to talk in a lively
manner. "He thinks nae mair
o' knackin aflf lees nor o' pittin
afPs claise an' gain till's bed." —
Gregor
Knap or knot grass, 145, having
knobs on stalk
Kneef, 152, C. Du., app. var. of knap,
to break a thing with a sharp
crack; " knapped ginger." — Shak.
See knaj)
Knijp, 152, 153, 198, 222, C. Du.
" kerels in die knijp " ; Ger.
Kneipe, kneipen, student word,
late in appearing ; Du. knijp,
straits, difficulties, a public-house ;
or. Du. knip, bird-trap. See Knopf
Kniu, 17, Go. knee, Ger. Knie
Knopf, 67, knot, Ger. ; Kl. knop,
A.S. cnopp, Du. knop, bud, button.
Go. Ger. Knauf, •■■' knaupa, A.S.
"*cnobba, M.E. knobbe, knob,
M.E. knap
Knottie, 154, Mo. small knot or lump
Knoioe, knoll, 8], 82, O.E. cnoU, hill-
top, Du. knol, clod, ball, Ger.
KnoUen, N. knoll, a hillock ;
"roxTnded hill-top."— N.E.D.
Kod, 100, Ore. a pillow. See coddis
Koil-tett, 146, Mo. head-koil or cole,
O.E. ted, to spread new-mown
grass, Ic. tatha, hay in a home-
field. Cf. Sc. tothed, manured, Ic.
tath, manure, q.v.
Komme, 209, 0. Du. See kimmin
Kop, 175, 202-204, C. Du. kopjie,
Du. kopje, dim. of kop, head ; cog.
kibe (Shak.), a chilblain, any
malady in shape of a cup.
Kraan, 207, also C. Du. a tap, cock,
or fawcett
Krames, 205, Ger. Kram, out-spread
cloth covering over a booth, the
booth, its wares. Specially Du.,
spread through trade, Ic. kram.
In Du. also means child-bed,
hence C. Du. kraam-bezuk, Ger.
Besuch, a visit
IKrug, 198, A.S. crog, croh, cruce,
M.E. crouke, Du. kruik, kroeg, a
drink-shop, Ic. krukka, pot, or.
Celt. The name Kriiger does not
necessarily imply a Ger. origin as
in the text
Kudda, kod, 100. See teva-kudda,
and cod, a bag
Kuni, 255, Go. kin, kindred, kind
Kyard, 154, Gael, caird, a gipsy,
tinker. See carid
Kynockel, 152, Mo. knuckle, A.S.
onucel, M.E. knokil, Du. knokkel,
Ger. Knochel ; dim. of Du. knok,
Ger. Knochen, a bone
Kyob, hyohie, 152, Mo. for gaebie, a
bird's crop. See gaebie
L, sound, 80
Laager, 121, 0. Du., Du. leger,
camp ; cog. lair, Ger. Lager, Go.
ligr-s, a couch, from ligan, to lie
Laal, 39, 171, 178, 181, Cu., var. of
little, also Ule. Not in N.E.D.
Labour, 94, to till
Labrod, 105, for lap-hoard, used to cut
out work upon (by tailors)
Lack, 13, laugh, hlahjan, Go.
Laerroh, 71, 126, lark, A.S. Mwerce,
Idferce, Ic. laevirki,Du. leeuwerik ;
lit. laew - werca, guile - worker,
regarded as of ill-omen
Laggan, 204, Gael, in place names ;
cog. with Sc. laich, loch
Laidlick, 129, Bu. North var. of
loathly, repulsive, " laithly beast " ;
for-laithie, disgust. " He took a
for-laithie at it." Cf. Ul-laits,
ill-aits, bad habits, q.v.
300
GLOSSAEY
Laif, 23, 26, loaf, Go. hlaiba, A.S
hldf, Ger. Laib, Go. ga-hlaiba,
messmates
fLaik, 30, 56, O.E. Mc, warlike
activity O.N. laik-r, to play. Go.
laik-s, (lance, laikan, to leap for
joy. "E. lark, a frolicsome ad-
venture, V. and svib., first 1811-13 ;
or. somewhat uncertain." — N.E.D.
Lair, 27, lore. Go. laisjan, to make to
know, its pret. as a pres. is lais =
know, from which Go. leis = expert,
lubja-icis = witchcraft, Ger. lehren,
to make to know
Lairdet, 145, 200, v. lair to sink in
mire, mire or bog ; subst. lair, clay,
cog. with lime, loam; Shet. leir,
clay, mud
Laisareis, 27, Go. the Scribes, Rabbis
Laisnan, 38, Go. to be taught. See
lair, lore
Laithly, 129 ; laith, unwilling
Lai tin, 184, Cu. custom
Lall-wdrter, 247, prattle words
Lamming, 172, a beating ; to lam,
break, beat soundly, O.N. lemja,
past of V. to lame ; cog. lame,
not Sc. ; Bu. form is lummer, to
beat smartly, " A lummer on at
ma laddie to pay attention till's
lessons." — Gregor; Fi. loonder,
" To gie 'm a loonderin."
Land, 23, Go., Sc. laund
Lang-nehhit, 89 ; lit. long-nosed, said
of big words
Lap, 62, leapt
Lapper, 133, 151. Not in N.E.D.
Jam. to cover so as to clot. Lap-
pered, coagulated, Ic. hlaup, a
clot ; lapper, a clot of blood —
Edm. — still in common use. Of.
" lapiser't-milk " ; Gael, clabar,
mud ; clabar bainne, clotted milk
Lapper, 53, from la]3, to fold, O.E.
wlap, cf. lappel, lappet ; Bu. to
coagulate. " The thunner hiz lap-
pert the milk." — Oregor
Lapstane, 134, shoemaker's stone,
held on the lap ; from lap, a fold,
an apron, or part covered by it.
Not in Jam.
Late, kit, layt, 184, Gu. N.E.D.
has lait, to seek, try to find ; O.N.
leita = O.E. wlatian, Go. wlaiton,
to behold, look round about,
whence Go. wlits, the face. Go.
lathon, to call, invite is not men-
tioned in this connection, as it is
in the text (p. 184). See anda-
wleizns, and wleiz
Late, 28, slow, tardy. Go. lats, lazy
or late, or. meaning ; Du. laat,
O.N. lat-r — form of let; Go. letan
— primarily to let go through
weariness ; F. laisser, Lat. lassus
Lauchin', 69
Lauf-s, 12, pi. laub-os, Go. leaf, Sc.
levis (pL), O.Fr. Idf, Du. loof, Ger.
Laub
Lave of the brock, 29, spec. Sc, Go.
laibosgabruko. Go. laiba, Fr. Uva,
Eng. leave, what is left over
"fLavM, lawdie, 18, 19, lad, boy. Cf.
Go. j\igga,-lauths, a young man.
"Quite inadmissible, both on
ground of phonology and meaning,
is current statement that lad is
cognate with this. Go. lautlis, of
obsc. or."— N.E.D.
Lay, 163, Kinc, Ger. Lade, box,
chest, O.N. hlatha, shed, M.E.
lathe, E. lathe
Lays, 76, E. for lies
fLead, 27, 48, 182, Eng to conduct,
O.E. laedan, Du. leiden, Ger. lei-
ten ; " wanting in Go.," says
N.E.D., as given in the text, p.
27. Var. of leithan, to lead, has
many derivatives
Learn, 38,87,88, teach, Eng., or. obsc.
in this sense, Ger. lehren, lernen,
to be taught
Lease, 48, 219, Eng. to glean. Go.
lisan, to gather, Ger. lesen, to
gather, read ; cog. learn, lore, Sc.
lair, C. Du. les, lees
Leech, 27, N.E.D. "commonly re-
garded as a trans, use of leech,
physician, but prob. originally
distinct." Go. lekeis, a healer,
N. laka, to heal. Go. lekinon, to
heal
Leeh-strae, 154, Ore. from leek (lich),
a corpse
Leem, 198, and C. Du., common in
Teut. ; cog. with Lat. limus, E.
lime ; Bu. a broken piece of
crockery
Leiks, 17, 40, Go. body ; lyh, lyhwnhe,
leek, leek-aiiae, 154
GEOSSAEY
301
Lein, 26, 258, Go. linen, lint, Sc. flax
plant, Eng. linen, Go. lein, also
Eng. line, Lat. linwm, flax
Len, 69, n. and v. lend, loan
Lered, 38, O.E. learned, Sc. lair, Eng.
lore. See lais, lore
Lethir, 13, 15, ladder, Go. hlethra
in hleithra-stakins (stakes), taber-
nacles ; letherin, Fi., ledderin,
Shet., a severe drubbing
" Let on," 69, 88, to betray a fact by
word or look: in N.E.D. under
Eng. let, O.E. laetan, Du. latan,
Ger. lassen. Go. letan
Lettern, 73, precentor's desk, lec-
tern
Lewed, 4, lewd, illiterate, lered and
lewed = clergy and laity
Lib, 148, to castrate, Du. lubben, to
maim
" Lib ye o' yere German gear."
"Old Song."
Lihel, 72, 84, Sc. law, indictment
Libelled, 72, for labelled
Licentiate, 75
Lich-gate, 17, Eng. O.E. lie, a body,
corpse (later sense), O.N. lik, Go.
leih. See leiks, leek-strae, lyke-
wake
Licht, 12, Eng. light, O.E. leoht,
Ger. licht, Go. liuhath, inliuhtjan
= en-lichten enlighten
LicM, 12, not heavy. Go. leihts
Lids, 207, 0. Du. le'e, Du. leden.
See lith
Lidy, 79, 84
Liftin' (at the), 69
Likdoorns, 210, C. Du. body-thorns
= corns. See leiks, lyke-wake
Like, 90. Not in N.E.D. in this
sense
Like, 35, 40, 76, Eng., as conj.
Like, 40, 90, as adv., still heard in
Ger.
Likely, 68, 169, seemly, good Sc. ; but
N.E.D. says only " U.S. dialect,"
as verb, to lay to one's charge,
" A wid a' niv\'er tean't inta ma
heid to hae likliet it till him." —
Gregor
Lily-oak, 121. N.E.D. laylock, obsc.
and dial, form of lilac
Limh of Sawtan, 1 37
Limmer, 85, 137, a hussy; "obsc.
or., conn, with limb, possible." —
N.E.D.
Linens, 15, 94, underclothing
Lippen, 151, obsc. or., prob. cog.
^vith Go. laub-jan, to trust, Ger.
glauben, to believe
Liquids (consonants), 82, 84, 111,
efl^ect on vowels
Lisk, 172, the groin, O.E. leske. Da.
lyske
Lith, 27, 207, spec. So. a limb;
0. Er. lith, Du. lid, Go. litlius, a
limb, with pref. ge Ger. s-lied.
Kliige says glied can hardly be
from leiden, leiten, to go, as
it is not confined to the "foot."
He connects with limb through
O.N. lim-r, limb, branch. See lids.
Lithan, 48, A.S. to lead, to travel,
go by water, laedan, to cause to go,
i.e. conduct, all from base, lith, to
go, as in Go. ga.-leithan; A.S.
lith-ule, joint-oil
Liths of an orange, 156, sections of;,
not in N.E.D. in this sense
f Little, 29, Eng. a synonymous and
phonetically similar adj., ■■•litilo,
as found in Go. leitils, is radically
unconnected
Little booket, 69, of small hulk
Liuthareis, 27, singers, liuthon, to
sing. Go. ; Du. and Ger. lied, A.S.
Ifeoth, Go. ® liuth
I Loafer, 17, Eng., obsc. or.; not
conn, with Ger. laufen. — N.E.D.
Loaning, 200, 206, var. of loan, lane
Loehans, 119, small loclis
Lock, 181, in sense of " a lot."
Lodd, lade, 48, load. Go. hlathan,,
A.S. hladan, Du.laden
Long-settle, 180, Cu.
Loo, 67, 139, 211, tepid ; not in
N.E.D.
Loof, loofie, 17, 135, A.S. lof, palm^
Ic. lofi, Gael lamh, whence lamh-
ainn, a glove. Go. lof a, O.H.G.
Laffa, blade of an oar
Loon, 1, 137, obsc. or., loon-loohin"
dog
Loot, 32, to bend down, stoop, O.E.
lutan. O.N. luta. Go. liuta, a
hypocrite. Not in N.E.D.
Losh, 33, 86, 98 ; loshtie, exclama-
tion, corr. of Lord
Lost myself, 88
302
GLOSSAKY
Lot, 211, var. of lock, a quantity.
See lucken
Loupin-on-Stane, 201
Lovenanty! 170, Lan.
Lowe, 135, O.N. loge, Ger. Lohe, a
flame ; cog. Lat. lux, light
Loiq), lowpin', 17, 33, 216, Go.
hlaupan, to leap up, A.S. hleapan,
to run, Ger. laufen, Du. loopen, E.
leap
Lowss, 1.3, Eng. loose, Go. iatts,
empty, vain, O.E. liesan, Du.
loozen, Ger. losen, Go. lausjan, to
loosen, fra-lius-an ; ako in suff. los,
less. Leasing, lying, is cog.
Lozen, 139, lozenge as a window-pane
Lucken,181, 211, past part, of louk,
lock. Go. ga,-lukan, to close, us-
Mkan, to open, O.N. luka, cog.
lock; Du. luiken, to close; Shet.
to clutch ; Ic. luka, locket, seized
hold of. — Ed,m. ; hence, Lucken
booths, Lucken-gowan
Lucy-awrnits, 123, " corr. of earth-
nut ; lousy arnut, tall oat-grass or
pig-nut." — Jam.
Luff, 207, C. Du. ; in Sc. loof, which
see
Lti/js, 79, ears, obsc. or. — superseded
in Sc. by the older " ear "
Lui, 194, C. Du. sluggish, same as
lag, lag-gard, with elision of gut-
tural
Lum, 171,209, Celt or. lit. "what
projects"
Lum-cleek, 208,0. Du. chimney hook
-ly, 40, Eng. suffix
Lyft, 23, spec. Sc. O.E. lyft, Ger.
Luft, the sky, Go. luftus
Lyke-wake, 17, 154, Ir. watch over
a lich, leik, a dead body. See
leiks. " The neighbour women
used to come in and sit by the
corpse in twos or threes all night."
— Prof. Cooper
M
-}il, 38, old dat. case ; old customs
in Moray
M/(ak, 196, 0. Du. and Sc. it is pre-
ferred to "do," Ger. machen
Mud, 51, A.S. mark, token, meal at
stated time. Go. mei, time, season
Maich, maik, make, 19, Barb., O.E.
ge-maec, equal, Ger. ge-mach,
easy, comfortable — prim, sense
"fit, suitable."— N.B.D.
Maiden, The, 154, in Harvest
Home. See clyack and kim
Maiden, 2, 19, a girl, O.E. maegden.
Go. magaths. Ger. MagdandMad-
chen are not identical with the
Go. ; has many forms in Go., as
magus, lad, magula, lass, magathei,
maidenhood, mawi, mawilo
Mail, 23, rent, A.S. methel, mar-
ket, O.N. mail speech, O.H.G.
Mahal, assembly, O.E. maethel,
discussion, mele, to speak, Go.
mathl, market or meeting place.
Go. faura-mathleis, chief speaker
= fore-meler ; M.E. mele, to
speak
Mail, 28, speck, spot ; Kliige says,
conn, with Go. mail, spot, un-
certain, though sense is parallel :
cog. A.S. mdl, mole (on the skin).
Ident. is mal, a "point" of time
in ein-mal. Sc. eirn-mail is iron-
mould or stain on linen
Mairch, 22, border, boundary be-
tween properties, O.E. mearc,
Du. and Ger. ^Mark, Go. marka,
boundary, landmark
Mailing, 146, a farm, as paying mail
or rent in money. See mail
" Shore (threatened) to raise our mailins."
" Gentle Shepherd."
Maill, 24, 253, Eng. nrveal. Go.
malan, to grind in the mill
Makkars, 98, 99, 102, makers = poets;
Cf. Gr. TTOlTJT-qS
jMan, 11, 16, 79, 248, Go. manna,
as an indef. pron , Ger. man ;
in compounds, -mana. K.E.D.
throws doubt on the usual refer-
ence of the root to an Ind.-Ger.
verb, to think, "though no
plausible alternative explanation
has been suggested "
Man o' bizzness, 72
Manage, 94, to get through with
Ma riding, 75, memorising, Lat.
mandare as in mandate. Not in
Jam. or N.E.D.
Miint, 105, tu stutter, Ga. and Ir.
manntach, toothless, stammering,
M.Ir. mant, the gum
GLOSSAEY
303
Mappies, 123, rabbits, imit. of nib-
bling action of lips. Not in
N.E.D.
Mareschal, 56, 63, 64, Eng.; O.P.
mareschal, F. mardohal, Ger. Mar-
schalks, lit. horse-servant
JNIarm, 82, var. of madam
Marra, 171, a companion, a match,
as marra-less stockings, not a
pair ; Bu. marie, to variegate.
Not in N.E.D.
" Whauv gat ye that winsome marrow ? "
Mathl, 23, Go. market-place ; v.
niathljan. See meljan and mail
Mati-balg, 26, Go. a meat-bag =
wallet
Maiidiie, 24, fulsome. Jam. mocli,
mochy ; or. a heap (moist and
rotting), moich, tainted meat ;
syn. hiimphy, Bu., to sniff as if at
a fetid odour. " He's gey ill tae
please wi's meat ; for, fin gueede
cabbitch wiz setten doon till 'm,
he humpht at thim. A gae 'm
naelhing else, an' he hid t' Uxk'
a dish o' wint till's supper." —
Gregor. See niaihstus and mixen
Maurthra, 13, Go. murder
MawUn, 129, the hare, for malkin,
mollykin
ilazle, mayzlin, mayzy, 172, Cu.
Mail-arlt, 24, meal-chest (Lat. area)
Meal-bowie, 163, small cask for hold-
ing meal, any small barrel —
"The bowie briskly reams" (froths).
Fcrg.
Mtul ffirnd, 155, garner or granary
Mini's matt, 169
Mihh(\s 152, 169, may be it is
jMedial, 194, guttural elided in
Taal
Meidgc, 140. No. meed, Da. mede.
I heard it as a boy when boating
with an old fisherman. In steer-
ing he took two points a-head,
what he called a " meedRe," and
kept them in line. Jam. has
meith, meeth, meth, Ic. midc, a
mark, mida, to mark a place.
See mett
Mcerder, 209, 219, 221, C. D. maar,
Sc. mair, and = "hut" cf. F. mais
Mocrie, 223, C. Du. a little mare
Meisjie, 205, C. Du.
Mel, 51, Go. time. See mail, a speck,
meljan
ilele, 23, O.E. to speak, O.N.
madia, mail speech. See mail,
rent
Meljan, 51, Go. to be inscribed, mel,
time. Ger. ein-nw/, Eng. a meaZ;
as md originally denotes a fixed
point, ana-meljan means to in-
scribe, mark with a note
Mena, 23, Go. moon
Menoths, 254, Go. month, Ger.
Monat
Menowniis, meniioiis, 62, minnons.
See base in mins.
Meiishless, 87, without mense, good
manners, discretion, lo. mennska,
humanity, mann-r, man, Ger.
Mensch
Mention, 88
Mere, 19, the sea, Du. meer, Ger.
Meer, Go. mari in mari-saiws, the
sea ; " conn, with Ind.-Ger. root,
mer, to die, as the ' lifeless ' one,
is very doubtful."— N.E.D.
Meme-my-taiKU', 127
Messer, 31, Ger. a knife, raaz-sahs,
meat knife. Go. mats, A.S. mete,
E. meat, A.S. mete-seax. Go.
mitan
Methinks, 35, Eng.
^[t•tt, 69, 71, to measure, O.E.
metan. O.Fr. meta, Du. meten,
Ger. messen. Go. mitan. See
meedge
Sliohaelmas moon, 240
Mikilins thiudanis, 13, 22, 32, 38,
Go. the great king, Sc. muokle ;
mikilnan. Go. to be enlarged,
O.E. micel, O.N. mykell, Go.
mikil
:\Iilk, 32, O.Fr. melok, Du. melk
(pron. melek). Go. miluks
Mim-mou'd, mimp, 151, Cu. to talk
niincingly ; cf. mum, mim ; pru-
dish, reserved in discourse —
" A bit butt an' a bit ben
Maks a mim maid at the boai'd en'."
Prov.
Mind, mundon, 34, Go. to observe.
N.E.D. lender mind notes these
forms. — Go. gamunds, memory,
gaminthi, memory, gamunan, to
think, remember
304
GLOSSAEY
MinJc, 130, 148, Mo. a noose or head-
stall for a horse, monk in Fife,
minhan-wp, coiling a rope in the
hand, mink iip the coo's tether, a
rinnin-mink = a slip-knot ; Gael,
muince, a collar, muin, the neck,
the back
f Mins,miniza, minists,29,Go. N.E.D.
does not connect mince with mins,
which it traces to O.E. mincier.
Mod. Fr. mincer, Lat. minutiare,
but this last, cog. with Lat.
minus, less, which is conn, with
Go.
Mint-cake, 185, Gu.
Mischievous, 84, Eliz., "stress on
mid-syll. literary form till 1700,
now dial, and vulgar." — N.E.D.
Mise, 211, 0. Du., proh. a var. of
miser; cf. Sc. misert-pig, which
see
Misert-jjig, Fi. syn. of pirlie-pig.
See pig
Mislmnter, 92
Mis-leared,70, 136, badly brought up,
mis-lered. See lair
Mixen, 24, Eng. a dtmghill, parallel
stem in Go. maihstus. N.E.D.
midden of Scand. or. from muck
and dynge, thing or stuff. Da. a
heap. From Go. comes, O.E.
meox, filth, Fr. minks, and Sc.
mauchie, q.v.
Modags, 28, Go. angry, moody; cog.
O.E. m6dig, Du. moedig, Ger.
mutig, all in old sense of brave,
high-spirited
Modernised 0. Du., 197
Monk, 130, 140, 148, Fi. a head stall.
See mink
Monosy. prets., 36
Monij, 29, 53, 63, 84, Eng. many, O.E.
manig, Du. menig, Ger. manch.
Go. manag-s, many and managei,
a multitude ; O.E. and Ger. menge
— "Eobin Hood and his merry
menyie "
Mooi, 222, C. Du. ; Lat. mollis
soft
Moolins, 29, 123, crumbs, mool,
to crumble (bread), var. of
mould
Mools, for muldes, 29, 74, the earth
of the grave, burial, A.S. mold,
dust, Go.mulda, muldeins, earthy ;
dial. var. of mould ; moolie or
mooly "not given at III. 305,
Jam., soft, flabby, fozy. A moolie
sort o' a chap = a duffer. The
marbles, called commies as of
common clay, sometimes known
as moolies, if soft and ill-shaped.
Mulie cheese is crumbling, fri-
able." (J. B. F.)
Mooss-fa, 124, 251, Ic. mus-foll, mlas,
A.S.
Mota, 23, Go. receipt of custom,
mote, O.E. a village council, moot-
hill ; motareis. Go. a publican.
N.E.D. gives M.E. mot, imot
under moot, a public assembly,
but offers no Go. connection
"Mournings," 84, 94, in Sc. only
in plural in sense of mourning
dress
Mozies, 172. Jam. "a being with
siUy intellect, Gael, muiseag,
threatening ; " var. mwozie, Cu.
Muckle, mikils, 29, 38, Go. See
mikilnan
Mull, 74, snuff box, var. of mill
Multiple-Tpoinding, 72, Sc. law =
action raised by holder of a fund
to which there are several
claimants
Mun or mmm, 103, must, used as
auxiliary of the f ut. = shall, will ;
or. sense "to intend," cog. with
mind, to remember
Munan, 26, Go. to think, O.N.
muna, to remember, identical
with munu, to intend, O.E.
munan, to think, consider. Go.
muns, mind
Miine, 23, 81, moon. Go. mena,
men-oths, a month
Munths, 17, Go. Sc. mouth, mov\,
mouth, Du. moud, Ger. Mund,
Fr. mlith, cog. Lat. mentum, the
chin
Mussel-picker, 119, oyster-catcher
Mussel scaups, 119, scaup, form of
scalp, bed of shell -fish from the
thinness of the layer
My, 94, an emphatic — my dennir
Myn-pachts, 211, C. Du.
My san! My carte, 33, Exclamation
eq^xal to my certe, Eng. sooth.
"In Jam. has to h% looked for
under certy." (J. B. F.)
GLOSSAEY
305
N
Naaste pad, 195, C. Du. neist, nighest
path
Nae, 90, no. Go. na. Sans. na.
N.E.D. " Ne, obsol., is nea. North
and Sc. Na, giving in Sc. na,
seems rather to be an alteration
of ne than a genuine survival of
the old form "
Nap, 198, drinking cup, O.E., hnaep,
Du. nap, Ger. Napf, obsc, O.H.G.
hnap is O.F. hanap (see nappie).
It. nappo, perh. horr. from Teut.
Nap, 153, nip, pretended blow, spec,
in "to give or take the nap" —
knap, prob. var. of knap as
subst., q.v.
Nashince, 154, var. of nuisance, Bu.
jNasjands, 52, Go. the Saviour, Ger.
ge-nieszen in text, but Kliige conn,
ge-nieszen, to enjoy, with Go.
niutan, to obtain, Ger. niitzen,
niitzlich, useful, from an or.
sense, to adapt to one's use, to
use ; cog. neat, »oi«< = cattle
Near, 69, 137, stingy
Nearder, 111, 167, 195, Cu. ; 0. Du.
nar(d)er ; Sc. nawrer
Neb, 125, bird's beak, N. naf, Du.
nebbe, O.E. nebb
Necessar, 73, 92, var. of neces-
sary
jNeck, 160, 204, Du. ; Ger. Nacken,
Du. nek, summit of a hiU pass.
N.E.D. does not conn, with nick,
notch
Needle, nethla, 26, Go.
Neef, 207, C. Du. knave, Ger. Knabe,
Gael, onapach, stout, knobby, in
sense of well-grown
Neem, 209, C. Du. See Nim
Neeper, 74, 163, 195, neighbour,
C. Du. and Sc. neebor ; Bu.
"Fah's yir neiper in the chop
noo ? " — Companion, bed-fellow — •
" She's awa noo, 'an for fifty years
she's been a gweede neiper t' me."
— Gfregor
Neepyin, 174, napkin, syn. hankie
Neest, 195, ni(gh)est
Neet, 175, Cu. night, Sc. nicht
Negative qualities, 87, Sc. and Eng.
for.
Nein, 90, Ger. = nicht eines, Eng.
"no" is A.S. na, O.N. nei, Go. n§
ni, Gr. vrj, Lat. ne, in ne-fas
Neither hup nor hie, 189, Bord.
Neive, 17, fist, neif, pi. neiflis
Neive-fou, 85, 138, 211, handful,
M.E. neve, O.N. hnett cf. (Go.
hamf-s, one-handed, 17 q.v.)
" Neiwi-ndvvi-nik-nak," 128. See
neive
Nek, 204, C. Du. See neck, neuk
Ner, 168, Cu. nor after compar.
Ner's pitten, 168, Cu. = "nor"
(than) "is put"
Neuk, nook, 134, " obsc. but North."
— N.E.D.
Neukit, 88, in four-neukit. The
common adjectival termin. here
is seen in nakkit, naked, where
Go. has nakwadis (a genit. case),
a jpart. derivative form '*nakw,
naked. Kliige infers from these
ancient forms that the primitive
Teutons distinguished between
clothed and unclothed
Neuter of demonstratives, 38
Newt, 148, 149, var. of evet, eft,
O.E. efeta ; of unknown or.
Neyfs, 64, M.E. serfs, Lat. nativi
Nibby stick, 174, Bord., with a crook
Nicht, 12, 24, 254, night. Go. naht-s,
Go. nahta-mats, supper
Nicht, 207, C. Du. niece, gutt. out
of dent., cf. queecht = qmte. Go.
nithjo.
Nick, 160, notch, " obsc, but earlier
than corr. verb notch, which is app.
conn, with O.F. oche, F. hoohe." —
N.E.D. See nock
Nickit baiks, 186, Fi. biscuits
notched on edge
Nicks, 185, Cu. nicked, nixes
Nijfering, 130, 187, bartering, "Sc.
and North, obsc, perh. from
neive."— N.E.D.
Nim, 31, 209, Go. niman, to take,
A.S. niman, O.N. nema, vi^o<s, a
grove, Lat. nemus, Ger. nehmen,
E. nimble, numb (past part, of
nim), C. Du. neem
Nip, 151, 153, "take a nip of one.''
— Bu. See nap
Nirled catkins, 123, var. of gnarled
Nirls, 138, measles ; or. obsc.
Niu-klahs, 32, Go. new klekkit=
new-born
20
306
GLOSSAEY
Nocht, 12, 63, 138, 209, nought, O.E.
n6wilit = ne + a'wiht, A.S. na-wiht.
nauht, Go. ne + waiht-s, Du. niet,
E. not, Sc. nochtie, j)altry
Non-plush, 84, var. of non-plus.
Not in Jam.
Noo (the), 90, just now, Du. nu, Go.
nu, as " tho nu hweila," the noo
while, or time
Noos and thans, 167, now and then
Nor, 90, for than. N.E.D. " Sc. and
dial, of obso. or."
Nose o' wax, 136, 140, a numskull.
Not in Jam.
Notour, 72, Sc. law, bankrupt,
notorious
Nowt, 82, 153, nolt (by a false
analogy), O.N. naut, O.E. neat, or.
sense, to enjoy or possess. N.E.D.
has " nait, Sc, good at need," as
V. "to make use of," — from Go.
niutan, O.E. ntetan, to enjoy
0, vowel, name soimd of, 81
0, vowel, long sound of, 80
tOcht, 209. See aacht, iets
'Ods wuns, 173, Cu. an oath; of. " loot
a wince," Burns. Both may be a
corruption of " (God's) wounds "
Oena, 153, an old Sc. prep. = without ;
generally as a prefix, and syn.
with affix, -less ; v. common in
Go. as un, e.g. un-agands, fearless,
Ger. ohne, Gr. a.ve.v, preserve the
prep, use
0^ 219, C. Du. for conj. or
Ogan, 30, 51, Go. to dread, ogjan,
to cause to fear, agis, awe ; cf . ug-
some and iM7-ly, Ic. ugg-r, fear.
See agis, awe, ug
Ogha, 63, Gael, grandchild, -oy
jOgre, 30, not conn, with Go. agan,
to dread, but with Lat. orcus, a
late borrowing from F. and It.
— Skeat
Ogre, Oagar-hiuuse, Ore, 154. If,
as Skeat says, ogre is F. and a
late borrowing, it can hardly be
"oagar," here. Hore likely this
is from Ic. ugg-r, fear, and cog.
with ugly, Mg-some
Oheim, oom, 247. See eem, eyme
Oksel, 207, 0. Du. oxter, Sc.
Omniefeeshent, 122
On, 89, prep., e.g. " married on "
Onbonny, 90, 140, on = without, Ger.
ohne, A.S. un and bonny
Oncanny, 90, on = without, Ger.
ohne, A.S. un =
Oncast, 92, cad on, term in stocking-
knitting
Once-t, 35, once, also aince, yince
Oncost,^ 92, initial charges in running
a mine, &c.
Onding, 153 ; cf. ding on ; ding, prob.
onomat.
Onneat, 90, on = without, Ger. ohne,
A.S. un
On-weiss, un-wise. Go. un-weis=
without wis-dom
Oogst, oest, 199, C. Du. August, in
S. Afr. autumn, harvest
Oo'ies, 194 C. Du.
Oon, 24, oven, Go. auhn, Arthur's
oon or hove, near Falkirk, built
of hewn stone, without mortar,
long ago destroyed utterly
Oot, out, prep. e.g. "oot (o') the
hoos," " oot amon' thae neeps "
OotUggers, out-liers, 173, Cu.
Ootners, 170, Cu. out-landers
Oot-weel, 171, Cu. for wale oot
Op-sit, 218, C. Du. Cu. " sittin up,"
W. "bundling"-; Sc. up-set, feast
on admission to burgess freedom
Orator, 80, Eug.
Ordinar, 92, ordinary
Orpiet, 248. gee arbi, erd, yirp
Orra-man, 66, farm hand for odd
jobs, orrie, unmatched, spare, syn.
marra-less ; prob. from A.S. or-
rawa, Go. us, out and row or series.
In Jam. nine meanings are given
(Jam. III. 401), but none exactly
applicable to Scott's lines : —
" Donald Caird finds orra things,
Whaur Allan Gregor fand the tings."
J. B. F.
Othal, 10, Eune-letter, heirloom.
Ore. udal, tenant right, udaller,
landowner
Oil, oude, 207, C. Du. old, as
familiar form of address
Ou (die), ouwe, or oudeman, 191, 192,
C. Du.
Ouh, oulk, 153, a week ; cf. ouf-dag,
the 'N-olf-dog. Same as week.
GLOSSAEY
307
Ouk is a very old and widely pre-
valent form in So. ; now only Aber. ;
Go. wiko, Ger. Wocte, wouke in
Chaucer, and uge=vuge in" Da.
"Pasche oik; olkis, olkly," St.
And. K. 8. B.
Outliers, oot-lers, (Burns), 62, 173
Outspans, 203, C. Du. See spang
Over-sell or Iver-sell, 147, Mo. See
sell, sells and thrammels
Over-wiseness (Eliz.), 84
'\Own, 38 (rtymes with, down), to
own, possess, A.S. agn-ian, to own,
Go. aigin, possessions, aigan, to
possess, pret. aihta. See aacht
Owre hlate, 137, over modest
Owsen, 23, var. of oxen, Ger. Ochsen,
Go. auhsa- Sans, ukshan, a bull.
See ox
" When owsen frae the furrow free
Return sae dowf an' weary— ()."
"Ball."
'fOx, 250 = the carrier. Skeatderives
from Sans, uksh, to sprinkle, not
from veho, as in the text, and
"therefore is ult. cog. with humid."
Kl. says, " Or. from Sans, ukshan,
ox, root uks, to sprinkle, or uks,
to grow strong, and a masc. form
of vacca, cow." Sans, uhsan, page
17, is misprint for uksban, a bull
■Oxter, 17, 207, armpit. Go. ams-afor
ahsl-a, Ger. Achsel, tbe shoulder,
under which word Kl. says :
" Go. '"ahslafor I. -Ger. aksla, Lat.
axilla and ala, Du. oksel "
Oy,-oe, 63, grandchild, Gael, ogha
Gyle, 211, Lat. oleum, Sc. ile. In
early use, but, as in Go. alew,
olive oil=eA.atoi', is borrowed
from the Greek
■Oyster-catcher, or mussel-picker, 119
Paard, 201, C. Du., Ger. Pferd, a
horse
Pachter, 212, Kl. "Ger. Pacht,
under L. Ger. influence, as Du.
pacht is derived from Lat. pactus,
a bargain struck ; " of. Sc. paction
Pad, 209, C. Du. path
Paecan, 71, M.E. ; cf. Gael, bocan, a
spectre
Paeg, 70, Da.
Paialin, 169, paddling
Paiks, 137, 179, a drubbing, or. un-
cert. ; Jam. conn, with Ger.
pauken, to beat a drum
Pains, 139, ague, rheumatism
Paith, 118, 120, path, Ger. Pfad.
See pad
Palall, 127, syn. beds, a sort of shovel-
board game with the feet ; cf . pall-
mall. "Pal-lall, surely the com-
mon name peever should have
been given here. The game is
pal-lall, the piece of stone, slate,
&c. is the peever." (J. B. F.).
See peevor.
Pandies, 135, 155, syn. pawmies, Lat.
pande palmam, extend the palm
Pannel, 72, Sc. law, the accused
Partan's-ta,ea, 123, crab's toes, Celt. or.
Particles with verb (Scots), as in
Ger., 92
Posh, 15,227, Go. paska, Easter (Gr.)
Passive inflection, 38
Past participle in -ed., 88
Pat, puttit, 88
Pattle, 160, stick to clear away
before the plough. Paddle, "a
farmer wi' a hand that never held
pleugh stilt or pattle, that'll never
do."— -ScoM
Pawhiness, 69
Pawky, 179, sly, artful ; paik, a
trick, V. to deceive
" A thief sae pawkie is my Jean,
She'll steal a glance by all unseen."
Burns.
Pawn, Pavmd, 155, vallance round
a bed ; Lat. pendo
Pea-jacket, paida, 19, 206, Go. a
coat of skins. " In Du. pij (pron.
pie), and L.Ger. a woollen jacket.
Go. paida translates X''''°'') ^
coat ; conn, is ^aLTrj." — Sk.
Peasie, 148, pease! as a cry to
pigeons. In Fi. Pud-pud !
Pech, 122, to draw a deep breath —
echoic
Pecht, peeks, elves, 71, 132, sometimes
identified with the aboriginal Picts
Peeack, peck, 150, to speak ^vith a
small voice, pee-akin
Peeay, 70, Forf. Jam. "peeoy,
pioye, a little moistened gun-
powder formed into a pyramidal
308
GLOSSAKr
shaye and kindled at tlie top,"
still used in Forf., var. poother deil
Peel-wersh, -welsh, 150, sickly in
. appearance, peel = peerie, small,
thin and wersh, insipid
Peeler, 140, crah when changing its
shell
Peelu-wally, 150, syn. peel-wersh
Peen, preen, 81, 93, a pin, Gael,
prine, A.S. preon, Ger. Pfriem, an
awl, Ic. prioun, Ic. prjoim, a needle
'* I'd locked my heart in a case of gowd,
An' preened it wi' a siller preen.
"Ball."
Peer, peerie, 127, 132, 133, 155, Ore.
little — "A peerie, hyauch, small
child or a puny calf," Ore. — Jam.
Peerie 01 peerlie-winkie, 136, 150, the
little finger, N. peerie, small ;
syn. croonie-doodlie,pirli^- winkle,
pinkie ; " not given in Jam. An'
wee croonie-doodlie pays for a'."
(J. B. F.). See crine
Pees-weet, 125, 156, peesweip, pee-
weip ; echoic word, sometimes
given as Sc-Fr. from " dix-huit ! "
the bird's cry
Pell, 71, Fi. very salt. Jam. "as
bitter's pell, as salt's pell." See fill
Pennies each, 85, 94, 167, idiom
Pennart, 140
Penny, 67, in proverb
Penny whaup, 132, var. of whip,
weakest kind of small beer
Perjinh, 136, finical, particular
Phillybags, 178, Cu.
Pickeln, 71, to play the fool ; picTde,
in a sorry plight ; Du. pekel,
"pekelen," Ger. Pokel, brine,
pbkeln
Pieg, 70, Ore, var. of pug, a form of
puck, an imp
Pig, 92, an earthen vessel. Gael.
pigadh, pigeadh, piggin ; history
obso.
Pillow-cod, 58, pillow slip. See cod
Pioo, 70, Ore. small quantity. See
peeay
Pvrlie-pig, 130, earthenware vessel
for keeping money ; var. of peerie,
small, and pig, a j)ot. See pig and
misert-pig. Not in N.E.D.
Plaxe, 212, 0. 'Du., Ger. Platz, Lat.
platea. Go. jilatijo, street-corner,
a borr. word
Play fares, 127, companions
Play yersels, 169, Fi. give yourselves
play-time
Pley, 72, a quarrel, plea
Pliskie, 139, a mischievous trick.
N.E.D. "or. unknown"
** Pretty pliskies you've been at the day."
Stevenaon, " Wrong Box."
Ploat, 66, 67, 116, 130, 133, to scald,
soak ; app. var. of plout, jjlouter,
to splash
Plooms, 163, plums
Ploy, 171, a social frolic, A.S.
plegan, to play. N.E.D. "of
vmcert. or."
PlunJc, 122, to play truant, Du.
plencken, to straggle, wander.
N.E.D. "or. obso."
Plural, 94, in distributive sense
Plural present in verb, 168, in s
Poalie-finger, 66, Fi. a lame finger.
Jam. " paulie, feeble, lame ; subst.
slow, inactive person ; paulie-
f ootit, flat-footed." Not in N.E.D.
Poddlies, 140, young cole-fish
Poinding, 72, So. law, piind, O.E.
pyndan, to enclose in the pind or
pound
Pointet, 88, tidy
Policy, 94, pleasure grounds. " This
sense influenced by politus,
polished, late Lat. polities, ele-
gancy."— N.E.D.
Poother, 14, powder
Popular sayings, 197
Portioner, 72, Sc. law, feuar, small
landowner
Pothy, 176, apothecary
Pots, 187, Cu.
Pouk, powk, 71, a pustule ; prob..
Teut. stem, pug, puk, to swell up,,
pug, a monkey. Puck, a sprite.
Of Celt. or. Du. and Ger.
spuk, N. spjok, represent Scand.
development. Pixie — " or. obsc."
N.E.D. See spook
Praett, 93, guile, trick. A.S.,
praetig, cunning, Norse pretta, a
trick, Sc. prottichs, Eng. pretty,
not Ger. prachtig
Prappin, 124, setting up as a mark
for stone-throwing. There is a
Gael, prap, quick, sudden. Not.
in N.E.D.
GLOSSAEY
309
Precentor, 73, leader of singing in
church
Free, 97, 171, to try by tasting;
var. of preive, by -form of prove —
"The proof o' the puddin's the
preein' o't." — Prov.
Prepositions, iise of, 89, 91
Preses, 72, president, Sc. law term
Preterite or past time, 35, 37
Pretty, 93, O.E. praettig, crafty, Ic.
prett-r ; trick, Du. pret, joke,
pratte, cunning. Sense develop-
ment active after 15th c. Gael.
prattick in text for protaig, and
prob. a borrowed word
Prigging, 154, higgling over a
bargain ; or. obso.
Primitive relative, 39
Probationer, 75, 76, preacher licensed
but not ordained to a benefice
Process, 72, Sc. law
fProchen, 160, Gael, brochan ; not
conn, with E. broth
Proheebit, 88, prohibited
Pronominal particle, 39
Prooie ! 148, call to a cow. Jam.
ptrii, ptroo, pru. Cf. trooie, and
its var. treesn, Ab.
Prottioks, 93
Provdflesh, 139, inflamed flesh on a
ciit, likely to become gangrenous
Prove, 73, put to proof
Proverbial sayings, 67
Publict, mtht, 12, 194
Pucklie, 138, 145, a grain of corn, a
small quantity ; var. of pickle
" There was an auld wife lied a wee pickle
tow." " Old Song."
Puddoclcs, 121, frogs ; E. paddock, a
toad, M.E. padde, Du. padde, pad ;
"root spad, to jerk, the one that
moves by jerks." — Sk.
" There dwelt a paddie in a well."
"Folk Rhymes."
Puggie, 66, 70, applied to a tipsy
man, — "a bonnie-like puggie he
made o' himsel'." (J. B. F.) In
my native village "Pu"" Mailin
(Melville), a pensioned soldier,
got his nickname from his favour-
ite expression for a dram
Pumfle, 65, penfold
Puny, 133, Fr. puis ne, puin(5, Lat.
post natus, born after
Pussy bawdrons, 135.
Putten, 36, for put
See bawdrons
Quaich, 68, Gael cog
Quantity, 94, Sc. for
Quarrel, 92, idiom
Quean, 16, 18, young woman, Go.
qwen-s, qwein-s, a woman, A.S.
cwen, Gr. -yvvij, queen, "quinon
widuwon," Go. a widow woman
Queet, 152, Ab. elite, ankle. This is
the pron. of the N.E. proverb,
" Better be oot o' the queets than
oot o' the fashion." See elite
Quern, 160, 253, Go. kwairnus, a
meal-mill, E. cor-n, ker-nel, churn,
Sc. kirn, Ic. kirna ; or. to
curdle or form into curds (cf.
Sc. cum, corn), Du. kern, grain.
See asila-quairnus
Quhway, 78, quey, heifer
Quickens, 145, 182, couch-grass ;
from quick, living
E
B, 80, effect on contiguous vowels
Eaaga, 133, Ore. youngest of a
litter, Gael, ruig, ruige, a wrigling.
See wrig
Racial heredity, 103
Rackon, 169, Cu. reckon
Baenen, reen, 136, 140, noise. Jam.
has rane, reane, tedious, idle talk,
to rane or cry the same thing over
and over again. Conn, are Sc.
roun, to whisper, E. round, Ger.
raunen — all from AS. rdn, a
mystery
Rag-wort, 123, 148. See bun- weed,
weebie
Raid,, redd, reddin' up, 62, 68, 180,
198, separate, " redd a j)ley," settle
a broil : or. sense, to put in
order, make ready
Rain, 2.3, rign. Go. ; rain, Du. and
Ger. Regen
Bamsch, 136, to eat voraciously, with
noise ; Ic. hramms-a, to snatch
violently, prob. onomat. ; Shet.
rampse, disagreeable to taste. Da.
ram, rank, harsh
310
GLOSSAEY
Eand, 70, C. Du.
Bands, 134, a narrow stripe ; riind,
selvage of a web. See riind
Bandy, 85, 137, a scold ; Gael, rann-
taich, a songster, from rann, a
quatrain, stave. See rune
iJarenc^trees, 181-3, and Cu. rannle-
bauk, on which the crook hangs.
PerhaiDS Ic. rann, a house, and
tjalgr, a prong, fork : rand end
and A.S. thil joist ; Bandle-tree,
Scott
Bannie, 122. Reiny, rennie, the
shrew (Shet.)
Bantin him, 107, boisterously con-
vivial harvest-home. See kirn
■j-Raus, 12, 202, Go. a reed. Roer,
C. Du. a gun (now obs.), Ger. Rohr.
"Not conn, with E. rush."— Sk.
Beam, 68, 132, cream ; Du. room,
A.S. r^am, O.N. rjome, Ger. Rahm.
Not conn, with cream
Beamed, 68, 132, 156, creamed ;
reamin, frothing over
Beeld, 105, reached ; Go. rikan,
traikjan, A.S. raecan, reach.
Kliige — "Go. here not cog. with
Ger. reichen." Or. sense "to
attain to." So. a rake of coals, &c.,
is a journey with horse and cart
to the coal-hill
Keconise, 83, recognise
Red, rede, to explain, unfold, n.
counsel
" To a red man, rede tliy rede,
Witli a brown man break thy bread.
At a pale man draw thy knife,
From a black man keep thy wife."
(J. B. F.)
Bede, 52, 198, counsel, read a riddle ;
Go. rathjo, a numtser, ga-rathjan,
to count ; borrowed from Lat.
ratio, bvit Kl. says "or. conn.
with ratio is unthinkable "
Redviplication, 35, 36
Beed, 65, sheep or cattle reed, coal-
ree, a permanent pen ; prob.
ident. with Pictish rath, a camp
Beek, 25, 171, 208, 256, smoke ; Go.
rikwis, darkness, Du. rook, Ger.
Ranch ; or. sense " what dims,
mist"
Reen baatjes, 207, 0. Du. rain-coats
Beenge, rinse, 13, Go. hrains, O.N.
hreinsa, to cleanse, Du. rein, Ger.
rein, pure ; the Sc. may be but a
var. of range
Beese, roose, 68, 106, to praise, Ic.
hress, reisa, to excite
" There's nane that reads them far and near,
But jeeses Rohie." Skinner.
Beeshle, 13, for rustle, from rush.
Go. hrishjan
Reesht and reet, 171, Cu. for right
Reflexive forms, 37
Reiki, 255, Go. a kingdom, cf.
Ushopric, root, to rule
Eeik-s, 22, 29, Go. rich, powerful,
Ger. reich, A.S. rice, Du. rijk, cog.
Lat. rex
Beim, 202, rim (of the abdomen),
the peritoneum, rim-bursin =
hernia, Jam., reimpje, C. Du.
Beipet, 123, ripe, to search, A.S.
hrypan, Ic. hrifa, to grapple, seize,
cf. E. rifle
Besidenter, 92, resident
Rest Harrow, 123
Bevlins, 208, Ore. home-made shoes
Rib-wort, 123, 154, 163
Big-end, 13, 129, end of the furrow,
cog. rig-gin, ridge
Big-gin, 13, the back, ridge of a
house, Ger. Riicken, Du. rug,
A.S. hrycg, E. ridge, O.N. hryggr,
E. rick, A.S. hreac
Rig-welted, 189, Cu. syn. of "awal."
See rig, and, for welted, cf.
welter
"Big woodie," 107-130, rope oi withes
crossing back or riggin of a yoked
horse
Bingle-e'd, 140, wringle-e'd. Jam.
"havingagreatproportionot white
in the eye of horses " and collies.
Conn, with ring, but cf. wring,
deformity, blemish in "Poems of
16th 0." The disease glaucoma
Binnin-mink, 148, a slip noose on a
halter. See monk and mink
Bin the cutter, 137, to fetch whisky
in small bottle. Not in Jam.
Bise, 127, a branch. A.S. and O.N.
hris, Du. rijs, from Go. hrisjan,
A.S. hrissan, rustle, Ger. Reis,
literally the "swaying one"
Bishet (Burns), 66, riasg, Gael, and
Ir., land covered with sedge or
coarse grass, ident. with rush,
A.S. ris-ce, Du. and Ger. Rusch
GLOSSAEY
311
Rizmr, 121, 126. Jam. rizards,
rizzer-berries. See " rise "
Bock, 161, distaflf, Ic. rokk-r, Du.
rokken
Boden, 159, 160, rowan-tree, Gael.
ruadh with post-positive article
= tlie "red" one; rowan is
Scan. -Da. ron, the service or
sorb tree
Rodith, 27, 52, Go., from Go. rodjan,
to speak, Ger. reden
Roef, 207, C. Du. See roof
Koes, roose, 71, 210, 0. Du. ; E.
rouse, drinking-bout, Ork. ruz, to
praise, boast, Ic. hrosa, rouse, Shak.
Rogaim, 124, Ir. rag-wort
Rohr, 12, Ger. a reed. Go. raus,
Du. roer, Fr. roseau. Kl. says,
"wanting in A.S. and E." See
raus
Boid, 137, rude. A.S. rethe, iierce,
rough, royet, romping, tomboyish:
prob. var. of rude, Fr. roide, strong,
Lat. rigidus
Boyet, 69, riotous
Roof, 13, 25, 0. Fr. hrof, Du. roef,
hrot, Go. roof, roost; hrost, L.Ger.
(Heliand)
Rooi-baatje, 206, C. Du. red-coat
Boopie, 13, hoarse from a cold, Go.
hropei
Roopit, 13, 88, croaking, throa,ty. Go.
hropei, a harsh cry, hropjan, to
crow, roup, to auction
Roost, 25, O. Du. roest or hinnen-
kot, hen-roost. See roof
Bose, 139, erysipelas, from the red
appearance
Boset, 134, Gael, rosead, resin
Boun or round, 9, to whisper,
A.S. runian, to whisper, run, a
mystery
Rounders, 155
Bow, 80, roll
Bugg'd, 223, 224, rug, 0. Du. back.
So. riggin, Ger. Rlicken
Bummle-gumshon, 136, rum-gunip-
shon, common sense, A.S. rum-
welle, spacious, and Go. pa«m-jan,
to perceive
Bun-deils, 70, 137. See runs, riinds
Bunds, 70, 134, 137, Ger. Band,
fringe, border, Du. rand, comer,
border, A.S. rond. Go. randa,
O. Teut. ram-ta, A.S. rvma,
reoma ; m before d becomes n ;
var. runes, 202
Bung, 13, 32, 36, hrugga, Gto., Ic.
rong, a rib in a ship, Ger. Runge,
short piece of iron or wood, still
used in E., Du. and Ger. ship-
building
Bunt in kale-runt, 68, 123. Jam.
tree-trunk, hardened stalk, stem
of colewort, Ger. Rinde, crust,
cog. rand, rund, A.S. reoma, rim
in sense of end, Go. rimis, rest,
Sc. runch, wild mustard
Bush, rustle, 13, A.S. hrysian, to
rush. Go. hrishjan, to shake, Sc.
reeshle
Rust-platz, 195, C. Du. resting-
place
Sach, 217, C. Du. sighed, sooohed
Sackless, 182, Cu.
Saep, 210-11, Du. zuipen
Sair, 97, sore
Saiw-s, 19, Go. the sea
Sahnonys, 62, salmons. Barb.
Salt, 168, Go. ; Ger. Salz, Cu. sote
Sand bed o' drink, 137, 140, a dipso-
maniac
Sandy Gam'l, 133, the pig
Sa'r, 105, savour
Sargent, 11, sergeant
Sarrat, 153, Cu. served
Sarvent, 82, servant
Sauch, 252, M.E. salwe, sallow
Sauchie, 217
Sauil, 19, 255, Go. sun, Lat. sol
Saut, 253
Saut backit, 155, salt-bucket
Saut-girnal, 135, box for salt, girnal
=garnel, granary
Saut' spell, 71. See pell
Saw, 67, cf. saw-dust
Saw 139, salve, ointment, Lat.
salvus
Saw, 13, 23, 253, sow. Go. saian, to
sow, pres. part, saiand = the
Sower in parable
Sawmon-loup, 125, a Lan. boys'
game
Saws, 67, maxims, Ic. saga, Ger.
sagen, to say
312
GLOSSAEY
Sawtan, 70, Satan, pron. under
influence of Heb. Satnanas, " limb
o' Sawtan "
Scabbet, 68, scabbed
Scallog, scoloc, sgalag, 63, 64, N.-
Gael., husbandman, serf
Sch-, for primitive sk-, 195, C. Du.
Schade, 70, 1 95, Ger. ; Sc. scaith, scaid
Schalk, 56, 63, 64, O.T. skalko-s,
servant, O.E. sceale, Ger. Schalk,
rogue. See mareschal
Sconce, 180, Cu. ; Ger. Schantz, E.
en-sconce
Shilpit, 223, C. Du. schuilpaat,
skulpad
Schulze, 64, Ger., village bailiff
Scimes, skeima, 29, Go. lantern,
shimmer, A.S. scima, light, Ger.
schimmern
Sclitter, 151, Cu. ; Sc. sclither,
sclidder, to slip to right and left
in walking, akin to slide, Ger.
Schlitt-schuhe = skates
t Scot-free, 26, is not conn, with Go.
skatts as in text. Skeat conn,
with A.S. scot, (soeotan, to shout),
payment, shot ; the same sense
and cog. forms are in Teut.
generally
Scrabs, 114, 163, Kinc. var. of scrubs,
shrubs
Screed, 13, skreitan. Go. to shred
Scuddy, scrimpit, 151, Mo. syn. jimp
Seap, 123, Ore. sab., to soak
Sea,pt, 122, soaked
Sedimateesed, 110
Seekin, 173, North.
Seen, 36, for saw
Seek sorry, 137, 140, very unwilling
Se'erday, 83, Lan. Saturday
Seestu, 170. See you !
Seggs, 119, sedges
Sekh, 217, Bu.
Sele, sale, sells, 147, a rope, cattle-
yoke, cog. with (reipd, a cord,
Ger. Sell. See over or iver-sells
^Bu.). See sells and thrammles
(Ab.). Go. in-sai^an, tp let down
with ropes, A.S. sal, N. sell,
Ind.-Ger. root, " to bind "
Set, sdt, 61, to become a person.
" Gae hame, gudewife ; it wad
better set ye to be nursin'
the giideman's bairns than to be
deavm us here." — " Waverley."
Settle, 135, Go. sitls, a throne, Ger.
Sessel
Settle, 24, Go. sitan, to sit
Sgeilm, 222, Gael. See skellum
Shack, 64, E. dial. Colonial syn.
for shanty
Shanks, 163, old name for stockings,
A.S. scanea, the bone of the leg,
E. shin. Shank-^v/va% — "Ane
par worsit schankis to my page."
— 17th c. diary
Shan't can dea't, 169, Cu.
Sharg, 133, Ore. petulant
Slmrgar, 133, Ang. the youngest of
a litter, a lean person, Gael,
searg, to wither, O.Ir. illness,
O.H.G. suercan, become gloomy.
" A peer shargart thing." — Gregor
Slieelin, 146, shelling or -winnowing
hill
Sheep-ree, 65, sheep-fold. See Reed
Shelly-coat, 140, kind of moth
Sheppert, Cu. shepherd
Sliilpit, 223, shilpie, "shrunk,
shrivelled, thin, pinched-looking
about the face" (J. B. F.). See
skulpad
Shim, 146, North., a drill harrow,
a shim plough. Not in Jam.
Shirk, 182, Cu., cf. Ger. Schurke
Shoo, 28, to frighten
Shoo, 13, to sew. Go. siujan
Shools, 118, shovels
Shoother, 14, shoulder
Shot, 133, 182, a young pig, still
commonly used in America
Shrank, 205, C. Du.
Shukkie mill, 159, Kinc. call of the
wood worm as sign of approach-
ing death ; perhaps a var. of
shoggle, to shake, but shoog, a
fright, gives a better sense. Not
in Jam.
Shut, 208, a sliding window ; schut,
Bord. a wooden screen, A.S.
sc^otan, shoot, Du. schut, a fence,
screen ; shottles, sliding drawers
Shuvve, skiuban, 13, Go. to shove,
A.S. soofian, Du. schuiven, Ger.
schieben
Sib, 22, 255, related. Go. sibja, blood
relationship, Ger. Sippe ; common
in A.S., Fris., Du., Kr., O.N. Sif,
honoured as goddess of the family.
" But they micht be brocht to
GLOSSAKY
313
think themselves that sib that no
Christian will permit their wed-
lock."— &o«, "Ant." Sib~"A'
Stuarts are nae sib tae the King ;
a' the Campbells are sib tae
Argyll." (J. B. F.)
Sic, smlk, swa-leik, 40, such, Go.,
Ger. solcher
Siccan, 169, such an
Sicken, 84, thicken
Siena yin, 167, such an one
Sidelights on social history, 92
Sied, 68, 132, strained ; var. of sieve,
Du. zeef, Ger. Sieb, E. sift
Siggwan, 27, Go. to read, E. sing ;
or. sense simply to resound
Siggwan bokos, 27, Go.
Sik, 39, Go. reflexive pron.
Silly, sels, 28, Go. happy, blessed,
Ger. selig, A.S. sel, good. Sal !
expletive
Silubr, 26, Go. silver, money, as Sc.
siller
Sime, synu, simmons, 62, 181, Caith.
ropes of heather. Ic. sime, a rope.
Barb. ; Kl. sub saum, a pack-horse
load, notes A.S. seam, E. seam
(cf. sumpter), and regards saum as
existing before the break-up of the
Teutons. He traces it to cray/ia,
Lat. sauma, a pack-saddle
Singles, 129, bundles of gleaned corn,
lit. gathered in single ears
Sinteino, 13, 20, 56, Go. daily,
always. Go. sinth, a journey,
time, sinthan, to go, cog. with send
(Go. sandjan). Syne and since are
cog. with Go. seithu, late, A.S.
sith, after, Ger. Seit
Sinthan, 56, Go. to go, wander, cog.
saredljan, send, A.S. sithian, to go.
See sinteino
Sista, 170, Cu., syn. of seestu !
Sitls, 25, Go. bench
Sittin in, 172, Sc. idiom, "sittin in
to the bottom "
Siujan, 26, Go. sew. See sew
Skaetchers, 129, skates ; Jam. has
skeitches
Skaiths, 70, injuries. Go. skathjan,
to do scathe to, A.S. sceththan,
Ger. Schade, scathe. " Better twa
skaiths than ae sorrow." — Prov.
See scaith
Skal, skeal, 179, a bumper, Go.
skalja, Ic. skjola, also scoll, skiel,
A.S. scealu, scyl, E. shale, shell ;
" a skimming dish " — Sibbald.
Gael, scala, a bowl, skalis, goblets.
— Royal House. Aces. 1511.
Skalkinoda, skalkinon, 28, 56, 64,
Go. to serve, served, Ger. Schalk ;
skalks, Go. See schalk, mareschal
Skap, 13, C. Du. sheep
Skattja, 26, Go. money-changer
Skatts, 26, Go. money, Ger. Schatz,
O.N. skatt-r, rent, A.S. sceatt,
piece of money. Scatt-hold is
well known in Ore. land-holding
Skeef, skeigli, 216, C. Du.
Skeelyie, 25, 155, slate pencil, skaillie,
skailyie; cog. is shell, a scale or
husk, A.S. scell, Du. schel, Ic.
skel ; or. sense, to peel off. Go.
skaljas, tiles
Skelbs, skelve, scab, 139, splinters of
wood, a thin slice, a splinter of
wood, Du. schelpe, a shell, Ger.
Schelfe, a husk
Skelhcks, 64, 128, Fi. skellock,
skeldock, skellie, wild mustard,
Ir. skeal-lagach ; cf . E. charlock
Skellum, 63, 221, 222, rogue, Ger.
and Du. Schelm, Ic. skelmir. Not
in Jam.
Skelly-eyed, 174, Cu. and Bord.
_ !, 137, blows with open hand ;
Gael, sgealb, is borrowed from
Sc.
Skemel, 180, 182, Cu. shemels,
shambles
Skiddaw Gray, 179
Skite, 134, a squirt from the mouth,
Ic. skvetta, to squirt, var. of shoot
Skohsl, 28, Go. a demon, Soheu-sal,
Ger. Scheuche, a scarecrow, from
scherren, to shoo, scare
Skriners, 195
Skrire, 195, Du. skrij, Ger. schreiben
Skuft, 19, Go. ; Ger. Schopf, a top-
knot, O.N. skopt
Skulpad, 223, C. Du.
Skura, 13, Go. skura windis, a storm
of wind ; winthi-skauro, a win-
nowing fan, Du. schoer, Sc. shoor.
Still in C. Du. as Groote Schoor,
famous home of Cecil Rhodes
Skybels, 1 15, 182, Cu. skybald, a mean,
worthless fellow. Da. skabhals, a
rascal
314
GLOSSARY
Skylark, the, 126
Slaan, 195, 0. Du., Ger. schlagen
Slack, 198, in place-names. For
metaphor, cf. gorge, gully
Slabbery, 151, Mo. slobbery, app. to
supping ungracefully
Slag, 198, 222, C. Du. Cf. Ger.
schlucken, to swallow, Sc. "slocken
drooth," quench thirst
Slakan, 30, Go. to strike, Ger.
schlagen, slay, 0. Du. slaan, E.
slog ; " slaying mutton on Sab-
bath."— » Elg. K. S. Eecs."
Slang, boys', 109
Slap, 208, a- gap
Slaup, 36, Go. slipped
Sledderkin, 186, Ou.
Sledders, 186, Cu.
Slider, 186, Lan. of the ice-cream
man, var. slithery
Slijp, slyp, 66, 212, a sledge, Ger.
sohleifen, to draw, Du. slijpen, E.
slip, slippers. See Slip-a
Slim, 207, C. Du. ; Ger. sohlimm,
E. slim ; or. sense, slack, oblique,
crafty, slender. Du. and Ger.
retain the sense of "crafty"
Sliob, 66, Ir. sliobhaim, to polish
Slipa, 66, N. whet, i.e. to make
slippery or smooth, Du. slijpen ;
or. sense, to glide, in Ayrsh.
app. to a sledge, Cu. slape-shod,
shoes worn smooth
Slipan, 66, A.S. slip, in Sc. to
polish, sharpen. Cf. Du. slijpen,
in Sc. to slide, slipe, a sledge
Slippy, 92, slippery
Slive, 173, sliver, a twig (Shak.),
M.E. sliuen, to cleave, split
Slocken, sloken, 198, 222. See slag
Sloongin, Slinge, 137, 172, going
about in indolent manner ; slung,
a tall, lank booby; Ab. cog.
slink
Sluck, 198, Shet. See slag
fSluit, 201, C. Du., doubtful if
conn, with " sluice " as in the text.
"O.F. escluse, a sluce." — Cot.
L. Lat. exclusa, a flood-gate" —
Sk.
Slypet, 66, glided. Burns. See Slipa
Small quantities, equivalent e.\pres-
sions for, 138
Smatchet, 136, small, mischievous
child ; peril, small-chit
Smeddum, 85, 136, acuteness, A.S.
smedma, smedeme, fine flour
Smeekin, 124, 129, smoking in causal
sense
Smiddy, 131, smithy
Smit, smittel, 33, 68, 210, to infect.
Go. bi-smeitan, A.S. be-smitan,
to pollute, Ic. smeita, steam from
cooking fat, Ger. Schmutz, Du.
smet, a spot, smut
Smoky, 104, a smoked haddock
Smoogle the gag, 127, 155, boys'
game. See gag
Smore, 71, 208, C. Du. smother
Snaw, 23, 254, Go. snaiw-s, Ger.
Schnee
Sneck, 135, door-latch, cf. snig,
sniggle. See snig, sniggin
Sneck-drawer, 85, 135, a cunning
person, a latch-lifter
Sned, 14, 23, 148, 182, 195, sneddin,
Go. sneithand, snoi, neat, trimmed,
part, of sneithan, A.S. snithan,
Ger. schneiden, Du. snijden, —
all, to cvit
Snig, 187, Cu.
Sniggin, 187, cf. sniggle, sneck,
snook
Snij-doktor, 197, 210, C. Du. snij, to
cu.t. See Sned
Snod, 14, 128, trim, neat, lit. cut
(pret. of sned)
Snool, 85, one mean, spiritless, Du.
snooler, to snub
" They snool me sair,
They hud me doon."
Snoove, 208, to move smoothly and
constantly, Ir. snoimham, to
twist
Snotter, 136, 207, to blubber, snot,
snuffle, A.S. and Du. akin to
snout
Sogers, 154, soldiers
Some, 94, somewhat, cf. Ger. etwas
Sonks, 201, a grassy seat, a straw
cushion
" He'll ride nae mair on stray sonk."
" Jac. Ball."
Soohies, 123, soukies, clover blooms,
from being sucked by children for
their nectar
Som-dook, 132, 156, buttermilk
Soordook sogers, 132, Loth, militia.
See daich, daichie
GLOSSARY
315
Soorocks, 123, sorrel, Ger. sauracli,
E. sour, M.H.G. surach
Sooth, 18, 33, 86, or. sense, being,
existence. Go. bi sunjai, verily,
A.S. soth, Sw. sann, Da. sand.
My san ! var. sal, as exclam.
Sopje, 198, C. Du., of. "soupe"
(Biirns)
Sounded, 35, E.
Sowms, 156
Sowl, 19, 26, saiwala, Go. soiil, Ger.
Seels, A.S. sivrl
Sown, 62, Bu. traces, soyme, chain
by which plough or cart is drawn.
See sime, syme, simmins, cutty-
soam
Spang, spong, 125, 203, var. of
span
Spang-whew, 182. See Spung-hewet,
125
Spar, 62, 140, to fasten a gate, com-
mon Teut. " cog. with spear in or.
sense of sticks or pole." — Sk.
Sparwa, 20, Go. sparrow, Ger. Sper-
ling, A.S. spearwa, lit. "the
fluttere," Cu. spadger
Spate, spait, speat, 68, 200, flood,
Gael, speid, a river flood
Speal, spilda, 25, 27, 67, Go. a writing
tablet, A.S. speld, a torch, all
from base, spald, to split, Ger.
spalten, cf. Sc. speldrin, a fish
split and dried. Cf. splinter,
spale, spail, a lath in wooden
houses, a chip. This word has
been confounded with the similar
"spell," to read.
Spearmint, 121, a species of mint
Speel, spele, speil, 126, 196, climb,
A.S. spilian, Du. spelen, O.N.
spila, Ger. spielen. Cf. "a spell
of work," a turn
Speengie, 121, 156, peony
Spdr, speer, 74, 97, 196, 224, Du.
spoor, a trail : as v. A.S. spyrian,
Du. speuren, O.N. spyrja
"He speer't what was't they ca'd her."
" Old Song."
Spelk hen, 181, Gael, spealg (borr.),
M.E. spelke, a splinter, N. spjalk,
Du. spalk, a splint. Cf. spelicans,
a Du. game played with slips of
wood, O.Du. spelleken, asmallpin
Speogs, 181, Dumb.
Spilda, 27, Go. a writing tablet,
hence E. spill, a slip of wood,
assimilated to " spell " from early
use in schools for learning to read.
Cf. M.E. speld, a splinter, with
Sc. speldrin, dried fish split
Spill, 27, Go. a fable, myth, A.S.
spel ; Go. spillon, to relate, E.
spell = say or tell the letters. See
spilda
Spilia, 25, 27, Go. a teller, spillon,
to tell. See spilda
Spinks, 121, pinks
Spolk, 181, Ore; E. sjioke, spike,
Ger. Speiche
Spooks, 220, 223, from Du. spook,
O.Ger. spauka, a spectre — of
Norse or.
Spoor, 196, 197, 224, C.Du. See
Speer.
Spoot gun, 123, 134, pop gun, cf.
spout ,
Spraul, 105, sprawl, a struggle, for
sprattle, to spar or toss the
limbs about, N.E. sprottle, to
struggle
Spreckled, 167, speckled
Sprickelt paddicks, 178, Cu.
Sprits, 66, 200, 201, wet or spritty
spots, covered with rushes, vars.
spritty, sprat, spreat, Du. spruit,
a stream, properly a spring that
spurts out, cf. sprout, to germinate,
spirt, Ger. spritzen, E. sprout,
spurt
Sprug, spug, spyugs, 125, a sparrow,
in dial.
Spruit, 200, 216, Du. spruiten. See
sprits
Spung hewet, spung toed, 125, 182,
vars. spang-hue, spang-whew
St. Anthony's Pig, 133, yearly on
St. Anthony's Day (Jan. 17)
domestic animals are brought to
be blessed before the porch of St.
Eusebius Church in Eome
Stab-s, 27, Go. a letter, A.S. stafas,
letters of alph., Ger. Buch-
stabe, E. staff, stave (music),
Sc. and Gael, stob, a stake,
pale, or. something firm, the
"graving of Runes" (Kl.)
Staen, 23, Ab. steen, E. stone, Go.
stains
Staiga, 26, Go. a path or highway.
316
GLOSSAEY
Du. and Ger. Steig, a street, from
Go. steigan, to climb. See stey
Staigs, 69, 105, 137, 147, colts, var. of
sta^, app. to the male of different
animals
Stake and rise, 127, fence or wall of
upright stakes and wattles inter-
woven. See Rise. Not in Jam.
Staldan, 24, Go. to own or possess,
cf. Du. staatholder, owner of a
stead. See steading
Stamnis, 18, Go. a stammerer. See
stoom
Stang, 208, a long pole, E. sting. Go.
us-stiggan, to push out, Ger.
Stange, a pole
Stanner-gaster, 153, Mo.
Starns, 255, stars, has the adj. suffix
n of the Go. stairno=Ger. Stern
" Ye hills, nenr neebors o' the starns,
Tliat proudly cock your cresting cairns."
Bums,
Staw, 172, a surfeit, v. to put to a
stand, Da. staae, S. wstaa, to stand
Stead, steading, 24, 25, Go. stads,
home-stead, Ger. Stadt. Fi. and
Bu. stath-el, staid-el, a small rick
Steanies, 187, Cu.
Steek, 207, C. Du. and So. stitch,
stick, Du. and Ger. sticken
Steer, 56, sJiV = disturb, A.S. Styr-
ian, Ic. styrr, Ger. storen, cog.
with storm
Steg, 168, Cu. a gander ; cf. stag in
sense of male in general
-ster, -bus, 65, home-stead in Norse
place names
Stert, C. Du. 224, A.S. steort, M.E.
stert, a tail, Du. staart, Ger. Sterz,
lit. the "outspread." Cf. red-
start. Start Point. " Stark-naked,
a corr. of stert-naked." — Sk.
Stey, 26, 208, steep, A.S. stigan, to
climb. See staiga
Stibna, 32, Go. voice, Ger. Stimme,
A.S. stefn, M.E. steven
Stile, 208, A.S. stigel, Shet. stiggy.
See stigan
Still an' on, 172, Sc. and Cu.
Stime, 86, 138, So. a speck ; var. of
skime, A.S. scima, a gleam
" At sic an eldritch time
O' nicht when we see ne'er a slime."
Stinkin Elshender, 123, ragwort
Stinkin Willie, 148
Stink weed, 148, ragwort
Stirk, 68, 147, a j'oung bullock, Ger.
stark, strong, A.S. stearc, styrc
do., Du. sterk. Go. ga-staurknan
Stiur, Go. 21, 250, steer, calf, Du.
and Ger. stier, Lat. taurus = strong,
full-grown
Stockannet, strokannet, 124, 140, 172,
180, sheldrake or burrow duck,
Shet. links goose. Not in Jam.
Stoep, 25, 188, 207, C. Du. porch
Stols, 25, Go. a throne, Ger. Stulil,
Du. stoel, E. stool
Stook, 128, 129, a clump of corn
sheaves, Ger. Stiick, E. stook
Stoom, stoomin, 137, 140, sulking,
Ger. stumm, dumb, E. stammer
S<oor = dust, 97, dust of battle, cf.
stir
" Till many a man lay weaponless,
An' was sair wouuded in that stour."
Stot, 196, C. Du. stuit, Go. stautan,
to smite, Ger. stossen, to push,
cf. stutter, cog. with Lat. tundo,
to hammer
Stot, 147, a young ox. Da. stud, a
bull, E. steed, stud, A.S. steda,
Ger.Stute; stott, a horse (Chaucer)
Stoup an' room, 188
Stovies, 129, var. of stew
Straucht, 91, adj. and verb
Strau-ja, 249, Go. bed of straw
Stravaig, 129, to stroll, app. not only
to people
" The moon ha.s rowed her in a cloud,
Stravaiging winds begin,
To sliugsle and daud the window brods.
Like loons that wad be in."
Wm. Miller,
Stravaiging, 129, strolling, Lat.
extravagare. "Stravaigin' aboot
in the moonlicht wi' a young
lassie "
Strawr-rat, 82, straw hat
Streiket corpse, 74, stretched in the
coffin
Strong and weak verbs, 35
Stroup, 201, lo. strup. Da. strube,
the gullet
Subjunctive, 91, 197
Sugar-awlie, 186, Lan. sugar-ellie,
Fi. a stick of liquorice
Suicidal, 81, E.
Suljo, 17, Go. sole of the foot, sandal,
Lat. solea
GLOSSAEY
317
Sully, 28, 81, silly. See silly
Summonses, 72, summons
Sumph, 29, 137, a lout, GaeL samph,
a clownish fellow, Go, swamms,
a sponge, swumfsl. Da. svamp,
a sponge, swampig, spongy, A.S.
swam, cnroyyos, Lat. fungus, a
sponge, Da. sump, a swamp, E.
swamp — all from root swim. See
swamm
Sumph, 29, 137, a pool, swamm,
swamm-s, a sponge. Go. Both
Teut. and class., as sponge, spongy;
Da. and Sw. variant sump ident.
with Sc. coal-mining term
Siine, 11, E. soon. Go. sun-s
Sunno (f.), sunna (m.), 19, 23, Go.
sun, Ger. Sonne
Sunu-s, 18, 247, Go. a son
Swpperfluity, 73
Sut-is, 11, 28, Go. sweet, Ger. susz,
Du. zoet
Swei-cruck, 210, sway or swing crook
Swine-crii, 182, Cu. See criive
Syle, 182, a straining sieve, Sw. sll,
a strainer, L.Ger. sielen, to draw
oif water, E. silt. The I is not
radical, cf. Da. and Sc. sie, to filter
Syme, 181, straw rope for securing
thatch. See soum, simmins
Syne, 13, 20, 56, Sc. ; full form,
sithen-s (with adv. suflf.), sith-
then, after that ; cf . Ger. seit-dem,
A.S. sith, after, is Go. seith-us,
late ; syne, sin, an early contrac-
tion of sithens
Sype, 172, to ooze, E. sap, A.S.
saep, Ger. saft. See seip, sipe
"An' Kart his swalled e'en sype
Sant teara that day."
SHnner.
Syjjer, 211. See sype
Syth hyuok, 146, scythe hook
Swauping, 130, swapping, bartering,
Ger. schwappen, to strike, in
sense of striking a bargain
Sweer, 29, 69, 97, 197, 209, im willing,
C. Du. zwaar, A.S. swaer, O.N.
svdrr, Ger. schwer. Go. swers,
heavy, honoured, sweran, to
honour, var. of sweer, sweir,
swere, swear = sweert, lazy in
Jam., rather reluctant, as —
" He -was gey sweert tae pairt -wr's sUler."
(J B, IP,)
Sweer -hitty, 160, wrestling-game
/Sweej'-tree, ditto, 158, 160. See
sweer
Swes, 26, Go. one's own property,
cog. with Lat. suus
Swei, sway, swing, 210
Swein, 24, Go. swine; or. su-ina,
j'oung of the sow
Swingle-tree, 130, part of plough
graith
Swistar, 18, Go. sister, Ger. Sch wester
Simth, swinth-s, 58, Go. strong, A.S.
strong, very much : —
" In the thrang o' stories tellin',
Shakin' hands an' jokin' queer.
Swith, a chap comes on the hallan :
* Mungo, is our Watty liere ? ' "
Alex. Wilacm,
Swounded, 35, Shak. swooned
T slurred bet. vowels, 111 ; -t(neut.),
44, 45
T' as def. art. 168—" t' words 'at"—
Cu.
Taal, 222, 0. Du., cog. with tell
Taave, tyaave, 100, 101, Ah. See
taw, tew
Tables, at the Sacrament, 74
Tackin in, 92, term in stocking-
knitting
Taed, taid, 129, a toad, A.S. and
M.E. tade. See spung-taed
Taepit, taintless, taebetless, tapetless,
87, 138, 139, 151, Fi. manual
dexterity. Witliless, syn. of
thowless. Prob. taij)it for to-put
Tag, 21, 155, var. of taws or ferule, a
latchet. Go. tagl= tail, A.S. taegel
Tagrida, 36, Go. wept, as if teared
Tahjan, 12, Go. to tear. Go. tiuhaii,
to tow, tug, A.S. te6han, te6n, to.
pull, Ger. Ziehen, Du. touwen, to
curry leather, theofa, O.N. to
waulk or shrink cloth, E. taw,
tew, to curry
Taihswa, 17, Go. right-handed, Lat.
dexter; cf. carrie, left hand,
carrie-mittit, Lan.
Taikns, 53, Go. a miracle, token, cog.
Zeichen, so used in Luther's Bible
Tain-jo, 5, Go. woven basket, hence
tine, tooth of a harrow, M.E.
"tyndis of harrowis," stag's
antlers, cog. tooth
318
GLOSSAEY
tTains, 5, 26, Go. thorn-branch. See
tain-jo, toon
Tait, tate, 68, 138, tiny bit, tit, teat,
tot, Sw. tott, handful of lint or
wool
Tak on, 137, buy on credit
Talitha, 2, Aram, damsel = mawilo
(Wulf.)
T'allen, 176, Cu. for the hallan,
which see
Tami-da, 36, Go. pret. of tamjan,
to tame
Tam-jan, 36, Go. to tame
Tam/my-reekie, 129, boys' trick as
pastime
Tand, N. 203
Tangs, 207, 0. Du. tongs
Tante, 207, 0. Du.
Tafs, tops, 122, fir cones ; 207, of
beer
Tarrow, 69, to hesitate, refuse ; tar-
rowin', grumbling, tarre, to incite
Taucht, 49, pret. of teach
Taujan, Go. to do, bring out
'fTaupie, tawpie, 85, 136, 170,a foolish
woman, Da. taabe, a fool, Sw.
tapig, simple, foolish — prob. not
Fr. taupe
Taurds, 155, taws, ferule. W. tar-o,
tar-aw, to strike. " At the Elgin
Academy we called it the tag."
— Prof. Cooper. See tarrow
Taw, 12, E. to tan leather, Go.
tiuhan, to be ready, with many
deriv.
Taws, ferula, 101, 155, Gael, tas, a
whip, scourge ; var. of tags, A.S.
tawian, to tan, beat. See taw,
tyaave
Tawtiet (Burns), 183, uncombed,
towsy, perh. conn, with tatter,
N. totra, taltra, pi. tultrer, rags.
The aw is accounted for by the
elided 1. For the term, -iet, see
nakkit
TcMich, 12, 13, 168, Sc. tough, perh.
Go. tahjan, to tear, guttural in
A.S. t6h, Ger. zahe. See tiuhan
Tchuch Jeans, 186, tough geans, a
Glasgow sweet
Tear, tew, 180, Cu., fidget, exert
one's self. See taave, taw
Tek, tai, t6k, 35, Go. take and
took
Tell, 92, to bid or order
Tell, 88, to one's credit. "It's no
tellin' ye," not to your credit
Tempery cook, 84, temporary
Teuchat, tchuchat, 125, the lapwing
Teuk, took, 180, Niths.
Teva-kudda, 100, Ore. tuva-keuthie
— Jam. See tyaave and cod
Tew, 101, 180, Cu. See taw, tyaave
Tewsum, Cu. 180
Th, sound, 14
Thae, 91
Time, thirr, 168
Thahai, thahan, 31, Go. ; cog. taceo,
to be silent
Thai, 32, 39, 45
Thair, thaim, 45
Thames (set on fire), 173, temse,
terns, A.S. temes, a sieve, Du.
tems, a strainer : a corn sieve,
which, if worked too quickly,
might fire the wooden hoop.
"Tammy not given in Jam,
E. temse, tems, a sieve, a scarce,
bolter" (J. B. F.)
That, 45, 63, 90, 157
That, for so, 90
That, as def. art, 39, 157, 171, that
baths, that cleek, that poker, Ab.
Thaurban, 31, Go. to be in want,
Ger. bediirfen, to have cause, Du.
durven, A.S. thurfan
Thaurnus, 23, Go. thorns
The, 91, Go. thar, E. there ; from an
old Tevit. demonst. tha, Ger. da,
dort
The, particularising, 94
Tlie, 39, the day
The, 30, V. to prosper, M.E. See
theihan
The tane and the tither, 171
Theats, 130, ropes or traces. Ic.
" thatt-r, cord, small rope." — Jam.
Thee, 30, thigh
Theel, theevil, 129, 172, 182, Fi.
porridge-stick, E. thill, cart-shaft,
A.S. thille, a thin slip of wood, Ic.
thilja, a plank, Ger. Diele, E. deal
Theihan, 30, Go. to thrive, O.E.
ge-th6on, to thee, Ger. ge-deihen,
to prosper ; root sense, to grow,
flourish. " So mote I thee ! "
common M.E. asseveration
Thewis, thius, 24, Go. a servant, A.S.
thdow, servant, slave, Ger. dienen,
to serve
GLOSSAEY
319
Thick, 173, Cu.
Thig, 145, to ask, beg, Ic. thygg-ia,
to receive as a gift, accept hos-
pitality for a night. Da. tigger,
a beggar
Think shame to, 92
Thirr, 90
Thissilaga, 156, colt's-foot
Thiudans, 22, Go. ; Ger. Deutsch, the
"folk," national name
Thiud-isk, 7, " theodisca lingua in
Lat. texts, 788 — eccles., not polit.,
term," O.Sc. thede, a nation
Thole, 33, 69, 70, 97, 139, endure.
Go. thulan, to suffer, Ger. dulden ;
cog. Lat. tolerare, all Teut. in So.
sense, to put up with
Thone, 38, 45
Thoo, thou, 172, familiar
Thoo gan, 172, Cu.
Thowless, thewless, thieveless, 87,
feeble, applied in Sc. to bodily
qualities, in O.E. to mental,
theauwe, virtues, A.S. theawas,
manners, E. thews; "sense of
bulk, strength, comes straight
from the root, tu, to be strong." —
Sk.
Thraep, hraep, 13, 171, to argue, assert
with pertinacity. Go. fo-o^jan, to
cry out, hropei, clamour, Sc. roup
Thraif, thraves, threave, 129, 171,
twenty-four sheaves of corn, Ic.
threfi. Da. trave, a score of
sheaves, threve, Cu. a number
of sheaves
Thrang, 90, busy, A.S. thringen,
to press, Ger. dringen. Go.
threihan, Ger. drangen, E. throng
Thraw, 67, to twist, A.S. thrftwan,
var. of throw
" Thraw-cruck" 62, twist-crook
Thriutan, 27, Go. to threaten
Throo-gawn, 137, through-going,
pushful
ITiroo-pit, 140
Through his sleep, 89
Thrummy cap, 134, cap of thrums,
Ic. throm-r, margin, selvage
Thruts-fill, 27, Go. leprosy. See fill
Thur ana, 167, Cu.; Sc. thirr yins or
ains
Thut-haum, 28, Go. a trumpet, Du.
toet-horen, Ic. thjota, to blow a
horn
Ticky-molie, 129, 140. The trick
lay in fastening a long thread to
the astragal of the window-pane.
From this fixed end hang a short
length with a pin or tack attached.
A slight regular pull on the
thread from a safe distance pro-
duced an eerie sound in the still
room. If surprised, it was easy
for the boy to " cut the painter "
Tig, 127, a tap, slight stroke ; boys'
game ; var. of tick, tack
Tirmner, 23, 26, 249, syn. of tree,
wooden ; timrjan. Go. to build,
Ger. Zimmer
Tinder, 21, Eng. ; Go. tundja, a bush;
prob. not related. A.S. tyndre,
tendan, to kindle. Da. tdnder
Tine, 26, Go. tains, tain-jo, which
see. Prong in a harrow, stag's
antler ; O.E. tinde, Ic. tind-r, Sw.
tinne, a prickle, Ger. Zinne, a
pinnacle, ult. akin to tooth
Tmkler, 92, 153, 168, 183, tinker
Tipt, 67, tepid
Tirr, 231, prob. a var. of tear ;
" most common usage not given —
to remove subsoil above a bed of
rock in a quarry " (J. B. F.)
Titty, 173, sister
Tiuhan, 12, Go. to tow, tug. See
tew, taw, tyaave
To, prep. 89, " no fault to him "
t Toff, 192, doubtful if var. of topf
Toh, 13, A.S. tough, Sc. tyuch,
tchuch. Go. tah-ydn, to rend ;
or. to bite. See tiuhan, tyuch
Token, 53, A.S. tAcn, Du. tecken,
Go. taikns, a miracle (in Leather's
" Bible " its cog. zeichen is used)
Took their bare feet, 88
room, tume, 204, empty
Toom, 202, C. Du. a bridle rein, Ic.
taum-r, Ger. Zaum, from sense of
reducing to order, as in E. team
— base tau, in taw, to curry
leather. Go. tau-jan, to cause,
make
Toon, 5, 41, 249, town, -ton. Go.
tun, A.S. tiin, Du. tuin, hedge,
O.N. tiin, homestead, Ger. Zaun,
a hedge. Kliige finds it in Lug-
dunum, Roman London
Toot, 28, E. to sound a horn, Du.
tuiten, Ger. tuten
320
GLOSSAEY
Tooth, ]8, A.S. t6th=tanth, N. land,
Go. tunthus, tooth
Toper, 193, Cu. any tiling excellent
in its kind
Tothed, 200, ted, to spread new-
mown grass, tedded ; Ic. tethja,
to spread tath or manure, tothu-
verk, making hay. See koil-tett
Tove, 100, toss, Shet. See tyaave
Tow, 68, 161, 208, and C. Du. rope,
" An' (ir I wad anither jade
I'll wallop in a tow."
A.S. tow, le. to, a tuft of wool, tog
a rope
" There was an auld wife had a wee pickle
tow.
An' she wad gae try the spinniu' o't,
She lootet her doon an' her rock took a low
An' that was a bad beffinnin' o't."
Alex. Boss. (J. B. F.)
Trake, 203, to wander idly, C. Du.
trek
Tramp-colies, 146, Mo. hay stacks
Trance, 176, perh. Lat. trans, across
Trances, 146, hey soos. Mo.
Transpire, 94
Trap, 135, 207, Ger. Treppe, a
ladder, Du. trap
Traps, 92, for the unwary English-
man
Treacle peerie, 132, home-made small
heer. See peerie
Treak, 203, Cu.
Tree, 20, 26, Go. triu, triu-weins,
wooden
Treesh, 148, Mo. call to a cow
Trek, 211, 203, C. Du.
Treviss, 131, partitions in a stahle
forming the stall, Lat. trabs, a
beam
Trig, trigger, 211
Trogger, 111, Ir. vagrants who gather
old clothes
Troke, trohing, 135, 152, 203, to
barter
Tromp, 223, C. Du. trump, Fi. a
Jew's harp, trumpet
Trooie, 148, Mo.
Trowtis, 62, trouts. Barb.
Tuig, 208, C. Du. tow, a rope. See
tow
TuU me, 168, Cu.; cf. So. till, intill
for to, into
Tummel-oar, 181, Cu. tumlin-
wheels, primitive solid wooden
wheels
Tunthus, 18, Go. tooth, Lat. dens,
dentis
Tutor, 72, So. law term
Twal oar, 197, twaalf uur, C. Du.
Twal oors, 129, mid-day meal, twelve
hours
Twa-neukit, 88, two-cornered
Twicet, 90, twice
Tyaave, 100, difficulty : " my job's
an affle tyaave" (Ab.), buckie-
tyauve, a good-humoured wrestle
(Bff.)
Tyeuve, 101, Bu., laboured hard.
See taw, tew
U
U, sounds, thin, and name, 81
Ubils, 29, Go. evil
Ubizwa, 25, Go. a porch, A.S.
efese, a clipt hedge of thatch,
from Go. prep, uf, under, Ger.
oben ; lit. cover, shelter
Udal, Udaller, 10, Ore. land ten-
ure. See Othal
Ug, 154
Ug-sam, 30, Bord.
Ug-some, 98. See ugly, ogre
-tih, 45, Go. affix, Lat. que
Ulbandus, 21, Go. camel. See
elephant
Umhm! 85
" Urn zu," 91, Ger. for to
Unco, 171, Cu. in or. sense,
unknown, strange, and not an
intensive as in So.
Undaurni-mats, 24, Go. morning
meal, E. undern, still in prov.
dial. ; 9 A.M. in Paisley Burgh Recs.
Und hina dag, 45, Go. unto this
day
Und hita nu, 45, Go. hitherto
Undomous, 153, Mo. un-demus,
incalculable ; un and deman to
judge. — Jam. Go. ga-domjan,
doom, judge. Syn. byous
Unfewsom, 182, Cu. ; cf.Ger.fiigsam,
pliant
Unhouseled, 32, Shak., A.S. husel,
the Eucharist, Go. hunsl, a sacri-
fice ; or. sense, to kill
Unhultha, 28, Go. from hultha,
gracious, hilthan, to favour ; O.E.
holde, faithful. Kl. connects with
>
GLOSSAEY
321
Ger. hold, O.N. hollr, A.S. hold,
gracious •
Unless, 90, without
Iln-selja, 28, Go. tin-silly, i.e.,
wicked. See silly
Un-weis, 13, Go. unlearned. See
weiss
Upsij, 218, 0. Du. See op-sit
Up a heet, 169, North.
Uppalt, 153, cessation, uphald, up-
haitd
Upsettin', 136, conceited hrat
Upsie-daesies, 185, nursery prattle —
up — down
Up-tach, 92, quick apprehension
Us-hlaupands, 33, Go. ; Sc. loupiii
up, leap, A.S. hledpan, Du.
loopen, Ger. laufen, all in sense
to run
Us-litha, 27, Go. paralytic. See lith
Us-stiur-iba, 56, from simr-jan, to
establish, confirm, E. steer, to
guide, and steer, an ox, in prim.
sense of "what stands firm," as
in Ic. staurr, a post
Uz-anan, 31, Go. to give up the
ghost. See an-an, to breathe
Uz-eto, 24, Go. manger, out-eater
Val, 210, C. Du. val deure, a trap-
door, E. fall. See moos-fa'
Vee, 218, C. Du. See fe
Veldt, 199, 0. Du. ; O.N. fold, A.S.
feld, Du. veld, E. field, fell, field-
fare
Vel sohoen, 208, C. Du. shoes of skin.
See fill
Verb present with s, 90 (Scots)
Victual, 94, rations
Village commune, 64
Vlei, 125, C. Du., cog. flay, M.E.
flean, lo. fld, to slice off, Sw.
flaga, a flake. App. to slicing off
turf in Sc. flauch, and flauchter,
which see
Volksraad, 198, 0. Du. ; E. folk and
Go. redan, to counsel, provide,
A.S. raedan, Ger. Kat, raten, E.
read, Sc. rede
" An' may he better reck tlie rede
Than ever did the adviser."
Bums.
Vrij, vrijers, 205, C. Du. to woo,
wooers, Ind.-Ger. root pri, to love,
cog. with friend. Or. sense, free
choice, hence Du. vrij. Go. freis
(frija), Ger. frei. See free
Vuur, 207, 0. Du. fire
W
Waddjan, 25, comp. with "baurgs,"
Go. town- wall, A.S. wattel, a
hurdle, Sc. wattles, wallet ; lit.
"a thing woven together"
Waa'er, 83, Lan. water
Wad-g-er, 212, Fi. See wadi
Wadi, 26, Go. a pledge, E. wed. Go.
waddja-bokos, a bond
Wadmel, 100, Ore. ; E. wad, a bundle
of stuff, Ic. vodmal, a plain
woollen stuff, Ger. Watte, a fishing-
net, like Ic. vathr, stuff wound
together. Of. E. weeds, dress.
See mail
Wadn't cud dea't, 169, Cu. idiom
Wad-set, 26, 155, 212, a mortgage,
wad, a pledge ; cf. Lat. vas, vadis.
See wadi
Waer, 62, Barb, sadder ; comp. cf.
wae, woe
Waffle, 137, a vagabond, waff, strayed
" To wear up three Tvaff ewis strayed on the
bog."—" Gentle Shepherd."
Waggari, 17, Go. a pillow, A.S.
waggare, wange, cheek, jaw, E.
wang-tooth, O.E. and Ger. Wange
Waian, 255, Go. root of E. weather
Wair, 248, Go. world, A.S. wer-
geld, Ger. Welt, Lat. vir
Wairdless, 87, spendthrift, without
ward, guard or prudence
Wairilo, 17, Go. the lip, A.S. weler
Wairthan, 48, Go. to become, arch.
E. worth, Ger. werden
Wairthus or wairdiis, 24, Go. a
host, Ger. Wirth
Wale, waled, 33, 183, 192, 219, Go.
waljan, to choose, Ic. velja, Ger.
wahlen, cog. vrith will
Wallop, 53, 156, Mo. the lapwing,
wallock and to waUach, to use
many circumlocutions
Wallowit, 49, withered, A.S. weal-
wian, to roll, wallow ; cf. Lat.
volvo, to roll
21
322
GLOSSARY
Walshoch, 153, weak and watery ; cf.
walsli, welsche, insipid ; Jam.
Teut. gselsch ; A.S. gaelaa, wanton-
ness, pride. See galsh
Wamme, 29, Go. spot, O.E. wem,
A.S. wem, a scar, a blemish
Wandjan, 34, Go. to wend, tnrn,
went
Wange, 18, jaw, cheek, A.S. wange,
Ger. and O.E. the cheek. The
molars are sometimes called wang-
teeth. See wangere, A.S. pillow,
bolster
Wand, 90, once
Wap, 172, 174, a disturbance, "to
kick lip a wap," to throw quickly,
" wappit war wyde," thrown quite
open, M.E. wappen, to beat, strike
— "AUit. Poems," Amours
JVardle, 16, Ab. world
AVarem, 209, C. Du. warm
TVarsle, 97, to sidle along, struggle,
wrestle
Wasti, 19, 254, Go. dress, Lat. vestis,
ga-wasiths, was clad
Watch weds, 187, Cu. for game of
"Scots and English," weds,
pledges, as in wad-set, which see
Water brash, 139, a symptom of
indigestion
Water droger, 133. Cf. droch, a
dwarf
Wato, 253, Go. water
" Wattled cotes," 15, 67, Milton. See
withe, withy, waddja
Wauken, wakand, 53, pres. part, of
wauk, to be on the wake or
watch
" The waukia' " (watching) " o' the fauld."
AU. liaTnsay.
Waukit, 65, wauk, to full cloth,
render callous, as the palm by
hard work —
" Till hia waukit hoofs were in a blister."
"Jac. Ball."
Waur, wairs, 29, 97, Go. ; E. worse
Waurms, 20, Go. worm
Waurtja, 26, 48, Go. ; E. ort, wort,
root, Ger. Wurz
Waxin kernels, 182, Cu. wax ker-
nels, Fi. an indurated gland,
often in the neck
Wean, 66, Lan. child ; obsc. or.
Wearin, a, 173, Cu. a decline, Sc.
Wearing-down process, 194
Weary alone, to, 92
Wecht, 124, close sieve used in
winnowing corn
Wed, 187, Cu. See wadi
Wedder, 21, a sheep, wether. Go
withrus, a lamb ; or. sense, a
" yearling "
Weebie, 123, 148, the ragwort, Fi.
Not in Jam.
Weed, 179, E. dress (Shak.)
Weed-clips, 173, Cu.
Weed, 139, an illness
Weel-eddicate, 88, well educated
Weel-hained, 130, well-preserved,
hain, have to spare. See hained
Ween, 30, expect, fancy. Go. wenjan,
to expect
Weet, 209, C. Du. pron. wait, as on
the Borders ; wat, wot
Wee wifikie, 106, little wifie
Weigan, 23, Go. to fight, A.S. wig,
a warrior
Weihs, weihsta, 26, 249, Go. street
corner, Lat. vicus, a wick, -wich
Weina, 26, Go. wine. Cog. Lat.
vinum, from which it is borrowed
Weina-basi, 15, Go. the grape, lit.
wine-berry
Weird, 69, werd, weerd, A.S. wyrd,
fate, Go. wairthan, and Ger.
werden, to come to pass ; werdie,
69, feeblest bird in a nest,
" Ilka nest has its werdie." Prob.
conn, with weird, wyrd, as the
luckless, unfortunate. (J. B. F.)
Weis (weece), 11, Go. we
Weiss, 83, wyce
Weitan, 51, Go. to see, to wit
Well-caumed, 135, cam-stone, white
clay hardened. "Teut. kalmey-
steen." — Jam.
Wer, 16, A.S. a man, as in wer-
gild, weor-o\d, Lat. vir. See
wair
Wer-old, 16, O.E. world, A.S. weor-
old — comp. of Ic. verr. Go. wair.
Lat. vir. a man, and old, M.E.
elde, old age, Go. aids, an age — all
in sense " an age of man "
Wersh, 86, 153. See walshoch
Weyt, 182, Cu. wecht, Fi.
Wh {imt.)=W,B2
Wha, lohaii', 14, 40, who, interr.
Whan, hwan, 32, Go. when
GLOSSARY
323
Whaup, 119, greater curlew— ono-
matop.
Wheen, quheyne, 69, 86, 94, 138;
cf. whang, a large piece, Lat.
ciineus, a wedge : quhan in place
names, as Quoth-quhan
JVheenge, 30, 136, E. whine, A.S.
waman. Kl. thinks the cognate
Ger. weinexi probably from Gj.
and Ger. wai, woe (as interj.) and
Go. wainags, unhappy, tearful,
and compares with Go. hwainon,
to wee]p
" A' ye whingin Whig carles."
" Old Song."
Wheesh, 13, hush, Go. ms
Wheetie, 148, call to ducks
Whicks, quickens, 182, Cu.
Whid, whidding, 14, rapid movement
" He heard the bows that bauldly ring.
An' arrows whidderia hym near by.^'
" Old BaU."
Whiles, for sometimes, 167
Whi-lk, 14, 40, which
WTiill, 90, until
Whilst, whiles, whilie, 35, 90
Whins, winds, 83, E.
Whip t' cat, 188, Cu.
Whisps, 83, E. wisps
■\White, whet, 14, 30, E. to sharpen,
A.S. hwettan, lo. hwettja, to
sharpen, incite, Go. hwass, sharp
Whittret, 124, prob. Ic.hvat-r, quick,
bold ; pet name for a youngster
Whol, 174, pool in a river, Bord.;
Ger. Welle, a billow
Wliopan, 48, Go. to boast, whoop
Who's owt t' dog, 169, Cu. idiom
Whummle-bore, 139, 140, 151, cleft
palate ; onomatop. as affecting
speech
Wicht, waihts, 12, Go. a thing, E.
wight, whit, Ger. Wicht
fFicfe = corners, ^'vrickin a iore,"Q8,
wic, an open bay, Ic. vik, creek
Widdy, 25, 67, 252, withe, Sc. wattles,
Da. vidie, halter or rope of willow
or hazel twigs, hence the gallows.
See Go. waddja.
" Ye cheat the widdie, rogue."
Widow woman, 18, 35, 247, widuwo,
Go. ; cf. Lat. vidua
Wife, 209, C. Du. wifie
Wife-day, cum-mether, Cu. 181. See
Cummer's Feast
'ig, 181, North, tea-cake, Du.
wegge, a kind of cake, Ger. Week,
wheaten bread, or. sense in O.N.
vegge, a wedge. See wheen
Wigs, 23, Go. wayside
Wig-leader, 82, E. whig
Wiht, 12, olden form of whit
Wiljan, 255, Go., cf. will, well
Willie-miln, 66, Ei. door-catch
Willie-waucht, 85, a hearty draught
of liquor. Not in Jam.
Wiltit, 49, walwjan, Go. to roll, E.
welter, waltz, wallow, A.S. weal-
wian, -wyltan, to roll round
Wime, Wambe, 18, 58, belly, Go.
wamba, Ger. Wamme, E. womb
" Our wames e'en to our riggin bane
Like skate fish clappin.'
*' Puddin' Leezie."
"Wince, loot a" (Burns), 173, an
oath, perh. corr. of "wounds."
See"'Odswuns."
Windy, 63, 92, boastful
Wining, 145, app. for winding
Winister, 146, instr. for vnnding
straw ropes. Not in Jam.
Winthi-skauro, 23, Go. wind or
winnowing fan. Du. schuren, a
barn, as in the Taal (with Go.
hard pronunc), Groote Schoor, the
Cape Town house of Cecil Rhodes,
now Government House for
S.-Af. Union. See Skura windis
Wintrus, 23, Go. winter
Wipe, 172, a blow, a retort, the act
of rubbing to clean, a blow, stroke,
A.S. wipian, cf. whip, wsp
Wippin, 83, E. for a whippin
Wirset, 233, worsted, from name of
a village near Norwich
Wirth, 24, Ger. ; Go. wairdus,
house-father
Wis, 32, Go. whish
Wisan, 51, 56, Go. to be, was
Wit-an, 27, 51, 255, Go. wit, wot,
Sc. wat, Ger. wissen
Wite, -id-ioeit-jan, 30, 206, Go. to
reproach, A.S. aet-witan, ed-
witan, from Go. weit-jan, to give
one the wite (So.) or blame, and
witan, to know, Du. wijten, to
blame. Twit from M.E. at-witen.
Wite keeps the or. long vowel
"Nae man can wyte me wi' theft.'
"Eoblloy."
324
GLOSSARY
Withon, 14, Go. to shake, cf. Ger.
Wedel, tail or tip of a fan ; akin
to Go. waian, to blow, wave,
wind
Without, 90, for unless
"Withra, 48, 216, Go. against, mth-
stand, A.S. witlire, M.E. wither,
resistance, E. withers
AVitoda-fasteis, 27, Go. scribe, lawyer,
witoth, the law, and fastan, to fast
Witoda-laisareis, 27, Go. teacher of
the law. Go. witoth, a law, from
witan, to know, and laisjan, to
teach
Witters, 154, withers. Not in Jam.
Wlappit, 53, wrapt, folded, lapwing,
lapper, lappel, lappet, from Go.
walwjan, to roll
Wleiz-s, 18, Go. countenance, anda-
wleizns, and, against, and wlitan,
to look, Ger. Antlitz, M.E. anleth,
A.S. white, brightness, beauty.
Go. wlisjan, to smite in the face
Wlispyt, 61, Barb, lisped
fWludja, 17, Go. the countenance, is
mistake in text for ludja, a var. of
wlits. See wleiz-s
Wochen-bett, 205, C. Du. See kraam
Wods, 32, Go. w6ds, mad, Shak.
wood, A.S. wod, Du. woede, Ger.
Wuth. Or. sense of divine
frenzy is in Woden, Odin, and
Lat. vates, a seer
Wok, 11, Go. pret. of wakan, to
wake, watch, us-wakjan, to wake
from sleep, Ger. wachen
Won't can come, 169, Cu. idiom
Wopjan, whoop, 30, Go. weep, Eng.
whoop. Or. sense of weep was
an outcry, lament
Words and phrases, 197
Words for relationship, 194
Wort, 26, 48, E. root. See waurtja
Worth, 48, obs. E. ; Go. wairthan,
A.S. weorthan, Du. worden, Ger.
werden, to become
Wrack, 145, weeds piled up for
burning, sea-weed, E. var. of
im-eclc, Da. vrag, wreck, Ic. raqa,
to throw away, raaga, drift weed
Wrig, 133, 140, youngest of a litter
or brood, Ic. raqa, to throw away
as refuse. See wrack
Writer, 72, chamber lawyer
Wroh-jan, 30, Go. to accuse, from
wrohs, an accusation, Ger. rtigen,
to censure, Ic. f^raegja, A.S.
wregan, E. be-wray
Wud, 32 mad, furious
Wuldor, 52, A.S. glory, praise. Go.
wulthus
Wulfs, 251, Go. ; E. wolf
Wup, 33, to bind round with cord,
E. whip, Go. weipan, to wreathe,
wip-jo, a crown. Root, vi. to bind
Wurr, wuz, mz-na, 51, 73, 74, 91
168, for were
Wurr'm, 80, worm
Wyce, wise, 97, 106. See weiss
Wyliecoat, 182, Cu.
Wyrd, 23, fate. See -weird
Yaar, 148. In Jam. as " Yaur (red),
species of fucus used by children
for painting their faces." Attrib.
to Newhaven fishermen
Yammer, 151, 221, C. Du. jaumer,
or. yell, var. whimper
" While the bairns wi' rmirnin' yammer
RoTin' their sabbin mither flew."
Ale'z. Wilson.
Yclept, 84, O.E. p. part, of obs. verb
clypian, to call
Yea, 48, 56, A.S. geo, E. yea. Go.
ja,jai,jah
Yeld, 68, 132, a cow with milk dried
up, Ic. gelde, giving no milk,
Sw. gall, barren, Ger. gelf, said of
a cow. Kluge gives the older
Ger. form, gi-alt, as if from alt.
See geld
Yellow-yite, 124, 156, yellow-yorlin,
yellow-hammer, yellow yoldrin.
"No cross reference to yeldrin,
and here, in small type, yellow-
yite, the commonest name." (J.
B. F.)
Yorlin or Yarlin, 156. Prof. Cooper
often heard these rhymes —
" Yallow, yallow, yarlin,
Drink a drap o deil's blood
Ilka May mornin'."
He adds the note that boys hated
this bird, and used to stone it.
This was a very widely diffused
bit of folk-lore, a survival of the
early legend that Judas Iscariot
GLOSSAEY
325
was transformed into the bird,
perhaps due to the yellow gaber-
dine of the Mediseval Jew
Yett, 62, var. of gate
Yird, yirdit, 49, buried — Erde, var.
of earth
Yirp, 248, Bu. act of fretting, yirpin,
fretful
Yiss, 78, yes. Highland speaker
Yode, 34, O.E. went
" Yokin, a," 34, " he yohit on me."
Jam. to engage in a quarrel; var.
of yoke, to join, Go. waurda jinka,
wordy strife
Yon, 51, Go. jains, that, jaind,
jaindre, yonder, Ger. jener
Yooer, 177, 178, udder, in form like
Du. uijer, North, yure, Ger. enter,
like udder, follows the Teut. type
udra
Young, juggs. Go., 53, Ger. jung
Yowe, 21, ewe, Lat. ovis. Go. awi-s,
awi-str, awi-thi
Yuckie, 153, itchy, also prov. E. ;
Du. jeuken, Ger. jucken, to itch
Zuipen, 210, Du. See seap, sijp
Zwaar, 209, C. Du. ; Sc. sweer, in
slightly different sense, comp.
zwaarder
■••V" Dr. Wm. Craigie, co-editor of " New English Dictionary," in a note
to me, says, with reference to p. 5 of the text, where tun is compared with Go.
tains and tain-jo, " Connexion between tun and tains is very doubtful, as the
vowels do not belong to the same series." Again, with regard to the parallel,
p. 14, between whet and white (a stick), "The former represents O.E.
hwettan and the latter O.E. thwitan. The older form of whittle is thwitel,
and Sc. whang =thong, early thwang."
It is but fair to say that Dr. Craigie has seen only the first sheet or two
of the text.
SCOTO-FEENCH SECTION
The head word is always Scots ; the French follows. Meanings will be
found in the text. A few words have been introduced here though they
have not been included in the text, but these are distinguished by the
absence of any reference.
The Glossary is intended to be taken as a whole, so that a word not
found in the one section may be looked for in the other.
Abillzeaments, 236, habillement
Accrese, accresce, aocress, 239, ac-
croissement
Aiver, 21, 71, horse, goat, &c., O.F.
avdr, avoir, property, "having,"
E. aver-age.~N. E.T).
Allya, 228, 235, alli6
Ashet, 239, assiette
Aumous, 242, almesse, alms
Awal, 65, 189, awald, of a sheep
lying helpless on its back, avaler,
F. to gulp down, descend, Lat.
ad vallem, O.F. avaler, to descend,
fall (Spenser)
Awmrie, 235, 242, aumonerie ;
aumry, chest, O.F. aumoiren,
Lat. armarium, depot of arms
B
Babies, 231, babiole. It. babbeo,
bauble, babble, " a pet form of babe
from common root "
Babuttis, 230, bibs, Fr. bavette
Backet, bucket, 66, 68, 155, 209,
in saut-backet, dim. of back, Du.
bak, trough, tub, F. bao, ferry-
boat, dim. baquet
Bain, 66, 156, 209, Sc. a bucket, F.
bain, It. bagno, Lat. balneum,
bath, obsc. E. N.E.D. tub, Jam.
boin, boyen, bine, washing tub
Bajan, bejant, 75, 240, first-year
student, bajan, F. bec-jaune, yellow
beak, Ger. Gelb-Schnabel
Banns, 74, same as ban, a pro-
clamation, F. ban, Med. Lat. ban-
num
Barley, 240, parley, parler
Bases, 236, base, "app. an E.
application of base, 'bottom' to
a short skirt from waist to knee."
— N.E.D.
Bass, a door - mat, Sc.-F. base,
M.E. has, baas, basse
Bavard, 230, F. baveur
jBawbee, 240, has biUon. This origin
questioned in N.E.D.
Bawsent, bawson, 223, O.F. bauzan,
It. balzano, Lat. balteus = striped
with white
Beaver, 240, bevoir
Begyte, 150, Sc. foolish, "nasty
begoyt creature," Bff. Fr. bigaut,
ass or fool. — Jam.
fBioker, 237, 238, bitch. M. Amours
says, " I do not think F. becqtiee
has anything to do with bitch or
bicker." He notes, also, that " les
trois Rois" refers to Twelfth Night
or Epiphany (Jan. 6)
Bilgets, 238, O.F. billete, billets.
Boge, 230, bougie.
Boise, 233, O.F. busse, buss, a fishing-
boat, Dii. buis
Bonet, 233, O.F. bonet
Bonnie, 97, bonne, fair
Bools, 127, 238, Sc; F. boule, Lat.
bulla, a bubble, a round thing.
-N.E.D.
Boss, of a shield, 207 ; cf. emboss,
F. bosse
Bowie, 68, a milk-bowl, Sc. milk
dish, usually referred to F. buie,
but possibly dim. of bowl
GLOSSAEY
327
Brace, 240, bras, O.F. brace, bras,
"width, of the two arms
Brash, in water-brash, 139, F.
brfeche, broken stuff. — Imp. D.
Brisket, 66, 201, Sc. chest, meaning
and apparent form identical with
Fr. brechet
Bruit, 234, brute, bruit
Bruttit, 236
Buist, 231, 235, 237, O.F. bostia,
boite
Bowet, 240
Butry, 240, biitor, a dull fellow
Buye, 230, buie
Cadie, 242, cadet, Lat. capitatus
Gaisse, 233, O.F. casse, F. chSsse,
Lat. capsa
Callandia, 118, 229, callants, Du.
kalant, a customer, F. chaland,
prob. borr. from Du.
Calsey,169, 237, 242, causey, chaussee,
late Lat. calceata, stamped with
the heel
Caprus, 233, copperas, couperose,
Diez's cupri rosa, more prob. cup-
rosa, short for aqua c. = copper
water, Ger. Kupfer-Wasser, and
" assoc. with rose merely an etym.
fancy."— N.E.D.
Capitane, 236, O.F. capitaine
Castoclts=chou-stocks, 68, 242, chou
Certes, certie, 240, certes. " In 'my
cerlies, my certie,' the word may
be identical with certes, M.E. and
O.F., but history of the phrase
not clear."— N.E.D.
Chaffing, 231, chauffer
Chamer, chaumer, 229, chambre.
Chandlers, 231, 232, O.F. chandelier,
chandelle
Chapelet, 233, Chapeau
Chesbol, 236, the poppy, caisse. " In
Prompt. Parv. cheese-bowl, but
confounded with chibol, F.
ciboule, Lat. csepuUa, onion bed,
csepa, onion." — N.E.D.
tCheetie-pussie, 68, 135, 240, chat.
Prob. not from chat, but a mere
call
Chicknawd, 234, chiquenaude
Chirurgeon, 238, O.F. cirurgien.
The pron. ch=k is modern
Choffer, 235
Chyres, 232, O.F. cha-ife-re, chaire in
eccles. sense, Lat. cathedra
Cissills, 232, O.F. cisel, F. ciseau,
Lat. csedo, to cut
Close, 240, clos
Cog, 68, bucket ; prob. same as
cog, or cock-boat, O.F. cogue, Ic.
kug-gr, a ship. — N.E.D.
" I ^ie them a skelp as they're creepin'
Wi' a cog o' guid swats." — " Auld Sang."
Coggie, 160, dim.
Condie, 120, 172, 240, conduit, F.
conduire
Contigue, 239, contigue
Corbie, 242, corbeau, O.F. corb,
corbin, corbel
Corf, 229, corbeille
Cowe, 68, Jam. cow, twig, broom,
besom (curler's), O.F. coe, F.
queue
Cracklins, cracknel, 130, F. craque-
lin, or a var. of Du. krakeling,
crackle
Cramoisie, cramasie, 229, cramoisi
Oreesh, 68, 81, grease, 63, O.F.
craisse=graisse, fat, Lat. crassus,
grassus, Gael, cr^is.
Crusie, 135, F. creuset, crucible;
O.F. cruseul, creuseau, craicet, E.
cresset
Cry, 87, dcrier
Cummers, 74, 121, 205, 240, F.
commfere
Curchessis, 230, O.F. couvrechds, pi.
of couvrechef
Custock, 68, 242, kale stock, cabbage
stalk, chou, Lat. caulis
D
Deas, deece, 155, generally a long
seat or bench, O.F. deis, F. dais, Lat.
discus, a quoit, later Lat. a table
Delaverly, 153, Bff. ; O.F. delivre,
free, at liberty, obsc.. — N.E.D.
M.E. delaverly, in an overflowing
manner.- E.D.D. "That Mr.
Waverley looks clean made and
deliver." — Scott
Devald, deval, 153, Bff.; North,
stopped, left off, F. devaler, to
descend, devall, to cease. "The
328
GLOSSAEY
last of the old Dvikes of Gordon
used to quote the saying in the
text here as said by one of his
farmers in the Cabrach on a wet
season." — Prof. Cooper
Disjonis, disjune, 230, 235, dejeCmev,
Lat. jejunus, fasting
Dite, 239, O.F. dit, saying. "After
1500 only So."— N.E.D.
Dornick, 230, cloth of Tournay
Douce, 242, doux, O.F. dols, Lat.
dulcis, sweet
Dour, 97, 242, North. F. dur, hard
Dresser, 1, 155 ; O.F. dresseur, F.
dressoir, Med. Lat. directorium
Drogs, 238, drogues — in use in 14th
0. ; or. uncertain
Dule-weid, 106, 230, weed of deuil
Dool, dole, 242, O.F. doel, Lat.
dolium, grief
Dusty-foot, 184, Sc.-Fr. trans, of pie
poudreux, pede pulverosus= pie-
powder
Dyvour, 72, 115, 240, 242, devoir,
"or. unoert. — may be same as diver
= drowned in debt."— N.E.D.
E
•[Eglantine, 26, last syll. not conn,
with tine. Go. tains, as given in
text, but from O.F. aiglantier,
L. Lat, aoulentus, j)rickly
Entress = enter and -ess, after duresse,
largesse, "chiefly So. — right to
enter."— N.E.D.
Essay, 236, essaie
Essonyie, 33, essoin, Go. sunja, trath,
sunj6u, to excuse (may be O.H.G.),
O.F. essoyner, from ex and sonia,
sunnis, lawful excuse. — N.E.D.
Evite, 239, eviter, Lat. evitare. " In
18th-19th 0. almost peculiar to So.
writers "—N.E.D.
Exeem, 239, exempter, Lat. eximere.
"Chiefly Sc."—N.E.D.
Exerce, 239, O.F. exercer, Lat.
exeroere; "Chiefly Sc."— N.E.D.
Exoner, 239, exon(5rer, Sc. law term
Expede, 239, expddier, Sc. law term
F
Fagots, 135, 182, F. bundle of sticks.
In Cumb. faggot is a term of
reproach, corroborating the Camp-
beltown interpretation given in
the text. N.E.D. has, "a term of
abuse app. to a woman "
Fascherie, fachous, fashous, 86, 97,
240, O.F. fascherie, faoheux, fSoh-
eux, fftcher : —
"Troth, Caesar, whiles they're fashed
eneuch."— " Twa Dogs."
Fattrels, 240, O.F. fatraille, fatras =
things of no value
Fent, 240, f ente, Lat. findere, to split
Fleggearis, 230, flfeche
Fond, foond, 238, fond, foundation ;
superseded in 18th c. by fund,
Lat. fundus
Foy, 208, O.Du. foey, a compact,
from foi, faith, covenants being
confirmed by eating and drink-
ing together
Frenges, 232,238, O.F. frenge, frange,
Lat. fimbria, border
Fushonless, 186, 240, foison
G
Gabarts, 232, capjpers, gabare
Gadge, 238, O.F. gauge, F. jauge
Gag, 127, 155, 240, gage, also gig,
geg ; pledge in security, F. gage,
var. of wage, wed, O.F. g(u)age,
Go. wadja. Fife term in boys'
game, "smoogle the gag," else-
where, as in the West, pronounced
"geg." The Glasgow term, "gegg,"
a trick, quoted in N.E.D., but
not now so used, may be a var.
of geek, begeck, in sense of hoax,
play a trick on, and therefore not
connected with "gag," "geg." —
N.E.D. ^^ ^ °
Gansel, gansald, gansallin, 136, 140,
insolent retort, prop, garlic sauce
for goose, O.F. ganse aillie, later,
gance d'aulx, in same sense ; ailia
farlic. Kl. "Ger. giinsel, from
lat. consolida, whioli name the
old herbalists applied to all heal-
ing plants
Ganzeis, 230, arrows, prob. contr. of
eiigin ; of. Burns's " gin-horse."
" Obsc. or. — an Ir. gainne of
similar meaning, but word not
known in O.F."— N.E.D.
GLOSSARY
329
Gawkie, 242, gauche. " Of difficult
etym., conn. \\'itli gauche has grave
difficulties."— N.E.D.
Geans, 127, wild cherry, O.F. guigne
Gey, 74, intensive, very, tolerable,
middling, var. of gay, F. gai
(from 12th c.)
Gloy, 62, Ore. straw ropes. Not in
Jam. F. (dial.) glui, barley straw,
prob. Flem. and N., and thus
came to So.
'* Quhais rufis laitly full roucli thykyt war,
Wytb stra or gloy by Romulus the wycht."
Doug. Aen., 8, 11, 31.
Giglot, 137, a romping girl, F.
gigelot (14th c), conn, with giggle
Girnel, 135, garnel, sp. So. a bin
for corn, meal, or salt, influenced
by F. grenaille, refuse corn, O.F.
grenier, Lat. granarium
Gote, 172, goat, a ditch, water-way,
O.F. gote, goutti&re, gutter
Gree, 242, O.F. gre, Lat. gradus, a
step.
Grogram, 231, gros-grain
Grozets, 127, 240, grossarts, groser,
grozart, sp. So. gooseberry, F.
groseille, with r for I
Gusty, 242, gout
H
Hallion, halones, 160, idle, worthless
fellow ; or. unoert. Of. F. haillon,
rag.— N.E.D.
Hashy, 151, untidy, hash, some-
thing cut up into small pieces —
verb, to hash ; F. hacher, hache,
hatchet
fHaverel, 240, poisson d'avril
Hogmanay, 104, last day of the year,
cake-day ; obsc, but app. of F.
origin. — N.E.D.
Hotch, 178, 242, Du. hotsen, to jog,
jolt, Ger. dial, hotzen, F. hocher,
to shake.— N.B.D.
" To pay the hygane towmont'a rent,
John Doo cam hotohin' east."
Hurcheon, 234, hdrisson
Jambs, 135, 240, 241, sides of a fire-
place, as if legs, jambe, F. ; Gael.
camb, crooked ; late Lat. gamba,
hoof, leg
Jigot, 241, gigot
Jootelegs, 242, Jacques de Liege
Joist, 241, O.F. ■
Lettron, 238, lutrin, O.F. letrin
Lowe, 53, 234, allouer
Lozen, 139, var. of lozenge, F.
losange
M
Maister, 134, 209, maltre
Mashlum, mazlin, 183, coarse cake
made of mixed grains, O.F. mesteil,
F. ni^teil, Du. masteluin, Lat.
mistus, mixed
Mell, maU, 133, Shet., a broad fist,
mason's mallet, cog. with maul and
with F. mail
MeU, 242, meler
fMessan, 183, Jam. from Messina or
F. maison, N.E.D. prob. a house,
Gael, meas-an, meas-chu, a lap-dog
Mishanter, 92, corr. of misadventure,
O.F. mesaventure
"For nivver syne ever they ca'd as they
came,
Did sic a mishap and mishanter bef a' me."
Mooter, multure, 70, mill-fee for
grinding corn, O.F. molture, F.
mouture, Lat. molitura
Mowles, 234, mule
Mummers, 104, actors in dumb show,
"F. mommeur, prob. of Teut.
or.=mum."— N.E.D.
Muntar, 237, montre
N
Nappie, 198, ale, prop, a wooden
bowl, A.S. hnaep, Du. nap, a
drinking cup, O.F. hanap. Low
Lat. hanapus, E. hanaper,
hamper
Nottar, 238, notaire
Oblissis, obUsohement, 236, 239,
obliger
22
330
GLOSSAEY
Olfend, 21, A.S. camel, O.F.
olifant, elephant, M.E. olifaimt,
Go. ulubandus
Oralog, 229, horloge
Osill, 234, oiseau
Pace, 241, peser
Paitrick, 124, 234, partridge, per-
drix
Palmer, 104, tawse, ferula, pawmie,
Lat. palma, F. paume
Panse, 237, panser
Pantonis, 229, 234, patin, a skate
Parisli, pairish, 241, paroisse
Parsell, 234, persil, parsley
Pasoh, 15, 186, 229, Paque for
Pasque, Go. Paska= Easter
Passments, 233, passementerie
Pauchlin, 212. Jam. — Under
bachle, a pendicle, O.F. bachle,
as much land as twenty oxen
could plough in an hour
Pawmie, 134, paume, Lat. palma
Pawrlies, 130, parlies, var. of parlia-
ment cake, parler
Peevor, 127, pavenr, F., syn. with
pealall, girl's game
Pend, 241, pendre
Pery, 238, pirouette
Petticoat-tails, 241, petits gateaux
Pie-powder, 184. See dusty foot
Plack, copper coin = 4d., Sc, introd.
by Fleming's plaque, a "metal
dish "
Plash, 173, Ou. to trim a hedge, to
intertwine branches, O.F. plais-
sier, Lat. plectere, cog. pleach. —
Shah.
Plumbe damies, 232, prune de damas
Poopit, 73, Sc. pulpit, Fr. pupJtre
Popinjay,241,papegai,papingo,from
O.F. papegau
Pottage, 85, 235, potage
Pouches 123, poche
Protticks, 84, Sc.
Prattick, 93, Gael. Jam. prattik,
F. pratique, astrology
Provost, 80, O.F. prevost, pr6v6t,
Lat. prsepositus, a prefect
Pup^ettis, puppie, 231, 241, poupde
Pursie, 234, pourcif, for M.F. poussif
R
Ribbet, dressed corner-stones in a
building ; raboter, to plane
Rose, a watering-can, arroser, lit.
to bedew. " Gang and rooser the
claise on the green." — Gr.
S
Saim, 130, sayme, pro v. E. seam, lard,
fat ; Lat. sagina, fatness, F. sain.
It. saime
Sasine, 73, So. law term, O.F. saisir,
saisine, L. Lat. sacire, to put in
possession, seised — Shak.
Say, 230, sole
Sconce, 202, E.— "a small fort. Da.
skandse, Ger. Schanze, a fort, prob.
O.F. esconser, to hide" — Sk.
See sconce
Sooryettis, 237, O.F. escorcher.
" 6 buistis scrotcheitis and con-
fectis presentit to my Lord Duke
Chatterlhaut in this town." —
" Glasgow Records," 1574
Servet, 235, serviette
Siedge, 235, sifege; a seat. — Spenser
Sklate, 241, eclater
Sorn, 69, 201, to sponge upon, sornin,
sponging, sorners, parasites, O.F.
sorner, to cheat, sournois, mali-
cious. It. sornione, a sneak
Sowder, 234, soother, soudure
Spaul, 241, ^paule
Stoep, 25, 188, 207, C. Du. (5tape,
a halting place
Stour, 56, dust (of battle), O.F.
estour, Teut. or.
Suker, 232, sucre
Suldarts, 234, soldart
Suplee, 239, supisl^er
Sybows, 241, ciboule, O.F. cibo, Lat.
cepa ; cf. chesbol, a poppy
Syer, 238, O.F. essuier, esuer
Taffetas, 230, taffetaa. " Ane hand
senyie (Fr. enseigne) of talfitie
of the tonnes cuUouris." —
"Stirling Records," 1622
GLOSSAEY
331
Tailzeour, 92, 230, teelyir, tiler, teil-
leur
Tap, 238, toupie
Tansy,^148, O.F. tanasie, athanasie,
Gr. dOavaa-la, immortality. Not
in Jam.
Tapischere, 230, tapisserie
Tarre, 69, tirran, Ore. to cross, pro-
voke. Under "tarry," Skeat
shows it is due to confusion of
M.E. tarien, to irritate, and M.E.
targen, to delay, from O.F. targer,
Mod. F. tarder, L. Lat. tardicare,
tardus, slow. We also find O.F.
tarier, to vex. Of. O.Sc. targe, to
beat, rate severely. "Tarveal,
fretful."— "Elgin K. S. Records"
Tassis, 230, tasse
fTawpie, 136, 242, taupe; French
or. doubtful
Thrammels, thrammel, 147, stall-
fastening of a cow, E. trammel,
F. tramail, a net, Sc. trammel-
net
Tinoler, 232, dtinoelle
Tirlets, 236, tiraiUer
Tooly, toolye, tulzie, 107, 184, 241, Cu.
combat, a quarrel, broil. Jam.
O.F. touiller, to mix
Toy, 243, toque. Da hoved-toi,
headdress
Trances, 135, 146, a passage inside
a house, F. transe
TraveUoure, 232, 236, travaiUeur
Trebuchet, 232, tr^buchet
Trencher, 231, 235, tranchoir
Truncheor, 235
Treviss, 131. 140, 176, 241, O.F. tref,
Lat. trabs, a beam
Triacle, treckle, 234, triacle,
" treacle," Cot., Mod. F. th&iaque
Tripans, 231, trypan
Trockit, 151, bartered, F. troquer,
to barter, E. truck
Turcusses, 231, O.F. torser
Tureen, 241, terrine
Turse, 231, O.Fr. trusser, torser
(Lat. tortiare, to twist, bind up) ;
cf. tirr
Turner, 241, tournois
Tweel, 241, toile
Twis, 230, dtui
V
Vacations, 128, long holidays at
school, Fr. vacanoe
Valour, 236, valeur
|Vie, 23. Not, as in text, conn.
with Go., but contracted from
O.F. envie, M.F. envier, Lat. in-
vitare
*V® I have to thank Mons. F. J. Amours, B.A., for carefully revising
the foregoing section (8c. Fr.) in the light of his exceptional knowledge
of old and modern French as well as of Lowland Scots.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM GREEN AND SONS, EDINBURGH.