Scots words in An Abandoned Woman

This book actually started off being called 'An Unkenspeckle Woman', meaning an inconspicuous woman, but it was pointed out to me that not understanding the title was unlikely to be a selling point! Again, we have some repetition from the other books here, and some words that will be in use today or obsolete, and some words that will not be exclusively Scots.

Ain: own

Ashet: serving dish

Bejant: first year student at St. Andrew’s University (from the French, bec jaune, or yellow beak, meaning a young bird)

Carline: old woman, witch

Claik: gossip (though Buchan claik simply means Buchan speech, Buchan dialect)

Compear: to appear in any court, as accused or as witness

Corbie: crow

Couped by the heels: knocked flat

Couthless: unsophisticated

Cuddy: donkey

Doocot: dovecot

Faisible: respectable, decent

Fou’: drunk

Gallant: flirt

General Assembly: the annual meeting of representatives of the Established Church in Edinburgh, where the Moderator is elected.

Gey: very

Gowf: golf

Green garten: giving a sister the green garten = a younger sister marrying before an elder one, an embarrassing situation for the elder sister.

Grushie: healthy

Heich-headit: haughty

Heritors: body of laity, usually landowners, who see to the buildings of a parish, the church, manse and schoolhouse, and appoint the schoolmaster.

Hirple: limp

Hizzie: hussy

Ill-gashioned: mischievous or ill-disposed (a Fife expression)

Jook: duck, dodge

Ken: know

Kenspeckle: well-known, conspicuous

Kirk Session: body of laity, known as elders, who with the minister run a particular church. The Session Clerk is their head. Not unlike a vestry in an Anglican church.

Kist: chest

Lammie: lamb

Lepping-on stane: mounting block

Lug: ear

Manse: oh, everyone will know this one! It’s the minister’s house, the vicarage equivalent. It’s also the name of the house where a particular professor lived and taught at Aberdeen University, so ‘Humanity Manse’ is where Latin was taught, for example.

Mercat: market

Midden: dung heap, refuse heap

Muir: moor

Pavie: panic, chaos

Rammie: fight, particularly street fighting.

Roup: auction

Shilpit: lazy, useless, unpromising generally

Skirl: yell, scream

Steading: farm buildings usually round a yard.

Swithering: indecisive

Taigle: dally (basically entangle)

Taigle the cleek: hinder progress generally, tangle things up

Tatties: potatoes

Un-better-maist: ungentlemanly, unladylike

Uncanny: creepy, not quite right (also not careful, not clever)

Whin: gorse

Yeld: barren

Scots words in Service of the Heir

Well, the very title is a Scots legal term, also known as a Retour, the proof established that someone can inherit land or buildings from someone else. Moveable goods go differently. But here are some of the Scots words that appear - again, some are in broader use than just Scotland, some are archaic and some still used, and some are repeated from the last two lists. Now, back to typing the next book!

Auld Clootie – the Devil, the old  cloven-hooved one.

Bairn – child

Bing – a barrel or tub, or (later) any large quantity. For example, the mining spoil heaps in the Lothians are called bings

Boke - vomit

Bumbazed – confused

Clarty - dirty

Creepie stool – small, roughly made stool suitable for kitchens

Cruive – pen for animals

Divilment - mischief

Fash – bother, fash himself – take the trouble

Frae - from

Gar my flesh grue – give me the creeps

Gey - very

Gowk  - fool

Groosie – dirty, usually greasy dirt

Haar – sea mist

Handfasted – betrothed

Hizzie - hussy

Howff – low drinking establishment

Joogling – jingling, jiggling

Kirk  - church

Kisting – placing of a  corpse in a coffin (kist – chest)

Loutch – to walk carelessly, with shoulders slumped

Luckenbooth – a lockable market stall

Muckle – much, or of a person, self-aggrandising

Neuk – corner

Pluffy – full of yourself

Pross – parade, show yourself off

Queesivity - curiosity

Risp – an alternative to a door knocker, a vertical twisted iron rod attached to a wall by the door, with a ring round it to be rattled (tried to find one on the SCRAN website but it's refusing to appear!)

Speiring – asking, looking for

Steading – farm buildings

Thole – tolerate, put up with

Tron – weighings scales, also the place where goods are weighed at a market

Wadman – employment agent

Well-kent – well-known