Old Slang Signs

  It is the celebration of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns this week, 25th January 2024 and so to get us all in the spirit of the event here are a few olde worlde Scottish sayings and words and other more modern ones...

• I’ll gie ye a skelpit lug! – I’ll give you a slap on the ear.
• Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye! – What’s meant to happen will happen.
• Skinny Malinky Longlegs! – A tall thin person.
• Lang may yer lum reek! – May you live long and stay well.
• Speak o’ the Devil! – Usually said when you have been talking about someone – they usually appear.
• Black as the Earl of Hell’s Waistcoat! – Pitch black.
• Failing means yer playin! – When you fail at something at least you’re trying.
• Mony a mickle maks a muckle! – Saving a small amount soon builds up to a large amount.
• Keep the heid! – Stay calm, don’t get upset.
• We’re a’ Jock Tamson’s bairns! – We’re all God’s children, nobody is better than anybody else – we’re all equal.
• Dinnae teach yer Granny tae suck eggs! – Don’t try to teach someone something they already know.
• Dinnae marry fur money! – Don’t marry for money – you can borrow it cheaper.
• Is the cat deid? – Has the cat died? Means your trousers are a bit short – like a flag flying at half mast.
• Haud yer wheesht! – Be quiet.
• Noo jist haud on! – Now just hold it, slow down, take your time.
• Hell slap it intae ye! – Means it’s your own fault.
• I’m fair puckled! – I’m short of breath.
• Do yer dinger. – Loudly express disapproval.
• Gie it laldy. – Do something with gusto.
• Ah dinnae ken. – I don’t know.
• Haste Ye Back! – Farewell saying meaning “return soon”.
• It’s a dreich day! – Said in reference to the weather, when it’s cold, damp and miserable.

Some Scottish sayings that are not so old ……

• Gonnae no’ dae that! – Going to not do that.
• Pure dead brilliant – Exceptionally good.
• Yer bum’s oot the windae – You’re talking rubbish.
• Am pure done in – I’m feeling very tired.
• Am a pure nick – I don’t look very presentable.
• Ah umnae – I am not.
• Ma heid’s mince – My head’s a bit mixed up.
• Yer oot yer face! – You’re very drunk.
• Yer aff yer heid – You’re off your head – a little bit daft.

And some Scottish slang words ……

• Aboot – About
• Ain – Own
• Auld – Old
• Aye – Yes
• Bahooky – Backside, bum
• Bairn – Baby
• Bampot- Idiot
• Barry- splendid
• Baw – Ball
• Bawface – Describes someone with a big round face.
• Ben – Mountain, or through
• Bevvy-drink
• Bide – Depending on the context, means wait, or stay.
• Blether – Talkative, when referred to a person. To “have a blether” is to have a chat.
• Blutered- very drunk
• Boggin-filthy or disgusting
• Bonnie – Beautiful
• Bowfing – Smelly, horrible
• Braw – Good, or brilliant
• Breeks – Trousers
• Coo – Cow
• Clorty- Filthy
• Crabbit – Bad tempered
• Cry – Call, as in what do you call him?
• Dae – Do
• Dauner – Walk – “I’m away for a dauner”
• Didnae – Didn’t
• Dinnae – Don’t
• Dour- glum
• Drap – Drop
• Dreep – Drip
• Drookit – Soaking wet
• Druth- thirsty
• Dug – Dog
• Dunderheid, Eejit, Galoot, Numptie – All mean idiot
• Dunt – Bump
• Eedjit- idiot
• Feart – Afraid
• Fusty- mouldy
• Frae – From
• Galoot- idiot
• Gallus – Bravado, over-confident
• Gang – Go
• Gaunnae – Going to
• Geggie – Mouth, as in “shut your geggie”
• Glaikit – Stupid, slow on the uptake
• Goonie – Nightgown
• Greet – Cry
• Gubbed - Badly
• Gumption – Common sense, initiative
• Gurne- Sulk
• Guttered- Drunk
• Gutties - Plimsolls
• Hae – Have
• Hame – Home
• Hammered- Drunk
• Haud – Hold
• Haver – Talk rubbish
• Hing – Hang
• Hoachin’ – Very busy
• Hokin’ – Rummaging
• Honkin’, Hummin’, Howlin’ – Bad smell
• Hoose – House
• Houghin - Revolting
• Hunner – Hundred
• Hurkle Durkle - messing about
• Huvnae – Haven’t
• Invershnecky- Inverness
• Jobbie - going for shit
• Keech - bird poo
• Keek – A little look
• Ken – Know
• Lum – Chimney
• Mair – More
• Mannie - little man
• Manky - Filthy
• Merrit – Married
• Messages - groceries
• Mockit, Mingin’, Boggin’ – All mean dirty
• Moose – Mouse
• Naw – No
• Neep, Tumshie – Turnip
• Noo – Now
• Numpty - idiot
• Oot – Out
• Peely Wally – Pale
• Piece – A sandwich
• Poke – (to poke – to prod) (a poke – a paper bag)
• Pus - Mouth
• Radgees - Crazy young lads
• Reek – Smell, emit smoke
• Riddy – A red face, embarrassed
• Scran - Food
• Screwball – Unhinged, mad
• Scullery – Kitchen
• Scunnered – Bored, fed up
• Shoogle – Shake
• Shoogly – Shaky, wobbly
• Shuftie - take a look
• Shunky - Toilet
• Simmet – Gents singlet
• Skelp – Slap
• Skoosh – Lemonade (or fizzy drink)
• Skrechin- shriek
• Sleekit – Sly
• Stookie – Plaster cast (for a broken bone)
• Stour – Dust
• Swally - drunk
• Tartle - panic when forgetting someones name
• Tattie – Potato
• Tattyboggler - Scarecrow
• Telt – Told
• Teuchtar - someone for far north west Scotland
• Thon – That
• Wean – Child
• Weegie- Glasgow person
• Wellies – Wellington boots
• Wheest - be quiet
• Whit – What
• Willnae – Will not
• Widnae – Would not
• Windae – Window
• Wummin – Women
• Ye – You
• Yer – Your
• Yin – One

Degrees of Success- Robbie Burns

It is the morning after Burns Night 2024. I have, in frugal style, scraped up the last of the Haggis from the corners of the serving dish as it stands on the cooker top trying to avoid the scraps of neaps which from experience have a bitter overnight aftertaste. 

With a gloriously naughty feeling on what is a working day I run my finger around the inside of the whisky glass used for the previous evenings toasts and get just a wee sensation of the essence of Scotland. 

Ours had been a grand Burns Supper, one of countless millions celebrated globally by the upwards of 45 million or more who possess a Scottish ancestry. 

From The New York Public Library

Today, it is back to business and an opportunity to reflect on the value of the poet and lyricist Robert Burns to Scotland not just in artistic and cultural terms which are a given but in cold hard cash revenues to the national economy. 

I am looking to update an exercise commissioned by the BBC in 2009 on this very issue- how much does the Burns Brand generate for the nation? 

Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire in 1759. 

In his relatively short life, he died aged 37, he produced great works of prose, poetry and song in the Scottish dialect and these have endured amongst a home grown and worldwide audience. He was not always appreciated in his own lifetime, indeed it was not really until the late Victorian era that an interest was shown in all things from North of the Border from fashion to design, art and crafts, literature and furniture. 

Scotland has produced, for its population, a disproportionate number of exceptional individuals in science, philanthropy, the arts, invention and as entrepreneurs. The Victorians wanted to be associated with such a progressive cultural attitude and Robert Burns was at the forefront of the movement, albeit posthumously. 

It was not therefore instant stardom and celebrity for the man. 

Even as recently as 2004 the sustainability of Burns as a national icon was under pressure when funding organisations withdrew from their support of the Birthplace Museum in Alloway. Declining visitor numbers led to dwindling income. Deterioration of the Museum building allowed the Burns Family Bible to be damaged by a roof leak and it was only when the National Trust for Scotland and Lottery Money stepped up in or around 2009 that any sort of future was assured. 

Huge investment to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Burns  allowed construction of a new Heritage Centre and attractions in Ayrshire and the future of the Burns Brand was assured. 

In 2009 the BBC consulted the great and the good in order to come up with an estimated figure for the revenue generated by all things Burns. 

They considered five broad categories of income that were intrinsically linked to the current cult-status  centred on the poet. 

1) General Tourism. There are millions of visitors to Scotland every year and Ayrshire is a destination for many followers of Burns. Income is derived from hotel accommodation, restaurants and shops, taxi fares, bus fares, guide books and services. 

2)Burns Merchandise. The Heritage Centre and on line shops have a range of quality products in the Burns Brand ranging from expensive lyric -engraved jewellery to chess sets and snow-globes to the best selling fridge magnets. Summer visitors like the themed postcards and as Burns Night, 25th January approaches, the sales of napkins and tea towels ramp up. 

3)Haggis. Not many foodstuffs have their own poem in celebration. This blend of lambs lungs, offal, oats, gravy and other things.....is available all year round but with a spike in volumes for the traditional Supper. It is quite a scrap in my local stockist to secure an elusive MacSweens Haggis for this occasion. Don't forget the tatties and neaps. Oatcakes and soup sales also peak. 

 

4)Whisky. I do  not have much to add to the production figures for this national tipple by way of emphasising the income generating ability of this product. 

5) Miscellaneous items. These are as varied as kilt and sporran hire to fees for a Piper, choirs, Master of Ceremonies, Guest Speakers and admission prices for Corporate Events. 

The wide range of inputs in this calculation does, as you will appreciate, give potential for a huge margin of error. 

Since the 2009 BBC guesstimate there has been inflationary and other pressures at play. One single element has been the increase, over that period, in the adult admission charge to the Heritage Centre from £9 to £11.50. 

Crunching the numbers, in my update, produces a figure of £196 millions. 

Robert Burns would, I think, be pleased about his 21st Century wealth generating capabilities although ironically he struggled in his lifetime with his own finances. 

Not that he was really bothered by material things as a line from his "Country Lassie" testifies "Content and Loove brings peace and joy".

Language over time

This is something that I wrote ten years ago...........

Language is a very fluid thing and even when describing commonplace and quite mundane events

 it is likely that we of the modern age, would find it difficult to understand our distant ancestors.

By fluid I mean at the rate of perhaps the pioneering of a handful of  new words a year, a few subtle changes in meaning every decade and with the bigger cultural swings and shifts every generation or so.
Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote between 1374 and 1386 is widely held to one of the principal introducers of new words to the English Language although given the rarity of surviving or as widely read contemporaries he may just have cornered the market in being the last man standing of that age.

Those of you who studied the works of Chaucer as a set text in secondary school, like me, will have struggled with not just the form of words but also their tone and delivery. It was only when the Wife of Bath was read aloud in a lyrical and almost mystical cadence that the story took shape in all of its ribald and, frankly, crude and vulgar manner.

In all of the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary it is Chaucer who holds the record number of citations for the use of a new word at a tremendous 2004.

Amongst these are some surprising ones that I always thought existed from the very earliest of the writings of mankind or in the great volumes of text emanating from religious works. Take Bagpipe, bed head, hernia, outrageous, scissors, Persian, vacation, universe and wallet for example. These words, even though first penned by Chaucer will have mainly been known in common dialogue and with their etymology in ancient culture.

Later Medieval conversations had an abundance of what we would now regard as quite flamboyant and romantic terms revolving around thy, thee, whither, thither, hither, perchance, prithee, verily and methinks and with a strong emphasis on deference and respect to the ruling class, nobility and elders.
By the age of Shakespeare words and language had evolved as more of the population, although still those of privileged upbringing and nurture, were able to read or hold a rational and structured conversation. The Bard is responsible for many phrases and sayings that survive in one form or another in today's language although often misquoted or delivered in a bit of a mix and match format. The best known include a fool's paradise, all's well that ends well, as dead as a doornail,  fair play, in a pickle, in stitches, neither a borrower nor a lender be, the crack of doom, truth will out and wild goose chase. These seem remarkably fresh even today which is testament to the influence exerted by Shakespeare on the English Language not just in the mother country but throughout the world as English became established on a global scale.

By the 1700's and 1800's spoken and written English was regarded as being so much more refined than in previous ages and this is no more evident than in the classic novels and major literary tomes of that time. We are all familiar with Bronte and Austen being staple components of many an education and more recently in the movie adaptations of their greatest works and the depiction of their alternately gallant and feckless heroes and herioines.

Many of the storylines were again, of the privileged and wealthy gentry and it took the likes of Charles Dickens to bring about a bit of realism, grit and plain ugliness into the spoken word. He was also the master of inventiveness, humour and mischief and these qualities were seen in abundance in his larger than life characters.

My own introduction to Dickens was from the shelf of leather bound volumes at my Grandparents house which I secreted away whenever I went to stay as a child. These were no doubt purchased on a monthly basis from a travelling salesman or through a book club. Under the candlewick bedspread by torchlight the tales and personalities came alive assisted by graphic pencil illustrations amongst the thick yellowing paper pages of the main scenes from Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
My later schoolyears involved studying Thomas Hardy and I was again enthralled by the wordiness and intricacies of his long descriptive sentences and complicated story lines. It was quite hard work wading through Tess of the D'urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd but made easier by big screen versions from the late sixties and seventies.

The twentieth century saw further fluidity in language and words not just in print but increasingly in other media including film and television. Stereotypes developed with each decade in style and speech with 1920's flappers, 1930's clipped speech, 1940's Americanisms, 1950's post war austerity, 1960's liberalism and 1970's social and economic upheaval. By the 1980's it was yuppie time and this persisted into the 1990's and the decades towards the millenium of the dominance of the computer and mobile phone as a source of new words and slang.

Social Media is the main channel of communication and trend setting for the current generation and this has led to the acceleration in yet more new words and phrases.

The authoratative work, the Slang Dictionary is the proving ground and test bed for new language before general acceptance and formal documentation in the Oxford English Dictionary. There are new entries of slang and colloquialisms on a monthly basis.
The listing of a slang expression is determined by its use beyond that of the localised employment of a few friends; in due course these localised expressions may gain greater popularity and achieve expanded regional, national or even global recognition, however it is only at that time that they will be included in the dictionary.
We should be aware that there is a large volume of slang to be encountered through the media such as television, film and press, which invariably increase the reference points but genuinely remain outside of personal use. These media promoted expressions may in due course be adopted into our vernacular, and as such, when they can be confirmed as in use, then they will be listed at that time.

With repeated exposure, via film, television and music, the volume of North American slang we hear in the UK is vast, but a large percentage is still to make inroads into the forefront of British use.

What sort of database are we establishing now for future generations to use or regard as quaint bits of heritage? Here are a few picked at random;

abdabs
absobloodylutely
babe magnet
cack
dischuffed
exactamundo
fabtastic
gaydar
happy clappy brigade
in the niff
peanut smuggling
rellies
wass-up?
yummy mummy

Given the speed of new language the above may just seem like gobblygook within a matter of just a few days...........if not already.

New Year Pledge 2024

The New Year. 2024

I always start out with the best of intentions.

I usually have a few Resolutions which involve a pledge to give up chocolate, take more exercise, read more books and learn something new like a language or a skill with bricklaying being a particular favourite. Within a couple of days, whilst wistfully eating my way through the leftovers of a Cadbury selection box, lounging about on the settee, shunning the activity of turning a page, not even being lucid enough to put together a meaningful sentence to anyone and looking out of the window at that tumbled down wall , I realise that I have failed miserably, well not even miserably because that implies that I had some attempt to uphold my promises in the first place.

The start of a New Year also brings about a frame of mind and opportunity to review your life and hopefully put into practice those lessons learned from hard knocks and bitter experiences that have loomed up in life's broad pageant to date.

This year of 2024 is halfway into my landmark 60th year, yes, that's right, it is the new 35, and what an opportunity to combine this with something magnanimous.

To this end I am thinking about handing out forgiveness, for what I have long since regarded as misdemeanours against me, to the perpetrators whether they have been individuals, groups, companies or the world at large.

Life is far too short to carry around thoughts of retribution for petty issues and my sanity, blood pressure and overall stress levels would benefit significantly from letting these things just evaporate in an all enveloping sense of forgiveness.

In thinking through this intention I have realised how much it is in my nature to hold a grudge on the most silly and stupid things which could, in the most part, not even be seen as a transgression or even a minor personal slight.

On a year to year basis however the magnitude of these issues has grown out of all proportion and that I have just come to appreciate this , only now, is a very sorry state of affairs indeed. I may actually have shortened my life expectancy by carrying around these poisoned and festering thoughts of absolutely no consequence whatsoever in the greater scheme of things.

I have attempted to place this roster of forgiveness in some sort of ascending date order;

Whoever burnt down the Co-Operative Store in Abingdon, Bucks in 1968. It was our local shop and sold the best 'pick and mix' in my world as at 5 years old.

Class 2d at Westgarth County Primary, Bury St Edmunds for protecting the identity of someone who walked off with my collection, my prized collection of Dinky, Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars on the occasion of a 'bring yours toys to school day' in or around 1971.

My Gran, for her thinking but not actually saying that I killed her Jack Russell dog in revenge for her seeing off my pet cat. I was not to know that the building site where I took Ruff for a walk on that fateful day in 1975 was covered with rat poison.

The Corporate Banking Department at Lloyds Bank for their terrible attitude to, and treatment of my Father in or around 1978. He was a Good Person and Bank Manager in that order.

Paul Weller, Rick Buckler and Bruce Foxton, collectively The Jam, for their denial in 1980 of being Mods when that was the last thing that faithful fans and followers wanted to hear especially after buying all their records and wearing their Dad's suit and winkle picker shoes to local disco's.

A group of youths in Fallowfield, Manchester who in 1981 gave me my first sensation of a punch in the face when I refused them a handful of chips in the street.

Three girlfriends who over the period of 1981 to 1985 dumped me which can be a devastating feeling to a young lad.

Leeds United. No explanation required for anyone who likes and appreciates football as a beautiful game.

Ford Motor Company. Producers of my first company car, a 1.6 Diesel Fiesta, in which I scared myself when it failed to reach 50mph in third gear in attempting to overtake a slow moving lorry on the by-pass in 1986.

Sardines, fresh ones on which I blame my appendicitis at the age of 46.

The percentage of the UK population who voted to leave the EU**

Forgiven and forgotten. I feel better already

** well, perhaps not.