n. Selfishness, opportunism; cupboard-love
“He wis aa catkyndness – paws the day, cleuks the morra”
Categories
CATKYNDNESS
Category: Words
Categories
OOSHIN-GOOSHIN
n. festering matter or purulence from a wound and by extension: sin, ill thoughts.
“O Lord! Squeeze the ooshin-gooshin oot o us!”
Categories
CUINZIE(‘S) NEUK
n. the snuggest, most enclosed place you can think of.
Literally, ‘the corner of a corner’
Categories
Count yer skulls
Though it probably refers to a kind of shallow basket, the early 19th century Scots idiom “COUNT YER SKULLS” is a way better version of “count your blessings”
n. unit of measurement equivalent to the volume of two cupped hands.
NIEFU. n. unit of measurement equivalent to the volume of a fist; half a gowpen.
Categories
BRILL. POTATO. FLAVOUR.
In the age of the telegraph, messages were charged by the word, including the address. To save customers money businesses could choose a “telegraphic address”, a unique word or phrase that they could contact them at. Here are some from OWS.
A message sent to ROCK would get you The Bass Crest Brewery Company in Alloa. SCOTCH would get John Bisset and Co. Scotch Whiskeymen in Aberdeen
“Hello. I’d like to send a telegram to Patons in Glasgow, please…”
POTATO was Patons & Co, Glasgow potato merchants
FLAVOUR was Patons & Co, Glasgow tea merchants
BRILL was Patons of Glasgow, fishmongers
NOTAP was Patons of Glasgow, shipping company
SAUSAGE got an Edinburgh butcher, ROLLS a Leith bakery.
In 1900, AITCHISON was taken by a brewer on the Canongate, so James Aitchison, goldsmith to the queen, on Princes St. was left with HISON.
BOUDOIR was a photography shop in Glasgow
HORSES was a dog biscuit maker in Loanhead (?!)
SWEETIES got you a vending machine company’s offices in Glasgow in 1906 EMPTIES was a cask manufacturer in Edinburgh
and this was the letterhead of a ladies’ club in 1940s Edinburgh
Categories
CUPAR JUSTICE
n. putting a person on trial after you have drowned them
Story is that a man wouldn’t leave his cell so the folk of Cupar flooded it, accidentally drowning him. Cheated out of a trial, they put his body in the stand anyway.
see also: JEDDART JUSTICE. n. putting a person on trial after you have hanged them
n. the water shrew
In Caithness, it was thought that its breath could kill a cow at 100 paces and it could poison you just by looking at you. The cure was to make a soup from its head.
n. a person ill-prepared for Christmas
Writing a novel set in Victorian Scotland?
Need some baby name ideas?
Follow these simple rules for to get those quintessential genuine Scottish names.
RULE #1
Any last name can be a first name.
RULE #2
Any place name can be a first name.
RULE #3
Any name can have “-ina” added to it for a “female sounding” name.
RULE #4
Found a name you like? Use it liberally.
honourable mentions
Fanna Shortbread (b. 1859)
Murder MacKenzie (b. 1865)
Shart Clark (b. 1887)
Neptune Blood (b. 1825)
Boglemary Robertson (b. 1783)