Sitting in a restaurant in early May, overlooking the Forth estuary, you can frequently see the haar creep inexorably in from the water and up into the nearby streets. By the time you’ve finished your meal the whole area will be engulfed with this fine sea mist.
Cran is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language as: “A measure of capacity for fresh herrings before cleaning, fixed by the Fishery Board at 37½ Imperial Gallons, roughly the contents of four baskets or, more precisely, one barrel. General Scots. Now in general use also in England”.
Crowdie has two different meanings. The Dictionaries of the Scots Language gives us first: “A mixture of oatmeal and cold water, etc. eaten raw. Sometimes also used of porridge or brose and hence of food in general”. Secondly, and probably more familiar to us: “a kind of soft cheese”.
Fyuchie or fauchie is defined in Dictionaries of the Scots Language variously as meaning “pale yellowish grey”, “pale”, “stagnant, stale”.
According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language, if one is sweirt to do something one is “lazy, sluggish, loath, reluctant”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines begowk as meaning “to befool; to jilt in courtship; to slight a woman”.
Scots has quite a few words for things that are “troublesome, annoying, irksome; of a task, tricky, ticklish” or, as further defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language, “Fractious, peevish, fretty, especially of children; fussy, fastidious”.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines one usage of stave as: “To sprain, bruise or contuse a joint of the body”. And in his 1825 Etymological Dictionary of the Scots Language, Jamieson gave this example: “to staive the thoum”; further defining it as to “fa into staves, to smash, to fall into pieces”.
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language gives a range of meanings for chookie. Today we are focusing on chicken or bird.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines this as “to walk slowly and painfully or with a limp, to hobble; to move unevenly, as a hare”.
