This word is defined in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language as: “Thin, emaciated, puny …” and “Spiritless, craven, timid”.
An early example comes from Sir Robert Moray in a letter to Alexander Bruce (1658) offering no compliments on the quality of Bruce’s wine: “I think not you did amisse to abstain from wine a while … seing [sic] … the best you have is but shilpit stuff”.
Stuart A Paterson uses the word to mean timid in his poem Here’s the Weather (2017): “… it’s a gey sair fecht/ against pavements like ice rinks & wrasslin wi wind…/shilpit & footerin & plooterin awa/ through the dubs & the glaur & the clart & the snaw…”
The word is now generally used to mean feeble, as here in George MacDonald Fraser’s The General Danced at Dawn (1970): “Baxter hesitated. ‘He called me a shilpit wee nyaff, sir.’ The president stirred. ‘He called you what?’ Baxter coloured slightly. ‘A shilpit wee nyaff.’” Nyaff and shilpit seem to go together… “He stood up, and Carlin saw for the first time what a puny, insignificant, shilpit wee nyaff he really was”. (The Fanatic, 2000, James Robertson.)
Lastly, it is used in a comment on the Olympic Games from The National (August 2021): “Imagine poor wee shilpit Scotland trying to garner its own medals rather than being a part of something bigger and better funded. Actually, I don’t have to, having watched two Commonwealth Games in Scotland and seen the real euphoria which greeted those winning in a Saltire vest”.
Scots Word of the Week is written by Pauline Cairns Speitel, Dictionaries of the Scots Language https://dsl.ac.uk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel