During this period when perhaps many Scots are enjoying a dry January, we can reflect on one of the many terms we have for being under the influence of alcohol.
In the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) miraculous is defined as “a stupefied or incapable condition, especially from drink, very intoxicated”. It also has a shortened form with various spellings: mirac, maroc and mirack.
The term goes back to the 19th century and is exemplified in the following from David Thomson’s Musings Among the Heather (1881): “The hale lot in a body Had got themsel’s mirac’lous fu’”. In His Mining Folk (1912) David Rorie describes many states of intoxication: “A drunk man, if very drunk, is described as mortagious, miracklous, steamin’ wi' drink, or blin’ fou”.
In the late 20th century, Michael Munro in The Patter (1985) defines it as follows: “Miaculous. Usually, who knows why, pronounced ‘marockyoolus’, this is a slang term for drunk. Maroc is sometimes heard as a shortened form of this and has nothing to do with tangerines: ‘Ah seen him stotin roon Georgie Square, pur [sic] maroc he wis!’”.
Looking into the shortened form, mirac, revealed the following encounter between a Stornoway sheriff and a Glasgow plumber reported in the Aberdeen Press and Journal of March 1970 under the headline “Is mirac Gaelic? asks Sheriff”. “I was mirac said a Glasgow plumber when charged with an offence, Stornoway Sheriff Court heard yesterday. And Sheriff Hector Maclean asked: ‘What does he mean by that?’”. Sadly, the reply has not been recorded.
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at 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 here