The Scottish Government has just published the results of a poll to identify the nation’s favourite Scots word. The winner was “dreich”, which means “wet”, “cold” and/or “gloomy”. I’m not sure if that describes the Scottish weather, or just our character.
Respondents were asked to choose their favourite from a list of 8 Scots language words that, along with dreich, included:
crabbit bad-tempered, grumpy
blether to chat, often at great length; can be used as a noun referring to the person doing the blethering and may also involve a lot of haivering…
haiver to talk nonsense
beastie an insect, or the diminutive of beast, as in “sleekit, cowrin, timorous beastie”
sleekit smooth or glossy, as in “sleek”. Also means, much less attractively, cunning, crafty, sly, ingratiating, unctuous and generally untrustworthy
braw good, great, good-looking (as in “a braw lass”)
glaikit slow-witted or foolish, often used in the phrase “glaikit-looking”.
Apart from “braw”, it’s an unprepossessing list. Or maybe that, too, is a reflection of the Scottish character?
I wish they’d included “fankle” — a really useful word meaning a tangle, muddle or state of confusion. And what about the wonderful “sonsie” (attractive, especially if pleasingly plump too) as in “a right sonsie lassie”?
Are any of your favourites missing from the list?
Related articles
- ‘Blethering Scots’ (bearsdeneng.wordpress.com)
By Marian Dougan
6 Responses
I use “oxter” and”bowfing” a lot, but not in close conjunction
Hmm, I do like “fankle”, a great word. Also “swither”… And have you noticed how the words are all very onomatopoeic??
Hi, I am a student from Spain and I am doing right now my Erasmus in Scotland. It surprise me to read this, because the people I have met here is really nice with me and I think they are nice too with other people. I would want to know if that list of 8 word was created from another list of words, that is, the words which were not elected were dismissed and finally the final list was those 8 words.
Nevertheless I agree with the word which they like the most, since it cannot be possible that the word “sun” appears in this list if they just see the sun twice a month. But as I have said before, I do not think that the most beautiful word for them describes their character.
Thanks for your lovely comment – it made me smile! I don’t know how the list was compiled but I agree that “sun”, in either its English or Scots form, would be an unlikely candidate. Unless as something we wish/hope to see more than just twice a month…
Hi Marian, It is a scunner not to have included that word!
Indeed – it’s a good one!