20th. August. Word is ‘stookie’. Claims that this word is a Scots and northern English variant of the Italian word ‘stucco’. That is basically it, plus twee stories of ‘stookies’. Very poor. Stookie comes from Old Norse, Stúka, ‘sleeve, wing of a building’. A ‘sleeve of mail’ was a bryn stuka. From this comes the sense of a containing unit. It is also used to describe sheaves of grain standing in fields, ‘stooks’. Even the COD knew that! Gaelic stůic, ‘a projecting crag’ comes from the same source.
27th. Aug. Late 18th.c ‘perjink’. Says it means ‘well dressed....’. Etymology unknown. Ho hum. Why not an interesting word like ‘sleeket’ as in ‘Wee sleeket cowran tim’rous beastie’ Burns? One guess.
3rd. Sept. ‘Corbie’ from French corbe, ‘raven,crow’. Nearly there. Also there is Old French corpe, which comes from ON, Korpr, ‘raven, crow etc. In my ‘Viking Place Names of East Lothian’ I list a place with this etymology. At least it didn’t say it was from M.E. from the French-as the COD does!
Last weeks tease, Sleeket, sleiket from ON sleikja ‘to lick’ thus to make smooth. DOSL hasn’t a clue. Burble a bit about a 17th c. English, sleeked
10th. Sept. ‘Gallus’. Given as meaning acting in a sort of uninhibited manner. Gives example of folk after having a drink. DOSL thinks this word ‘gallus’developed from ‘gallows’ and quotes Burns where he says of Scotland’s condition, ‘An’ plunder’d o’her hindmost groat, By gallows knaves’. Tis a different word, unless Burns’s spelling of ‘gallows’ meant ‘gallus’. The ‘gallows’ is an ON word, Gálgi, according to the COD no less! Meaning the contraption one is hung on. Another ON word, gálauss, means ‘wanton, careless’which is the meaning known by most Scots. The old Scots tongue came from Old Norse and NOT from Old English.
17th. Sept. ‘Bools’. Balls, bowls and French ‘boule’. Ho, hum. How about Latin, bulla, ‘ball,spherical amulet’. ON böll, ‘ball’, according to COD! Tedious. Next day. Now what about ‘hecklebirnie’? A braw Scots word and place. Nothing to do with ‘hell’ and whatnot. DOSL and other so called ‘Scots’ dictionaries haven’t a clue, too busy perpetuating the ASH. Do you know its meaning.? I do. Here is another. It is Whittinghame in East Lothian, said by the ASH people to be one of the three certainties of early Anglic settlement in Scotland by Prof. Nicolaisen in his book ‘Scottish Place-Names’. A clue. Both names are pure Old Norse.
24th. Sept. ‘Glaikit’. ‘Foolish, incomprehension etc. Looking’. No etymology given as its ‘origins are unclear’. Very adventurous stuff. Flom gives ‘Gley’ ‘look, stare,glance’ from Mansie Wauch by Moir and refers us to a Swedish dialect Glia.
1st. Oct. Breakthrough. Word is ‘Law’ meaning a hill. Not a word about O.E. Hlćw, ‘funeral mound’ as stated in the DOSL. No etymology given. I think they are rewriting their dictionary. I regard this word ‘Law’ as one of the main supports of the ASH. By claiming this comes from O.E. they can then assert, as in their ‘history’ at the beginning of the CSD, that the Scots non-Celtic tongue came from early Anglic settlements etc. in the7th c. Law comes from a pure ON word which also gave us the ‘law’ in Bye-Laws! What next?
8th Oct. Aw, hing aboot. ‘Hing’ with couthy sayings. Says it ‘was borrowed’ from ON hengja, ‘to hang’. Sticks in a bit about northern English having this word, which is obvious, since all Cumbria and other parts of northern England were occupied by the Norsemen, who spoke ,er...Norse.
Cumbria was part of Scotland for centuries. The word ‘hang’ comes from ON hanga, and it should have been left at that. However, it throws in a couple of OE words, hon and hangian, ‘to suspend, hang’, presumably to support the statement that ON and OE are closely related. This is true, and it is therefore important to be careful in attributing origins of a word so that mistakes like saying ‘fankle’ ( July 23rd) came from OE fon, fang when in fact it came from ON fang and was borrowed into OE according to Flom and the Concise Oxford Dictionary. On 10th Sept,we had ‘gallus’ and ‘gallows’. No mention of Norse origin or that they are two different words. Gálgi is ON ‘gallows’, and Gá is the ON verb ‘to heed’ and gá-lauss is ‘heedless, careless etc’. Since the DOSL subscribes to a ‘theory’ of OE settlements in Scotland as being the source of our non-Celtic tongue, many more ‘mistakes’ will be made. Like maybe, ‘bannock’ coming from OE.
15th Oct ‘Golach’ is word, “from Gaelic, Gobhlag ‘earwig, forked stick”, according to the CSD.
Gaelic, Gobhlog/Gabhlag, is given as ‘gable, fork’ in MacBain’s Dictionary. A gable is the triangular (forked shaped) upper part at end of a house wall . Gable comes from Old Norse Gafl, ‘gable, gavelock, javelin’. Oh no! Who says that? Concise Oxford Dictionary. I know it’s not ASH; just tidying up. ON also has ‘Gaflok, Gaflak’ same as Gafl.
22nd Oct Word is ‘ message(s)’. ‘They’ think it came from Old French. Scots usage is goods delivered or purchased from a shop. Modern French, service de messageries, ‘parcels , goods, deliveries’. Guid Auld Alliance. I think the message from DOSL at the moment is ‘retreat’.
29th Oct Guiser. Kid dressing up in ‘disguise’ and entertaining at door of people’s houses. DOSL states comes from Old French. Yes, and COD says Germanic origin. How about Old Norse Gyss, ‘mocking’ as in gyss ok gabb. Usage has old spellings with ‘gys’ . It is a great pity that it unable to show the true origins of Old Scots because of ASH.
5th Nov Smeekit. Drunk; smoked etc. Scots commonly use ‘reekin’ to be drunk or smelling of smoke etc. It is from ON reykja, ‘to smoke’ as in ‘Auld Reekie’, (Edinburgh) Ald Reykja in ON, also in Reykjavik, and named by Vikings from Norway. OE smeocan as origin of Scots smeek, ‘smoke’, in line with DOSL policy (ASH), which they can’t back up because there are/were no substantial OE sites, place names etc. in Scotland. The place names of Scotland are ON or Celtic (Gaelic/Brythonic). M. Dutch smuyck, ‘smoke’ giving Scots smeuk ‘smoke’ is a likelier source. Says who? Concise Scots Dictionary. Rabbie Burns poem ‘The Vision’ ‘I sat and ey’d the spewing reek, That fill’d, wi’ hoast-provoking smeek...’ Spew is ON spýja. ‘Hoast’ is a Scots word. Not OE or any other foreign tongue. The CSD knows it means ‘cough/coughing’ but not its etymology-or do they? It is in the SND (Scots National Dictionary). It is Old Norse hósta, ‘to cough’.
Robert Fergusson (18th c) ‘The Farmer’s Ingle’
Frae big stack, weel winnow't on the hill,
Wi' divets theekit frae the weet and drift,
Sods, peats, and heath'ry turfs the chimley fill,
And gar their thick'ning smeek salute the lift;