Dictionaries of the Scots Language

Dictionaries of the Scots Language Dictionaries of the Scots Language - the Nation's Resource for the Scots Language.

FAITHER: ‘A father’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/faither/).The Dictionaries of the Scots L...
20/06/2026

FAITHER: ‘A father’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/faither/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) have carefully documented the varied uses and spellings of faither, which is the Scots equivalent of English father, that have been recorded since 1375.

Many examples show children flouting or following their father’s wishes. In The Diary of Mr John Lamont of Newton, 1649-71 we are told: “He married [Sir] William Balfour’s daughter … without the consent of his feather”. Conversely, the Jacobite lad in Lady Nairne’s song He’s Ower the Hills That I Lo’e Weel (c.1800) has her father’s full approval: “My faither's gane to fecht for him, My brithers winna bide at hame; My mither greets and prays for them, And deed she thinks they're no to blame”.

Alexander Anderson’s Cuddle Doon (1879) features a scene that will be familiar to parents everywhere: “The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht’ Wi muckle faught and din. ‘Oh try an’ sleep, ye waukrife rogues, Your faither’s comin’ in’ … At length they hear their faither’s fit An’ as he steeks the door, They turn their faces tae the wa’ An Tam pretends tae snore”.

Another theme in the records is that fathers love to entertain. Timothy Neat included the following in The Summer Walkers (1996): “But he loved to sing … my faither sat for a hale week, every nicht, ootside the door o’ the bothy, till he learned every word ...!”. Then, in Colin Burnett’s A Working Class State of Mind (2021) we find: “the yin hing aboot ma faither wis. He wis a right gid storyteller”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/faither

CONNACHED: ‘Spoiled, destroyed’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/connached/). The Dictionaries...
13/06/2026

CONNACHED: ‘Spoiled, destroyed’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/connached/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) tell us that to connach is, “to spoil, destroy”. The term seems to be strongly linked to the North East, as the region supplies many of DSL’s citations.

This sense appears to have developed in the twentieth century, with the earliest example uncovered so far coming from the Elgin Courant and Morayshire Advertiser in June 1901. The paper reported on a rather eventful cricket match where, “as the game was just finishing, the bat ... became ‘connached’”. We’re told the remains, “were taken for future fuel to make Quaker oats’ porridge”.

Rather than physical destruction we get a sense of spoiled expectations in James Lorimer’s Red Sergeant (1931): “There came an interruption that connached our plan”. Donald Gordon provides a similar example in The Low Road Hame (1987): “An fit aboot me? Fegs, I wis fair connach’t Me wi ma bad legs!”.

In Sheena Blackhall’s Minnie, published in Lallans (2000), the term is applied to spoiling a child: “An as dotin faithers will, he couldna refuse her, clean connached an pettit an spylt as she wis bi him in aathing”.

Unfortunately, a more recent example from the Press and Journal in February 2020 is less upbeat, covering the impact of senseless vandalism on a local community space: “I felt hairt sorra for the enterprisin Inverurie Men’s Shed haein tae meeve efter louts connach’t aa their eident darg [diligent work], hingin baskets teem’t [emptied] oot, plants trumpit on an warst o aa, the polytunnel rippit tae crockaneeshin [fragments]”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/connach

CLATTY: ‘Dirty, muddy, slimy; disagreeable.’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/clatty/).The Dic...
06/06/2026

CLATTY: ‘Dirty, muddy, slimy; disagreeable.’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/clatty/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) tell us that this term describes anything “dirty, muddy, slimy [or] disagreeable”. DSL’s first citation comes from Zachary Boyd’s The Last Battell of the Soule in Death (1629): “Fetch my good servant out of his clattie cottage”.

In August 1818, a Scots Magazine piece on the superstitions of Clydesdale recounted the tale of a girl who was trapped by a fairy in a, “frichtsome den, whar naething was to be seen but the cauld clattie sides o’ the cove, shawn by a blue wanyoch [pale] glare”.

Clothes are often singled out as clatty, as we see in J. Ballantyne’s Gaberlunzie’s Wallet (1843): “Your auld knee-breekums, rent and clattie”. We find a good Ulster Scots example in W. F. Marshall’s Verses from Tyrone (1923): “An’ if me shirt’s a clatty shirt, The man to blame’s me da”.

Personal and general hygiene are also key topics. In Stanley Robertson’s Fish Hooses (1990) we find: “Why dae ye nae wash yer neck, cos ye’re awfy clatty?”. Whilst in John Byrne’s Cuttin’ a Rug (1990) we have: “My old mother used to sluice out that clatty house of theirs after she’d done yours and your mammy’s”.

In January 2018, an Englishman writing in Fife Today noted that, despite having lived in Scotland for years, he can still be stumped by Scots terms: “Clatty, bahookie, hoachin, scoobied, scunnered and radge, have all had me perplexed on more than one occasion, and often still catch me out on the odd occasion”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/clatty

STOOND: ‘To throb, ache with pain or emotion; to beat, pound, pulsate.’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-o...
30/05/2026

STOOND: ‘To throb, ache with pain or emotion; to beat, pound, pulsate.’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/stoond/).

When was the last time your head was stoondin? The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) define the term as, “to throb, ache, smart, thrill with pain or emotion; to beat, pound, pulsate”.

Burns used it in Bonie Wee Thing (1791) to describe a throb of emotional pain: “And my heart it stounds wi’ anguish, Lest my wee thing be na mine”. We find a similar example in the Perthshire Advertiser in January 1830: “Whare grief nae mair your heart will stoune”.

In William Shelley’s Flowers by the Wayside (1868) it describes the physical pain of a headache: “I’m fashed wi’ sic a stoonin’ brow”.

It can also refer to serious, even life-threatening pain as in Christina Forbes Middleton’s The Dance in the Village (1981): “It startit ‘boot a month ago, Though I’ve lost the track o’ time, On a certain nicht I couldna sleep, For stoonin’ in ma wime [stomach]”.

In Matthew Fitt’s Pure Radge (1996), the term captures the pulsing rhythm of a heart amidst a surge of adrenaline: “his hert stoonds, his jaa gaes ticht, his rauchle haun maks a nieve in its glove”.

Lastly, when discussing the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award in the National in January 2017, Rab Wilson had the following to say about the influence of Scotland’s national Bard upon Scottish culture: “His principles are enshrined an setten oot in the priceless legacy o his sangs an poems that stound doun throu time, an are steept in his ain haurd won humanitarian values an indomitable sp*erit”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/stound_n1_v1

SOOR PLOOMS: ‘Tart-flavoured round green boiled sweets’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/soor-...
23/05/2026

SOOR PLOOMS: ‘Tart-flavoured round green boiled sweets’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/soor-plooms/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) tell us that soor plooms are, “round green boiled sweets of a tart flavour, originally associated with Galashiels”. We are also told that it was a nickname for the residents of Galashiels.

Many of the term’s earliest appearances come from advertisements. One featured in the Hawick News and Border Chronicle in April 1914 asserted that: “Visitors to Galashiels Should note that the Real and Original ‘Soor Plooms’ are only to be found from A.R. Shepherd … Originator and Sole Proprietor of this Delectable Sweet”.

Whatever their origin, these sweets have certainly left a lasting impression and are still mentioned frequently. In May 2014, the Sunday Mail referenced their strong flavour when discussing award season: “I love watching the Oscars and seeing everybody saying all that ‘it’s an honour just to be nominated’ rubbish. Then you see their faces when the split screen comes up as the winner is announced – the losers are all smiling through gritted teeth and looking as if they just swallowed half a pound of soor plooms”.

Speaking of flavour, in May 2020 the Herald reported the following exchange with a tourist: “Overheard in the newsagents at Glasgow Airport. An American lady is holding aloft a tartan-bedecked tin labelled Nippy Sweeties. She says to the shop assistant: ‘Hi! Can you tell me what these taste like?’ To which the shop assistant helpfully replies: ‘Ah’m no awfy sure, but ah think they taste something like soor plooms’”. Someone’s in for a shock.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/ploom

SINGLE END: ‘A one-roomed house or flat’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/single-end/).This is...
16/05/2026

SINGLE END: ‘A one-roomed house or flat’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/single-end/).

This is a term from the days of overcrowded tenement living. According to the Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) a single end was, “a one-roomed house”. Note the use of house which is still used to mean a tenement dwelling of any size.

DSL’s current earliest attestation comes from John Wright’s Scenes of Scottish Life (1897): “‘A single en’, or one[room] apartment”.

However, further research has uncovered earlier examples, such as the following from the Dundee Courier in December 1868: “Not many evenings ago a stout, plump, healthy dame, ‘fair and forty’ at least, who rents a single end in a cottage...”.

The unsuitability of many of these homes did not escape the notice of the law, as reported in the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser in June 1888: “My attention has been drawn to a case in Broxburn where four families are living in a single end each”.

The term survived into the second half of the twentieth century as this advertisement from the Edinburgh Evening News in January 1967 shows: “Exchange large room and kitchen for single end, boxroom and w.c.”.

These properties are still referenced in newspapers like the Glasgow Evening Times. In May 2020, a reader shared that they, “lived for five years in a single-end in Cowcaddens, which [their] wee maw kept absolutely spotless”. Then, in June 2020, the paper shared an anecdote from one of the Queen’s visits to the city: “[Alice] Cullen insisted the Queen view an old single-end. Apparently, her Majesty reacted: ‘Is this all?’”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/single

SOSS: ‘A wet, soggy or unpalatable mess of food; a dirty wet mess; a state of disorder’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publicati...
09/05/2026

SOSS: ‘A wet, soggy or unpalatable mess of food; a dirty wet mess; a state of disorder’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/soss/).

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) tell us that this term first referred to, “a wet, soggy or unpalatable mess of food”. It was then applied more widely to, “a wet state, sopping condition, a dirty wet mess”, or “a state of dirt and disorder, a muddle, chaos, confusion”.

In 1827, C.I. Johnstone used the term in Elizabeth de Bruce: “When I trailed her hame some sosserie o' treacle”.

In 1866, Walter Gregor’s The Dialect of Banffshire recorded the following harsh judgement of the cleanliness of someone’s home: “She keeps hir hoose in a sod soss”.

The term now seems to be closely associated with the North East, as it often appears within the Aberdeen Press and Journal. In May 1995, we find the following from a frustrated football fan: “Michty it wis the same players at pit us in the muckle soss in the first place”.

Then, in August 2015, we find an anecdote about getting caught out by the rain: “Facin the win an rain I drappit ma notes an there they were fleein roon the Green an me left wi siccan a soss o soggy paper”.

Finally, in December 2018, it featured within a writer’s description of his cluttered office: “Last wikk I left ye wi jist a feow o ma memories o the Tivoli hopin they hae brocht back some tae you ana, sae again, rakin throwe the soss at is my archive far ye canna see onything for aathing, I cam across mair names tae conjure wi”.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/soss_n1_v1_interj

COOSHIE DOO: ‘The ring-dove or wood-pigeon’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/cooshie-doo/).DSL...
02/05/2026

COOSHIE DOO: ‘The ring-dove or wood-pigeon’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/cooshie-doo/).

DSL’s earliest citation comes from John D. Carrick’s Laird of Logan (1835): “Up the stair we scrambled like twa cats after a cushey-dou or a mealy mouse”. A mealy mouse is a “mouse which lives in a place where meal is stored or ground”.

In 1887, R.M. Calder’s Minstrelsey of the Merse mentioned, “the young cusha doo that had ventured Oot the nest afore it could flee”. This spelling makes it easier to see the term’s connection to cushat.

A piece in the Scotsman in December 1907 claimed that these birds make for good eating: “I may add that the p*e sweep or green plover is in my humble opinion, fine eating, but it has no chance with a cushie doo neither in taste or size”.

However, cooshie doos are better known for their association with romance and affection. S. R. Crockett’s Men of the Moss Hags (1895) mentions, “a voice that was as soft as that of a cushie dove”. Meanwhile, in Alexander Wardrop’s Johnnie Mathison’s Courtship and Marriage (1881) the term appears as a pet name: “O’ Kirsty, jist say that you’ll be mine, my bonnie hen, my darlin’ lamb, my ain wee cushie doo!”.

J.L. Waugh’s Cute McCheyne (1917) provides a far less romantic example: “I wad judge she’s past the cooin’, cushie-doo stage, an’ will sensibly consider this chance o’ a guid doon-settin". How charming.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/cushat

Say it in Scots! is a series of pocket books designed to immerse you in the wonderful, rich and varied language. 📖🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳...
28/04/2026

Say it in Scots! is a series of pocket books designed to immerse you in the wonderful, rich and varied language. 📖🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We're delighted to share that the series is now free to read online!

From weather to wildlife, start your exploration today.

dictionary.scot/say-it-in-scots/

HURL: ‘A ride or drive in a wheeled vehicle’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/hurl/).DSL’s ear...
25/04/2026

HURL: ‘A ride or drive in a wheeled vehicle’ (https://dsl.ac.uk/our-publications/scots-word-of-the-week/hurl/).

DSL’s earliest example appeared in Thomas Carlyle’s Early Letters (1822): “We will not let you want a hurl up and down in the coach”.

In July 1922, the Kirkintilloch Gazette reported that the Dumbartonshire Education Authority had agreed to explore the cost of motor transit for “the hurl to school” for post-qualifying pupils.

In June 1954, Glasgow’s Bulletin referenced the joy of “a first hurl on a newly acquired birthday bicycle”.

The term is still widely used. In October 2005, a columnist in the Aberdeen Press and Journal lamented the fact that it’s a “helluva lang hurl, time-wise, fae Aiberdeen” when telling readers about a recent mid-week trip to Inverness.

In March 2013, the Herald summarised Scotland’s economic policies as: “Free medicine, no fees for university students, no charge for old folk to have a hurl on the bus”.

Despite the term’s continued popularity, some speakers seem to think it’s dated, as seen in this observation from the Daily Record in August 2019: “Other people would talk about going for an ice-cream cone, I’d say, ‘Let’s have a pokey hat’, or talk about going for a ‘hurl’ on the bus”.

Finally, in July 2020, a writer in the Edinburgh Evening News joked that: “[The NHS] should introduce a loyalty card. Three visits and you get a free hurl in an MRI”. It seems then that a hurl has developed past needing a wheeled vehicle.

Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language and is illustrated by Bob Dewar. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.

https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/hurl_v1_n1

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