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Scots Dictionary: The perfect wee guide to the Scots language
Scots Dictionary: The perfect wee guide to the Scots language
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Scots Dictionary: The perfect wee guide to the Scots language

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capercailzie or capercaillie (cape-er-kale-yee or cap-er-kale-yee) A capercailzie is a large European woodland grouse. In Scotland, it is found mainly in the eastern Highlands from Tayside to Easter Ross, although it may be found as far west as the Loch Lomond islands. It has a black plumage and the male has a fan-shaped tail. [The word comes from the Gaelic capull coille horse of the woods]

carnaptious (car-nap-shuss) Carnaptious is a word meaning grumpy, bad-tempered, or irritable: He’s a carnaptious auld devil! [The word comes from knap bite and the intensifier car-]

carry-code In some areas of Scotland, a carry-code is a ride on someone’s back and shoulders. Also called (elsewhere) backie, coal carry, coalie backie, or cuddyback.

carry-out or cairry-oot A person’s carry-out is the takeaway drink or food they have bought from a bar, off-licence, or restaurant: Let’s get a carry-out before the bar closes. A carry-out is also a restaurant from which takeaway food can be bought: There’s a good Chinese carry-out on the High Street.

carse (rhymes with farce) A carse is an area of low-lying fertile land near a river. The word is often used in place names such as the Carse of Gowrie and the Carse of Stirling.

cateran (cat-er-an) In the past, a cateran was a bandit, robber, or mercenary of the Scottish Highlands. [The word comes from the Gaelic ceathairneach plunderer, and dates from the 14th century]

caul In Southern Scotland, a caul is a weir or a dam.

cauld Cauld means cold: a wee dram to keep out the cauld; It was awfy cauld this mornin.

cauldrife (cawl-drif) Someone who is cauldrife is prone to feeling the cold easily. Cauldrife also means lifeless.

cauld-wind If bagpipes are described as cauld-wind, they are filled by bellows rather than by blowing.

causey A causey is a cobbled street, road, or way. A causey stane is a cobble or paving stone.

ceilidh (kale-ee) A ceilidh is an informal social gathering with folk music, singing, dancing, and storytelling. This kind of gathering, which is popular in the Highlands and Islands, is normally held in someone’s house. In the rest of Scotland, a ceilidh is more of an organized evening of entertainment. Ceilidhs take place in hotels or halls hired for the evening and involve Scottish country dancing to music played usually on accordions and fiddles. Some dances are for couples and some for larger groups. [The word is Gaelic]

Celt 1 (kelt) A Celt is a person from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, or Brittany, especially one who speaks a Celtic language. The Celts were an Indo-European people who in pre-Roman times inhabited Britain, Gaul, Spain, and other parts of West and Central Europe. Something which is Celtic is of or concerned with the Celts or their languages. Celtic is a branch of the Indo-European family of languages that includes Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton, still spoken in parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany. Modern Celtic is divided into the Brythonic (southern) and the Goidelic (northern) groups. 2 (selt) A Celt is player or supporter of Celtic, one of Scotland’s largest and oldest football clubs.

Ceol beag

Ceol beag (kyoll bayg) Ceol beag is a class of music for Scottish bagpipes, consisting of marches, strathspeys, and reels. [The phrase is Gaelic and means little music]

Ceol meadhonach (kyoll me-on-aCH) Ceol meadhonach is a class of music for Scottish bagpipes, consisting of folk songs, lullabies, and slow marches. [The phrase is Gaelic and means middle music]

Ceol mor (kyoll mor) Ceol mor is a class of music for Scottish bagpipes, consisting of salutes, gatherings, laments, and commemorative tunes. [The phrase is Gaelic and means big music]

ceud míle fáilte (kee-ut mee-luh fah-ill-tya) Ceud míle fáilte is a greeting often seen on place-name signs for towns. [The phrase is Gaelic and means a hundred thousand welcomes]

champit or chappit Champit vegetables are ones which have been mashed.

champit tatties or chappit tatties Champit tatties are mashed potatoes, which are one of the traditional accompaniments to haggis, along with neeps, in a Burns Supper.

chanter A chanter is a pipe on a set of bagpipes that is provided with finger holes and on which the melody is played. The chanter can also be played on its own for practice. Compare drone.

chanty A chanty is a chamber pot.

chanty-wrastler (chant-ee-rass-ler) In the Glasgow area, a chanty-wrastler is a contemptible person. [The word wrastler comes from wrastle meaning to wrestle or struggle with something]

chap To chap on a door or a window is to knock on it: I am directed to room five, and march up the stairs to chap nervously on the door. A chap is such a knock: Give the door another chap.

chappit A variant of champit.

chauve or tyauve (chawv) To chauve is to struggle, strive, or work hard, often with little to show for one’s exertions. A chauve is a struggle: It’s a sair chauve for a half loaf.

cheep To cheep is to whisper or speak softly. Birds also cheep, that is, chirp. The phrase not a cheep means not a word or not a sound and is often used in a command to keep quiet, such as not a cheep out of you.

cheeper A cheeper is a light kiss on the cheek.

chib In the West of Scotland, a chib is an offensive weapon, such as a knife or a razor, used to stab or slash someone. To chib someone is to stab or slash them.

chief or chieftain The chief of a Scottish clan is its head or leader.

chiel (cheel) or chield A chiel is a lad or a young man. The word is in common use in parts of Northern Scotland, but is mainly old-fashioned or literary elsewhere. [It is probably related to child]

Children’s Hearing A Children’s Hearing is the Scottish equivalent of an English juvenile court. They were introduced in 1971 with the objective of dealing with children under sixteen who are in criminal or family trouble. A Children’s Panel of three trained volunteers makes an assessment of each child, based on evidence given by anyone with knowledge of the child, then recommends whatever action is needed to be taken. Recommendations are always made with the aim to help and reform rather than punish the child.

chitter To chitter is to shiver with cold.

chitterin’ bite

chitterin’ bite A chitterin’ bite is a snack or sweet eaten immediately after a swim. It is supposed to prevent one from catching a cold.

chocolate In the Glasgow area, the phrase if he was chocolate he’d eat himself is sometimes used of a person who is conceited or boasting about his achievements.

chuckie or chuckie stane A chuckie is a stone or pebble of throwable size: throwing chuckies in the water.

chuddie Chuddie is a name for chewing gum.

chum To chum a friend means to accompany them somewhere: I’ll chum you along to the bus stop.

chunty heid In Northeast Scotland, a chunty heid is a stupid person.

church officer or kirk officer Another name for a beadle.

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland is the established church in Scotland. It has a Presbyterian structure, with each congregation being governed by an elected body of elders, and a Calvinist doctrine. The Church of Scotland has the largest membership of any church in Scotland. The secession of the Scottish Church from Rome took place in 1560 under the leadership of John Knox. In 1840, in what came to be known as the Disruption, a split took place among Scotland’s Presbyterians and some members of the Church of Scotland left to form the Free Church. See Kirk.

chute (shoot) A chute is a playground slide.

City Chambers In Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee, the City Chambers is the seat of municipal government.

clabber or glabber In Southwest Scotland, clabber is a word for mud, earth, or clay. [The word comes from the Gaelic clàbar meaning mud or a puddle]

clachan (klaCH-an) A clachan is a small village or hamlet. Clachan, being a Gaelic word, was first used of only Highland villages, but its use is now more widespread. [The word is Gaelic and means stone]

clack or claick In Northeast Scotland, clack is gossip or chat. To clack is to gossip or chat. [This sense probably developed from one of its original meanings: the clattering sound a mill makes when in motion]

Clackmannanshire (clack-man-an-sher or clack-man-an-shire) Clackmannanshire is a historic county in East Central Scotland at the northwest end of the Firth of Forth. It is now the name of a council area occupying much the same area as the old county.

claes (klaze) Claes are clothes. The saying back to auld claes and porridge means a return to normality after a period of jollity, celebration, or indulgence: After Hogmanay it’s back to auld claes and porridge for us.

claik See clack.

claim In Glasgow, to claim someone is to announce one’s intention to beat them up: You’re claimed after school.

clan In Scotland, a clan is a group of families with a common surname united under a single chief. Each clan member is, theoretically, descended from a single ancestor from whom the name of the clan derives. Members often bear the name of the founder preceded by Mac-, a Gaelic term for ‘son of’: MacDonald. The clan system went into terminal decline in the years following the suppression of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion and the process was accelerated by the Clearances, which forced large numbers of Highland Scots abroad to countries such as the USA, Canada, and Australia. Many of the descendants of these emigrants are proud of their Scottish ancestry and some occasionally return to Scotland for clan gatherings. [The word is from the Gaelic clann family]

clanjamfrie (clan-jam-free) or clamjamfrie Clanjamfrie is a word used to refer disparagingly to a group of people, especially if one considers them a rabble. A clanjamfrie is also a varied assortment of things; a mixed bag: The clamjamfrie of tenements, courtyards, and closes which forms Edinburgh’s Old Town.

clap

clap To clap an animal, especially a dog or a horse, is to give it an affectionate pat: It likes ye to clap its wee head. A clap is such an affectionate pat.

clappy-doo (clap-pee-doo) or clabby-doo A clappy-doo is a large black mussel. [The word is from the Gaelic clab enormous mouth plus dubh black]

clapshot Clapshot is a dish consisting of potatoes and turnips which have been boiled and then mashed together in roughly equal quantities: Lunch is fillets of cod served with clapshot, roasted peppers, and chilli oil.

clarsach (klar-saCH) The clarsach was the ancient Celtic harp of Scotland and Ireland. Its use has been revived by folk musicians in both countries this century. [The word is Gaelic and means harp]

clart or clort A clart is a lump of mud or something else unpleasant. A clart is also a dirty mess. [The word is perhaps from the Middle English biclarten defile]

clarty, clatty, or clorty Something that is clarty is messy or dirty: The Tourist Board’s inspectors are encouraged to give clarty accommodation the bum’s rush.

clavie (clay-vee) A clavie is a tar-barrel traditionally set alight in Moray on Hogmanay to bring good luck in the ceremony known as burning the clavie.

claw To claw something is to scratch it: He winna claw an auld heid.

claymore A claymore is a large two-edged broadsword used formerly by Scottish Highlanders. The later single-edged baskethilted sword is often called a claymore. [The word is from the Gaelic claidheamh mòr great sword]

Clearances or Highland Clearances The Clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the removal by landlords, often by force, of the inhabitants from some parts of the Scottish Highlands to make way for sheep and other more lucrative uses of the land. Many Highlanders were re-settled on poorer coastal land and encouraged to combine farming with fishing or kelp-gathering. Large numbers were driven off the land altogether and into emigration overseas or to the cities of the South.

cleek A cleek is a hook or any device shaped like a hook.

cleg or clegg A cleg is a horse-fly with a painful bite. [The word comes from the Old Norse klegge]

click If someone gets a click, they find themselves a person with whom they may establish an amorous relationship.

clint In Southwest Scotland, a clint is a cliff or crag. [The word is possibly from the Danish klint cliff]

clipe A variant spelling of clype.

clipshears or clipshear A clipshears is an earwig. [The name comes from the resemblance of the pincers at the tip of the creature’s abdomen to shears]

clishmaclaver (klish-ma-clay-ver) Clishmaclaver is a word meaning gossip or incessant chatter. [It is a combination of two Scots words, clish to repeat gossip, and claver to talk idly]

cloot Cloot is a Scots word for a piece of cloth or a cloth used as a duster, etc.: Dicht roon the sink wi a cloot.

clootie dumpling (rhymes with booty) A clootie dumpling is a rich dark fruitcake served as a dessert, like a Christmas pudding. It is boiled or steamed in a cloot or cloth. Until the recent past, clootie dumplings were made as a birthday treat for children and, like Christmas puddings, were often made containing sixpences.

clort A variant of clart.

close

close (klohss) In much of Scotland, a close is a narrow lane or passageway leading off a main street: The restaurant is tucked away at the foot of a close off the High Street.Close is often part of the name of such lanes: Advocates Close; Mary King’s Close. A close may also be a passageway connecting a group of houses to a main street. In Glasgow and West Central Scotland, the common entry and stairway from the street in a tenement building is known as a close: Reared up a close in Govan, he feared no-one. In Glasgow and West Central Scotland, a close is also all the flats sharing such a common entry and stairway: The whole close could hear the noise.

cludgie In Scotland’s Central Belt, a cludgie is a toilet: A wee boy’s got locked in the cludgie. [The word is perhaps a conflation of closet and ludge, a Scots form of lodge]

Clyde The Clyde is a river in South Scotland, 170 kms (106 miles) long, rising in South Lanarkshire and flowing northwest to the Firth of Clyde. It divides the City of Glasgow in two and was once the centre of the world’s largest shipbuilding industry, where every type of ship, from ocean liners and battleships to dredgers, were built. At its peak 14 ships a day were launched on the Clyde, and the term Clyde-built was synonymous with quality.

Clydesdale A Clydesdale is a heavy, powerful workhorse of a breed that originated in Scotland.

Clydeside Clydeside is the area of industrial or post-industrial towns along the lower length of the river Clyde. Clydeside also refers to the shipbuilding industry in this area: the Queen Mary, another famous Clydeside ocean liner.Red Clydeside refers to the militant socialist trade union and political activity in the West of Scotland, particularly in the period between the two world wars. Unemployment and disenchantment with governments who were unable to deliver their promises of a better life for working people following the Great War led to greater militancy among the industrial working classes and this was reflected in the number of socialist candidates elected to Parliament from the area.

clype or clipe A clype is a person who tells tales or informs on his or her friends, colleagues, or schoolmates. To clype


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