Plenty of Nothing

Great-Grandparents

Janet, only daughter of Robert McGill, to James Maxwell Tulley, at 17 Mount Pleasant Street, Greenock on 5th January 1892 (Greenock Telegraph 8.1.1892).

Scottish Word of the Day: Thrawn

Thrawn, Thrawin, ppl. adj. thrown; twisted, distorted, misshapen; uneven, crooked; cross-grained, ill-tempered; perverse, stubborn; disobedient; used of the weather: disagreeable, bitter,--adv. crossly.
Chambers's Scots Dialect Dictionary

Go South, Young Man

Languagehat points out this National Trust surname finder.  Enter your family name and see where in Britain they were concentrated in 1881 and 1998.  It's fun to watch my mother's family name spread north from Galloway while my father's moves east and south from the Outer Hebrides until they meet ... where they met.  Douglas

Scottish Word of the Day: Jo

jo &c; joe  n, 1 = joy 16.  2 term of endearment sweetheart, darling, dear, chf my ~ 16-20.  3  now chf verse a sweetheart, lover, usu male  17-.  The Concise Scots Dictionary

[Now chf a Scrabble word.]  Douglas

Greenockite

I've been conscious for some time now that we're surrounded by yellowish green, also known as wasabi, after the sushi condiment, so much so that it's probably the defining colour of this decade, whatever this decade is called, much as avocado green defined the 1970s.  Another colour you see everywhere, though, is reddish yellow, aka cadmium yellow.  Cadmium occurs naturally in only one mineral form, cadmium sulphide, CdS, perversely named greenockite because it was first discovered during the construction of the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway in Scotland in 1840.  The local soccer club in Greenock, the Morton, wears a uniform of horizontal blue and white stripes, after the uniforms of French sailors who've visited the town for centuries.  But the away uniform is cadmium yellow.  Were they thinking of greenockite?  I don't know.  It'd be logical.  But even more logical would be ... green.

Scottish Word of the Day: Oxter

Oxter, n. the armpit; the armhole of a coat, &c.; the breast, bosom. --- v. to go arm in arm; to lead by the arm; to embrace; to take by the arms; to carry under the arm; to elbow.

Oxter-deep, adv. up to the armpits.

Oxterfu', n. an armful.

Oxterfu'-ket, n. a worthless fellow.

Chambers' Scots Dialect Dictionary

Scottish Word of the Day: Haiver

The Proclaimers' greatest hit I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) includes the line And if I haiver, yeah, I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's haiverin' to you.  Haivering?

haiver &c; haver vti  1 talk in a foolish or trivial way, speak nonsense la18-.  2 (1) make a fuss about nothing, make a pretence of being busy la19-, now Ayr Uls.  (2) dawdle, potter about; lounge la19-, now Ayr Uls.  Concise Scots Dictionary

If haiver is current in Ayrshire, I wonder why I never heard it growing up.  Mom's from Ayrshire.  And there was certainly enough haivering in our house.

Douglas

Scottish Word of the Day: Yeukie-bane

Yeukie-bane, n. the 'funny-bone,' the elbow-joint.  Chambers's Scots Dialect Dictionary

Scottish Word of the Day: Dozie

dozie adj stupid 20-, local Fif-Rox.  Concise Scots Dictionary

Scottish Links

I've been letting all sorts of Scottish links accumulate on the right side of the blog, so I thought I'd gather them up and do a little bibliographical essay.  The Scots language is to English as Norwegian is to Swedish, so there are a lot of weird spellings for familiar words, plus a lot of flat-out weird words.  To help you through that there's this online translator.  For more historical and literary context, plus sound-files, visit the Scots Language Centre.  If you're keen on the national culture though not necessarily the language, try the National Library of Scotland site, in English.  Scotland gave us golf, but the national sport is footie.  The Scottish Premier League features the top clubs.  Currently not a top club but soon to be is Greenock Morton FC.  Scotland has a long but poorly understood tradition of ice hockey.  Fife Flyers have been playing since the 1930s.  Scotland recently revived its Parliament in Edinburgh.  For many decades the Labour Party held sway.  Now the SNP enjoys popular favour.  The Glasgow Herald is a major newspaper, though don't discount The Largs and Millport Weekly News.  Douglas