In our second episode of the Life in Scotland Podcast, we talk all about the often weird yet wonderful Scottish words and slang.
We talk about our favourite Scottish words, have a go at reading Scottish tweets and have some laughs deciphering Scottish slang. Yvette also gets Craig back by making him pronounce some New Zealand place names. I don’t think we’ve laughed this much in a while…
In this episode we discuss…
- Our 3 favourite Scottish words
- Craig makes Yvette reads Scottish tweets
- Craig makes Yvette guess the meaning of some Scottish words
- What Scottish people call every day things
- Yvette makes Craig pronounce the name of some New Zealand towns
Scottish slang words we mention:
- Coorie to stoop, bend, cringe, crouch for protection and to snuggle/nestle: ”Come and coorie in”
- Hen an endearing way to refer to a female: ”Would you like a cup of tea, hen?”
- Pish/pished when someone is drunk: ”he’s pished” [or ”I’m going for a pish” means ”I’m going for a piss”]
- Bawbag the male scrotum, but also used to describe a low, disreputable character: ”He stole from his granny, he’s a total bawbag.”
- Dreich grey, miserable weather: ”it’s dreich outside.”
- Outwith outside of: ”outwith is not a term used outwith of Scotland.”
- Torn-faced Having an unhappy or disgruntled look: ”She wis aye a torn-faced besom.”
- Ceilidh traditional Scottish dancing: ”shall we go to the ceilidh?”
- Deek to take a look at: ”Take a deek at that tree over there.”
- Rammy to get into a fight: ”He got into a rammy on the weekend.”
- Stramash conflict, scramble or chaotic fight: ”they got into a stramash.”
- First foot the first visitor over the threshold after the bells at Hogmanay; traditionally a tall, dark male bearing a gift, sometimes of coal or black bun.
- Wee small: ”Aye, just a wee bit of cake for me.”
- Dug dog
- Maw mother
- Da father
- Shite poo: ”I’m just going for a shite.”
- Meltit drunk: ”He’s meltit.”
- Ken I know or know: ”Aye, ken what you mean.”
- Coo Cow
- Wain baby
- Bairn child
- Gantin disgusting: ”Yuck, that’s gantin.”
- Bowfing disgusting: ”Yuck, that’s bowfing.”
Three places in New Zealand:
- Whakatane a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand.
- Motueka a town of Motueka in the South Island of New Zealand.
- Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is a hill near Porangahau, south of Waipukurau in southern Hawke’s Bay. Yup- seriously! Yvette referred to it as a town, but it’s actually a hill- sorry!!
Links & Resources
- Book: A Scots Dictionary of Nature by Amanda Thomson
- Book: Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers: A treasury of 1,000 Scottish Words by Robin A. Crawford
- Scottish Banter Facebook page
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