Weir of Hermiston/Glossary
GLOSSARY
- ae, one.
- antinomian, one of a sect which holds that under the gospel dispensation the moral law is not obligatory.
- Auld Hornie, the Devil.
- ballant, ballad.
- bauchles, brogues, old shoes.
- bauld, bold.
- bees in their bonnet, eccentricities.
- birling, whirling.
- black-a-vised, dark-complexioned.
- bonnet-laird, small landed proprietor, yeoman.
- bool, ball.
- brae, rising ground.
- brig, bridge.
- buff, play buff on, to make a fool of, to deceive.
- burn, stream.
- butt end, end of a cottage.
- byre, cow-house.
- ca', drive.
- caller, fresh.
- canna, cannot.
- canny, careful, shrewd.
- cantie, cheerful.
- carline, old woman.
- cauld, cold.
- chalmer, chamber.
- claes, clothes.
- clamjamfry, crowd.
- clavers, idle talk.
- cock-laird. See Bonnet-laird.
- collieshangie, turmoil.
- crack, to converse.
- cuist, cast.
- cuddy, donkey.
- cutty, jade, also used playfully = brat.
- daft, mad, frolicsome.
- dander, to saunter.
- danders, cinders.
- daurna, dare not.
- deave, to deafen.
- denty, dainty.
- dirdum, vigour.
- disjaskit, worn out, disreputable-looking.
- doer, law agent.
- dour, hard.
- drumlie, dark.
- dunting, knocking.
- dwaibly, infirm, rickety.
- dule-tree, the tree of lamentation, the hanging-tree.
- earrand, errand.
- ettercap, vixen.
- fechting, fighting.
- feck, quantity, portion.
- feckless, feeble, powerless.
- fell, strong and fiery.
- fey, unlike yourself, strange, as if urged on by fate, or as persons are observed to be in the hour of approaching death or disaster.
- fit, foot.
- flit, to depart.
- flyped, turned up, turned in-side out.
- forbye, in addition to.
- forgather, to fall in with.
- fower, four.
- fushionless, pithless, weak.
- fyle, to soil, to defile.
- fylement, obloquy, defilement.
- gaed, went.
- gang, to go.
- gey an', very.
- gigot, leg of mutton.
- girzie, lit. diminutive of Grizel, here a playful nickname.
- glaur, mud.
- glint, glance, sparkle.
- gloaming, twilight.
- glower, to scowl.
- gobbets, small lumps.
- gowden, golden.
- gowsty, gusty.
- grat, wept.
- grieve, land-steward.
- guddle, to catch fish with the hands by groping under the stones or banks.
- gumption, common sense, judgment.
- guid, good.
- gurley, stormy, surly.
- gyte, beside itself.
- hae, have, take.
- haddit, held.
- hale, whole.
- heels-ower-hurdie, heels over head.
- hinney, honey.
- hirstle, to bustle.
- hizzie, wench.
- howe, hollow.
- howl, hovel.
- hunkered, crouched.
- hypothec, lit. in Scots law the furnishings of a house, and formerly the produce and stock of a farm hypothecated by law to the landlord as security for rent; colloquially 'the whole structure,' 'the whole concern.'
- Idleset, idleness.
- Infeftment, a term in Scots law originally synonymous with investiture.
- jaud, jade.
- jeely-piece, a slice of bread and jelly.
- jennipers, juniper.
- jo, sweetheart.
- justifeed, executed, made the victim of justice.
- jyle, jail.
- kebbuck, cheese.
- ken, to know.
- kenspeckle, conspicuous.
- kilted, tucked up.
- kyte, belly.
- laigh, low.
- laird, landed proprietor.
- lane, alone.
- lave, rest, remainder.
- linking, tripping.
- lown, lonely, still.
- lynn, cataract.
- Lyon King of Arms, the chief of the Court of Heraldry in Scotland.
- macers, officers of the supreme court. [Cf. Guy Mannering, last chapter.]
- maun, must.
- menseful, of good manners.
- mirk, dark.
- misbegowk, deception, disappointment.
- mools, mould, earth.
- muckle, much, great, big.
- my lane, by myself.
- nowt, black cattle.
- palmering, walking infirmly.
- panel, in Scots law, the accused person in a criminal action, the prisoner.
- peel, fortified watch-tower.
- plew-stilts, plough-handles.
- policy, ornamental grounds of a country mansion.
- puddock, frog.
- quean, wench.
- rair, to roar.
- riff-raff, rabble.
- risping, grating.
- rout, rowt, to roar, to rant.
- rowth, abundance.
- rudas, haggard old woman.
- runt, an old cow past breeding; opprobriously, an old woman.
- sab, sob.
- sanguishes, sandwiches.
- sasine, in Scots law, the act of giving legal possession of feudal property, or, colloquially, the deed by which that possession is proved.
- sclamber, to scramble.
- sculduddery, impropriety, grossness.
- session, the Court of Session, the supreme court of Scotland.
- shauchling, shuffling, slipshod.
- shoo, to chase gently.
- siller, money.
- sinsyne, since then.
- skailing, dispersing.
- skelp, slap.
- skirling, screaming.
- skriegh-o'day, daybreak.
- snash, abuse.
- sneisty, supercilious.
- sooth, to hum.
- sough, sound, murmur.
- spec, The Speculative Society, a debating Society connected with Edinburgh University.
- speir, to ask.
- speldering, sprawling.
- splairge, to splash.
- spunk, spirit, fire.
- steik, to shut.
- stockfish, hard, savourless.
- suger-bool, suger-plum.
- syne, since, then.
- tawpie, a slow foolish slut, also used playfully = monkey.
- telling you, a good thing for you.
- thir, these.
- thrawn, cross-grained.
- toon, town.
- two-names, local soubriquets in addition to patronymic.
- tyke, dog.
- unchancy, unlucky.
- unco, strange, extraordinary, very.
- upsitten, impertinent.
- vennel, alley, lane. The Vennel, a narrow lane in Edinburgh running out of the Grassmarket.
- vivers, victuals.
- wae, sad, unhappy.
- waling, choosing.
- warrandise, warranty.
- waur, worse.
- weird, destiny.
- whammle, to upset.
- whaup, curlew.
- whiles, sometimes.
- windlestae, crested dog's-tail, grass.
- wund, wind.
- yin, one.
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty,
at the Edinburgh University Press.