20 Words from Scotland
- Blatant
The word ‘blatant’ was first used in the sixteenth century by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queen to describe a monster, and by the seventeenth century it was generally used to mean ‘clamorous’ or ‘noisy in a vulgar way’. From the nineteenth century, the word started being used to mean ‘obvious’. Some sources suggest that Spenser may have used ‘blatant’ as a variation on the Scots word ‘blatand’ (meaning ‘bleating’).
- Caddie
‘Caddie’ is the Scottish form of the French word ‘cadet’. It took on its meaning as a ‘golfer’s assistant’ in the nineteenth century.
- Canny
The word ‘canny’ is a Scottish formation of the verb ‘can’ (i.e. ‘know how to’) and is used to describe someone who is ‘knowing’ or ‘shrewd’. It dates back to the seventeenth century.
- Clan
‘Clan’ derives from the Gaelic word ‘clann’, which means ‘family, stock, offspring’.
- Cosy
The word ‘cosy’ (or ‘cozy’ if you’re American!) is an adaptation of the word ‘colsie’ which existed in eighteenth century Scottish dialect. ‘Colsie’ possibly has Scandinavian roots.
- Firth
‘Firth’ is a Scottish word for the ‘estuary of a river’. It comes from the Old Norse word ‘fjörðr’ – which is also where the word ‘fjord’ derives from.
- Glamour
‘Glamour’ is an eighteenth-century Scottish word meaning ‘magic’ or ‘enchantment’. It is a variation of the word ‘grammarye’ – click here to read our blog post on the word ‘grammar’!
- Golf
The word ‘golf’ comes from the sixteenth-century Scottish word ‘gouf’.
- Gumption
This Scottish word first came into use in the eighteenth century, and is still used today. It started being used in the nineteenth century to describe a quality attributed to someone who showed ‘initiative’.
- Laddie
This Scottish term of endearment to describe a boy or young man first started being used in the sixteenth century.
- Lassie
‘Lassie’, on the other hand, wasn’t first recorded until the eighteenth century.
- Loch
‘Loch’ is a Gaelic word which means ‘lake’.
- Minging
The word ‘minging’, meaning ‘bad smelling’ or ‘unpleasant’, possibly comes from the Scots dialect word ‘ming’ which refers to excrement.
- Pernickety
‘Pernickety’ comes from the Scottish word ‘pernicky’.
- Plaid
This Scottish word, first used in the sixteenth century, is perhaps related to the Gaelic ‘plaide’ which means ‘blanket’.
- Raid
‘Raid’ was first used in the fifteenth century as a Scottish word for a ‘military expedition’, and comes from ‘rade’ meaning ‘a riding, a journey’.
- Rampage
This word was first used in eighteenth-century Scottish as a verb meaning ‘rush wildly’ (usually in reference to animals).
- Tweed
This material was originally produced in Scotland. Its name came about as a misreading of the word ‘tweel’ (‘twill’), possibly due to an association with the River Tweed.
- Wee
The word ‘wee’ is used in Scotland as a synonym for ‘little’.
- Wraith
The word ‘wraith’ means ‘ghost’ and was first used in sixteenth-century Scottish.
Why not practise spelling these words by clicking here?
Have a good week!
Sources: The Online Etymology Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary
18 Sep 2014
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