Scottish slang

[William Vetter]

Since somebody is begging for posts...

I was thinking of having a character use some rather crude Scottish words inherited from her ancestors. She would be American, old money, and believes that she is being sophisticated because the words came from the Old Country, although they imply that her ancestors were base.

My father brought home all of his dates for my grandmother's approval, and I was told that she judged most of them "skittry-assed" (it would seem my mother was an exception). I am looking for a few more. It is not hard to find lists of Scottish slang, including the rather dirty words, but it is difficult to guess how many centuries old they are.

I am particularly interested in the word beastiebaws. It is said to mean "a man who has sex with young girls." It is not clear to me whether this means what we call "robbing the cradle," or actual pedophilia. Also, as I said above, I would like to know how recently beastiebaws emerged.

[Brian M. Scott]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2014 07:58:33 -0800 (PST), William Vetter

Post by William Vetter
Since somebody is begging for posts...
I was thinking of having a character use some rather
crude Scottish words inherited from her ancestors. She
would be American, old money, and believes that she is
being sophisticated because the words came from the Old
Country, although they imply that her ancestors were
base.

That underlying premise is highly questionable. It was the
middle class that was delicate about such things: the
aristocracy by and large didn’t give a damn and could be as
blunt-spoken as their meanest tenants.

Post by William Vetter
My father brought home all of his dates for my
grandmother's approval, and I was told that she judged
most of them "skittry-assed" (it would seem my mother was
an exception).

Scots <skitter> is 'thin excrement'; <the skitter> is
'diarrhoea'. Citations in the Dictionary of the Scots
Language go back to the 1600s, and the OED has one from
before 1585 for the 'diarrhoea' sense. The DSL has a single
citation for <skittery>, from 1658: ‘King James loved ... to
talk of ... a thin skittery turd as round as bannocks 2 or
three dayes old’; it’s not clear exactly what sense is
intended -- both 'composed of excrement' and 'trifling,
insignificant' are possible. In any case an actual Scots
form would be <skittery ersit> 'skittery arsed', and the
expression would be roughly equivalent to <shit assed>.

[...]

Post by William Vetter
I am particularly interested in the word beastiebaws. It
is said to mean "a man who has sex with young girls." It
is not clear to me whether this means what we call
"robbing the cradle," or actual pedophilia. Also, as I
said above, I would like to know how recently beastiebaws
emerged.

The DSL has nothing even close. It looks like a compound of
<beastie>, a familiar and affectionate diminutive of
<beast>, and something else, but the DSL has nothing
remotely like <baws> that would suit here, unless perhaps
<ba’> ~ <baa> ~ <baw> 'ball; (in pl.) testicles'. I doubt
that this is at all old, especially since Google finds
nothing useful.

[William Vetter]

Post by Brian M. Scott
On Tue, 4 Feb 2014 07:58:33 -0800 (PST), William Vetter

Post by William Vetter
Since somebody is begging for posts...
I was thinking of having a character use some rather
crude Scottish words inherited from her ancestors. She
would be American, old money, and believes that she is
being sophisticated because the words came from the Old
Country, although they imply that her ancestors were
base.

That underlying premise is highly questionable. It was the
middle class that was delicate about such things: the
aristocracy by and large didn't give a damn and could be as
blunt-spoken as their meanest tenants.

Well, thanks. I really don't know much about aristocrats. My paternal grandmother's family were the meanest tenants, I think. The legend is that they ran to America after they murdered their lord for raping a daughter.

Post by Brian M. Scott

Post by William Vetter
My father brought home all of his dates for my
grandmother's approval, and I was told that she judged
most of them "skittry-assed" (it would seem my mother was
an exception).

Scots <skitter> is 'thin excrement'; <the skitter> is
'diarrhoea'. Citations in the Dictionary of the Scots
Language go back to the 1600s, and the OED has one from
before 1585 for the 'diarrhoea' sense. The DSL has a single
citation for <skittery>, from 1658: 'King James loved ... to
talk of ... a thin skittery turd as round as bannocks 2 or
three dayes old'; it's not clear exactly what sense is
intended -- both 'composed of excrement' and 'trifling,
insignificant' are possible. In any case an actual Scots
form would be <skittery ersit> 'skittery arsed', and the
expression would be roughly equivalent to <shit assed>.
[...]

Post by William Vetter
I am particularly interested in the word beastiebaws. It
is said to mean "a man who has sex with young girls." It
is not clear to me whether this means what we call
"robbing the cradle," or actual pedophilia. Also, as I
said above, I would like to know how recently beastiebaws
emerged.

The DSL has nothing even close. It looks like a compound of
<beastie>, a familiar and affectionate diminutive of
<beast>, and something else, but the DSL has nothing
remotely like <baws> that would suit here, unless perhaps
<ba'> ~ <baa> ~ <baw> 'ball; (in pl.) testicles'.

Baws is most definitely balls. That I already knew.

Most places that I looked where Scots discussed their slang agreed that beastie is usually a large spider or similar creepy-crawly, but these sites were not as erudite as the ones you like.

Post by Brian M. Scott
I doubt
that this is at all old, especially since Google finds
nothing useful.

That was my feeling.

Google only led me to pictures of the Beastie Boyz.

[JF]

Post by Brian M. Scott
Scots <skitter> is 'thin excrement'; <the skitter> is
'diarrhoea'. Citations in the Dictionary of the Scots

cf 'squit', something of little worth, East Anglian dialect.

Tha's a load o' squit yor talking.

JF
The Thursday night music session in the Eel's Foot is called
'Squit night'. even when I perform.

[William Vetter]

On Tuesday, February 4, 2014 2:12:29 PM UTC-5, Brian M. Scott wrote:
If you like this kind of question, tell me what you think is the origin and age of "tadger," and "todger." I'd like to see if you come up with the same answer I did.

[j***@nelefa.org]

Post by William Vetter
If you like this kind of question, tell me what you think is the origin and age of "tadger," and "todger." I'd like to see if you come up with the same answer I did.

Dear God.

Rapist = sex beast = beastie.

Testicles = baws.

Heid the baw, bawheid, fannybaws, weebaws, naebaws, beastiebaws.

It's nothing more than a word to insult a rapist.

I don't think I've ever seen people attempting to intelligently deconstruct Scottish slang. It's slang for a reason. It grows with time. It's not clearly defined by scholars in a little darkened room before being released to the public.

To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any other, for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it. It'll come out trite and wrong.

J

[William Vetter]

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any other,
for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it. It'll come
out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.
One of my grandparents kept several bits of it, believing they were
marks of sophistication (bizzarely). I was after some fragments of it
from the 18th Century to give to an American character.

Most of what you're discussing doesn't appear to be much more than 50
yrs old.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any other,
for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it. It'll come
out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.

Not just slang. General vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax
changes slow down. The dialect of the capital region changes
rapidly (perhaps in part because it gets more foreign visitors
and trade) while the distant provinces are caught in a time warp.
We've probably all heard that Appalachian English resembled
Elizabethan English, which is true to some extent. If you can
get hold of a copy of Robert MacNeil's television series, _The
Story of English, you can hear some very interesting sounds.

This is why modern Spanish is a whole lot like Latin than modern
Italian is.

[William Vetter]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any
other, for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it.
It'll come out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.

Not just slang. General vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax
changes slow down. The dialect of the capital region changes
rapidly (perhaps in part because it gets more foreign visitors
and trade) while the distant provinces are caught in a time warp.
We've probably all heard that Appalachian English resembled
Elizabethan English, which is true to some extent. If you can
get hold of a copy of Robert MacNeil's television series, _The
Story of English, you can hear some very interesting sounds.
This is why modern Spanish is a whole lot like Latin than modern
Italian is.

Yeah, Chinatowns are like that, because they weren't exposed to any
communist reforms. They're like frozen colonies. Also the food
becomes very resistant to change, partly because the Western concept of
named and rigidly-defined recipe dishes becomes imposed on them when
the ethnic cuisine catches the attention of outsiders.

[Will in New Haven]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any other,
for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it. It'll come
out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.

Not just slang. General vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax
changes slow down. The dialect of the capital region changes
rapidly (perhaps in part because it gets more foreign visitors
and trade) while the distant provinces are caught in a time warp.
We've probably all heard that Appalachian English resembled
Elizabethan English, which is true to some extent. If you can
get hold of a copy of Robert MacNeil's television series, _The
Story of English, you can hear some very interesting sounds.
This is why modern Spanish is a whole lot like Latin than modern
Italian is.

A whole lot _more_ like Latin or a whole lot _less_

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by j***@nelefa.org

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or

any other,

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it.

It'll come

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.

Not just slang. General vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax
changes slow down. The dialect of the capital region changes
rapidly (perhaps in part because it gets more foreign visitors
and trade) while the distant provinces are caught in a time warp.
We've probably all heard that Appalachian English resembled
Elizabethan English, which is true to some extent. If you can
get hold of a copy of Robert MacNeil's television series, _The
Story of English, you can hear some very interesting sounds.
This is why modern Spanish is a whole lot like Latin than modern
Italian is.

A whole lot _more_ like Latin or a whole lot _less_

More, sorry. Bad fingers, no biscuit.

[John W Kennedy]

Post by Will in New Haven

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by William Vetter

Post by j***@nelefa.org
To the original poster - if you don't natively speak Scottish (or any other,
for that matter) slang, please don't have your character use it. It'll come
out trite and wrong.

My observation is that when immigrants came to America, the slang words
they brought with them became static when they stepped off the boat.

Not just slang. General vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax
changes slow down. The dialect of the capital region changes
rapidly (perhaps in part because it gets more foreign visitors
and trade) while the distant provinces are caught in a time warp.
We've probably all heard that Appalachian English resembled
Elizabethan English, which is true to some extent. If you can
get hold of a copy of Robert MacNeil's television series, _The
Story of English, you can hear some very interesting sounds.
This is why modern Spanish is a whole lot like Latin than modern
Italian is.

A whole lot _more_ like Latin or a whole lot _less_

And what do "modern Spanish" and "modern Italian" mean, anyway?

[William Vetter]

Post by j***@nelefa.org
fannybaws

I thought this meant pretty much the same as shemale.