Glossary

The Blythsome Wedding

These definitions are taken from the notes in James Paterson’s The Poems of the Sempills of Beltrees, now first collected, with notes and biographical notices of their lives (Edinburgh, Thomas George Stevenson), 1849), the online Dictionary of the Scots Language, and the glosses in W.M. Dixon, ed, The Edinburgh Book of Scottish Verse, 1300–1900 (1910), and the glossary at the end of Allan Ramsey’s A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English, 14th ed., 2 vols. , Tea-Table Miscellany (reprinted 1871), from which the text used here is taken.

(D) is for Dixon, (P) for Paterson, (Dict) for Dictionary, and (R) for Ramsay. A few unattributed items are common to two or more of those sources, or are my own guesses, or I’ve forgotten where I found them. There are usually several options in the Dictionary. I’ve picked ones that seem the most plausible.

Fy let us a’…
lang-kail>colewort (D)
cog; a wooden tub (Dict)

And there will be Sawney…
sutor> cobbler (D)
meikle> big
mow> mouth (Dict)
blutter> “a person addicted to gossip or foolish talk, hence a term of reproach; a bungler, blunderer” (Dict.) ; ploutter> “In the wool trade, one whose employment it was to trim the nap on the cloth” (Dict.)

And there will be sow-libber…
sow-libber> “sow-libbar>one who spays sows, a sow gelder; also, as a term of abuse” (Dict.)
plucky-faced> “covered with morbid growths, pustules or pimples”(Dict)
capper-nos’d> copper-nosed, red (D)
wins> lives (D)
how> hollow (D)
mool> share food with, “associate intimately with” (D)
stool>stool of repentance

And Madge that was buckled…
buckled> married
breeks> britches
wamb> womb
Mons-meg> “a very large iron cannonin the castle of Edinburgh, capable of holding two people” (R)

And there will be Judan…
flae-lugged>flea-eared; “harum scarum, harebrained” (R)
sharney>scharny, “dirty with, or as with, dung; filthy” (Dict.)
shangy-mou’d>mischievous-mouthed ? [Dict.]
happer-arsed> “with bony, protruding hips” (Dict)
fat-hippit> fat-hipped

And there will be Girn-again Gibbie …
girn-again> “a peevish ill-humored person” (Dict)
glaikit> giddy (D), silly (Dict), “idle and rompish” (R)
misle-shinned> spotty-legged (D)
ha> hall
sybows> onions.
rifarts> radishes.
carings> pease birsled or broiled (P), roasted (D)

And there will be fadges…
fadge> “a coarse sort of roll-bread” (R)
brachen> “most commonly used to denote gruel, either of a thick or thin consistency, and cooked with various additions to the oatmeal, such as butter, honey, etc.” (Dict)
fouth>fowth, plenty
gabbocks> mouthfuls (D), “gobbets, as much as can be swallowed at once” (P)
powsoddy> sheep’s head broth (D)
drammock> meal and water mixed in a raw state (P)
crowdy> thin broth (D); crowdie> “as here used, probably means curds with the whey pressed out, otherwise it would be a repetition of drammock (P)
cauler> fresh (D)
nowt-feet> cow-heel (D)
partans> crabs (D)
buckies> whelks (D)
whitens> “all common sorts of fishes, as mackrells, herings, ling, cods, haddocks, whyteens” (Dict.)
speldens> meal soaked in water (Dict)
scadlips> fat broth or soup, the scum or fat of which keeps in the steam (P), “Scaldlips, a thin gruel with a little barley in it, and on this account, apt to scald the lips” (P)

And there will be lapper’d-milk…
lapper’d-milk kebbucks> sour milk cheeses (D)
sowens>a dish made of oatmeal husks (D)
farls> cakes (D)
swats> new ale
paunches> tripe
stoup> tankard, flagon (Dict)
meal-kail> The definitions involving kail, kaill, cale, cail, keal(l), kell, keil(l), keel go on and on.
castocks> cabbage-stalks (D
skink> thin broth (D); drink in general (P), strong soup (R)
rive>tear, rip, burst ?
brander> gridiron (Dict)
flowks>flounders (D)

Scrapt-haddocks…
scrapt> scraped?
wilks> periwinkles (R)
dulse and tangle> different kinds of seaweed (D)
mill>?
snishing> snuff-taking
prie>sample, taste (Dict)