Scotland

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

This glossary of Scots and Scottish Gaelic terms is not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive. For detailed etymologies and the explanation of terms the following standard reference works should be consulted: The Scottish National Dictionary: ... containing all the Scottish words known to be in use or to have been in use since c.1700. (eds.) William Grant and David D. Murison. Edinburgh: the Scottish National Dictionary Association Ltd., 1927-1976. [10 vols]; The Concise Scots Dictionary. (ed.) Mairi Robinson. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1985; and The Essential Gaelic-English dictionary. compiled by Angus Watson. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2001.

A

Anent: about, concerning, in respect.

B

Baile [Gaelic]: hamlet; town; village.

Baillie: see Factor.

Bairn : baby or child.

Barilla [from Spanish: Barrilla]: an impure alkali produced by burning dried kelp or seaweed, for use in the manufacture of soda, soap, and glass. Originally imported in large quantities from Spain, Sicily and the Canary Island During the Napoleonic Wars a thriving trade was created in the Scottish Hebridean Islands; however after 1815 there was a serious decline in demand and the economic slump had a severe impact upon Scottish islanders dependent upon this source of income [see also: Kelping].

Birlie [also Byrlaw]: local customary law.

Birlieman: one of the group of persons elected or appointed to act as judges or arbiters in local disputes.

Birlin[from Gaelic: Birlinn]: a large rowing boat or galley used in the West Highlands.

Boll: a dry measure of weight or capacity varying according to commodity and locality; a valuation of land according to the quantity of bolls it produced.

Bonnie [also Bonny]: beautiful, handsome.

Bothy: a stone hut or cottage.

Breachan [Gaelic]: tartan.

Burn: a brook or stream.

Burthened: archaic form of 'burdened'.

C

Cess: a land tax.

Chamberlain: see Factor.

Changehouse: small inn or alehouse.

Chief: the leader of a clan.

Cobble: small flat-bottomed barge.

Codicil: A supplement or appendix to a will.

Commonalty: small tenants, subtenants (crofters and cottars) and farm servants.

Compear: To appear in court personally or by attorney.

Cott: home of a cottar.

Cottar: a landless or semi-landless agricultural labourer.

Croft: a small farm worked by a tenant and his family.

Crofter: tenant who works a croft.

Customs and Carriage: works and services due to the laird or chief by his tenants as part of the rent.

D

Displenish: to sell the furnishings and implements of a house or farm. [see also: Roup]

Draff: malt waste from brewing, often used as cattle fodder.

E

Engrossing: the enlarging of a farm by removing the holders of the surrounding holdings (usually smaller holdings).

Entail: to settle the inheritance of an estate on a number of persons in succession so that it cannot be dealt with by any other possessor as absolute owner.

Execute Diligence: to serve a warrant to enforce the attendance of a witness or force the production of a document.

F

Factor: a farm or estate manager, also referred to as a Baillie or Chamberlain.

Faill: turf; sods.

Fank: sheep or cattle fold.

Feu: to pay rent in money, kind or labour to occupy land owned by another.

Filleadh beag [Gaelic]: kilt.

Filleadh mór [Gaelic]: long plaid.

Furth: Scottish variant of 'forth' or 'outside of'.

G

Gabbart: C19th double-ended sloop-rigged sailing lighter (approx. 40 ft in length), used on the west coast of Scotland.

Girnal: a place for storing grain.

Ghillie: a personal servant to a Chief; attendant in fishing and shooting.

Glen: a narrow valley.

H

Heritor: parish landholder, liable to pay tax and contribute towards public works, either by payment or labour; a landowner who paid cess.

I

Ilk: name, breed. Macquarrie of Macquarrie is 'Macquarrie of that Ilk' (ie. clan chief).

Infeftment: a formal ceremony of putting an heir in possession, confirming his title.

Infield: the best land of a farm, and generally nearest the house.

J

Jacobites: adherents of the legitimate line of the House of Stewart, overthrown by the Revolution of 1688.

Jointure: the legal provision of an estate for a widow.

K

Ken: to know.

Kelping: the processing of an alkaline extract from seaweed that was used in the manufacture of soap and glass.

Kilt: a kind of skirt, usually of tartan cloth, reaching to the knee annnd thickly pleated at the back. Part of modern male Highland dress.

Kiltie: soldier in a Highland regiment.

Kirk: Church; specifically the established Church of Scotland.

Kyle: a strait.

M

Meal: oatmeal.

Meall: land held in return for produce; also, a report or a remembrance.

Merkland: Scots measure of the worth or area of a piece of land. Rent was traditionally paid in kind rather than cash, and the merk was one of the units of value. A merkland was a unit of a land's productivity.

Moss: boggy ground, peat bog; a stretch of moorland allocated to tenants for cutting fuel.

Muileach: an inhabitant of Mull, or an adjective describing things of Mull (Gaelic).

O

Outfield: the inferior land of a farm.

P

Pendicle: an appendage or addition.

Penny Land: a measure of land that varied in size according to its value.

Poind: legally confiscate.

Potash: a crude impure form of potassium carbonate, obtained from wood ashes. Useful in making soap, in the manufacture of glass, and as a fertilizer. The ash is obtained from the burning of any wood not needed for fuel or construction. Derivation: from the English words 'pot' and 'ash'.

Pro tempore: for the time being, temporarily.

Q

Quitrent: payment in lieu of services to the landlord.

R

Reduction: legal action to restrict powers, making earlier documentation null and void.

Roup: sale by auction of goods or livestock for cash, usually after death of owner.

S

Sasine: inscription recorded in the Register of Sasines showing transfer of ownership of lands. In Scotland, an instrument of sasine was a deed prepared by a notary conveying or establishing possession of land or property. Instruments of sasine are kept in the General Register of Sasines housed in the National Archives of Scotland.

Sasunnach: Englishman.

Sept: suddivision of a clan, often differentiated by an English or anglicised surname.

Sett [also Set]: to let a farm or other land holding, allocation of lands by lease.

Sgian dubh [Gaelic]: black knife; dagger worn in the stocking as part of Highland dress.

Sheiling [also: sheeling]: a summer hut, shed or dwelling used by people tending animals on high or remote moorland.

Sheilings: highland pastures for grazing cattle in summer.

Sorner: beggar.

Souming: the number of livestock that each tenant was permitted to graze on common land.

Steading: farm buildings.

Stent: a local tax.

Stirk: young (or yearling) cow or bull.

Stock: twelve sheaves of corn.

Stool [also Stuil]: a tree-stump or a new shoot rising from a group of stumps after cutting (also a matted bed of vegetation esp. thick dense grass roots).

Strath: broad valley.

Sward: ground covered with grassy turf; a lawn or meadow.

T

Tack: lease or tenure.

Tacksman: leaseholder, who held the tack on a property and could sublet it to others (subtenants) and collect rent; also factor. Principal tenant to the chief of a clan, often his kinsman.

Tang: seaweed that grows upon the shoreline rocks (in contrast to ware which grows in the sea).

Teind: a tithe payable to the Church.

Tierce: a widow's portion, the third part of her husband's property.

Tigh: Gaelic 'house'.

Tocher: dowry.

Trews: close-fitting trousers.

Tutor: [in Scots law] guardian and administrator of the estate of a minor.

V

Victuals: provisions.

W

Wadset: a form of mortgage, exchanging the use of lands for the loan of a capital sum, subject to reversion.

Ware [also Waar, Wair or Wear]: a type of seaweed (esp. of the Fucas and Laminaria variety) washed ashore in the Hebridean Islands and collected by the islanders for use as a manure. [see also: Barilla]

Writer: a lawyer.

Writer to the Signet: a lawyer entitled to perform superior legal work. Writer to the Signet: The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet is the oldest legal society in the world, dating back to 1594. It is a private society of Scottish solicitors who originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of documents which required to be 'signeted' (i.e. Stamped or marked with a seal or signet). The Society is now an independent, non-regulatory association of solicitors, most of whom are based in Edinburgh. Members of the Society 'Writers to the Signet' use the postnominal letters 'WS'.

Additional Sources:
Adams, Ian and Somerville, Meredyth. Cargoes of Despair and Hope: Scottish emigration to North America 1603-1803. Edinburgh: John Donald 1993 pp.207-208.

Beal, Peter. A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450-2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Fry, Michael. Wild Scots: four hundred years of Highland history. London: John Murray, 2005 pp.341-346.

Currie, J. Mull: the Island & Its People. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2000 pp.xii-xiii.

Fighting For Identity: Scottish Military Experience c.1550-1900. (ed.) Steve Murdoch and A. Mackillop. Leiden: Brill, 2002 pp.287-288.

McGeachy, Robert, A.A. Argyll 1730-1850. Edinburgh, John Macdonald, 2005 p.277.

Weyndling, Walter. Ferry Tales of Argyll and the Isles. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2003 pp.147-148.

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