List of English words of Scots origin explained

List of English words of Scots origin is a list of English language words of Scots origin. See also "List of English words of Scottish Gaelic origin", which contains many words which were borrowed via Highland Scots.

Blackmail
  • A form of extortion carried out by the Border Reivers, borrowed into English with less violent connotations.
    blatant
  • Bonspiel
  • caddie or caddy
  • canny:Also Northern English. From English can in older sense of "to know how."
  • clan
  • Borrowed from Gaelic clann (family, stock, off-spring).
    convene :Borrowed from French convenir, from Latin convenire.
  • cosy
  • firth
  • Derived from Old Icelandic fjǫrdic (see fjord)
    glamour
  • Meaning magic, enchantment, spell. From English grammar and Scottish gramarye (occult learning or scholarship).
    gloaming
  • Middle English (Scots) gloming, from Old English glomung "twilight", from OE glom
    golf
  • glengarry
  • (or Glengarry bonnet) A brimless Scottish cap with a crease running down the crown, often with ribbons at the back. Named after the title of the clan chief Alexander Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry (1771–1828), who invented it.
    gumption
  • Common sense or shrewdness.
    halloween
  • haver or haiver
  • To talk nonsense.[1] Scottish and North English dialect.
    laddie
  • A boy.
    lassie
  • A girl.
    links
  • Sandy, rolling ground, from Old English hlinc (ridge).
    pernickety:From pernicky.
  • minging
  • literally "stinking", from Scots "to ming".
    plaid
  • From Gaelic plaide or simply a development of ply, to fold, giving plied then plaid after the Scots pronunciation.
    pony
  • Borrowed from obsolete French poulenet (little foal) from Latin pullāmen.
    raid
  • scone
  • Probably from Dutch schoon.
    shinny
  • Pond or street hockey in Canada. From an alternative name for the Scots sport shinty.
    skulduggery
  • From Scots sculduddery[2] [3]
    tweed
  • Cloth being woven in a twilled rather than a plain pattern. from tweel
    wee
  • Small, tiny, minute.
    wow: Exclamation[4] [5] [6]
  • wraith

    • See also

    Notes and References

    1. Book: Concise Scots Dictionary. 1985. Aberdeen University Press. 260. 1987. Mairi Robinson.
    2. Web site: skulduggery - definition of skulduggery in English from the Oxford dictionary. oxforddictionaries.com. 2020-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200904/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/skulduggery?q=skullduggery. 2016-03-04. dead.
    3. Web site: Dictionary of the Scots Language :: SND :: Sculduddery n.. dsl.ac.uk. 2020-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200504/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/sculduddery. 2016-03-04. live.
    4. Web site: wow - Definition of wow in English by Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford Dictionaries - English. 2020-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20180321063039/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/wow. 2018-03-21. dead.
    5. Web site: Americanize!: Why the Americanisation of English Is a Good Thing, Seriously... - BBC Radio 4. BBC. 26 May 2017 . 2020-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20190401161906/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p053y31m. 2019-04-01. live.
    6. Web site: Dictionary of the Scots Language :: SND :: Wow interj.. www.dsl.ac.uk. 2020-01-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20180320230609/http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/wow_interj. 2018-03-20. live.

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