Webster`s, Chamber`s, now here is Leith`s.
How often have the following cropped up long after you thought you had forgotten them? We used these words and phrases as children but often or not we were told they were slang and should be discarded as such. We would not get on in the World unless we did. Many thanks to all who have sent and continue to send me theirs.
A
A bar - ride on the crossbar of a bike
A blaw - boastful
Alabam - Alhambra picture house
Always leave the future in the Master`s hands - God determines our future
Argie bargie - arguing
At ma wit`s end - ah dinna ken whit tae dae
Auld besom - an elderly complaining woman
Auld biddy - an old woman especially wrapped in a shawl
Auld devil - an elderly complaining man
Away wi` the fairies - not quite with it
Awfy - awful
B
Bag-off - seeing a girl home from a dance
Bahookie - your backside
Bairns - children
Ballop - opening at front of trousers
Bampot - not the full shilling
Bandy-legged - bow legged
Bane - thorn in the flesh
Basher - ice cream wafer with a snowball in it
Baucles - old pair of shoes
Bawling - crying aloud
Belly buster - not entering the water correctly after diving
Ben the hoose - in the bedroom
Big heid - full of ones own importance
Bint - girl friend
Birler - a windmill type of toy handed out by the rag-n-boneman
Black affronted - embarrassed
Black Man - chocolate ice cream wafer
Black Maria - police van used for carting people to the police statin
Bletherin` skeit - a person who talked too much
Blotto - dead drunk
Boaking- feeling sick
Bocht - bought
Brazen - bold, forward
Breeks - unmentionables
Brocht - brought
Buckie - a whelk
Bully - brother
Bung - (a) tip (gratuity) (b) a stopper to plug a hole
Bung fu - completely full
Bunker - work surface at sink
Burroo - labour exchange
C
Cadge - beg
Canny - cunningly careful, smart
Cantankerous - bad mood
Canter - hanging on to the back of a lorry for a free lift
Cappy - capitol cinema
Caury handed - left handed
Causie - granite sett in the roadway
Cawing - swinging a rope to allow a person to jump in it
Chantie - chamber pot
Chase yoursel - get out of the road
Chippie - fish and chip shop
Chippit aipple - the Catholc church
Choked - full of emotion
Chuckie - small throwing stone
Chuckter - backside
Claes - clothes
Clarty - dirty, filthy
Clawin` - scratching yourself
Cleek - tight group
Click - date
Clipshears - earwigs
Cloot - cloth
Clype - betray
Clooty dumpling - pudding made in tea cloth
Collie buckie - ride on ones back
Cone - an ice cream cornet
Conkers - smashing chestnuts held from a string by ones hand
Coorie in - cuddle in
Corned beef - deaf
Coup - a midden (house)
Cowp - capsize
Crab - a bad tempered person
Cudgie - stick for people over the head
D
Dab hand - expert
Dae - do
Dauner - walk where your feet take you
Dinna fask (fash) yersel - don`t put yourself out
Dithering - can`t make up your mind
Doing a bunk - running away from
Dookin` - ducking for apples in a bath full of cold water
Dooks or dukes - fists
Dowp - cigarette end
Dreep - (a) drop (b) stupid looking
Drookit craw - completely soaked
Drooth - thirst
Dug - dog
E
Eeking - economising
Eldo - Eldorado
Embra - Edinburgh
Entry - stair doorway
F
Fag - cigarette
Faggot - an unpleasant woman
Falsies - false teeth
Fancy man - married woman`s boyfriend
Feart - afraid
Fed up - weary
Fikey - fussy
Fine fettle - in good health
Flair cloth - linoleum
Flicks - cinema
Flitting - relocating
Flush - have some money
Fly cemetery - currant cake
Forpit - fourth part of a stone
Four eyes - someone wearing spectacles
Frae a` the airts - from all over
Fullie - rubber inflatable insert for leather football
Fur coat and nae knickers - dressed to kill but no money to go with it
G
Gairters - garters
Galavanting - walking to wherever your feet take you
Galoot - silly, approaching a daft person
Galus - bold
Gander - a look at
Gallasses - trouser braces
Gas at a peep - being outsmarted
Gawk - stare
Geezer - an old man
Gets ma goat - someone or something annoying you
Get - not a nice person
Gies - give me
Gird or gurd - metal hoop or cycle wheel that was guided along by a stick
Girn - moan
Glaikit - stupid looking
Goonie - nightdress
Graith - give the clothes a second steeping to rid them of soap.
Greet - cry
Gub - mouth
Guider - box on wheels that was guided by a rope attached to the front axle
Guid mother - mother-in-law. Guid used as a prefix to signify related by marrage
Guising - (a) mucking around foolishly (b) begging for money at Halloween
H
Hae - have
Hale - whole
Halfie - a half day holiday from school, usually when it had rained continuously
Haud yer wheesh - keep quiet
Havering - talking nonsense
Heedy - school headmaster
Heeders - directing a ball with your head
Heidbummer - headman
Help ma boab - exclamation
Henner- a somersault
Het - one who does the seeking in the game hide and seek
High shooder - carry one on ones shoulders
Hing - hang
Hingy - child not feeling well hanging around mother
Horseman - male pigeon with puffed up breast
Hum `n Haw - think it over
Hunkers - squatting down
Hunky dory - all is fine
Hunty gowk - April fool
Hurl - a lift in a car, etc.
I
If God spares me - always said if you are planning ahead
Ingin Johnnie - Frenchman who hawked onions that were tied in bunches from his bike
J
Jag - injection
Janny - school janitor
Jeely piece - bread and jam
Jimp - tight-fitting
Jings - exclamation
Johnnie (Jenny) a` thing - shop that sold almost anything
Jouking - avoiding
K
Keelie - wildie
Khyber Pass - Springfield Street
Kick the bucket - die
Kirby grip - hair clip
Kirk - church
Kirrie oot - take beer home for consumption
Knackered - completely tired out
Knockin` - chapping at dominoes
L
Laced - drunk
Laldy - telling off
Landing - floor level
Lavy - toilet
Loco - daft
Lobby - hallway
Lousing - stopping work
Lousy - (a) feeling rotten (b) scratching (fleas?)
Lugs - ears
Lum - chimney
M
Ma - an endearing name for your mother
Maik - halfpenny
Mair - more
Mangie - dirty and smelling
Mask - brew the tea
Margie - margarine
Masel - myself
Mickle - (a) little (b) few
Midden - illegal rubbish dump
Moaning Minnie - a complaining female
Money for auld rope - easily earned money
Mony a mickle maks a muckle - save your pennies and accrue the pounds
Morn`s morning - tomorrow morning
Muckle - (a) much (b) many
N
Nancy - effeminate
Nane - none
Narry - narrow
Naw - no
Neb - nose
Ne`er cast a cloot till May be oot - don`t discard winter wear until then
Ninety nine (99) - ice cream cone with a flake in it
Nitwit - stupid person
O
Ooze - (a) fluff (b) seep
Ower - over
Oxter - armpit
P
Palins - metal fence
Parched - thirsty
Parkie - park attendant
Paukle - ill gotten gains
Peckish - hungry
Pee the beds - dandelions
Pee hee - a person who craves attention by flattery
Peekit - looking unwell
Peely wally - looking under the weather
Peenie - apron
Peerie - spinning top driven by a whip
Peevers - hopscotch or beds chalked on the pavement
Piece - a sandwich
Pirn - bobbin
Pit oan - pretence
Plaistered - steaming drunk
Planks o meat - feet
Plook - pimple
Press - cupboard
Plunge - hot water bath at the swimming baths
Plunker - shooting marble (bools)
Poke - small paper container
Pom - powdered tattie mix
Porty - Portobello
Provvyman - shilling a week man
Puddocks - game played with two stumps, baseball bat and a tennis ball
Puggled - out of breath
Q
Queezy - feeling dizzy
Queue - line up
R
Ragged school - place where you were threatened to be sent if you misbehaved
Raglan - flaired overcoat worn in the fifties
Redd - clear the table
Reeking - smelling
Rerr - grand
Rooked - short of a penny
Rubber - a pencil eraser
Rubbers - gym shoes
S
Sair - sore
Sap - a feardie or timid boy
Scaffy - street sweeper
Scratcher - Laurie St picture house
Scunnered - sickened
Shoogle - shake or rock
Shows - funfair
Sideboard - cabinet
Simit - undershirt
Sine - wash out
Siver - street drain
Skelf - spail
Skelp - slap
Skint - no money at all
Skite - slap or skelp
Skipping - (a) not attending (b) jumping through a swinging rope
Skiffer - flat stone
Skiving - avoiding work
Skoosh - (a) wade (b) juice
Slaver - (a) let liquid or food drip from mouth (b) talk a load of nonsense
Sleekit - devious or cunning
Slester - making a mess of your food
Slider - an ice cream wafer
Slink - creep
Sling - catapult
Slop - policeman
Slowcoach - a very slow person
Smasher - good looking
Smout - person with an ego
Sneak - a person who tells tales on another
Sneck - door lock
Snotter - the excrement from our noses
Sooking in - trying to get into someone`s good books
Soor dook - a humourless person
Sowster - really big
Spail - piece of wood or something that got under our skin
Spugs - sparrows
Steady - girl friend
Steaming - drunk
Steep - soak
Stoaper - bottle top
Stookie - plaster of paris
Stoor - dust
Store - Leith Provident
Stottin` - (a) bouncing (b) as in stotting drunk, paraletic
Stotter - a lovely girl
Stovies - stoved potatoes
Strappin` - fit and healthy
Swallie - swallow
Syne oot - rinse out
T
Ta - thanks
Tailie Day - 2nd April
Tanner - sixpenny piece
Tattie - potato
Tattie howker - one who gathered potatoes from the field
Tattiebogle - potato we used to stick used matchsticks in
The Channel - the Kirkgate
Thingmy - that person
Thrapple - back of your throat
Tinny - metal cup
Toadie - hot whisky and lemonade drink taken as a medicinal cure for the cold
Toe rag - rascal
Togs - football boots
Tolley - what you deposit in the W.C.
Torn faced - always complaining
Tumbler - drinking glass
Tumshie - turnip
Tuppeny - priced two pennies
U
Up your jouk - hidden below your jersey
V
Vantas - flavoured water drink aerated with a gas
Vennel - alley way between and under houses
W
Wabbit - worn out
Wax cloth - linoleum
Winching - going steady
Winnay - wont
X
X & Os - noughts and crosses game
Y
Yer bum`s oot the windae - you`ve no chance
Yoan - them/that
Your uncle`s - pawnbroker
Yukkie - rotten tasted
Z
Always open to suggestion to add to the list
