With Scottish schools heading back this week we thought it might be fun to pay homage to our friends north of the wall (Hadrian’s that is!) and delve into the Scottish “language”… and by that we mean, some fun Scottish slang words!
Anyone who’s read an Irvine Welsh book, or indeed watched one of his visual incarnations (forgive the 24 year old Trainspotting film reference) will be very much aware of Scottish slang being like a language of its own! Grammar and pronunciation can be bad enough in English but throw in the Scottish slang and it’s a whole added layer of difficulty.
And it’s not difficult to see why these unique words have evolved into common use today – with both Gaelic and Scots having merged and entwined with English over time to form what Scottish people up and down Scotland use as their everyday language.
Whether you’re being thrown a cutting insult or being baffled by a turn of phrase that doesn’t see the light of day south of the border, Scottish slang can be both fun and poetic, all at the same time!
Whether you’re being thrown a cutting insult or being baffled by a turn of phrase that doesn’t see the light of day south of the border, Scottish slang can be both fun and poetic, all at the same time!
Here are some of our favourites:
Lang may yer lum reek
This one means “long may you live”. Its literal translation is “long may your chimney smoke” which is quite poetic… the “reek” maybe not so much! It was traditionally used as a toast on Hogmanay, but is now often used when drinking or as a farewell.
All his eggs are double-yoakit
All his eggs are double-yoakit
He’s full of rubbish. We actually found an even better description: he’s a boastful windbag! This refers to someone who’s big headed… so all his eggs are double yolked. Worth boasting about!
Awa’ an bile yer heid
Awa’ an bile yer heid
This simply means “away and boil your head”. What more effective or clear way is there of saying get lost?!
Fizzy juice
Fizzy juice
It’s quite sweet really – all fizzy soft drinks in Scotland are called fizzy juice (or at least, a sizeable number of people call them juice). So much so that it even sparked a fierce debate in 2019 about what these types of soft drink should be called…!
Ah dinnae ken
Surely most of us know this one… “I don’t know”.
Salt n’ sauce?
Any idea where this would be used…? if you’d said a fish and chips shop you’d be right, particularly in Edinburgh. This is where locals enjoy a sprinkling of salt (we’re familiar with this one) and a dash of sauce, which is described as a watery brown sauce that’s a little like HP sauce… sounds delightful?!
Pure dead brilliant!
You can’t get higher praise in Scotland than being pure dead brilliant. It’s high praise indeed, and means that something is exceptional.
So there we have it… pure dead brilliant blog celebrating all things Scottish. Now pass me my Irn Bru…!