Scots (Language)

I happened to say to my brother this morning that I'd got myself into a bit of a fankle. It's a stoater of a word and I use it frequently and have done for as long as I can remember. CJ remarked that it was a wonderfully descriptive word. I commented that it was like so many Scots words that I use and hear used on an every-day basis. It made me realise just how many Scots words there are that fall into that category but which are not every-day words even in other parts of the UK. 

I am assuming that everyone can imagine what 'fankle' means. Can you? Do you use the word outside Scotland?

Dreich (dreek - but the k is gutteral) is another adjective and it's used to describe dreary, bleak weather but no words really describe it better than it sounds.

Having started this it occurs to me that I could go on for ages just with the words that I know and I'm sure there are many hundreds or even thousands more. I'll mention a few more favourites that come to mind.

Wabbit (as in rabbit. Although posh people I'm told say wahbit) is used if one is slightly unwell or in low spirits or 'under the weather'.

Scunnered  is a feeling of revulsion or loathing although many people just use it to mean 'fed up'.

Gallus is a word one doesn't hear very often. I have a friend (of my generation) who calls herself Gallus Lass so obviously regards it as a Good Thing (thank you, Sellars and Yeatman). Generally it means forthright or bold or possibly cheeky. I think a lot depends on the context.

Finally 'stoater' which I used in the first paragraph. I think it's principally a Glasgow dialect Scots word used to to mean it's a great example, fantastic, excellent. It's not to be confused with Scots, 'stotter' which means to stumble.

I would be really interested to hear what 'unusual' words you may have from where you live - or anywhere else for that matter.

Snowflake

We've just come to the end of five days of gloriously sunny and very cold (by our Island standards) clear, icy weather. At one point we even had a few snowflakes. 

When the beautiful snowflakes briefly appeared I wondered how and why the term had been appropriated in the news and social media to describe people. Then it occurred to me that, apart from the fact that the people I know who use it seemed to be regarding it as a derogatory term, I hadn't a clue what it meant. Do you know?

I did some research.

According to Wikipedia the definition is a 2010s derogatory slang term for a person, implying that they have an inflated sense of uniqueness, an unwarranted sense of entitlement, OR are overly-emotional, easily offended, and unable to deal with opposing opinions.

  

However a little further research turned this up from The Independent (UK now online only newspaper): On Christmas Eve 2019 the Donald Trump campaign launched a website called snowflakevictory.com to give guidance to Trump’s supporters about how to deal with their “liberal relatives” over the holiday period. It featured 12 hot-button topics (immigration, impeachment, the environment) and witty comebacks to frequently-cited Democrat arguments.

For someone reading that the year before, it might have seemed odd to include a weather reference. But in the 12 months preceding the website, "snowflake" entered the general lexicon as the epitome of Trump’s opposition. Used to mean everything from weak and wet, to a synonym for the millennial age bracket, snowflake had become a political buzzword.

So it would appear that it can mean all things to all people with one common denominator - it's not a compliment.

I think it is sad that we use beauty to define ugliness.

I had a gift from across The Pond just before Christmas and it greeted all my visitors by hanging in the window of my front porch until this afternoon. It is a crocheted snowflake. In my house a snowflake represents beauty and, of course, uniqueness.

A Heartwarming Welcome

I arrived home last night after a good drive up the A9 and across to Ullapool and a good sail over The Minch. I arrived in Ullapool to find that I wasn't on the manifest for the evening sailing and that it was pretty full. Fortunately I had the emailed booking on my phone so all was well. However moments like that are always a bit heart-stopping. What if I had booked the wrong day? What if....? The chap marshalling all the vehicles seemed surprised that I wasn't annoyed at Calmac's failings. It hadn't actually occurred to me to be annoyed - relief being my principal emotion.

Today has been spent trying to sort out all the shopping I brought back (for me and for others) and unpack, attend to mail and all the other odds and ends that need doing after a fortnight away. 

I went into town and the shopping having been done (ablative absolute) I decided to visit The Woodlands for coffee and a cream donut and to write a few notecards. The place was packed. Jean Anne, one of the wonderful young staff there, remarked on my absence and asked if all was well. I explained that I'd been off the Island for a couple of weeks. To which she responded that they had missed me and that she was glad that I was back. Well that truly happified me. I've felt on Cloud Nine ever since.

After I arrived home from town I managed to get the recalcitrant lawnmower working. The grass hadn't been cut since last September because I was away and when I got back it was too wet and has remained that way until just before I went away when the mower, despite having been overhauled, displayed it's usual Spring obstinacy and refused to start. The sky was promising rain so I set forth and spoke sternly to it and it roared into life and I filled a large wheelie bin with grass clippings. 

I'm hoping to return to Blogland again this week. I've really missed you all.

Post script: I've been wondering how the saying "On cloud nine" originated. It would seem that a commonly heard explanation is that the expression originated as one of the classifications of cloud which were defined by the US Weather Bureau in the 1950s, in which 'Cloud Nine' denotes the fluffy cumulonimbus type that are considered so attractive. It sounds a good explanation to me. 

A Charm of Starlings

CJ posted today on the term A Charm of Starlings and explained how the term came about.   It has always seemed to me to be a most inappropriate term for these noisy, quarrelsome and usually objectionable birds (beautiful though some may consider them).  Given that the word charm arose somewhere before the middle of the 19 century and has now fallen into desuetude perhaps we should use another collective noun.

How about A Quarrel of Starlings?  Any ideas? 

All Mixed Up

I'm afraid that everything 'real' life has interfered with my Blogland life over the last week but I'm snatching a few minutes to say that I'm hoping to get back to posting soon.  However things will be all over the place and my posts may bear absolutely no relation to where I am or what I'm doing at that moment.  Nevertheless I shall continue bloody but unbowed.

Now, I thought to myself, where does that come from?  I recalled that it was from a poem but by whom?  Of course Google supplied the answer.  What did we do before Google?  Who uses any other search engine?  I used to use different ones at different times but now to me search = Google.  Apart from Yahoo and Ask Jeeves (is that still alive?) I'm not sure I can actually name another off the top of my head.  I just Googled it.  Hmmm.  Interesting.

Anyway as I was saying I just Googled the saying 'bloody but unbowed' and discovered that I actually knew the poem from which it came:

INVICTUS*

William Ernest Henley, 1849-1903

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul
* translated as unconquered or unconquerable

Bad Wool Day

This and That

When commenting on a friend of mine who renews his BMW car and motorbike every few years, his new lady-friend said “Yes, he does come with a few nice add-ons.”   Mind you, so does she!  Ah well I’m afraid with me it’s a question of love me, love my Nighthawk and my Handbag.  That’s about the best I can do….. Unless you play croquet.

Am I being unreasonable?  When I fly to and from New Zealand I often have to go via Los Angeles.  I much prefer going via Hong Kong because when you arrive you are welcomed straight into the airport with no queues and you can have a change of clothes and shower.  There is no hassle and the airport is comfortable and the break of journey is a pleasure.  Going via LA the plane just stops for two hours to re-fuel and change crew.  For the passengers it’s two hours of something approaching travellers’ hell.  Firstly you decant from the plane into a corridor.  If you sit at the back of the plane (I only made that mistake once!) it can take you most of that 2 hours standing in a queue to get through immigration control into the transit lounge (whilst you watch passengers getting back onto the plane) where, in law, you are still on New Zealand soil (I travel with Air New Zealand and from the start of my journey until I arrive in NZ under International Law whilst I am in a transit lounge I am on NZ soil wherever the plane stops to refuel).  Does the US recognise this?  No.  What has just prompted my irritation at this moment is that I have just had to pay £25 ($40 US) for the privilege of being allowed to stand in that queue so that the CBP (Border Security) can consider whether he is going to allow me into the Transit Lounge.  Humph.

This morning I was up before 0600 and fed the birds.  It was cool and crisp and the midges hadn’t woken up.  Withing the hour they were swarming outside the Study window.  Capturing midges in flight on camera is not easy:

Nevertheless I tried and those that are in focus have shown up.  There were thousand’s more which didn’t show!

A friend (I think he ought to be nameless because I wouldn’t want anyone to know this if it were me) loves sandwiches with a filling of salad cream and honey.  How gross is that?  Oh.  Go one.  Don’t tell me there’s someone else out there who could eat that.

We were also talking about rice pudding.  My Mum made wonderful rice pud.  As the most senior member of the family in our house at the time Dad was entitled to the skin of the rice pudding which Mum always made quite crispy.  Thank heaven.  I’ll eat almost anything but the idea of eating the skin off the custard (sorry Dave) or rice pudding just revolts me.

On that subject and with Scriptor’s family sayings in mind, Dad always used to say of someone who merited it that they couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding.

I Did It. I Jumped The Fence

I thought that CJ had blogged about this some time ago but it appears to have been a passing reference in a post on books of childhood.  Anyway when achieving something members of our family invariably say “ ‘I did it, I jumped the fence!’ cried Trotty”.  This was from a book entitled Farm Babies.  I for one loved the Trotty story and the one about the duckling but most of all I loved the illustrations.  I still do!

Even the inside covers were brilliantly illustrated.

A Funny Afternoon

Scriptor Senex aka CJ posted recently on some of our parents’ sayings.  Well another one of Mum’s was funny peculiar not funny ha ha or funny ha ha not funny peculiar.  So when I go out this evening I might say to my hosts that I’ve had a funny afternoon and then automatically qualify it with ‘funny peculiar not funny ha ha’.   So what was so funny about it?

After lunch I sat down and ordered a FuelSure Diesel Misfuelling Prevention Fuel Filler Cap.  I did that notwithstanding that I will NEVER make that mistake again.   Yeah.  Right.  Me and the other 150,000 plus drivers who misfuel each year in the UK alone – 1 every 3.5 mins.  I must buy Spesh one.  Not because she’ll ever need it but because it’s bright pink!  Don’t worry it’ll be hidden under the filler flap on my jet black car!

Then the mail came.  The first envelope I opened was a premium bond payout (a government saving/lottery scheme) which just about paid for the new filler cap.  So that was good.  The I opened one from Amex (on the right) about my credit card security enclosing a security key fob and security labels for some of my possessions.  If only life could be made stress-free that easily.

Then came a letter from the telephone company.  It’s always good to know that prices are increasing.  Hmm.  But if they can help me reduce it below what I’m paying now why bother increasing it in the first place?  Ah.  What they want me to do is pay a year in advance by direct debit from my bank account (instead of the quarterly billing and monthly DD which is standard now.) Something tells me that the amount I’ll lose in interest if I invested that money may just about equal the saving they are offering me.

Ah well they gave me something to blog about.  As if I hadn’t already got dozens of things sitting waiting.  I hope that your afternoon is a good one.