One to Six, Buckle to Sticks (Grasshopper Lawns Book 11)
Page 38
Dram – a tot (usually of whisky)
Eejit – idiot (also Irish)
Elevenses – sociable tea or coffee break, at around eleven o’clock
ESPC – Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (estate agents, or realtors)
Gie it laldy – give it your all, don’t hold back
Girning – complaining
Glasgow kiss – a nose-breaking headbutt
Greet – cry
Haud – hold
Haud your whisht – Be quiet, pipe down. Literal meaning, hold your breath.
Hen – the closest equivalent is probably honey, or Missus. Used to women of all ages.
HOLMES – Home Office Large Major Enquiry System - a search engine for crime records. Yes, named for Sherlock.
Jag – an injection
Ja-well-no-fine is peculiarly South African. The closest equivalent might be the UK vague 'whatever'.
Ken – means variously know, I know, do you know. It’s one of the most versatile Scots words!
Phwoar – appreciative description of someone sexually attractive (UK general usage)
Piskies – Episcopalians, or Anglicans
Polos – peppermints with a hole in the middle. Wikipedia calculates 150 are eaten every second in the UK (many by ponies).
Rondavel – pronounced RonDARvill – is the South African term for a round dwelling (as bungalow is an Indian word for a single-storey house)
Scunner – a rotter, a nasty piece of work
Skinner – a gossipy blether (South African)
Sláinte—(pron Slann-cher) a friendly toast
Stookie – an orthopedic cast for broken bones
Stramash – fight, scuffle
Swithering – similar to dithering, to be unable to decide
Tablet – slabs of fudge-liked baked sugar, melted over puddings or eaten as a sweet
Taken the huff – offended.
Yin, and wan, are different pronunciations of one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth (E J ) Lamprey lives on the Firth of Forth, within easy distance of Edinburgh, and only a few miles from where Grasshopper Lawns would be if there was a Grasshopper Lawns retirement village.
Originally from South Africa, she’s the daughter of a Scot, looks like a Scot, dearly loves Scotland, but accepts that with a mere fourteen years residence she is still considered a tourist, albeit a tenacious one.
She has been variously a book reviewer on a city paper, a columnist in a national magazine, a copy-editor and critiquer, a commercial blogger, and a reporter on a country newspaper, as well as earning an actual living with more conventional jobs.
She’s looking forward to becoming a grandmother when her busy daughter can find the time, but until then writing a series of cheerful whodunits about a Scottish retirement village is definitely her favourite occupation.