fegs, indeed, sure

fell, great, very

fettle, life, vigour

feuching, ill-smelling

flyting, scolding, joking

f [r] ere, companion, comrade

fusionless, pithless, feeble

futret, weasel, stoat

gait, way, road

gallus, bold, wild

gawpus, clumsy, stupid lout

get (giet), brat, bastard

gey, rather, very

girnings, whinings

glaur, soft, sticky mud

gleg-vexed, plagued by horseflies

gleyed, squinting, dishonest

goloch, earwig, nincompoop

gomeril, fool, half-wit

gowk (v), stare foolishly; (n) fool

greeting, crying

guff, bad smell

gype, stupid lout

gypedest, stupidest

gyte, mad

habber, stammer, gabble nonsensically

happed, dressed

happing, covering, wrapping

haughs, meadows (often upland); valleys

haver, babble nonsense

heired, inherited

heuch, crag, cliff

hippens, baby’s nappy

hirple, hurple, limp

hotter, simmer

hawk, dig, hooded crow

jing-bang, whole lot, crowd

jookery-packery, trickery, underhand scheming

joskin, bumpkin

keelie, tough male slum- dweller

kepp, guard, restrain

kist, chest

kittle (up), start up, stimulate, excite

lair, bog down, stick fast, soil

lave, rest, remainder

lib, castrate

lift, sky

limmer, hussy, jade

lithe, shelter

loon, [farmer’s] boy

losh! (interj), Lord!

lour, menacing blackness (of clouds)

lowe, glow

lum, chimney

malagarouse, dishevel, damage

marled, mottled, streaked

meck, halfpenny

mind, remember

mouser, moustache

mutch, woman’s close cap

neb, beak, nose

neep, turnip

nick, police-station, prison

nip (n), dram (of whisky)

nout, ox, blockhead

orra, worthless, disreputable

outbye, beyond, out in the fields

paich, gasp, pant

park, field

peesie, lapwing

pieces, sandwiches, materials for picnic

pleiter (n), mess; (v) dabble aimlessly

pock, sack

press, large cupboard

prig, urge, plead

quean, girl

redd, tidy

reek, mist, smoke

rig, strip of land, field

runkled, wrinkled

sappy, plump, fleshy

scart (n), puny, shrunken

person

schlimpèd, stunted

schlorich, foul heap (of silver); disgusting mess (of blood)

scraich, screech

scrimp (n), thin slip

sharn, liquid dung

shoggle, sway

shoggly, shaky, wobbling

showd, swing to and fro, rock

skate, contemptible idiot

skeeter (n), diarrhoea; (v) slither awkwardly

skellop, long strip

skeugh, squint

skite, mad

slammock, hectic bout

slock, slake

slummock, lumpish slattern

smore, wind thick with fine rain or sleet

snell, biting, bitter

sniftering, snivelling

sonsy (of a lie), big, substantial

soss, mess, muck around with

sough, rush

sourock, sorrel; a perverse, surly person

sowans, sour pudding of oatmeal and water

spleiter, splash

squatter, scatter, flutter

st [r] amash, blind fury, uproar

steek, stitch, sharp pain

stite, nonsense

stiter, stagger

stound, feel painful

stour, dust, dirt, fuss, commotion

stravaigings, wanderings

sumph, slow, stupid person

sweir, relaxed; slothful

sweirty, laziness

syne, then; ago

tacketty, hob-nailed

taik, stroll

tanner, sixpence

tattie, potato

they, (a) those

thrown, obstinate

tint, lost

tirr, tear off (skin), strip

trauchle (n), careless, incompetent person; mess; long tiring trudge; (v) drudge, trudge

trauchled, burdened, harassed

trig, neat

uncalsayed, unhewn, undressed (of stones)

unchancy, inauspicious, ill- omened

unsweir, hectically busy

vallay, valet

wame, stomach

weans, ‘kids’

wheen, a few

wynd, narrow (winding) lane

wyte, fault, blame

About the Author

GREY GRANITE

James Leslie Mitchell, ‘Lewis Grassic Gibbon’, (1901–35), was born and brought up in the rich farming land of Scotland’s north-east coast. After a brief and unsuccessful journalistic career, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1919 serving in Persia, India and Egypt. Thereafter he spent a further six years as a clerk in the RAF. He married Rebecca Middleton in 1925, and became a full-time writer in 1929. The young couple settled in Welwyn Garden City where they lived until the writer’s death in 1935.