AULD ye dinnae ken like?
AULD In 1923 in a paper entitled ‘Theory of Scots Letters’, Hugh MacDiarmid described Scots as: A vast unnoticed mass of lapsed observations made by minds whose attitude to experience and whose speculative and imaginative tendencies were quite different from anything possible to Englishmen and anglicised Scots today. Just as, physiologically we have lost certain powers possessed by our forefathers — the art of wiggling our ears, for example, so we have lost word-forming faculties peculiar to the Doric for the purposes of psychological and nature description. There are words and phrases in the vernacular which thrill with a sense of having been produced as result of mental processes entirely different from our own and much more powerful. They embody observations of a kind which the modern mind makes with increasing difficulty and less effect.
There is a wealth of Scots proverbs which illustrate the power of expression of the Scots language and the collective wisdom of the Scots nation. To some extent, the following sayings also embody the community morality and provide a guide to conduct in life in an earlier society, unaffected by the destructive effects of globalization, and a population explosion masquerading as human progress. In the huge Scots Diaspora in the English-speaking world, Scots proverbs provide a link to older traditional values which characterised the Scots psyche, in ‘the Auld Scotland we maunna forget: blinkert an nairrae, but staunch an kynd, leal an true’. While some of these values may now seem irrelevant in the modern world, most of them are eternal verities, and a legacy from Scotland for the whole of mankind.
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NO Go
Ye mak a better
DOOR than a windae.
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The mair ye dae, the less yer
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THOUGHT a’
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REEK
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MIKKIL
A good cou can hae an
ill calf.
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Speak O’ the
DEVIL
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Short for ‘speak of the devil, and he is sure to appear’. Referring to an old superstition by which it was thought that talking about evil gave it the power to appear or occur. More recently however, it has been associated with the pastime of gossiping and the incredible coincidence of the topic or subject appearing.
Clean meat ne’er
F A TTENED ae pig.
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Better be a
COWARD than a corpse.
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WEESHT
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Phrase
SUMMARY Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye
Lang may yer lum reek
Speak O’ the devil
Better be a coward than a corpse
Similar to Que sera, sera. If something is meant for you it will come your way.
May you live long and stay well. Good luck in all that you do.
Usually said when you have been talking about someone — they are likely to appear..
Similar to ‘fight or flight’, don’t try to settle all your arguments with your fists.
Ye mak a better door than a windae
Monie a mikkil maks a mukkil
Clean meat ne’er fattened ae pig
Haud yer weesht
Addressed to someone obstructing your view, primarily used when watching the tv.
Saving a small amount soon builds up to a large amount.
Be quiet. Stop, wait there.
The mair ye dae’ the less yer thought a’
A good cou can hae an ill calf
Used normally when food has been dropped or has been handled, and when some peoples’ hygiene standards are preposterous.
This was a common complaint of women who felt that their efforts were not appreciated..
The converse, An ill cou can hae a guid cauf, is also true. All behavioral characteristics are not heritable.
AULD tattie scone anyone?
AULD baking soda smile!