Scotland is a multilingual country and our colourful vocabularies affirm that - from Scottish Gaelic to the Scots language and their dialects, any formal English speaker is sure to think “what is going on here” at least once.
If that’s you then dinnae get yersel in a fankle (don’t worry) because we asked our Scotsman readers ‘what’s your favourite Scottish word’ and they gave some fantastic answers so you’ll ken just fine in future.
Tying in with ‘A Year of Conversation and the International Year of Indigenous Languages’ in 2019 the Scottish Book Trust organised a vote for ‘iconic Scots words’ as the dictionary differs that much to standard English.
That said, rest assured that Scots words like “ken” are not beyond your ken. Here are 40 of the nation’s favourite Scottish words (and sayings) as voted by our Scotsman readers - gie it a swatch (check it out!)
21. Bahookie
If you have ever been “absolutely blootered” then there’s a good chance you fell onto this, bahookie refers to a “bum” in Scots. Photo: kuppa_rock via Canva Pro
22. Numpty
If you carry on doing glaikit things then you might find people consider you a full-time “numpty”, this means a stupid person. Photo: RapidEye via Canva Pro
23. Greetin'
Often used in a humorous context, if you’re “greetin” in Scotland then it means you are crying - not waving down a friend to say hello. Photo: Denis Mamin via Canva Pro
24. Gonnae no dae that
An iconic Scottish phrase, this literally translates to “Going to not do that” and it is highly useful when you need someone to stop anything. Photo: Screengrab via YouTube