Word of the week

• ding v. knock, strike; batter, beat down; defeat
• ettle v. intend, plan, purpose to do; try, make an attempt at
• sleekit adj. smooth in manner, plausible; sly, cunning
• synd, syne v. rinse, wash (out)

Words by month

• Jan 2009
• Dec 2008
• Nov 2008
• Oct 2008
• Sep 2008
• Aug 2008
• Jul 2008
• Jun 2008
• May 2008
• Apr 2008
• Mar 2008
• Feb 2008
• Jan 2008
• Dec 2007
• Nov 2007
• Oct 2007
• Sep 2007
• Aug 2007
• Jul 2007
• Jun 2007
• May 2007
• Apr 2007
• Mar 2007
• Feb 2007
• Jan 2007
• Dec 2006
• Nov 2006
• Oct 2006
• Sep 2006
• Aug 2006
• Jul 2006
• Jun 2006
• May 2006
• Apr 2006
• Mar 2006
• Feb 2006
• Jan 2006

Sponsored by

Supporters of

ding v. knock, strike; batter, beat down; defeat

“ding v. knock, strike; batter, beat down; defeat ”

25th February 2008

Ding is thought to be derived from Old Norse dengja, to hammer, and is found in some of the very oldest Scottish literature. In a battle scene in John Barbour’s epic poem, The Bruce (1375), "The Scottis men dang on so fast … As ilk man war a campioun", and in his Book of the Law of Arms (1456), Gilbert Hay criticises fathers who "could nocht fynd in thair hertis to dyng na chasty (chastise) thair barnis". Some may have escaped punishment, but there are a number of medieval references to bairns being "dung (hit) with wandis (switches)".

More recent literary examples range from the obvious to the downright peculiar. According to J. B. Philip’s Weelumm o’ the Manse (1929), hedgehogs will "rin up an epple tree, ding in their birse (bristles) and cairry aff a hail backbirn o’ epples". Ding often occurs in the phrase ding doon, as illustrated by the self-effacing David in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Catriona (1893): "I thought myself … a dull, stockish character … very unfit to come into a young maid’s life, and perhaps ding down her gaiety".

A related word that has yet to make it into our dictionaries is dingie, which sounds like dinghy rather than dingy, and is a rare visitor to printed sources. >From what we can gather from local informants and oral sources, the word usually means snub, ignore or disregard, and is most often used to describe social situations in which someone is deliberately cold-shouldered. An example might be "he pure dingied me ootside the pictures oan Friday night". We are looking for further quotations, so please get in touch if you see this word in print.