Word of the week

• LAICH adj low
• DICHT v wipe
• SPLORE n a revel, jollification; commotion
• HARIGALS n. entrails

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LAICH adj low

“LAICH adj low”

25th May 2009

Laich

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Laich, from Old Norse lágr by way of early Middle English, usually preserves the velar sound in Scots which is lost in Modern English south of the border. The entry for this word in the Dictionary of the Scots Language is particularly rich in quirky quotations. Drawing from Jamieson’s Dictionary (1825), we are warned that it is “an evil omen if the first fit...should happen to be lay-fittit”. Still on the topic of body parts, the seventeenth-century Historical and Genealogical Account of the Principal Families of the name of Kennedy describes an accident prone individual whose “neise wes laich be ane straik of ane goiff-ball”. The sense here seems to be ‘flattened’ as is probable from the action of a golf-ball upon a nose. More in keeping with modern usage, we find an entry in the Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland (1543) for “velvet to cover ane pair of laich schone (shoes)”.
Improvements to tennis courts (lawn or real) are ever-topical and The Edinburgh Burgh Records (1681) make plans “Incaice the walls of the saids two tinnes courts be to laigh ... then to raise the same”. Glasgow, more mindful of immortal souls and church fabric instructs in the Glasgow Burgh Records (1642) “That the laich steple of the heich kirk be theikit with leid”.
Land can also be low. The Black Book of Taymouth (1589) laments “The daylie morthouris ... committit be clannis of hieland men upone the inhabitantes of the laiche cuntreis”. With capital letters, however, the Register of the Privy Seal refers to “the Laich Cuntreis of Germany viz., Flanderis, Holland, Brabant, and Zeland”.
An interesting compound, laichy-braid, from Aberdeen around 1900 suggests that this shortlegged, full-bodied build is ideal for a cow but of a woman it was said “She’s a laichy-braid, as redd to rowe as rin”.

This article was written by Chris Robinson of Scots Language Dictionaries. www.scotsdictionaries.org.uk


This week's word is spoken by Dauvit Horsbrough, an academic from Aberdeenshire, now living in Angus.