Edinburgh slang

[Locky]

Seen a feature on the Scotsman website today with a wee collection of Edinburgh words. I know there's been many threads like this but never get tired if hearing some almost forgotten words.

 

Anyway, I've got a wee question. I've seen people say lately that 'bunker' is an Edinburgh word. Is this right?

 

It's a word I've always used but thought it was a fairly widely used word all across the country. Anyone on here not call a bunker a bunker?

[droid]

I've created a thread on this in the past and also a facebook page

[dicksojo]

My girlfriend's family are from... Lanarkshire! And they do not know the word bunker as in the kitchen worktop.

[Gershwin]

Is SHAN an Edinburgh word?

[¼½¾]

I hadn't heard worktops called bunkers till I moved to Edinburgh. I think it's came from the tenements where the coal bunker, with a lift-able lid, was in the kitchen.

[neave]

The bunker is normally found ben the room.

[Eckauskas]

I've never heard the term 'bunker' used in reference to kitchen worktops.

 

No-one west of Harthill seems to know what a 'scaff' is, though.

[Locky]

I'm finding this so hard to get my head around

 

I'm aware of most of my vocabulary being very unique to Edinburgh, the east coast or Scotland in general. I genuinely thought that bunker was an actual word though.

[lotus jambo]

Is SHAN an Edinburgh word?

 

Yes, never heard it elsewhere

[Christian Benteke]

I'm finding this so hard to get my head around

 

I'm aware of most of my vocabulary being very unique to Edinburgh, the east coast or Scotland in general. I genuinely thought that bunker was an actual word though.

 

Always said kitchen bunker, don't know it as anything else.

 

Mrs always looks at me funny when I come out with 'Edinburghisms'.

[rossthejambo]

It's not until you speak to folk that aren't from Edinburgh that you realise how many words are slang. Bunkers a good example, chore (as in steal) is another one I think.

[GlasgoJambo]

Is SHAN an Edinburgh word?

 

I grew up in Cumbria - just outside Carlisle - and shan was a word we used at primary school a lot. It mainly was a way of describing doing something knowingly nasty but we'd also use it in the phrase 'shanny on you' when someone was worthy of humiliation.

I never really used it much in Edinburgh and always thought it a northern English thing - only on here that I've seen it being used readily.

I've introduced it recently to my work colleagues in Glasgow.

It's definitely one of my favourite words.

[robbo1874]

The bunker is normally found ben the room.

 

Another saying, do you ken her? Ken her I've been ben her!

[The People's Chimp]

I'm finding this so hard to get my head around

 

I'm aware of most of my vocabulary being very unique to Edinburgh, the east coast or Scotland in general. I genuinely thought that bunker was an actual word though.

 

Don't fret, it is an actual word.

[robbo1874]

Some more I know,may be from travellers but unsure

Louwi = money

Sou = to make love to

Mort = the lovely young lady who enjoys the above

dingle= fool

I was brought up in Gracemount sso it might be that they're linked to the travellers that lived around the area.

 

[NotVincentGuerain]

most non-edinburgh people don't know what i mean when i say "i'll chum you" like to the shops.

[Chad Sexington]

Cully Buckie = Piggy back.

 

Never heard that anywhere other than Edinburgh.

[neave]

most non-edinburgh people don't know what i mean when i say "i'll chum you" like to the shops.

 

My mate from Motherwell didn't know what that meant when I said it to him. Says it now though.

[gadgey55]

Some more I know,may be from travellers but unsure

Louwi = money

Sou = to make love to

Mort = the lovely young lady who enjoys the above

dingle= fool

I was brought up in Gracemount sso it might be that they're linked to the travellers that lived around the area.

 

 

Maybe proper Gracie words! I was dragged up there too. The mort's wernae all that barry tbh!

[Locky]

Chum was another one I seen actually.

 

Again, I knew it was a slang word but wasn't aware that its virtually unknown outwith Edinburgh. I used to stay in the borders for my high school years and I can't really remember if any of these words were used nor do I remember being alienated for using some.

 

One of my best mates who's from Selkirk though says trim instead of chum.

[Beverley]

Cully Buckie = Piggy back.

 

Never heard that anywhere other than Edinburgh.

I've had to explain that a few times myself

[gadgey55]

Cully Buckie = Piggy back.

 

Never heard that anywhere other than Edinburgh.

My ma (rip) used that phrase a lot when the cats were gettin it on in the garden!

[The Real Maroonblood]

 

Chum was another one I seen actually.

 

Again, I knew it was a slang word but wasn't aware that its virtually unknown outwith Edinburgh. I used to stay in the borders for my high school years and I can't really remember if any of these words were used nor do I remember being alienated for using some.

 

One of my best mates who's from Selkirk though says trim instead of chum.

Have you ever had a blackman?

[Locky]

No and I certainly don't ever want to by the sounds of things.

[The Real Maroonblood]

 

No and I certainly don't ever want to by the sounds of things.

It's the Edinburgh word for a nougat wafer with ice cream.

[robbo1874]

I don't know if this counts but what about Willie Bauld = Cold !

Or is that another different topic? Edinburgh rhyme and slang.

[NotVincentGuerain]

It's the Edinburgh word for a nougat wafer with ice cream.

 

i remember my mum and dad saying that now.

[Chaka Demus & pliers]

 

 

i remember my mum and dad saying that now.

 

It's what I always ordered from the icey. Loved a blackman.

[Floyd]

Jesus Christ!!!

 

It's like a foreign language.

 

[Chris Benoit]

Bunker and chum are two I remember. Brought up in Fife but both parents from Edinburgh but **** knows who I picked it all up from.

 

Ben's one the wife uses that I hadn't heard of and she's been all her days in West Fife (no webbed feet or crossed lines in her family tree though)

[Craig Gordons Gloves]

 

 

 

It's the Edinburgh word for a nougat wafer with ice cream.

 

It's not just an Edinburgh word, I've heard it used by dundonians and in the west, mainly Lanarkshire and ayrshire

[Gregory House M.D.]

The bunker is normally found ben the room.

 

No it isn't, it's ben the scullery.

[ArcticJambo]

Have you ever had a blackman?

 

We'd get one once in a while from Luca's in Mussleburgh as they were a real treat.

 

Also, bunker (being the coal bunker in the lobby) ... My mum's parents lived in a tenement off Leith Walk, and as a kid, while he was still alive, my Gandpa Fire (as he was known) would get the coal from the bunker (located in a lobby cupboard) each night and make the fire ready for the morn.

 

I need to bring this topic up with my folks to make sure I ken what I'm oan about.

[ToYouToMe]

 

 

It's not just an Edinburgh word, I've heard it used by dundonians and in the west, mainly Lanarkshire and ayrshire

 

Wife's from Ayrshire, she's never heard of it.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[NotVincentGuerain]

i never say bunker. my folks did. always confused me.

[Sooperstar]

Don't know what all this 'Ben' chat is about and I have lived in Edinburgh all of my life.

 

As far as I am aware a Ben is either a name or a big hill.

[Lancashire_Lou]

 

dingle= fool

 

 

A Dingle is someone from Burnley!

[terrible_groaning_noise]

Having moved to Fife from Edinburgh, locals would scratch their head at

Barry, Blackman, Gider (Bogie here), scullery, bunker,radge, chum, collie buckie, slippers (baffies) and brutal to name but a few!

[gadgey55]

Don't know what all this 'Ben' chat is about and I have lived in Edinburgh all of my life.

 

As far as I am aware a Ben is either a name or a big hill.

No-one ever asked you to nip ben the room to fetch somethin?

[NotVincentGuerain]

barry and radge, brilliant words

 

(they went radge, it was radge that that happened, they are a radge)

Edited October 9, 2013 by NotVincentGuerain

[BoJack Horseman]

What do folk say instead of chum, that don't use chum?

[Rudi Skacel]

Ken - when I was at college in Glasgow for 8 weeks a year, anytime me and the other Edinburgh lads used "ken" we were always asked "Who's Ken?"

 

Deek - not sure about this one but I use it alot, eg "Gies a deek at the paper".

[Gorgie Boys]

Are we the only place that say the morn as in tomorrow ?

 

"Got a busy day the morn" as an example

[Sooperstar]

 

No-one ever asked you to nip ben the room to fetch somethin?

 

Nut, never.

 

I still can't work out exactly what it means, but when I read it it sounds more like a northern dialect in my head. Aberdonian.

[Tams bird]

Seen a programme about Scottish words and meaning. I must have been on Mars as never heard of them....

[NotVincentGuerain]

Ken - when I was at college in Glasgow for 8 weeks a year, anytime me and the other Edinburgh lads used "ken" we were always asked "Who's Ken?"

 

Deek - not sure about this one but I use it alot, eg "Gies a deek at the paper".

 

i know someone in edinburgh that uses deek a lot. i think he means it as a lookout and friend. same sort of thing.

Edited October 9, 2013 by NotVincentGuerain

[topcat]

Pagger seems to be fairly localised

 

It might be related to the French Baggare

[ArcticJambo]

Lets have a wee deek of that.

 

Rhymes with keek. Did ye keek yer pants (did you shite yersel)?

 

Often heard this back yonder, though again unsure if it was purely an Edinburgh word.

[skinnybob72]

Scranner - not heard that used in years.

[PsychocAndy]

It's always been a bunker and I didn't move into Edinburgh until I was 7, My Mum born in Ireland and says bunker, but she did stay in The Pans for 17 years. .

Cowp for knocking something over

Messages You go to the shops for these.