Edinburgh slang

[NotVincentGuerain]

messages is making me smile

[¼½¾]

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.

Does keek no mean to take a quick look at something? A keech however is something you wouldn't really want to take a deek or a keek at.

[Tazio]

Shan comes from sharn which is the borders traveller word for manure.

 

One which always makes me laugh is people talking about buying their butcher's meat. What other kind is there? You don't talk about baker's bread.

[droid]

Dreep-to drop down from a height

 

Shoatie-as in keeping a look out

 

Hornies-Police

 

 

[JP1874]

Is treg an edinburgh word?? No used it in a while but just minded it the now

[ArcticJambo]

Does keek no mean to take a quick look at something? A keech however is something you wouldn't really want to take a deek or a keek at.

 

Think you're right ... spoke to my folks and that's how they described it ... exact spelling as well. Mum wasn't so versed on the keech but she did talk about a wee keek through the letter box.

[ToYouToMe]

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

 

"Got a busy day the morn" as an example

 

Nah, we would say that in Inverness.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[Suspect Device]

Did anyone else dreep off a wall or out a tree?

How about a game of shapes?

 

[John Colquhoun]

Remember an English mate calling shapes 'soccer squash'...

[Currahee!]

Most of these must be East coast as most are said in the Borders.

 

Dreep is a brilliant word as Suspect Device says.

[The Real Maroonblood]

 

 

 

 

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

Maybe so but certainly not Glasgow.

[Deevers]

Sivver as in street drain - not heard that used anywhere else.

[pablo]

Nash for hurry up, Candy for cash and Tarry for hash? Actually I've no idea how widespread their use is.

[AlphonseCapone]

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

 

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.

 

Did anyone else dreep off a wall or out a tree?

How about a game of shapes?

 

Chum is used in West Lothian, at least where I live, "I'll chum you through etc".

 

Bunker is also used a lot, actually, it is the only word I use for it.

 

Dreep is another one, "How do I get down from here", "Just dreep down".

 

West Lothian has a weird mixture of East and West but it depends what part you are in. Whitburn, Armadale, Blackridge etc all seem to have a bit more of a West coast thing on the go, where as other places are more East coast leaning.

[Diego10]

Chavvy for a greeting. As in, alright Chavvy?

 

Pagger and Shan are fairly widely used in NE England as well.

[Lancashire_Lou]

We use 'Pagger' as in 'he got a right paggering' but never heard 'Shan' in my life before seeing it on this board.

 

I don't understand half of your slang; be it Scottish or more localised.

[Tokyo Drifter]

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.

 

I grew up in Cumbria too, just south of Carlisle. Never heard shan but we used words like gadgie, which is used on the east coast of Scotland as well though maybe more Tayside/Aberdeenshire.

[Eckauskas]

Stunned we got to this point and no-one said 'BOMA'.

[theo1874]

Always known the fruit machines in pubs as 'bandit'

That's 'puggy' for the west coasters.

 

[269miles]

Gam - never heard this anywhere else

 

Boaby

 

Loupin

 

Black Man

 

Manky

 

Clarty (my kids used to wet themselves if I used this word)

 

 

Happy days.

[Jambo-Chappy]

SHUNKY. There I said it.

[Boof]

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

 

"Got a busy day the morn" as an example

 

Nope - Shetland as well.

 

The morn (or more usually da moarn)

Da moarn's moarning / efternun / nicht

[punkrockcroc]

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.

What aboot coal bunker?

[punkrockcroc]

Did anyone else dreep off a wall or out a tree?

How about a game of shapes?

We called it bungy.

[GlasgoJambo]

 

 

I grew up in Cumbria too, just south of Carlisle. Never heard shan but we used words like gadgie, which is used on the east coast of Scotland as well though maybe more Tayside/Aberdeenshire.

 

Where'd you grow up? I lived in Dalston until 1986 and then moved to Edinburgh.

[YYZ]

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.

 

I have always thought 'ben' was more a Fife expression and also 'ye ken' was very much Fife as well as Edinburgh.

 

I used to work abroad and the one word that got people staring was birl (or burl depending on your preference on spelling) as in to spin round. Definitely not a word used outside of Scotland.

 

Radge was always a good Edinburgh word.

 

We are of course talking about a city where using the word **** can be used as a term of endearment - awright ya ****

[GlasgoJambo]

Chore as in steal is a word not used in Glasgow.

[FORTHCLYDE]

Bobby pronounced Bo-bay.

[PsychocAndy]

I have always thought 'ben' was more a Fife expression and also 'ye ken' was very much Fife as well as Edinburgh.

 

I used to work abroad and the one word that got people staring was birl (or burl depending on your preference on spelling) as in to spin round. Definitely not a word used outside of Scotland.

 

Radge was always a good Edinburgh word.

 

We are of course talking about a city where using the word **** can be used as a term of endearment - awright ya ****

 

I think that wonderful word and it's many uses, is used more throughout Britain than you think.

[Tazio]

I used to work abroad and the one word that got people staring was birl (or burl depending on your preference on spelling) as in to spin round. Definitely not a word used outside of Scotland.

 

 

 

Canadians understand that word. The thing you see with two lumberjacks standing on a log in the water is called log birling.

[leginten]

Shan comes from sharn which is the borders traveller word for manure.

 

One which always makes me laugh is people talking about buying their butcher's meat. What other kind is there? You don't talk about baker's bread.

 

This is a word my mother uses quite a lot when describing squalid, clarty conditions.

[YYZ]

Canadians understand that word. The thing you see with two lumberjacks standing on a log in the water is called log birling.

 

Great fact

 

Could that word have travelled directly from Scotland to Canada when the Scottish settlers moved there?

 

There are apparently 5 million + people in Canada who claim to be of Scottish roots 15% of the population.

[gadgey55]

I grew up in Cumbria too, just south of Carlisle. Never heard shan but we used words like gadgie, which is used on the east coast of Scotland as well though maybe more Tayside/Aberdeenshire.

 

And Fife now!

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

Two expressions that were used when I was an apprentice back in the 80's and Ive never quite understood were...

 

"a bairn wi a biscuit arse could dae that" WTF is a biscuit arse?

 

"that'll be chocolate (cake)" meaning aye right

[Currahee!]

Two expressions that were used when I was an apprentice back in the 80's and Ive never quite understood were...

 

"a bairn wi a biscuit arse could dae that" WTF is a biscuit arse?

 

"that'll be chocolate (cake)" meaning aye right

 

I hear "dinnae just sit there aw biscuit ersed" etc. quite a lot.

[JT1959]

Shoatie and dreep are great words.

 

.....and take that glaiket look of yer geggy.

[gadgey55]

Was just talking to the Mrs pal aboot these words. She's from High Valleyfiels, so she talks funny anyway. She's hardly heard of most of the words sopken about on this thread. Didnae believe me there was such a word as siver or dreep!

[Franklin Delano Bluth]

Doric is another language.

 

Ken fit ah mean, quines en loons?

 

[Boof]

I think I've asked on here before...but can anyone shed any light on the derivation of the word 'coupon' as in 'The ba' skelped him square in the coupon'?

[swavkav]

Chore as in steal is a word not used in Glasgow.

its used in Essex though, namely Tilbury

[pablo]

I think I've asked on here before...but can anyone shed any light on the derivation of the word 'coupon' as in 'The ba' skelped him square in the coupon'?

 

No. But I know why Simon Weston wasn't paid despite winning the Pools

[Boof]

I used to work abroad and the one word that got people staring was birl (or burl depending on your preference on spelling) as in to spin round. Definitely not a word used outside of Scotland.

 

6 fiddles, a piano and a bass = Birls Aloud

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3mueEm6qGw

[Pete Seeger]

I've heard just about all of these words outwith Edinburgh fairly regularly. The only ones that you only hear in Edinburgh are shan and barry.

[Grumpy]

I think I've asked on here before...but can anyone shed any light on the derivation of the word 'coupon' as in 'The ba' skelped him square in the coupon'?

Probably wrong but was told this comes from some sort of rhyming slang: a ticket (or coupon) was punched when you got on a tram / bus way back. If someone punched you in the face you had your coupon punched. Eventually the punch was dropped but the reference to the coupon as a face remained.

 

Reading it back it seems bollocks (but might just be bizarre enough to contain a grain of truth)

[Grumpy]

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.

Both ny parents were Fife born although I was raised in Edinburgh. Bunker was what we called the worktops in the kitchen as long as I remember - I don't think it's an exclusively Edinburgh expression (although 2 out of my 4 grand parents were from Edinburgh / Dalkeith - might be some influence on my folks from them)

Edited October 10, 2013 by Grumpy

[swavkav]

dingy ya radge

[NotVincentGuerain]

I've heard just about all of these words outwith Edinburgh fairly regularly. The only ones that you only hear in Edinburgh are shan and barry.

 

even chum and messages? and " a blackman"

Edited October 10, 2013 by NotVincentGuerain

[droid]

https://m.facebook.com/groups/142832309211191?refid=27

[Mr Brightside]

 

 

even chum and messages? and " a blackman"

 

Blackman was used in the North East of England. I asked if I could get a chocolate wafer in an ice cream shop in Seaton Delaval and the woman didn't have a clue what I was on about. Eventually she said do you mean a blackman?

[Rust Cohle]

We called chewing gum "chuggy" in high school. No idea if that's an Edinburgh thing...or even a thing.

 

And of course, the shortened version of "chug" has completely different connotations...

Edited October 11, 2013 by Bane