Page images
PDF
EPUB

ble life, and left him a prey to anxiety and want, to sorrow and despair.

Of his poems, which have been so often printed, and so eagerly read, it is unnecessary to enter into a critical examination. All readers of taste and sensibility assign him the first place among the poets of his country; and acknowledge the presence of that "light from heaven," which consecrates and eternizes every monument of genius.

GLOSSARY.

THE ch and gh have always the guttural sound. The sound of the English diphthong oo, is commonly spelled ou. The French u, a sound which often occurs in the Scottish language, is marked oo, or ui, The a in genuine Scottish words, except when forming a diphthong, or followed by an e mute after a single consonant, sounds generally like the broad English a in wall. The Scottish diphthongs ae, always, and ea very often, sound like the French e masculine. The Scottish diph thong ey, sounds like the Latin ei.

[blocks in formation]

Aff, off.
Aff-hand, extempore, im-
mediately.

Aff-loof, unpremeditated
Afore, before, sooner
than.
Aft, oft.
Aften, often, frequently,

many times.

Agley, off the right line,
oblique, wrong.
Aiblins, perhaps.
Aik, the oak.

Air, early, soon. Airl-penny, earnest-money, a piece of money for confirming a bargain.

Airt, quarter of the hea

vens; to direct.

Airn, iron.
Aith, an oath.
Aits, oats.

Aiver, an old horse.
Aizle, a hot cinder.
Alake, alas!
Alane, alone, solitary,
single, without compa-

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Ba', ball.

B.

Backets, ash boards; a square wooden vessel for carrying coals to the fire; a kind of box for holding salt. Backlins comin', coming back, returning. Bad, did bid. Baide, endured, did stay. Bailie, a magistrate in Scotland, answering to an alderman in England.

Baggie, dimin. of bag, a familiar term used to signify the belly,

Bainie, having large Belyve, by-and-by.

bones, stout.

Bairn, a child.

Ben, into the spence or

noted

parlour.

Bairntime, a family of Benmost, innermost.

children, a brood.

Baith, both, likewise. Bake, a small cake or

biscuit.

Ban, to swear, to make an irreverent exclamation; reproach, cen

sure.

Bane, bone. Bang, to beat, to strive, to excel. Bardie, dimin. of bard. Barefit, barefooted, without shoes or stockings. Barmie, of, or like barm. Batch, a crew, a gang. Batts, botts, small worms in the entrails of horses.

Baudrons, a cat. Bauld, bold, intrepid. Bawk, a strip of land left unploughed, two or three feet in width; a ridge, a bank.

Baws'nt, having a white strip down the face. Be, to let be, to give over,

to cease.

Bear, barley.
Beastie, dimin. of beast.
Beet, to add fuel to fire.
Beld, bald, without hair
on the head.

Benlomond,

a

mountain in Dumbartonshire.

Bethankit, grace or short prayer after the time or act of eating. Beuk, a book. Bicker, a kind, of wood

en dish, a short race. Bie, or Bield, shelter. Bien, wealthy, plentiful. Big, to build. Biggin, building, a house. Biggit, built. Bill, a bull. Billie, a brother, a young

fellow.

small

Bing, a heap of grain, potatoes, &c. Birk, birch. Birken-shaw. Birchenwood-shaw, a wood. Birkie, a clever fellow. Birring, the noise of partridges, &c. when they spring.

Bit, crisis, nick of time. Bizz, a bustle; to buzz. Blae, livid.

Blastie,

a shrivelled

dwarf, a term of tempt.

1

1

Blastit, blasted.
Blate, bashful, sheepish.
Blather, bladder.

Bodle, an old copper coin, of the value of pennies Scots, or onethird of an English

penny.

Bogles, spirits, hobgob

Blaud, a flat piece of

any thing; to slap. Blaw, to blow, to boast. Bleerit, bleared, sore with rheum.

Bleert and blin, bleared and blind.

Bleezing, blazing, fla

ming. Blellum, idle, talking fellow. Blether, to talk idly;

nonsense.

Bleth'rin, talking idly. Blink, a little white, a smiling look; to look kindly, to shine by fits Blinker, a term of contempt. Blinkin, smirking, ogling. Blithe, or Blythe, cheerful.

Blue-gown, one of those beggars who get annually, on the king's birth-day, a blue cloak or gown, with a badge. Bluid, blood. Bluntie, snivelling. Blype, a shred, a large

piece.

Bock, to vomit, to gush intermittently. Bocked, gushed, vomited.

lins. Bonie, or bony, handsome, beautiful. Bannock, a kind of thick cake of bread, a small jannack, or loaf made of oat meal. Boord, a board. Boortree, the shrub elder; planted much of old in hedges of barnyards, &c. Boost, behoved, must

needs.

Bore, a hole in the wall. Botch, blotch, an angry

tumor.

Bouk, body, a person. Bousing, drinking, quaffing. Bow-kail, cabbage. Bow-hough'd, applied to the lower part of the thighs, when crooked or bent outwards.

Brachens, fern. Brae, a declivity, a precipice, the slope of a hill. Braid, broad, plain. Bragin't, reel'd forward.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »