Suffice to say that if someone calls you a tumfie, they don’t mean to flatter… Dictionaries of the Scots Language defines tumfie as, among other things, a “dull, stupid, lumpish person, a dolt …”.
The word has a long pedigree. Our first citation is from 1788 in Robert Galloway’s Poems: “Beware of yonder corner-house, Some ca’ it tumpie’s fauld”. It’s followed by this from John Galt in The Entail; or the Lairds of Grippy (1822): “That unreverent and misleart tumphy your wife”.
In the McFlannel Family (1950) Helen W Pryde uses it in the sense of a spoilt child: “‘Shout for Mother,’ ordered Peter, and the suggestion called forth the remark from Ivy in the hedge: ‘Huh - Mammy’s tumphy!’”.
And, in Anna Blair’s Rowan on the Ridge (1980), a frustrated father chivvies his son: “He stood over the girning boy. ‘Get up oot o’ there. You’re nothing but a great tumphie, I’ll gie you jist time to get up, put on your breeks and be ready to come wi’ me for a day’s work at the mill. ...’”
Tumfie is just one of a litany of Scots words for general abuse, and here’s an ample demonstration by Anne Donovan in a 2016 article for the National: “Tae see the castle, ya numptie. Or should ah say – ya bumph, ya dobbie, ya dochle, ya dowfie ya dulbert, ya dovie, ya fozie, ya gaibie, ya glundie, ya gomerel, ya gowk, ya oanshach, ya snoddie, ya souk, ya sowf, ya stookie, ya sumph, ya tumfie, ya yaup”.
Scots Word of the Week comes from Dictionaries of the Scots Language. Visit DSL Online at https://dsl.ac.uk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here